Saying the Pledge of Allegiance is divisive

The City Counsel of Eugene, Oregon is divided on saying the pledge of allegiance. Do we or don't we? What is so divisive about saying the pledge? Why are there people who enjoy the freedoms of the United States, who are elected officials of the public saying they do not want to say the pledge of allegiance?

“It’s a little ironic to see those who have championed the idea of tolerance be less tolerant on this question,” Clark Said. Mayor Kitty Piercy called the Pledge of Allegiance divisive. “If there’s one thing the flag stands for,” Piercy says, “it’s that people don’t have to be compelled to say the Pledge of Allegiance or anything else.” 
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/06/28/compromise-on-pledge-allegiance-in-oregon-town-has-some-seeing-red/#ixzz1QbfcBTcd

I have heard just about everything now. We are going to celebrate the 4th of July in just a few days. It will be the 235th anniversary of thousands of lives given in sacrifice to a young America just so we have the privilege of pledging our allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. 

Shame on those city officials who don't want to say the pledge. Shame on that mayor, Kitty Piercy" who calls the pledge divisive. 

Shame on anyone in the United States who has lost that patriotic spark when the fireworks go off, the lump in the throat when we sing "Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming. Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight, o're the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?  The rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say does that Star-spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

No one knows the second verse of that song, but in it we find our nation's motto in the very words of the second verse. Those words come from scripture, Psalm 20:7 "Some trust in chariots and ... horses, be we trust in God."

O thus be it ever, wen free men shall stand

Between their loved homes and the war's desolation;

Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n rescued land

Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserved us a nation!

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just;

And this be our motto: "In God is our trust!"

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall

Wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Francis Scott Key wrote the words 1779-1834

I believe that if someone has a problem with singing the National Anthem, or with saying the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, then they should look for another nation in which to live. There are none so blessed with so much as America the Beautiful.