| GREG-STRANGE.COM |
"If you haven't found something strange during the
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
PROVIDING SUBSTANTIVE COMMENTARY ON THE
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
Defining Defiance Up
"It is a sad day in our country when the moral foundation of
our laws and the acknowledgment of God has to be hidden from
public view . . ." --- Roy Moore, Chief Justice of the Alabama
Supreme Court, after a 5,300-pound stone monument engraved
with the Ten Commandments that he had placed in the
rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building in Montgomery, was
subsequently removed by order of a federal court.
"I hope it sends a signal that Alabama is ready to rejoin the
rest of the Union." --- Larry Darby, state director of American
Atheists, applauding the removal of the monument.
Only in Alabama, right? I'm from Alabama, by the way, and
it's not an easy place to be from since just about everybody who
isn't from there enjoys nothing more than ridiculing the place.
For some reason, people around the country have this wild idea
that Alabama is nothing but a backward realm of rednecks,
racists, religious fanatics, inbreeding, double-wides,
broke-down cars and bad teeth.
Look, I'm not saying those things don't exist in Alabama, but
you can find them in plenty of other places in this sprawling
country of ours. After all, the "Jerry Springer Show" isn't
headquartered in Alabama, but he manages to find an endless
parade of human dross for his program just the same.
But getting to the matter at hand, despite what many of you
may think, this Ten Commandments flap is an indication that
there has been definite and measurable progress over the last
forty years in Alabama. For instance, forty years ago the
infamous governor, George Wallace, was not exactly helping
the state progress towards the 21st century when he stood in
the schoolhouse door at the University of Alabama to prevent
black people from entering. It was a defiant and immoral act
which did not stand and which will be associated with his name
throughout the annals of future time.
But fast forward forty years and you will notice that the
nature of defiant acts committed by Alabama officials has
changed for the better. Now, instead of oppressing minorities,
you have a guy, Roy Moore, whose defiant act is standing up for
the right to display the Ten Commandments in a public
building.
And isn't it amazing that such a thing has to be stood up for?
Most of us, religious or not, think of the Ten Commandments
as a good thing (you know--don't steal, don't kill, don't fool
around with other people's spouses, honor your parents). Most
of us, religious or not, understand that they are part of the
foundation of the Judeo-Christian philosophy upon which our
legal system is based and by which so much human progress
has been made.
But there is a cadre of rabid extremists loose in this land
who won't sit still until any and everything even remotely
associated with religion--including Santa Claus and the Easter
bunny--is expunged from public life.
If you're curious to know exactly what those extremists
think gives them the right, let me provide for your perusal all
sixteen words in the Constitution pertaining to religion:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . ." That's it.
Period.
Rational people scratch their heads and wonder how the
presence of the Ten Commandments in a public building
constitutes the unlawful establishment of a religion. If you
were to stroll the corridors of your local insane asylum and
listen to the mutterings of strait-jacketed maniacs, you
wouldn't hear anything any loonier.
There are basically two groups for whom stamping out all
public expressions of religion is an obsession. The first, of
course, is the atheists, which needs no further elaboration. The
second is a broader, more diverse group who sit around
worrying themselves silly that if we allow a nativity scene on
public property or if a prayer is said by the crowd before the
start of a high school football game, then the ultimate result
will be that Jerry Falwell swoops in to set up a dictatorial
theocracy that makes the Taliban look like vacation bible
school.
This is nonsense of the highest order. There simply are no
theocracies anywhere in the Christian world and it will
certainly never happen in this individual rights-obsessed
country. Islam will continue to corner the world's market on
such medievalness.
You have to marvel at how this society lets a handful of
sourpusses with a monumental misinterpretation of the
Constitution tell the rest of us what we can and cannot do
where religious expression is concerned. And the biggest
mystery of all is why they haven't gone after "In God we trust"
on our currency. Talk about shooting fish in a barrel. How
could they be anything but successful?
"It is a sad day in our country when the moral foundation of
our laws and the acknowledgment of God has to be hidden from
public view . . ." --- Roy Moore, Chief Justice of the Alabama
Supreme Court, after a 5,300-pound stone monument engraved
with the Ten Commandments that he had placed in the
rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building in Montgomery, was
subsequently removed by order of a federal court.
"I hope it sends a signal that Alabama is ready to rejoin the
rest of the Union." --- Larry Darby, state director of American
Atheists, applauding the removal of the monument.
Only in Alabama, right? I'm from Alabama, by the way, and
it's not an easy place to be from since just about everybody who
isn't from there enjoys nothing more than ridiculing the place.
For some reason, people around the country have this wild idea
that Alabama is nothing but a backward realm of rednecks,
racists, religious fanatics, inbreeding, double-wides,
broke-down cars and bad teeth.
Look, I'm not saying those things don't exist in Alabama, but
you can find them in plenty of other places in this sprawling
country of ours. After all, the "Jerry Springer Show" isn't
headquartered in Alabama, but he manages to find an endless
parade of human dross for his program just the same.
But getting to the matter at hand, despite what many of you
may think, this Ten Commandments flap is an indication that
there has been definite and measurable progress over the last
forty years in Alabama. For instance, forty years ago the
infamous governor, George Wallace, was not exactly helping
the state progress towards the 21st century when he stood in
the schoolhouse door at the University of Alabama to prevent
black people from entering. It was a defiant and immoral act
which did not stand and which will be associated with his name
throughout the annals of future time.
But fast forward forty years and you will notice that the
nature of defiant acts committed by Alabama officials has
changed for the better. Now, instead of oppressing minorities,
you have a guy, Roy Moore, whose defiant act is standing up for
the right to display the Ten Commandments in a public
building.
And isn't it amazing that such a thing has to be stood up for?
Most of us, religious or not, think of the Ten Commandments
as a good thing (you know--don't steal, don't kill, don't fool
around with other people's spouses, honor your parents). Most
of us, religious or not, understand that they are part of the
foundation of the Judeo-Christian philosophy upon which our
legal system is based and by which so much human progress
has been made.
But there is a cadre of rabid extremists loose in this land
who won't sit still until any and everything even remotely
associated with religion--including Santa Claus and the Easter
bunny--is expunged from public life.
If you're curious to know exactly what those extremists
think gives them the right, let me provide for your perusal all
sixteen words in the Constitution pertaining to religion:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . ." That's it.
Period.
Rational people scratch their heads and wonder how the
presence of the Ten Commandments in a public building
constitutes the unlawful establishment of a religion. If you
were to stroll the corridors of your local insane asylum and
listen to the mutterings of strait-jacketed maniacs, you
wouldn't hear anything any loonier.
There are basically two groups for whom stamping out all
public expressions of religion is an obsession. The first, of
course, is the atheists, which needs no further elaboration. The
second is a broader, more diverse group who sit around
worrying themselves silly that if we allow a nativity scene on
public property or if a prayer is said by the crowd before the
start of a high school football game, then the ultimate result
will be that Jerry Falwell swoops in to set up a dictatorial
theocracy that makes the Taliban look like vacation bible
school.
This is nonsense of the highest order. There simply are no
theocracies anywhere in the Christian world and it will
certainly never happen in this individual rights-obsessed
country. Islam will continue to corner the world's market on
such medievalness.
You have to marvel at how this society lets a handful of
sourpusses with a monumental misinterpretation of the
Constitution tell the rest of us what we can and cannot do
where religious expression is concerned. And the biggest
mystery of all is why they haven't gone after "In God we trust"
on our currency. Talk about shooting fish in a barrel. How
could they be anything but successful?