2002-06-27 - 3:03 p.m.

Do You Believe in Freedom?

I do. More importantly, I believe both in the freedom of expression and the freedom of religion. These are two beliefs my parents both encouraged in me as a child. The important thing here is that my father was a USMC officer (retired as a Colonel in the reserves).

So, yesterday a US Appeals Court issued a ruling involving a Sacramento case concerning the Pledge of Allegiance stating that currently the words �under God�, which were added to the Pledge of Allegiance by President Eisenhower in the 1950s are unconstitutional. The story is that a lawyer representing his daughter was offended by the fact that his daughter was essentially forced to include "under God" while swearing his faith to his country.

I actually agree with the man. My faith in my country should not be questioned by the faith I choose to practice, if anything this country was founded by many people, some of whom included those trying to escape government sponsored religions.

Nothing new there. But what bothers me is that a Senator from Missouri, Christopher Bond, stated, "Our founding fathers must be spinning in their graves." OK, he went on, but the truth is he is a cry baby. Nothing more. And possibly an ignorant one, because the founding fathers actually did not include the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. Why would they be spinning in their graves is something they never wrote was deemed to be unconstitutional? Could it be because they felt everybody should have the same religion as them? Maybe, but I doubt it.

The absurd thing here is "In God We Trust" is on all of our coins and bills. I looked at the Canadian money, and at the very least, their twoines and quarters don�t have any religious symbols. OK, so they have a silly monarch on their coin, we do dead Presidents. It is about the same thing.

But for those of you who are curious, the US Dept. of Treasury states that the phrase "In God We Trust" came about during the American Civil War. Apparently somebody was worried that the Union would loose, and wrote a letter urging that the Union�s money make a reference to God. The thought appeared to be, "A nation with the power of God will win!"

Yeah, right. There are days that my country scares me. Senator Bond � well, at the risk of invoking the internet�s Godwin Clause, is somebody who really should move to Germany. Like the Germany of 1939 or something. Because his hold on American history is pretty weak and his concept of freedom of religion is even weaker.

LISTENING TO: the Cure Staring at the Sea

<< previous - next >>