"The flag is one thing that all Americans have in common regardless of our differences, it's the one thing we can all share." - how about our ideals? Our wishes for a tolerance of diversity, whether it be of religion, creed, or personal attributes?

I guess I can't understand being proud of anything that just happened, through no fault of/no thanks to anybody. I can't be proud of my race or my gender or my nationality, these are not achievements, they are all accidents of birth. I am, however, GLAD I'm American, GLAD that I live in the US, and I wouldn't trade either my race or gender for the other possibilities abounding. But I will not pledge allegience to a scrap of cloth, no matter how meaningful to others - all right, even meaningful to ME. It's a flag. It's not America. It's not even what America was meant to be, which is a nation of tolerance and diversity.On the other hand, if I'd suffered hardships elsewhere and survived to BECOME an American citizen, THEN I might be "proud" of it. It would then be an accomplishment, which my being BORN American is not. But as I said, I wouldn't trade it, and I have lived outside of the US for slightly under half my life.