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No one in NJ is forced to say the pledge. There is the 'opt out' option. Sit and place duct tape over your mouth if you want. This 'under God' thing has been through the courts a dozen times and the complainants have lost a dozen times.
Lady in NJ also is suing the state for refusing to allow her to have a car tag that says 8theist. I am gonna try and get one in my new state soon as well. Be cool if they deny me because I do intend to sue.
Does the state allow other religious references? If so, they should also allow this. If not, all's good.
No one in NJ is forced to say the pledge. There is the 'opt out' option. Sit and place duct tape over your mouth if you want. This 'under God' thing has been through the courts a dozen times and the complainants have lost a dozen times.
The only one to make it to the supreme court...they dodged it by saying the complainants no longer had standing because the kids were out of school.
And they have won some, lost some. Its appropriate for the supreme court to rule on it, and they should stop dodging it.
Just tell your kid what I told mine: it's your option whether you want to say it or not. The school can't make you say Under God or the pledge in general.
My kid never said the Under God part once he was old enough to make up his own mind about his beliefs and had no trouble with his teachers.
Many parents are not as sane as you. They need attention, they need to stir the pot.
Basically these parent are exploiting their children to make a political point.
I think many municipal boards pledge allegiance to the flag before public meetings.
My thoughts on this are a bit more complicated than what I'm going to say but I have to ask......do they feel less than other Americans since the Declaration of Independence notes a creator?
Historic artifacts are historic artifacts. Not an official behavior in a current classroom.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pknopp
Should we throw it out?
No. We should understand what it is and what it is not.
Yes. They have a system where you can check to see if it will allow you to use certain phrases,words etc. It let her use Baptist but not 8theist or any other atheist language.
Well then, I disagree with them and someone should call them out on it.
I think the most offensive thing about the pledge of allegiance debate is the vitriol that spews from both sides of the argument. I just don't think it's that big of a deal. I don't think pledging to the flag "under God" impacted me as a student whatsoever. It was something you just did in school. I have a lot of memories (both positive and negative) from my years in public school and a lot of events back then have influenced and shaped me as a person; but saying the pledge isn't one of them.
To start, I consider myself an atheist. I don't believe in any God. I haven't for a long, long time. I do believe that the "under God" portion of the pledge refers specifically to the Christian God (it's capitalized in every printed transcript I've ever seen which makes it a proper noun), but I don't care. The idea of "God" (any god) doesn't exist to me, and mindlessly reciting a few sentences while staring at a flag every morning in school didn't "force" me to feel anything about God or the United States. I was too busy thinking about the cute girl two rows over, what was for lunch that day, what class I forgot to do my homework for, and what I was doing that weekend. Most kids are the same. If they're not patriotic or deeply religious, saying the pledge isn't going to change that. If they are deeply devout and a fierce patriot, not reciting the pledge as a group every morning won't change that. It has no real impact on anyone's belief system.
The outrage from proponents of keeping "under God" in the pledge is almost as absurd as the outrage from those who believe that keeping the line IN the pledge will somehow harm or steer their child's beliefs a certain way. The line wasn't originally part of the pledge and it seems ridiculous to expect that each of the hundreds of millions of children in the U.S. should be put in the position of having to "opt out" of pledging allegiance to a country under one specific religion's God (I never "opted out" since I didn't want to be the weird kid); even if the majority of kids reciting it don't really care what it says anyway.
I'm in the camp that thinks pledging allegiance to the flag is altogether unnecessary. It's repetitive to the point where for most students it really holds no meaning anyway. I love my country. I get chills listening to a good rendition of the National Anthem or America the Beautiful. I don't for one second take for granted the fact that I can type "I'm an atheist" on an internet forum and not have the police show up and arrest me for being a heathen. The reason I can do that is because we have separation of church and state which is a fantastic concept. Including any deity in a public pledge is a minor blurring of the line separating church and state. Beyond that, having children mindlessly pledge their allegiance to the flag borders on creepy. I don't know one patriot and proud American who would say that their love of country was sparked by being forced to stand and pledge to the flag. There are millions of reasons to love the U.S.A. and I'm a big believer that most children will love this country regardless of whether or not they recite a few sentences while looking at a flag every morning.
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I am gonna try and get one in my new state soon as well. Be cool if they deny me because I do intend to sue. 
