pledge of allegiance survey

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There is currently a movement to have the words "under God" removed from the pledge. People supporting this are asking others not to stand up during the pledge until such time as it has been removed. I don't even stand up for the national anthem, let alone the pledge, for going on 30 years now.

http://americanhumanist.org/system/stor ... 2014-2.pdf

Why is there even a pledge? I think most countries do fine without one.

What is the pledge for anyway? It sounds a peculiarly American thing.

kids in communist countries pledge allegiance too, but it is to their leaders, and they cry while doing so. Americans doing a pledge, but inserting those two words as a way to differentiate us from communists seems a bit silly, to put it mildly. Making little children do this pledge is imposing subservience. It has nothing to do with loyalty or patriotism. It is submission.

I refused to say the pledge since 4th grade.

Sure did me a lot of good- all of those years I started each school day pledging my loyalty to our "one nation invisible"!

One day in third grade I actually tried to grasp the meaning of the phrase. "Does it mean that if you started driving north from Mexico that you wouldnt see anything until you got to Canada?" I wondered. Like you have to live here to able to see the place?

Mom explained that it was "in- DIV-visible". But it was too late. I had already been saying it for three years. I am still indoctrinated with my unshakeable allegiance to an "invisible nation"!

The whole idea behind the pledge is disturbing

I'd drop the whole thing. It's a pointless ritual, performed by rote and without understanding.

It is blind nationalism disguised as patriotism. For quite some time it was mandatory on a daily basis in our public schools. It still is recited in most, but it can no longer be made mandatory to actually say the words anymore (except in private schools, where they can apparently do whatever the h*ll they want).

"I pledge allegiance,
to the flag,
of the United States of America,
and to the republic,
for which it stands;
one nation,
under god,*
indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all."

It is to be recited facing the flag, with any headress removed and held in the right hand, right hand over the heart, unless in military uniform (in which case you maintain a salute at attention for the duration). There is actually an official Flag Code written into federal regulations. You could get the paddle for not reciting it until corporal punishment was banned in public schools (although detention and suspension were still handed out). Here in Ohio, I think they still have a pledge to the state flag as well.

*It was adopted during WWII, but "under god" was a later addition after being championed by the Knights of Columbus and a few other ultra-nationalistic groups.

Originally the prescribed gesture was somewhat different:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellamy_salute

Yeah, it turned out that people didn't quite care for that particular gesture after a certain point in the war. Who'd have thought?

We have a state pledge, but in high school, we didn't do either. It was just a moment of silence and the announcements.

WKUK nails it

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2BfqDUPL1I[/youtube]

Dont know if I would go that far.

But yeah. A couple grades after mom explained how to pronounce "indivisible" to me my fifth grade teacher (who happened to be the first male teacher I ever had) surprised us by just starting class without the Pledge. When we asked why he muttered "its just you all mouthing a bunch of words that you don't know the meaning of."

Right on!

The more I hear you people complain about the Pledge of Allegiance the more I like it, especially the One Nation Under God part.

Not all Americans believe in God, and this isn't a theocracy.