Lance  Re: one nation, indivisible
 
This is one of those issues I just can't get excited about.  There's a line here somewhere, between the government not establishing or encouraging religion, and the government actively discouraging religion.
 
If the words "under God" are removed from the pledge, it won't affect me one bit.  It will have no effect on my beliefs.  If it's important to me, I'll just continue to say "under God" when we come to that part of the pledge, whether it's an official part of the pledge or not.
 
So, fine, remove it.  I don't think it matters a hill of beans.  Why does it matter so much to you?
 
Having the words in the pledge doesn't force anyone to believe anything.  No one is forced to say those two words: one can simply skip them when we come to that part.
 
One could make the argument that having the words in there indicates a government endorsement of belief in a higher being.  Since our kids say the pledge in school, one could argue that the government is pushing a belief system on our kids, whether the parents want it or not.
 
To this, I say the same thing I said to the guy who didn't think our Sunday School classes should go see a performance of Jesus Christ, Superstar, because it was blasphemous.  I say the same thing I told myself when my daughter came home spouting a load of politically correct environmental semi-facts.
 
We and our children, all of us, will constantly be exposed to influences we don't like.  We will always be exposed to opinions we disagree with.
 
For us adults, the best thing to do is to be secure in our beliefs, and to frequently revisit our reasons for believing what we do.  For our kids, the best thing is to teach them why we believe what we believe, and also to think for themselves.
 
So remove the words, or don't remove them.  I don't see how it's hurting anybody either way.