| http://eyesonamerica.org/200111/11010403.html
A Brief History Lesson by Tally Briggs November 3, 2001 "Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country." -- President Theodore Roosevelt, 1908 How many times have you received the email about the Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, school that took down the posters that said "In God We Trust" so as to not offend anyone? In the email it also has such sentiments as: "We speak English, not Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society, learn our language!" and "'In God We Trust' is our national motto . . . . . . We adopted this motto because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation; and this is clearly documented throughout our history. . . . . God is in our pledge, our National Anthem, nearly every patriotic song, and in our founding documents. We honor His birth, death, and resurrection as holidays, and we turn to Him in prayer in times of crisis. If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture and we are proud to have Him. "Well, today I received it yet again, and it had this lovely bonus as an epilogue: "I agree ditto's if you dont like it get out now !!!!! And learn to speak english if you plan on staying, it's like coming to my house and talking to each other in a different language, it's rude." No doubt it would help this person's cause a bit if he/she could learn the proper use of forms of 'be,' but that's hardly the point. Patriotism is all well and good, however this is not a very tolerant piece. Yes, I am over trying not to "offend" anyone, but I am also over people telling anyone who disagrees that they should "get the hell out." That is just as intolerant as what they are protesting in the first place, and even more ignorant of our great nation's history. Am I the only one who learned American history in high school or has everyone else conveniently forgotten those very important lessons of our heritage? Let's review: It wasn't until 1954 that the phrase "under God" was added to the Pledge of Allegiance. Most of our Founding Fathers were not Christians, they were Deists, including the first six presidents. If you don't know what Deist means, look it up. It is one of the main reasons this country was founded in the first place, and why they made separation of church and state so paramount. Religious Freedom, meaning, to be free from religion as well as to be free to believe in whatever. At the beginning, the United States was anything but a "Christian" nation, nor was it founded by "Christian men and women." It's all right there in American History 101. We do, in fact, speak more than just English in this country, though English is our unofficial language. It might do some of us some good to learn a little bit more than just one language. As a culture, not only is it arrogant as hell, but we are quite behind in this aspect; people in most other countries speak more than one language. Diversity and tolerance is part of our strength, and we should be proud of it. We should also celebrate and flaunt the hell out of it! As for the "In God We Trust" part . . . nononononono. You can look this up most anywhere, but a good place to start is here http://www.flash.net/~lbartley/au/issues/godtrust.htm or here http://www.refuseandresist.org/other_fronts/041898igwt.html It basically tells the facts of how the Constitution of these United States was ratified in 1789 without a single reference to "God." Also, up until March 3, 1865, "our currency was totally secular; as clean from a mention of God as was the Constitution." Basically the small church membership (around 25 percent) before the Civil War, was really miffed that the US Constitution had absolutely no mention of God, and wanting to rectify the situation, introduced what would become known as the "Christian amendment." In it they wanted to amend the Preamble to the Constitution as follows: "We, the people of the United States, humbly acknowledging Almighty God as the source of all authority and power in civil government, the Lord Jesus Christ as the Ruler among the nations, His revealed will as the supreme law of the land, in order to constitute a Christian government, and in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to ourselves, our posterity, and all the people, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." Bit extreme, don't you think? Needless to say this was widely frowned upon, and not passed by Congress or any state. The regular use of "In God We Trust" on US coins did not begin until 1908. Even Teddy Roosevelt preferred "E Pluribus Unum" to the more in your face God motto. "In God We Trust" was not made an official motto of the United States until 1956, and did not appear on paper money until 1957. I don't understand where all this hatred and intolerance are coming from. The Christians I know are tolerant. The Christians I know are also very respectful of all other religions that we find in this great nation. The person who wrote this email is caught up in a dangerous patriotic fever that is beginning to get out of hand. I even had an old Republican guy the other night tell me to my face because I disagreed with him, that he hopes I "am never allowed to vote again." My, my, my my. . . . .it seems he needs to go over and join the Taliban, eh? Not very tolerant, Christian, or American for that matter. We are a country of equality, liberty and diversity. It's the very foundation of our beliefs; it's what inspired the birth of our nation. It's what gives us our strength, what sets us apart, and what inspires other nations to imitate our laws and ideals. Patriotism is a great thing, but it is tolerant. Being intolerant in America is about as unpatriotic as you can get. Dissent in America is all about being patriotic. It's what keeps us alive. It seems we have been slipping back to the good old days of European religious oppression, which is the very thing we were running away from in the first place. Maybe all we need is a refresher course in American history. |
