blah blah blah why dont you move to the desert .

Coastal regions, which have higher costs of living, tend to attract the wealthy which are more often than not the intellects and savvy. Coastal regions in most cases are more liberal. Hence the West Coast in general being liberal and the middle American land locked conservatism, mirrored with New York and the East Coast.  Therefore, going to a desert would be going to a conservative stronghold and going to the coast would most likely mean going towards liberal.

I'll take the coast.

If I were still of school age, I would resurrect the Nixon-era version of the pledge, which ends:

"...with liberty and justice for al-most everyone."

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(Of course--those Godless Heathens the Jehovah's Witnesses will have to be punished for non-compliance, Robb.

When the Pledge becomes mandatory, will there be adult monitors to catch the more savy students lip-synching or will snitches be employed to enforce compliance?

Hold the switches, I'm a compassionate conservative.   But I would like to be among the first to volunteer to be such a monitor. My resume is rather light for the job, but I have watched plenty of Ashlee Simpson and Britney Spears music videos. 

Honestly, I focus on patriotism in the sense of pride in this country and our accomplishments. Forced routines, brainwashing techniques and religion are not the tools I find useful in winning someone's respect. I teach my students to respect our country, our differences and the opportunities they have here that are unavailable anywhere else.

There is pride and love in being able to be different and still considered a part of the whole. That's American.

Well, I guess I'm not the oldest person in here afterall.  I was talking from my experience.  I thought that was obvious.

I apologize, that sounds so awful.  Of course you're right and thank you for correcting me. 

Everyday rote memorization and recitation works swell for math in the 3rd grade. Use the same method for the Pledge and there's a definite burnout factor in highschool or before. Listening to or singing the Anthem once and a while can be a stirring, patriotic experience. When it's trotted out before every ballgame, it becomes elevator music. I don't expect this simple observation to have much effect on rabid Pledge and Anthem zealots, but as Groucho Marx didn't say to the mother of 10,

"I love my cigar, too, but I take it out of my mouth once in a while."  

My choice is not to have a religion, as I don't need one.  If an outside group pays for "In God We Trust" posters in the schools and is permitted to hang them, I will bring an equivalent atheistic quotations to put alongside them.  Both my kids are beyond school age, but I'd be willing to go to the expense to encourage the ten-percent or so of students who will eventually grow up not to need a religion either.

I heard you've been passing out notes with the phrase IN GOD WE TRUST all of your adult life.  Everytime you pay for something that costs a dollar or more, you are participating in the very process you so vehemently protest.  So what you're saying doesn't make much cents (or dollars for that matter). 

It's on the coins, too, BLT.   But then again, so is E. Coli--which is much more significant than the raised lettering professing something I don't believe in. 

For that matter, as I mentioned elsewhere, it says "One Dollar," too, but that's not true either.

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And a greater and greater percentage of our kids will grow up not to need religion.  More and more young people (under 30) are already saying they have problems with organized Christianity, for example.  Folks like ol' Chad and Pope Ratzi deserve a great deal of credit on that score.  Isn't that a wonderful thing?  Just as hardly anyone sacrifices to the rain gods today.   (I do miss them old sky-clad services, though...)

Folks like Chad, Ted Haggard, Gary Aldredge and such have more to do with it than the structure, I think. 

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For example, their railing against same-sex marriage when more and more young adults *KNOW* gays personally.  When doctrine contradicts your own lyin' eyes, who are you gonna believe?

I try to follow Christ, not any person.  People will always disappoint you. 

Christ was a people, too.

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Far too many Christians one meets today are of the sort Gandhi disapproved of.