IN GOD WE TRUST - This religious display is quite appropriate and didn't need an act of Congress to do.

GOP Rep: ‘Few things more important than re-affirming ‘In God We Trust’

I’m an Atheist, but I like most Theists. Really, I do. Admittedly I don’t agree with them, but I’m also strongly for the idea of to each his own. But, sometimes some of them can be real pains in the tuckus.

Fundamentalist Christians complain incessantly about how the 10-15% of the non-Christian naysayers of this nation have them on the ground with the jackboot of oppression on their necks, poised to prevent them from saying Merry Christmas or some other form of “oppression”. Having overwhelmingly fewer jackboots than God-fearing necks is mathematically impossible. Perhaps it’s a modern-day expression of the Loaves and Fishes School of Math Theory.

But oppression? Really? Syria is oppressed. Most of Africa is oppressed. A good number of Americans are oppressed. Hell, China is so oppressed they almost stamp out all religion. In some places on Earth oppression comes at the point of a gun. Asking to simply let government be government and religion be religion isn’t oppression, even if people scream it in frustration over the unending need to label everything on God’s (their opinion, not mine) green earth with a religious creed.

The ‘Reaffirmation’ Commeth
The latest example is Rep. Randy Forbes’ (R-VA) – and the 64 co-sponsors of his bill – legislation to “affirm” In God We Trust as the national motto. Apostle Randy wants to encourage public buildings, schools, and government facilities to carve the motto into whatever stone is available in their crumbling, under-funded, spending-cut hallways.

Personally, I don’t think we even need a national motto and if I did, I’d rather have something like No New Taxes or Capitalism Uber Alles, even though I don’t agree with those sentiments either.

In God We Trust is already on our money and the official US motto by law. I’m not agitating to remove it. If a dollar is still a dollar (adjusted for inflation) I don’t think it’s worth the trouble. Besides, when people throw it in the collection plate it’s labeled so God can easily find his money among the assorted socialist Canadian nickels.

This whole reaffirmation concept is a bit weird. Do we go around reaffirming other laws? How about the tax code? De we need to carve it into the walls of the Republican National Committee’s walls? Was the failure to reaffirm prohibition what eventually led to its downfall? C’mon.

How ’bout a Few Props for the Rest of Us?!
This bill, “sends a message that ‘In God We Trust’ is not only written in the halls of our federal buildings, but it is a bedrock upon which our nation is built.” Forbes explained. “…in times of national challenge or tragedy, the people of the United States have turned to God as their source for sustenance, protection, wisdom, strength, and direction.”

Fair enough. I feel that if you want to turn to God when things go to Hell, smite yourself out. Whatever gets you through the dark ride of life is a good thing – God or otherwise. The problem is that not all of “…the people of the United States” turn to God. It’s also true the “bedrock upon which the nation is built” was mostly Christian. However, it ignores the work of those who didn’t believe in God. Hey, how about a few props for the rest of us?!

In God We Trusters, here’s a little experiment. Ask yourself how you’d feel if I authored legislation that said, “You know, those God-fearing folk were a bunch of goldbrickers. Here I was, off building some bedrock, and they were spending all their time carving mottos into every available flat surface. No wonder it took so long to build the intercontinental railroad.”

Yeah. It doesn’t feel quite right, does it?

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We’ve become a nation selfish to a fault.

We don’t want to pay taxes, but we want services.

We launch hate filled screeds about taxes as tyranny, yet don’t lift a finger to stop the steady erosion of real constitutional rights.

We rebel against the idea that health care is a right and then complain about how high the insurance rates of the insured explode from de facto coverage for those who have none.

Social Security is an unfair entitlement to those who don’t use it. It’s what keeps a loaf of bread in the house when they do.

If poor people need help, let them visit the local church. Of course, they’ll be taken care of… if they aren’t gay, or Muslim, or mentally unstable, or any of a thousand other reasons.

Unemployed people are a bunch of lazy goldbrickers living off the public dole. Unless, of course, we become them.

We want to cut taxes to cut a deficit, but want to give more tax revenue to businesses who pass it along to shareholders with nary a job created.

It’s only a matter of time…

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United State of Me, and to the republic which only I want, one person, among millions, and selfishly, with as little liberty and justice as possible for anyone who disagrees with me.

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LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL - Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance is about upholding and exercising the freedoms that the flag represents - whether you happen to agree with those freedoms or not.

When – during the campaign – Barack Obama chose not to wear a flag pin, he was excoriated as an Islamo-Terrorist pinko by many on the right, notwithstanding George Bush making the same sartorial decision from time to time.  God only knows what would’ve happened had Obama refused to pledge allegiance to his lapel pin had he been wearing one.

Now we have an idea.

When a 13-year old Maryland kid refused to take the pledge, her teacher allowed other students to taunt her while she jack-booted her from class. When Mom asked for an apology, the principal said it was the teacher who should be receiving the mea culpas, not giving them.

Attention: For the Irony-Challenged
Let’s forget for a moment the written school district policy forbidding such actions. Let’s not touch on the state of Maryland’s laws which explicitly excuse students or teachers from being forced to recite the pledge. Let’s also conveniently forget that in 1943, the US Supreme Court affirmed your right to refuse the pledge.

But for the irony-challenged, let’s look at what the actual pledge says:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

That last line is clear. The words “liberty” and “justice” aren’t limited to just your liberties or only specific liberties with which you agree. The Constitution is for ALL. Each time that teacher or principal took the oath, they pledged allegiance to the “republic for which it stands” – a republic governed by the US Constitution and backed up by laws at the local, state, and Federal levels – including those cited above.

PINKO COMMIE? - You may not have liked Obama's decision to forego a flag pin and not cover his heart, but the choice was his to make.

I ask you, who is the better citizen here? Is it the student who exercised her rights or the teacher and principal who morally perjured themselves by taking an oath and then not following it. They are dishonoring this republic by depriving someone else of their liberties. This cannot stand.

I find the trend toward blithely giving away, denying, or changing civil rights because we don’t like or agree with them disturbing. Each day civil liberties disappear while many whack the ACLU for supporting the Constitution. BTW, they’ve also defended Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Rush Limbaugh just as strongly as this girl and her family.

I’m a Flag Lover
I love the flag and the Constitution. I love my republic. That’s why I’m a big supporter of the pledge and honoring the flag. I am a veteran who proudly served this republic.

I wish the kid had seen things differently and Mom had instilled these values. But they didn’t and they were free not to. However, they’re no less American or patriotic than the screed-screamers who only consider hypocrites wrapped in the flag to be patriotic.

Those who don’t recite the superfluous “under God” line (added in 1954) as part of their religious or irreligious beliefs aren’t unpatriotic either. In fact, those complaining about the kid or dissing someone for not wearing the politically correct flag pin are equally free to express that opinion…and more power to them. However, they aren’t permitted to deprive someone else of their rights. Even if they are greatly offended.

It’s all part of that pledge to support “the republic for which it stands” thing you see.

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