I pledge allegiance

(I promise to be true)
to the flag
(to the symbol of our country)
of the United States of America
(each state that has joined to make our country)
and to the Republic
(a republic is a country where the people choose others to make
laws for them -- the government is of, by and for the people)
for which it stands,
(the flag means the country)
one nation
(a single country)
under God,
(the people believe in a supreme being)
indivisible,
(the country cannot be split into parts)
with Liberty and Justice
(with freedom and fairness)
for all.
(for each person in the country...you and me!)
The pledge says you are promising to be true to the
United States of America!
http://www.anamericanvision.com/freedom_documents/pledge_of_allegiance.php

As the Tampa Bay Times reports this week, a fourth grade teacher was suspended
last month after allegedly making a 9 year-old boy, who is a Jehovahs Witness, say
the Pledge. The boy told school administrators that early on September 11, his
teacher Anne Daigle-McDonald took his wrist and placed it over his heart, telling
him, You are an American, and you are supposed to salute the flag. The next day,
several students say that she did the same, and then told the class, In my
classroom, everyone will do the Pledge; no religion says that you cant do the
Pledge. If you cant put your hand on your heart, then you need to move out of the
country. Jehovahs Witnesses are forbidden to salute any flag, and to do so is
considered a serious violation of the faiths restriction on worshipping objects.

http://www.salon.com/2013/11/08/forcing_kids_to_say_the_pledge_of_allegiance_is_
bullying_and_pointless/

The West Virginia Board of Education required that the flag salute be part of the
program of activities in all public schools. All teachers and pupils were required to
honor the Flag; refusal to salute was treated as "insubordination" and was
punishable by expulsion and charges of delinquency. In a 6-to-3 decision, the Court
overruled its decision in Minersville School District v. Gobitis and held that
compelling public schoolchildren to salute the flag was unconstitutional. The Court
found that such a salute was a form of utterance and was a means of
communicating ideas. "Compulsory unification of opinion," the Court held, was
doomed to failure and was antithetical to First Amendment values. Writing for the
majority, Justice Jackson argued that "[i]f there is any fixed star in our constitutional
constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be
orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force
citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein."

http://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1949/1942/1942_591

Lillian and William Gobitis were expelled from the public schools of Minersville,
Pennsylvania, for refusing to salute the flag as part of a daily school exercise. The
Gobitis children were Jehovah's Witnesses; they believed that such a gesture of
respect for the flag was forbidden by Biblical commands. In an 8-to-1 decision, the
Court declined to make itself "the school board for the country" and upheld the
mandatory flag salute. The Court held that the state's interest in "national cohesion"
was "inferior to none in the hierarchy of legal values" and that national unity was
"the basis of national security." The flag, the Court found, was an important symbol
of national unity and could be a part of legislative initiatives designed "to promote
in the minds of children who attend the common schools an attachment to the
institutions of their country."

http://www.oyez.org/cases/1901-1939/1939/1939_690