I applaud the Ninth Circuit for recognizing that teaching schoolchildren to recite “one nation under God” is an establishment of religion; though without the offending phrase the tots are still being taught that their first duty is to “the republic for which it [the flag] stands”. I dimly remember (or imagine that I remember) being bothered by the implication that whatever conditions prevail in my “nation indivisible” are the definition of liberty and justice.
Let it not be forgotten:
The Pledge of Allegiance . . . was written by an avowed Socialist, Francis Bellamy, in 1892. Bellamy was at one time the vice president of the Society of Christian Socialists, and once delivered a sermon entitled “Jesus the Socialist.” Bellamy wrote the pledge to help a Boston publisher sell flags through one of his magazines . . . he also saw it as a way to instill veneration of the state and its symbols in the hearts and minds of schoolchildren . . . . —David F Nolan, Libertarian Party News, September 1995