So now pledging allegiance to your country is unconstitutional? OK, so I pulled a few words there to sensationalize the issue, a tactic I decry all the time. But the reason I do is going to piss off a lot of my right leaning, Christian friends.
Kids reciting the pledge are mindless drones. They have no idea what they’re saying, no idea the sheer importance of what they say and what it means if they betray that sentiment. In many ways, it’s the same concept as why I have a hard time actually going to church. It’s not God that I have a problem with, it’s the strict schedule of stand up, sit down, pray, sing, pray, sing, sermon, pray, give money, pray & sing, sing, leave that rings hollow to me. Pomp and circumstance is just ‘dog and pony’ with a fancier name.
As a Christian, I don’t want the government telling me what god to pray to. For those who don’t find Under God offensive, imagine it as Under Allah and your kids being forced to say it every day. Or Under Gaia, for that matter.
What I would like to see is, in your junior / senior year of high school, you take a civics course that outlines how the government basically works (Congress, Senate, White House, SCOTUS, Taxes, etc) and teaches you the PoA. When you go in to register to vote, you must, unaided and in English, pledge your allegiance to the United States. If, when you get to One nation… you can say Under God / Allah / SaaM, or whatever your little heart desires. Or leave it out. Who cares?
But, since my version of utopia doesn’t exist, nor will it ever, how about we let each child repeat what they are comfortable with. Leave it blank, put something else in, whatever. It’s not like they’re actually pledging allegiance anyway.