As a teacher in a public school the Pledge of Allegiance is a daily ritual, but it's one I don't particularly care for. This speaks to one of the reasons why.

 "How does one hate a country, or love one? I lack the trick of it. I know people, I know towns, farms, hills and rivers and rocks, I know how the sun at sunset in autumn falls on the side of a certain plowland in the hills; but what is the sense of giving a boundary to all that, of giving it a name and ceasing to love where the name ceases to apply? What is love of one’s country; is it hate of one’s uncountry?" 

~ Ursula K. Le Guin