vivrantv

yes it is communism. You are right, since we are FORCED to say the pledge it is communistic. It is further communistic in its explicit praise of a particular god. (sarcasm)

420smokerNYC

for anyone interested, here is an article on the subject at msnbc:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/773696.asp

Also, DoritosMan, the pledge goes like this:

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

vaya

Saying the pledge all seems kinda silly in retrospect...

I remember in gradeschool when I'd thoughlessly stand up, put my right hand over my heart, face the large flag hanging in our classroom and chant this with 20 other grade schoolers who had been taught to recite it without giving two thoughts about its implications and real meaning.

Although, I must add, it seems a little silly in itself to ban it from our nation because it's not P.C. Too many people are worrying about that - trying to seem like open minded individuals when they are only isolating themselves within another group of people with their same mentality. Just accept that people have different beliefs and that censoring what you say is being willingly unconstitutional - and thats not all too hard to find these days. Just look at the government....

-Vaya

__________________
I Wish For Peace Between The Races Someday We Shall All Be One
Coming To The Surface There's Fire All Around But This Is An Illusion

CUAN4life

I agree with the judges original decision, "under god" should not be included in the pledge. Even though it seems stupid to have to pledge our allegiance in the USA of all places. I also think "in god we trust" should be removed from currency.

dmbtex

It's not a question of whether or not the pledge is optional. Read the majority descision (something the entire US Senate likely did not do or did and ignored it); it does a very good job of eplaining the ins and outs of the case. The Supreme Court has ruled that public schools cannot sponsor prayer or biased religous teachings. I beleive that the pledge definitely has religous aspects and therefore should not be a school sponsored activity, that is, unless "under G-d" is removed from the pledge. It's not restricting first ammendment protections in any way because, like in the case with prayer, individual recital of the pledge or student gatherings to say the pledge without school sponsorship or encouragement would be allowed under the ruling.

Same thing goes with currency. The government should not print "In G-d We Trust" on public currency because that is an establishment of a religion in the public realm. It doesn't have to say "In the Christian G-d We Trust." It still means that in Amerika, we have a G-d, a clearly religious statement. If we removed that phrase from our money, people could still write it on there, right?

All claims that taking out religious aspects from public life violates the first amendment protection of our freedom of speech are rediculous. INDIVIDUALS can still say whatever the hell they want to. The GOVERNMENT and bodies it directly controls do NOT have the right to say whatever they want. They are NOT individuals. They are subject to rules and regulations that are intended to protect OUR individual freedoms.

regularguy

A little time line to think about if you are one of those people that think that in 'god we trust' and 'under god' are as american as apple pie. those words have been in the pledge and on our money for less than 50 years. Our country has been around for over 200 years. Based on the first 150 years of American life being american i would say that the last 50 have been unamerican.

Shaman

"i would say that the last 50 have been unamerican."

Yes! Definately unamerican! Quite a few similarities to socialism and facism though.

dmbtex: Are you jewish? Just curious, because of the way you write G-d .
That's something I've always really respected, the fact that their deity is so holy to them that they don't write a name. Unlike america, where we plaster ours all over our currency, which is all so fitting to a capitalist nation who's currency is their g0d

__________________
It seems like we are either sleepwalking through our waking state or wakewalking through our dreams.

dmbtex

Yes I am. Props for you for knowing that one!

Shaman

<---------- raised jewish

Living agnostic

weedzinger

You know, the Jews used to call god "Jhwh". Well, the ancient Jews.

__________________
Half of the people can be part right all of the time,
Some of the people can be all right part of the time.
But all of the people cant be right all of the time.