For example: use of "Republic," if rendered to distinguish our government from a "democracy," or the words "one Nation," if intended to distinguish it from a "federation," open up old and bitter controversies in our political history; "liberty and justice for all," if it must be accepted as descriptive of the present order, rather than an ideal, might to some seem an overstatement.
-- West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette
Though its senator threatens to filibuster her own party if it includes a public option (expletive deleted), the people in her state are not all bad. For one thing, a vast majority of state Democrats support it. And, there is where a ten-year-old student decided not to say the Pledge of Allegiance because gays don't seem to be getting the liberty and justice for all business it talks about. For this, though an interviewer didn't quite get the reference, he is being harassed and called a "gaywad." (Steven Colbert had a good bit on this a few days back.) A local columnist supported him while daring to question the whole ritual:
You cannot force somebody to promise fealty in this gloriously free country.
Having our little kids stand up in public school and salute a piece of cloth to vow faithfulness to their nation is harmless in nearly all cases, like a rhythmic and memorized child’s prayer before meals or at bedtime.
But a mass forced pledging of nationalistic allegiance is, when you really think about it, a perversion of the greater notion that we love and support our country by our own choice and for the very freedoms it grants us, including the freedom not to have to spew officially required words or mantras or chants.
As Justice Black noted in his concurring opinion, a required pledge is "a form of test oath, and the test oath has always been abhorrent in the United States," which I'd add isn't erased by current op-out rules. The pressure to conform still applies, even if brave and principled students decide not to, even in the force of ridicule or harassment. Indirect coercion applies too. But, even with a clearly sectarian addition later added, the pledge still is common practice. This is so even though many don't truly understand it, including just what a "republic" is.*
So, there is room for acts of dissent that stands out because some want those rote words to mean something. Way to go Will Phillips! You taught us all something.
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* Hint: Not one where majority always rules or where judicial or other countermajortarian moves always violate "for what it stands."