Its a allegiance to our country and I feel that all citizens should be committed to our country.

I would much rather allegiance be demonstrated by other ways, e.g., voting, feeding the hungry, etc., etc.

I'm against mandatory recitation, but the it is to the country.

... idea. Perhaps the words could be amended to incorporate a commitment to more civic duty and humanitarian acts.

When I was in the Army, I took the enlistment oath once, and that was it. I didn't have to do it every single day. But my commitment didn't change.

Forcing young children to invoke the name of God when swearing an oath to the state every single day seems like the kind of thing we invade other countries for doing.

i said the pledge quite a number of times as a child (though i never said the "under god" part), until i realized i didn't have to and it made no sense to do it repeatedly.

when other students tried to get me to stand and say the pledge with them, i'd say, "i've said the pledge before. when i pledge, it's good forever. is your pledge only good for one day?"

that shut them right up. fortunately for me, other than a few instances of that sort of thing, i never really got hassled for refusing to stand or say the pledge in school.

as part of a program for children during the ceremony that established "Columbus Day" (on its 400th anniversary).

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-man-who-wrote-the-pledge-of-allegiance-93907224/

How many times do you have to re-pledge? It's not like the pledge wears off is it? Maybe a booster pledge every 10 years just in case of pledge-slippage.

forcing people to say things is just wrong
The courts ruled in the 60's

I can certainly see why people don't want to pledge their allegiance to a piece of cloth that represents a country. Millions of people are treated as second class citizens, and I can see why they aren't so keen on it.

of people who simply had nowhere to go to get out of the road of murderers.

Couldn't do it by making friends, co-existing. Hell, no.

Prepare the way for the bloodbath by teaching everyone to view the original people as "savages" and demons, look down on them because they are different, because they don't speak our language. That makes them stupid, doesn't it? The survivors get so cranky after massacres.

Why so few actually feel it's "bad" to become aware of the history of this culture is one great ominous mystery to me. They make it virtuous to remain ignorant and pompous, to claim it's the native people's fault so many of them suffered wildly and died, or "lived" to mourn the loss of their beloveds, and their world.

+1

My daughter refuses to say it because of "under God." Since we are atheists, she objects to that.

I tell her I just omit that part when I recite it, but she is not satisfied by that (ah... the passion of youth), and I respect her right to do it, and I admire her willingness to perhaps subject herself to unpleasantness for something she believes in.

Most people try to hide it.

I dont have a problem admitting that.

I was born in United States of America
I am a United States of America citizen
I have family members who died fighting for our country.

I believe that you should be for USA if you are a USA citizen.

I would be SHOCKED if other citizens cant say they are PRO USA and committed to USA

We do have citizens today that seem to be more committed to other countries like RUSSIA but that is not me.

I have to say that compelling allegiance is different than earning allegiance.

Forcing someone to allege "I love you" is counter-intuitive to the concept of love. Allegiances, as well...

It never was. But, until recently, we always tried to be better. We had "more perfect union" baked into our Constitution. We aspired to that ideal. We all tried to make this country better.

But now I think that Vladimir Putin and the Russian trolls and bots are trying to tear our country apart. They design us to fight amongst ourselves.

maybe we should stop cops from shooting unarmed people
but you are right the right doesn't even try

Also means not having to say something you don’t want to say.

What started out as "a patriotic program for school children to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in America”, was written over 100 years ago by a bigoted man who lamented so many immigrants were coming to the US. "The nativism of the 1890s that birthed the Pledge of Allegiance is still with us today. At a time when the president of the United States demands restrictive immigration laws..."

The Pledge became an institutional poke at Russia and godless communism with the addition of “under God” tacked on in the 50s, as if a bit of fervor religious demonstrated our anti-communist policies.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2017/11/03/the-ugly-history-of-the-pledge-of-allegiance-and-why-it-matters/?utm_term=.8231c0101fc8



I'm proud to say that I opted out of the patriotic nonsense swirling around flags and pledges back in the sixties. This country is not defined by silly symbols that reflect someone else's definition of America. The only valid representation of what our country stands for is the Constitution.

SCOTUS declared it so decades ago, in the 40s.

they should not be forced or coerced to pledge allegiance to anything to be there.

Any student can stand outside the front of school--on their own time--and say the pledge if they so choose.

Same thing with prayers. Do it on your own time, or keep it to yourself.

Call it my version of personal responsibility.

in West Virginia State Board of Education v Barnette

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia_State_Board_of_Education_v._Barnette

Good grief.

I was in high school in the 80's, and most of us didn't stand for teh Pledge, or if we did, we didn't recite it, and this was in a decently red redneck area.

or early 60s when student sued on religious grounds. Has conservative efforts at revisionist history wiped memories as well as history books?

Perhaps more time spent on math? Science? History?

I dunno... maybe education should be the priority?

Regardless of the details and the history, these are children and compelling them to say anything is immoral, if it's truly a "free country."

I got sent to principals' office and then banned to sit in hallway every day during pledge until my school finally stopped forcing kids to recite pledge back in the late 1960's. My whole situation in jr. high started when a teacher punished me (and removed me from the "Honor Society&quot for leaning down to pick up a classmate's books that had fallen on floor instead of standing at attention during pledge. So it is a power and freedom of expression issue.

Small, frightened people bully children in a failed attempt to rectify their own shame and guilt. I'm so sorry.