I agree with Kim C. I had more difficulty with the "liberty and justice for all" assertion than with the God part, though both rankled. Wolfgang says "Tolerance is the word in this context. The USA of the late eighteenth century had a lot of it so it seems to me." But if you'd been there and your position was loyalty to the government (i.e. the British, the King etc.) you would have met a bit of hostility, if you were vocal about it you might have even had to move to Canada and had your land confiscated without legal process (which would give you a taste of what the Indians in your area went through a hundred years prior).

I'm trying to recall when the schools hereabouts (Seattle) stopped using the Pledge. I'm pretty sure it was while I was still in grade school. Don't know if they've since gone back to it. This is no longer the "Soviet of Washington" it once was, though in my particular neck of the woods a lot of folks vote Green, which doesn't mean Sinn Fein.

Liland