"Under God" in the US Pledge of Allegiance

1. Americans are not forced by law to cite the PledgeDespite Con's efforts to refute my earlier point, he either misread or misunderstood my previous point. So I would like to draw voters attention toward the exact words I used during Round 2. "there is no law stating that every American must recite the Pledge of Allegiance". Con's first point does not refute this claim. Many public schools have time allotted in order to say the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning on the school day, but again, no students are forced to say it, and those who do not wish to say it can do so at their discretion. 2. It is up to the individual to choose whether or not to say the pledgeRegarding Con's second point that there are five states which require students to recite the pledge every day at school - I would like to strike down this notion as completely false. Let's look at the states in question - Maryland(1): Any student or teacher who wishes to be excused from [section requiring Pledge of Allegiance] shall be excused. (Maryland Code of Education, section 7-105, (c)(3))Texas(2): On written request from a student's parent or guardian, a school district shall excuse the student from reciting a pledge of allegiance under Subsection (b) (Texas Education Code 25.082(b)(c)) Tennessee(3): No student shall be compelled to recite the Pledge of Allegiance if the student or the student's parent or legal guardian objects on religious, philosophical or other grounds to the student participating in such exercise.(Tennessee Code 49-6-1001(c)(11)) Though Massachusetts and Illinois have no written law exempting students from citing the Pledge, it has been made clear in court cases regarding the issue that students have the option to not participate in the exercise. Specifically in Sherman v. Community Consul. School Dist. 21 of Wheeling, the court ruled that as long as students are given the option to refuse, their rights are not being violated. 3. It violates Freedom of SpeechIn 1943 during West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette the Supreme Court ruled that students can not be forced to cite the Pledge of Allegiance under the Free Speech Clause(4). Therefore, any claim that the Pledge of Allegiance violates Freedom of Speech is ludicrous. Americans exercise free speech simply by choosing whether or not to recite. In the news report which Con linked, the student wasn't suspended because he refused to cite the pledge. He was suspended because he refused to stand during the pledge. This is a very important distinction for this debate, as his Freedom of Speech was not necessarily violated. Also notably, his reason for refusing to stand were non-religious. The student said, and I quote, he was “really tired of our government taking advantage of [him]". Therefore, even if the pledge omitted the phrase "Under God", this student would have been suspended as he was refusing to pledge fealty to the government. My opponent claims that the phrase should be changed because every once in a while, a student may have disciplinary action used against him. However, this idea is preposterous. Are we going to change every law simply because people may interpret it wrong, or not know it at all? Teachers are humans like the rest of us. They are liable to make mistakes and be ignorant of specific laws. A recent poll by Kaiser showed that over 40% of Americans were unsure whether or not Obamacare was a law(5). Surely by Pro's logic, we should get rid of that too? You don't change laws due to ignorance - you simply inform the ignorant in order to increase awareness. 4. Religious disagreement is not a good enough reasonThere is no convincing reason why we should change the Pledge of Allegiance. Simply disagreeing in the existence of God is not a good enough reason to change the phrasing of the Pledge. There will always be disagreements. With the lowest Congress approval rating in history, I don't believe that our country is "indivisible". And with two-thirds of African Americans being sentenced more harshly than their Caucasian counterparts(5), I could also argue that there is not "justice for all". Yet, it would be equally absurd for me to attempt to get those phrases removed from the Pledge of Allegiance, simply because I am disgruntled and disagree. I could simply do what everyone else does - exercise the 1st Amendment and refuse to say it. --------------------1. http://law.justia.com...2. http://codes.lp.findlaw.com.... http://law.justia.com...4. http://www.law.cornell.edu... 5. http://kff.org... 6. http://www.sentencingproject.org...