Under God. Indivisible with liberty and justice for all. The Supreme Court said it is illegal to have to say the pledge of allegiance. When America was founded, under God there was not liberty and justice for all. There was liberty and justice if you were a white male, landowner. If you were black you were considered property and you had neither liberty nor justice. If you were a Native American you were not even considered a human being. We were considered property for those who were taken as slaves or had no legal rights or liberties until the mid eighteen hundreds and not considered American citizens until 1923. The Chinese workers who helped to build our land were neither given liberty nor justice. If you were a woman you did not have the right to vote or in some places even own property.

Manifest Destiny stated that the taking of lands and property was the God given right of the white race to make this country into a Christian land. Governed by men who would teach all who did not believe in the White man’s God by the whip, torture or even death if they did not comply. So I can see why some people are opposed to saying the pledge of allegiance. But over the course of the past one hundred and fifty years things have changed. People realized that Manifest Destiny was wrong. Many did try to make things right and truly provide liberty and justice for all. It was hard. It is still being fought against today by the bigots and religious zealots of today. Note I did not say Christians but religious zealots (including atheists) who will do everything in their power to disrupt our Government and our attempts to treat all with liberty and justice. Native Americans, Blacks, Orientals and Hispanics are still treated as second class citizens. But people still come to this great county of ours because we try to make it better. We try to help provide the American dream where you can practice your religion no matter what it is. That has changed too. We no longer beat or torture Native Americans for speaking their native tongue or for practicing their native religion. Under God means something different now. It no longer means the white man’s God. But God as a universal being. As the Native Americans say, “We all believe in the same God we just call him different names and worship him in ways we understand”. If you chose not to say the pledge, don’t. I did not say it myself for many years until I understood that it meant that I was pledging to help my fellow man not to believe in a God different than mine.