Two posts today at different sites have stuck in my mind, sized each other up, talked a bit, and ended up on the same side once they’d traveled the furrows of my brain.
On J-Walk, an entry about the newly published “Citizenship for Dummies” Book, which prompted my comment to the effect that both the far left and the far right would benefit from a reading.
And, in the New York Times (as well as everywhere else, I’m sure), this headline: “8 Justices Block Effort to Excise Phrase in Pledge” and article by Linda Greenhouse whereby “An inconclusive decision by the Supreme Court on Monday left “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance while keeping the issue alive for possible resolution in a future case. All eight justices who took part in the case agreed that the federal appeals court in California ruled incorrectly last year when it held, in a lawsuit brought against a local school district by the atheist father of a kindergarten student, that the reference to God turned the daily recitation of the pledge into a religious exercise that violated the separation of church and state.”
Has the whole world gone crazy? I just cannot comprehend why minority groups—and I’m not talking ethnic or racial here, but any and all groups that feel they cannot go along with the laws of a particular country for one reason or another, or feel that there aren’t enough two-headed purple men representing the two-headed purple people in the country—feel that the laws of the country must be changed to accommodate them.
Isn’t the basis of a democracy the voice of the people, meaning that the majority rules? While we allow it to be challenged, isn’t it counter-effective when it is stripped of the majority voice? No one has ever been arrested for refusing to say the words, “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. Wouldn’t it make sense to have the minority agree to this simple refusal to say the two words, rather than to rewrite history and policy the way THEY want it to be?
Amazingly, the next words after “one nation, under God,” (or not) are, “indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
I’m tired of our nation having to cater to the whiners, and self-serving minority.
UPDATE: Since I guess I was raised on the “under God” version, I did not realize that it was added in. But my feelings still hold true. It should never have been changed by pressure from another minority group at the time.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology
The problem is that the majority couldn’t care less about anything except their own lives, their relationships, making the rent, etc…
That’s why I distrust the Midwest. You never hear anything from that part of the country. I think our silent majority might be plotting something, and us coastal dwellers might be in deep doo-doo.
Jason
But aren’t our own lives, relationships, necessary jobs, etc. rather important? We can’t save nor even give to the world if we don’t take care of our own selves and families. Although I do agree with the over-absorption of interest into bigger and more that drives us.
You may be right about the Midwest. Especially since from what I’ve seen of them, they appear to be the nicest people in the world.