Don't Say The Pledge. Here's why ...

The colors aren't just cloth to me either, but that has nothing to do with the pledge.

The flag isn't the problem, its the Christian amendment to the pledge that is. Many atheists are loyal patriots, but what we aren't is under any god or deity.

Amen Eddie. This article by prickett is pure, "crap"! I'm sorry but it is. This is not even worth my time or yours to comment on. Anything to put down faith and God and the atheists are, "right there" doing what they do best!

More reading comprehension problems Lawrence? It's not an article by me. And if by what we do best, you mean pointing out the limitations of faith as a path to truth, absolutely, we do that well. It's not hard to do.

Sgt Martin Querin - Breaking what law by burning the flag? That was resolved by Texas v. Johnson (1990) almost 30 years ago.

Second, I'll be happy to believe in a god, when I see reliable, testable, repeatable, empirical evidence of your god. Third, the Constitution protects the rights of the minority from the majority and has from the time that the Baptists went running to President Jefferson looking for help because they were being treated badly by the majority. That's one of the reasons that Congress is not allowed to pass laws that deal with religion, regardless of whether the majority want it or not.

Which brings up another point - we're not a democracy, and were never intended to live by majority rule. When asked what form of government we had, Ben Franklin, as he was leaving the Constitutional Convention, answered "A Republic, if you can keep it." Hamilton noted that "our real disease is democracy," and most of the Founders were concerned that a democracy would create exactly the attitude and actions that you have espoused here.

Finally, if you think that people should leave the United States who do not agree with you, it saddens me, because no one who swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution can say that without intending to break their oath. It means that you don't have any regard for the very freedoms that you claim to revere, that you only believe in freedom for those who believe as you do. It's sad, really.

I didn't say I think they should leave, just I would respect them if their beliefs caused them to act in a way that demonstrated their beliefs without requiring the majority to conform to theirs. I am aware that we are a Republic and not a democracy and what that entails in terms of protecting the minority from the "tyranny of the majority", but it doesn't mean they never intended for majority rules, they just created checks and balances to guard against the tyranny of the majority. What we have now in this Country is something they never imagined, the tyranny of the minority.

A large part of their fear of democracy was an uneducated public; their answer at the Federal level was an electoral college. And it is not a violation of my oath, or the Constitution to hold an opinion of any nature. If I was to support in any form the deportation of people that simply held an opposing view that would be another matter. I have the regards for their freedom to hold a differing opinion, to impose it upon the majority because they don't like it, nope don't need to feel bad about that and wanting them to leave...heck that's as American as apple pie. So don't tell me what it means, you can't use that weak form of critical argument to shame me; I revere the constitution and everything it stands for, both in word and intent...not gonna be fooled by post-modern historical reconstructionists.

Sgt Martin Querin - I misinterpreted what you meant, and we have talked off-line since that was posted.

Few people are familiar with the compromise that was the electoral college. The Founders were scared to death of direct election of the President, they did not trust democracy. The smaller states wanted to elect the President by vote of the States, while another proposal was to have Congress elect the President. The electoral college was the compromise. Each State decides how to apportion its electors (all but Maine and Nebraska use a winner take all), the people vote for the electors, and the electors vote for the President.

It was a brilliant move and compromise.

Capt Gregory Prickett - Thanks for your reply. I agree, it was a brilliant compromise. I look back at what they accomplished and the integrity of the whole and am amazed at the knitting of the Declaration, Constitution and Bill of Rights. There is no way we could possibly craft such amazing documents, or such a practical and flexible set of documents on which to found a nation. We've become too "smart" for our own good.

Although I am registered to a party...guess which...LOL. Like many I vote my conscience, many of my practical personal views are more inline with libertarian policies. They crafted an amazing document to govern and resolve conflicts at the boundaries of the exercise of individual freedoms; we've spent the last 200 years allowing our government to creep it's way to governance within that boundary.

Well said.

SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth - In my opinion, you've said the MOST American thing anyone could say. It's too bad as a nation we've strayed so far away from this understanding.

Thank you SSG Redmond for the comment.