Do we need to pledge of alliegence in the U.S? Should it be modified?

[covok48]

Optional how? Doing whatever you like while you listen to it, sure.

Making it "optional" ( read: phasing out) for before schools, sporting events, congressional meetings or public events because it will offend (somehow) people, no.

 

[colontos]

Just keep it. Some people can recite it if they want to, others don't have to, or they can leave "under god" out, or they can stay seated, or whatever. I don't care. I just don't see why we should do away with the pledge just because a few cinical, jaded, fashionably atheistic, quasi-communists feel offended by the very conception of nationhood the pledge represents.

Thank you for that, sir.

 

[bhsup]

Keep it the way it is.

 

[Quiet Sound]

I find loyalty oaths a bit creepy, especially when they are made day after day after day.

 

[Perfection]

I don't care. I just don't see why we should do away with the pledge just because a few cinical, jaded, fashionably atheistic, quasi-communists feel offended by the very conception of nationhood the pledge represents.

Maybe because most American atheists aren't like that? Look, you can keep the bloody pledge as you like, I have bigger fish to fry then these petty disputes, but it would be a nice gesture to all them hardworking, taxpaying, American atheists out there to not make them validate religious concepts they disagree with to call them patriotic.

 

[Irish Caesar]

I find loyalty oaths a bit creepy, especially when they are made day after day after day.

Indeed, once is enough if one's word is good. I'm not sure what would be creepy about a loyalty oath once, though, unless loyalty is something which should be implied?

 

[Quiet Sound]

Indeed, once is enough if one's word is good. I'm not sure what would be creepy about a loyalty oath once, though, unless loyalty is something which should be implied?

I guess my thought was a bit incomplete. Who most commonly recites the pledge? Schoolchildren. I haven't encountered many first graders that had any grasp of the concepts in the Pledge. It's like loyalty by indoctrination rather than loyalty earned.

 

[Keshik]

This thread is VERY flawed. "Under G-d" was added to the pledge in the 20th century. It is not a part of the original Pledge of Allegiance. Therefore, voting to keep the pledge as it is means WITHOUT "under G-d."

Why don't you type "God"?

 

[emzie]

The entire pledge should be completely optional.

Well, it is. I stopped saying it in High School and no one really cared. A friend of mine in a rural school (who's now in Iraq, mind you) refused to say it and got thrown up against a wall... by his History teacher.

 

[Keshik]

Keep the pledge. It's not just about loyalty. We also state we are an indivisible replublic, with liberty and justice for all. It's good to remind people of those tenets.

 

[Fugitive Sisyphus]

Why don't you type "God"?

I assume the word God offends some people (and therefore we shouldn't use it)

 

[emzie]

... with liberty and justice for all. It's good to remind people of those tenets.

Start with the government, thanks.

 

[Rossiya]

It should be this:

I pledge allegiance to the burning flags of the United States of America in Iraq, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under Allah, indivisible, with jihad and kabaddi for all.

 

[MobBoss]

The pledge is fine the way it is. Keep it.

 

[Che Guava]

Was 'indivisible' always part of the pledge, or just since the civil war..?

 

[Mise]

What exactly does "under God" add? How does it make the pledge better?

 

[bhsup]

What exactly does "under God" add? How does it make the pledge better?

It was intended to differentiate us from the Godless, commie heathens who oppressed the good, God-fearing common folk of Russia. Our nation acknowledges God's supremacy, theirs didn't.

 

[Mise]

It was intended to differentiate us from the Godless, commie heathens who oppressed the good, God-fearing common folk of Russia. Our nation acknowledges God's supremacy, theirs didn't.

But not everyone in your nation acknowledges God's existence, much less supremacy. And the enemy de jour is twice as God-fearing.

 

[Phlegmak]

I pledge allegiance to the banner of the United States of America, which is under Dog, with tacos and pizza for all.

 

[bhsup]

But not everyone in your nation acknowledges God's existence, much less supremacy. And the enemy de jour is twice as God-fearing.

But what I gave was indeed the reason why "under God" was added to our pledge. Also, less than 1/5th of the nation deny God, and our enemy is not Islam but rather twisted, Satan-led evil men. Nothing to do with God with them (in my opinion.)