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3.02.2005
Kentuckians will attend commandments debate: "But Emily Tucker, 15, said she doesn't understand what the fuss is about. Sounds innocent, if wrongheaded, when voiced by a youngster, just downright xenophobic when voiced by an adult. Which is why I get so sick and fucking tired of this place sometimes. You have to wonder why Emily thinks that only people "coming here" are different. I was born here and I'm not a Christian. I'm a citizen and the laws that I obey are the ones that we get to debate and choose, not some ancient mystic set of stones. Founded on Christian principles? Thou shalt enslave, slaughter and make thyself filthy rich off the sweat and blood of others? Try for a second to picture Jesus as a slaveholder cracking the whip on the backs of insolent slaves, or as the leader of a charge of men slaughtering native women and children. Let's not kid ourselves, this country may have been settled by a bunch of christians but the principles they were practicing where ones of self-enrichment. You see, I grew up in a household that paid no attention to issues like "heritage" and nobody sat at the kitchen table and ranted about "our country" as if we had some sort of right to ownership. But that doesn't mean that I haven't had to sit at other kitchen tables and listen to people from other familes go on about such things as if it were a common practice. Kids heads have to be FILLED with nonsense by adults. So when little Emily says that people "coming here" should be like the rest of us she had to have heard that from somewhere. People do not spontaneously learn how to be idiots, they have to learn it from the previous generation of idiots. And if you feel I'm not being particularly forgiving today, then you're right. Day in and day out I'm surounded by people that feel comfortable, as a majority, pushing their religion in my face, with all sorts of little symbols and stickers. But I'm cool with that, because they have every right to express their opinions. If some dude wants to drive around with a "I Heart Satan!" bumber sticker on his Volvo I'm cool with that too, as long as he doesn't cut me off. Then I get pissed. But if I ever go to court or have to face the government I don't want religion (or my lack of religion) to be an issue. As much as people go on about the laws being "influenced" by the ten commandments, at the end of the day it matters little where those laws came from, they are not "god's laws" anymore, they are the laws of the United States of America, applied equally to each and every citizen regardless of religious affiliation. And yes, I'm one of "those people" that wants to take the "Under God" out of the pledge, the "In God We Trust" off the back of the money and yank down all those christian symbols from the halls of government. Because I care little about the intent of the founding fathers, what I care about is the idea that this nation be one free of prejudice, where it matters not what you do, or think, or who and what you worship as long as you follow the laws and be a good citizen. I don't think that civilization will crumble if we live up to the ideas of secular government, just as I didn't believe that I would become a bad person by rejecting the church. It didn't happen. In fact, I think I became a better person for it. We've come a long way towards what I consider is a noble and desirable goal of being a nation of equal opportunity. And I think that is what is pissing so many people off. There is a small but very vocal group of people that have been getting special treatment for so long that they feel that they deserve it, simply for being who they are. "This nation don't play that way!" |
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