This article pissed me off: Declaration of Independence Banned at Calif School.
Right after a quote about supposed discrimination against Christians, we get this ending paragraph, “In June, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case of a California atheist who wanted the words “under God” struck from the Pledge of Allegiance as recited by school children. The appeals court in California had found that the phrase amounted to a violation of church and state separation.”
… what the hell?
Tell me, what the hell does that have to do with anything at all in the article? Nothing, actually. It’s just a sneaky way to make people think that taking the words “under God” back out of the Pledge of Allegiance equals persecution against Christians. Sorry, wrong.
There’s just a few minor differences. First off, the Pledge of Allegiance did not originally have “under God” in it. That’s why I said “back out” in that previous sentence. We got through two world wars without saying “under God” in our Pledge of Allegiance. Yeah, that’s right, the “greatest generation” did not start out saying “God” in their Pledge of Allegiance. How’s that for tradition?
Second difference: the word pledge. It’s a pledge of allegiance! Can you get that through your minds?! Not a document of historical importance. (Again, I must note that “under God” wasn’t in there in the first place.) It’s a PLEDGE! Doesn’t that mean something to you? Doesn’t it mean that it means the government is endorsing God if it’s in the pledge of allegiance? If you agree, then I must inform you, there’s a little thing standing in the way of keeping “under God” in the pledge… and that thing is called the Constitution.
… which brings me back to the Declaration of Independence. I don’t know the context, but I think it’s stupid to ban the Declaration of Independence. It’s stupid to ban all historical documents that have mention of God. There, I said it. It is stupid. Because that’s misrepresenting history. But let’s analyze this situation a little deeper: It is not discrimination against Christians to ban these documents. Why? Because some of the Founding Fathers were deists. It’s not specific against Christianity. So there. Nyah.
Anyway, the real point non-technicality point I want to make is: So what if the Declaration of Independence says “God” in it? People wave that around as if it’s proof of God. Yeah well, there’s a little thing standing in your way again, and that’s the Constitution. Guess what’s the basis of our laws? Guess… I’ll make it easier. Multiple choice: Is it A) Declaration of Independence, or B) Constitution. If you answered A, you are wrong.
The Constitution is the basis of our laws here in the United States. So, you can wave around your historical opinions, but I’d rather stick with the document that makes us a more perfect union.
It’s not okay if the teacher has a specifically Christian agenda and is shoving said agenda down his students’ throats. It’s okay to have these documents if he’s teaching real history, not his evangelical version of it. Wait, you may ask, why can’t the teacher teach it if he wants to? Isn’t it a freedom of speech issue? No, it’s not. The teacher is getting paid by the government, and is working at a state institution. The teacher is essentially acting as a state official in his position, and the state cannot promote a specifically Christian agenda.
If you teach that some of the Founders were deeply religious, you must also teach that they so valued religion that they deemed it necessary to separate it from government. The personal views of some Founding Fathers do not make this a Christian Nation. And so, before I end this entry, I must invoke the Constitution one more time. Remember, the Constitution does not say any god made this nation, but starts out with “We the people”.
I think people are getting way too caught up in the details of government and by the way, who the hell cares, if you don’t beleive in something, don’t say it, i’m surprised it made it all the way to court, who ever was running the school shouldn’t been like “o yea, sure whatevs” and just left it out and let who ever wanted to say it say it and whoever didn’t don’t. Nobody ever says the pledge anyway anymore, half don’t even get up and half of the remaining don’t get up until half way throught it (all thought that’s partly because the girl in our school who does the pledge has to switch to decaf) but honestly, who cares? If it makes some people really uncomfortable than the school should understand and fix, it’s not a big deal. I’m sure they’re not thinking “hmmmm, what can i put in to offend part of the schools population…?” No, it should just be handled maturly! and to get it done for the entire country, well if you’re that uncomfortable you should stand up for yourself and fight your own battle. I don’t see going to court unless the school won’t take it out, but then again all you have to do is threaten to sue the school and they’ll do whatever you want, damn public education system, the whole thing’s falling apart and that’s going to be the ultimate downfall of our society, that and society’s lost all sense of basic courtesy, self-control and morality, the collapse of our society is upon us and nobody is doing a thing to stop it. It saddens me to see this but it’s happening, we’re overdue according to patterns in history. O well, it was fun while it lasted.