Is the Pledge of Allegiance still relevant?

Give it 10 years...the way things are going Mt Rushmore won’t be around...it will be defaced/torn down

 

Whenever I see kids doing the Pledge, all I see are little faceless robots in “The Wall”.

 

I wouldn't have an issue with that.

 

I’v pretty much never understood the idea of the pledge.
For new citizens yes, you should pledge yourself to this country. But for the rest of us, what purpose does it serve at events like this? Either you’re loyal or you’re not, being forced to pledge to something every day or at every event is a bit weird. And for kids who don’t even understand fully what it means, we laugh at countries like North Korea who force their kids to pledge allegiance to their government, but when we do it it’s somehow ok.
Never made sense to me.
As for this town, their stated reason was that the town has foreign residents and people before the council, so it didn’t make sense to make them pledge, and new immigrants might be intimidated that fealty is regularly required given where they came from. They want more people participating, not less. That’s hardly on the crazy train for reasons, even if you don’t agree. And this town didn’t even start doing the pledge until the eighties, during the hostage crisis. So it wasn’t anti-American and a national problem apparently before then, but is now? Just more red meat for the base.

And by the way, the “under God” phrase in the pledge didn’t even come in until 1954. It’s a relatively new phenomenon, but somehow that is sacrosanct now too.

 

Hard to beat the Coens, but I just saw Drop Dead Gorgeous the other day for the first time. Pretty good.

 

They were not "forced" to pledge, they just felt uncomfortable not doing it while everyone else does. In North Korea they vow allegiance to Kim, not the flag or the communist system. That's why that one is weird. I don't see it as necessary either, but the same with playing the national anthem before sporting events that aren't international. Not necessary, but a cultural thing so no reason to get bent out of shape about it.