I think the Civil War settled that argument, didn't it?
Hardly. According to the original document agreed to, any state (or collection of states) had every right to withdraw their assocation. The resentment against an overbearing, power-grabbing federal gummint is still very much a reality.
I understood what I was saying. I've also tried to explain it to my classes.
Cognizance/comprehension was not the thrust of my question. How often did you actually think about those words, that affirmation, as you were saying them? How often was it actually a positive affirmation as opposed to rote recitation?
Apparently you agree with the 9th Circuit that students should not say the Pledge of Allegiance in school. I think they should.
I think it's good for students to be reminded, if only for a few seconds each day, that they live in the greatest nation on Earth, that the nation was founded on principles of God-given rights to all people, and that all people in the United States have the same rights of liberty and justice.
I'll grant you that all of our national documents - including the Pledge of Allegiance - are somewhat idealistic, and sometimes we and our government don't live up to the standards set by our Founding Fathers. But I still think it's good for students to be reminded daily of those ideals.
I also agree with JimRob that, while we aren't likely to immediately return our nation to a Perfect Constitutional state, the next election is very important, and we need to vote for the best possible choice - meaning the best choice who has a likely chance of winning.
There are a few maxims that could be quoted for this situation; some will choose "the lesser of two evils is still evil", but I think in this case a more appropriate one would be "all it takes for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing".
If we don't vote, or if we vote for third party choices who have no chance of winning, we'll have in effect done nothing, and the liberals WILL win. Right now, keeping them from winning is the important thing.