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Coercing children into "pledging allegiance to the republic" forces them to acknowledge that their government has the right to control them.

Oh, please!! I've been accused of leaps of logic because my original post to you stated that I would quit observing those red octagonal signs, etc. Your reply more meets the leap of logic charge.

Pledging allegiance to the republic forces no one to acknowledge that the government has the right to control them, nor does it force anyone to swear allegiance to a particular government, whether it be the government of GW Bush or Bill Clinton, or Sparky, the 3-legged alien mutt. The formal name of this nation is the Republic of the United States of America. Swearing allegiance to the Republic is swearing allegiance to the nation, NOT the government.

The Founding Fathers were not as big fools as some people might believe. When you take time to sit down and read documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, if you have an appreciation for language and philosophy, you will develop a new appreciation for the majesty of their collective ideas and opinions. They specifically wrote the Constitution with the idea that we all have different ideas and opinions and that, with reasoned discourse, we can achieve common goals that benefit the plurality of the population. But, nowhere in those documents, in the pledge, in the Constitution, or in the Declaration of Independence, do the Founding Fathers either require, suggest, imply or demand allegiance to 'a' or 'the' government. They knew better. The pledge is for allegiance to this nation. If you cannot or are unwilling to pledge any allegiance to this nation, why are you here?

Freeloaders, such as the Hollyweird crowd, who make vast sums of money in this country using the freedoms we are all afforded by the Constitution and have no sense of obligation or allegiance to the country are of no value. The Founding Fathers created a form of government that welcomed diversity and differences of opinion, but required change to come from within. If you don't like a policy, law or process, you need to work within the system to change it.

The law requiring the children to recite the Pledge or sing the National Anthem was written by people who were elected by a majority vote to serve the needs of the state of Pennsylvania. The judicial panel that overturned the law was not elected by a majority of the voters and is not specifically charged with representing their interests. This is not representative of a representative form of government, this is judicial anarchy.

If you don't like a policy, law or process, you need to work within the system to change it.

That is what happened here. Petioning courts to overturn unconstitutional actions by the other branches of government is an integral part of the American system.

The law requiring the children to recite the Pledge or sing the National Anthem was written by people who were elected by a majority vote to serve the needs of the state of Pennsylvania. The judicial panel that overturned the law was not elected by a majority of the voters and is not specifically charged with representing their interests.

Our system is set up in such a manner that the majority cannot do certain things, no matter how much it wants to. Our Founding Fathers were very careful to set up a system where the majority cannot take away the rights of the minority.

But, nowhere in those documents, in the pledge, in the Constitution, or in the Declaration of Independence, do the Founding Fathers either require, suggest, imply or demand allegiance to 'a' or 'the' government.

I find it disturbing that you apparently believe that the Pledge of Allegiance was written by the Founding Fathers. In light of this, I'm not sure what to make of the rest of your post. The Pledge was written by Francis Bellamy (1855-1931), an activist for socialism who hoped to use the Pledge to help bind children to the ideal of a planned society organized around the ideals of the French Revolution rather than around capitalism.