There is No Constitutional Basis for Forcing a Student to Recite the Pledge of Allegiance

The Pledge of Allegiance has always been a weird thing to me. As a kid in school I recited it by rote without giving it much thought. Like most people, I suspect. In fact, it wasn't until I was forced to recite it every morning as a teacher that I really began to question the very elemental foundation of such a thing. A pledge of allegiance to a piece of cloth or vinyl material that is nothing more than a symbol of the very real ideals contained within a Constitution that guarantees the right of free speech? I'd feel much more comfortable pledging allegiance to the Constitution and leaving the flag out of it, though I would still have trouble with that. I mean, come on, a pledge of allegiance sounds like something that would be required by one of those two famous Joes of the 1940s and 1950s: Stalin and McCarthy. Is it just me or does a Pledge of Allegiance carry the stink of un-Americanism? I wonder if all these terrorists that Bush and Cheney say are living on every corner in America take a Pledge of Allegiance to Allah and, if so, exactly where is the difference?