Freedom from religion is part of our heritage

Another newspaper, The Mercury News, has Michael Newdow's opinion column. He has filled suit to remove "under God" from the pledge of allegiance. This was added at the height of the cold war to show we were fighting the "godless" communists. Interesting, as you do not have to be godless to be communist.

Why do we have a pledge of allegiance? Only one other country, the Philippines, has one. Why do we pledge to the flag? Why not to the Constitution? Isn't the pledge a political statement? Why to the Republic? Did someone object to pledging to democracy, to the people? How would you write a pledge? Would you even write one?