If we weren't so stupid, we wouldn't need to keep working it over now would we? The temptation to keep messing with it overcomes us; oh we think out of necessity, but it is really out of ignorance and a loss of the good society. What happens when an artist overworks a spot, it becomes mud on the canvas -- and you lose the innocent quality from that which you started from. What happens when you overwork a dough; it becomes paste, with the inability to rise and fall and rise up again in magnificence, emanating throughout the house with the smell of warm bread.
Sure, we started out with good intentions-- to make something beautiful, yummy or an intellectually and spiritually and politically brilliant piece of legislation or Constitution -- and now look.
The thing is, our founding father's left IT in the hands of a society built entirely around a moral character; a community knowing the intrinsic value of what is right from wrong, a community understanding the costs and benefits of creating a civil society, and more importantly, how to keep it; a community recognizing that as a sound body of faith -- all faiths -- it would keep us protected unto ourselves, in and of itself.
And why would our founding father's think any different? We fought long and hard for our right to live free in the new world; what in the world would make them think we would throw it all away haphazardly over the next two hundred years, God no.
Who'd a thunk we would ever have to review something so simple as "all men are created equal" in so many ways over the years? Who'd a thunk we would have to define what is deemed appropriate free speech? Who'd a thunk we would be heart wrenched with a mother's right to choose over a child's right to live (happening the last thirty years)? Who'd a thunk we would have to explain a movie depicting dogs at each other's throats and in turn sold to thousands is a bad idea (happening today)? Who'd a thunk we would have to fight local gun laws over the Constitutional law of the land, (happening today in Chicago)? Who'd a thunk we would have to interfere at all?
Certainly, our founding father's didn't see it coming; for they thought right and good -- it was just in there. Their moral character permeated throughout all aspects of daily life, while it was made concrete within the framework of our Constitution, leaving no doubt of it's ability for a long and steadfast life carrying America forward as if held under the strength of a hundred onward Christian soldiers.
No, stupid girl, we can't rely on our good looks anymore; for there is nothing inside us of character, of grace, of value to shine through.
That is the problem with today, and why we are watching our beloved Constitution just getting wrecked, ruined and prostituted for all the world to see. How embarrassing. How humiliating. How sad.
How wrong.
Even though it is written, loud and clear, we all -- each and every one of us -- has equal protection under the law, under our Constitution...why the no holds barred defence coming from within and all over the place? Don't I have just as much of a right as the atheist to dictate the kind of education I want my child to have? Don't I have just as much of a right to dictate the teachings of tolerance toward lifestyles, other than my own, to my own child? Don't I have a right, in and of itself, to teach my children what I want and the way that I want and in the spirit of all in good time, period?
A monumental case before the Supreme Court occurred in 1948, in McCollum v. Board of Education. It lost at the local level only to be appealed by the atheist, McCollum. Vashti McCollum cried foul when her son, raised an atheist, had to tolerate other kids of protestant faith taking time out of their school day to be taught by local clergy "the word of God"; that her son was treated differently, was disenfranchised of his belief of no higher power, and moreover, her utter disgust in the teachings happening on public property. The Supreme Court overturned the decision on the basis of the First Amendment, but notably had this to say:
"Traditionally, organized education in the Western world was Church education. It could hardly be otherwise when the education of children was primarily study of the Word and the ways of God. Even in the Protestant countries, where there was a less close identification of Church and State, the basis of education was largely the Bible, and its chief purpose inculcation of piety."And then in 1952, Zorach V. Clausopn, the Supreme Court went further to define the "separation of Church and State"; only it was merely prohibiting an established National Religion, not admonishing religion altogether:
"The First Amendment, however, does not say that in every respect there shall be a separation of Church and State. Rather, it studiously defines the manner, the specific ways, in which there shall be no concert or union or dependency one on the other. That is the common sense of the matter. Otherwise the state and religion would be aliens to each other -- hostile, suspicious and even unfriendly."It does not say, well those who consider themselves non-believers have a right to dictate the law over the believers; as if their rights supersede mine. Hell no, it does not. So why are we seeing this happen?
The Constitution -- and this country, America -- was not designed for all this abuse; it was designed under the belief that deep inside each and every one of us we were all "good" -- "upright" -- and of sound mind and body, as one nation under God, or not, the choice is ours to make and ours alone -- a mechanism falling under a little something of what we like to call FREEDOM.
It is all about convictions and perceptions, people; I see God and maybe you don't. Simple. Whatever. Leave it alone. Don't bother me, I'm eating.
It's not the fault of the Constitution.
Nor even the fault of God.
It's the fault of man; stupid, stupid man.
Our weakness and vulnerability today -- showing in signs of reaching new platitudes of corruption in government, a dollar of little value, and liabilities greater than our assets -- is a symptom of a nation acting out of character, and actually deteriorating from the inside out.
Today is my daughter's thirteenth birthday; marking the anniversary of my commitment to raising her right. I sure don't want to be a stupid girl, raising a stupid girl, for where would that get us, right; the responsibility of teaching an American girl takes everything we got to do it right, only because there is so much to lose if we get it all wrong.
Make it a Good Day, G
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