Thank You

Tthat is ashame

But would you and just leave out the god part.

@Marine Yes.

I have never seen the pledge forced out of anyone.However to refuse to give it as an American I feel is immoral.

I am truly sorry you feel that way about the pledge that so many have given their lives for.

@Marine no, I certainly respect love of country. But that is not the same thing as the pledge recitation, itself. Do I think children should learn it and know It? Yes, actually, without the McCarthy era addition, but the daily classroom recitation is mindless indoctrination. Much more constructive to teach the history surrounding the declaration of Independence, Constitution--including Bill of Rights-- the foundational values underlying it all. I don't think the pledge evil. I think it simplistic and can be misused to discourage dissent.

A prime example: The hyper-reverence for this thing that is a mere symbol is even now being warped to deny respect for actual living human beings, the condemnation of African American athletes who are exercising their civil rights to try to make our nation better by righting a serious injustice. I feel sorry for you if you Can't understand that.

@JustLynnie whoa! Harsh. But you have a point.

@MikeInBatonRouge I understand why they take a knee and cannot fault them for doing so.however I believe they could do more to clean up their environment by working with the police rather than fighting them.My family has three policemen in it who after a crime could not find one person who would offer any information about it. This was repeated so many times within their combined years of service72years that they were frustrated. Many crimes could have been solved within minutes instead of taking months,years and sometimes never.I agree that they are being targeted ,shot and killed many for no reason and this needs to be addressed but they also have shot and killed many police The poverty and crime must be addressed from within to be rid of it.Asians,Irish,Polish, Germans, Spanish have all had to fight for acceptance and I realise skin color plays makes a difference however my black and Spanish friends all agree with this assessment. They need to use the government to get their rights. If their housing is dirty they need to go after the landlord to correct whatever is wrong.

@Marine I, too, am frustrated by the chasm between police and African American communities, as well as the lack of people willing to report what they've witnessed of crimes. But you sound as if they are just stubbornly refusing to cooperate, for spite. There are layers of reasons for their behavior, and high on the list are fear of not being protected adequately by the police and overall mistrust of the police. I know there are countless devoted and quality officers around the nation. But there are also departments with dysfunctional cultures, especially here in Louisiana. I've talked to dozens of people involved in one way or another with investigations who felt they got burned by the process. And it only takes a very few examples of reports of trauma, maybe even just one report, to spook people out of being willing to stick their necks out to help the police.

they've also declared a sign with those words be in every school !

Florida is just the beginning, I suspect