Each day in homeroom, I rise and promptly rest my hand over my heart, prepared to recite a pledge to a nation I feel lucky to live in.

Loudly and with pride, I begin to recite, "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation. ..." But there I stop, and replace "under God" with an offended silence until I can resume with my praise: "... indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

I'm offended because I am excluded. The pledge is intended to unite, yet it divides with its implication that we are all under God. A 1996 Gallup Poll found that 96 percent of American adults believe in a god. That leaves 4 percent who do not consider themselves to be under any god. As a Protestant-turned-agnostic, I am just one of those 11.5 million Americans who are alienated by our nation's pledge. The Pledge of Allegiance is a familiar oath to most U.S. citizens, but many, especially younger generations, don't realize that the pledge didn't always include "under God."

In 1892, the magazine Youth's Companion published the pledge written by Christian Socialist Francis Bellamy. On Columbus Day of that year, more than 12 million schoolchildren recited it as he penned it: "I pledge allegiance to my flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Though a tradition was born then, Congress didn't officially recognize the pledge (with a 1923 change from "my flag" to "the flag of the United States of America") until 1942. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson ruled the next year that schools could not force their students to recite it.

"If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion or other matters of opinion," he wrote.

During the era of McCarthyism, the purely secular, patriotic pledge became the version we know today with a 1954 amendment that added the words "under God." Today, New York is one of 24 states with laws that encourage the recitation of the pledge in school.

In my opinion, any law encouraging the recitation of the pledge as it is now is unconstitutional, according to the First Amendment of our Constitution. The amendment provides for freedom of religion - not just freedom to choose a religion among the many, but also the freedom not to have one at all.

"Under God" was added to the pledge when our elected representatives were too scared to say no from fear of association with communism. But that era is long over. It's time now for the government to stand up for the individual and expose these state laws for what they are: advancements of religion.

President Bush would have to approve any further changes to the pledge. It's not likely that this God-fearing Protestant would step up to the plate, especially with the nation in a state of extreme patriotism and faith.

Just because we suffered a national tragedy doesn't mean the Bill of Rights should go by the wayside. This is exactly the time to uphold the documents our government is built on. The minority of atheists and agnostics who are not under any god are being forgotten and ignored by the government created to protect them. Pamela Fox is a senior at Jamesville-DeWitt High School. Students, teachers or parents interested in participating in the Voices column should call Paul Riede at 470-2138 or e-mail him at citynews@syracuse.com.