The Pledge to the Flag is bullcrap. Line by line analysis.

[DFW]

56. What my child really DID hear

She spent her junior year of high school abroad (encouraged in our part of the world) in the far-away USA. I prepared her as best I could, but didn't remember everything.

After the first few days, she said she was adjusting OK, but was mystified by the ritual chanting the class did every morning. Ritual chanting? In an American public school? They aren't even allowed to do that. I asked, "like Buddhists?" We had seen the documentaries on TV. I asked what they chanted. She said they mostly mumbled it, like they were in a trance, or else very bored. But it started out with "I spread the peaches."

Her English was pretty good, but she was unfamiliar with the words "pledge" and "allegiance," as neither tends to come up in ordinary conversation. She heard the closest thing to words that she did know, but couldn't figure out why they would say that, and was too timid to ask. Exaggerated displays of patriotism are, for obvious reasons, frowned upon where we live, so she didn't have the slightest idea what they were doing, or why.

When I finally figured out what she was talking about, I explained the Pledge. Her reaction was, "why would they need to do that?"

Why, indeed?