The New Pledge

Hideous. And you know some hippie teacher in a broom skirt will try and incorporate it and we'll have to watch it debated on Fox for two weeks.

How self-absorbed do you have to be to pledge allegiance to your own rights? Not to mention ignorant of the meaning of the term "inalienable."

Oh, btw, the gravity on Jupiter isn't crushing (i.e. you could survive it), it's about 2 and half times that of Earth. Don't forget the denominator of the gravity formula is radius squared.

This is exactly the type of nonsense causing the erosion of western values. Unfortunately, this is also what is being taught in our schools. Our education system is failing us because too many children are getting programmed with this nonsense.

Object...object strenuously...object loudly!

We are a nation of immigrants who have come together to live in a Republic. To do so, the rights of the individual are partially subsumed for the greater good of the Republic. Out of enormous foresight, the founders realized the government cannot have all the power, ergo, the Bill of Rights.

Diversity, multi-culturalism, affirmative action, and victimization are the terms which should cause us to wash our kids' mouth out with soap. Pressure the teachers, principals, and school boards...they are the insurgents who need to be dealt with next.

This is an exercise in redundancy. Aren't 'freedom' and 'choice', as in, the
freedom to choose, already encompassed in the definition of the word liberty? What do these people think that liberty means?
And if I read that correctly, they want us to pledge allegiance to diversity or our own constitutional rights? How would that even work; do we promise to back up diversity in a fight? Isn't the constitution included in how we define our republic, since it provides the legal framework for our republic's existence?
Finalement, since when do constitutional rights come with the flag? Don't constitutional rights come with the constitution? Would our constitutional rights cease to exist if we changed the flag? Whoever wrote this obviously didn't put much consideration into the meaning of what they were writing. Its sentimental gibberish.

Lest we forget, "under God" was added as a result of a different generation's political correctness, which is why the current line scans so poorly. Politicizing the pledge has a long history.

I'll admit that once I thought about it, I never could understand why we pledge allegiance to a flag. The flag is a symbol of the Republic to which I owe my allegiance. Which is why I have quietly altered what I say to :

"I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the Republic that it governs, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

To me this reminds me of my obligations as an American and makes the pledge something more than the pro forma act is has become.

Having grown up in Boulder and attended Boulder High School (Class of -69), all I can say is, thats Boulder.
I can't take this seriously. This is a bunch of kids who are quite sure that they are smarter than any generation that has gone before -- just like most kids of that age.
By the way, "Under God" was added in 1956. I remember reciting the pledge when it didn't include "Under God" and thatw as the version that saw us through WWII and Korea. Somehow, I don't think God minded.
In fact, I put Michell Malkin and most of the right wing screed-mongers in the same basket as the kind of kids (and the adults who cheer them on) who dream up new versions of the Pledge. They are people who think its smart to piss people off.

The original pledge was authored by a socialist, Francis Bellamy, to further his political goals. So that too was a "progressive initiative." I would rather children memorize and recite the Bill of Rights. That would actually be useful to our country and to their education as citizens.