Month: June 2002

Pledge of Allegiance ruled unconstitutional: “For the first time ever, a federal appeals court declared the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional Wednesday because of the words “under God” added by Congress in 1954.” [via Choire]

While I agree to an extent with the premise of this fight (the separation of church & state is pretty clear) but considering the current administration and how they lean, I don’t see this getting very far although I will be watching it with interest.

As for prayer in school – I went to a Catholic school for 8 years, where we said the “Our Father” to start the day, the “Hail Mary” before lunch and it seems like we closed the day with something but maybe not. Anyways, when you are told to pray like that, know what happens? You start to say it in the same flat, “I don’t mean a word of what I’m saying” tone as you use when you say the pledge daily as a kid. Yeah, real effective. There is prayer in school – inside kids heads, where it should be in my opinion. If you want your kids to pray out loud at a school, send them to a private school. Public schools should maintain the separation of church and state. Yes, I am opposed even to the prayer before a high school football game and was bothered by that even when I was a teen and first moved to Texas (where I first noticed it.) When the Santa Fe prayer case was before the Supreme Court I wanted to see it defeated because asking a public group at a football game to pray for something “In Christ’s Name” isn’t right. That may be what you believe in – but (even though it’s what I believe in too) don’t force your beliefs on me.

(As I write this I just wonder what sort of flame war this is going to start in my comments… it should be interesting!)

It seems like the French got a wake-up call. They were Alarmed by Anti-Tobacco Ad. I’d have to say the ad was pretty effective and got the attention it deserves – which is a good thing. Even as a young child I wondered why people smoke when it can cause cancer and so many other illnesses. I took my mom’s carton of cigarettes and hid them from her because “they will kill you.” Not wise to mess with someone when they are craving nicotine… (Fortunately, years later she stopped smoking with the help of the nicotine patch.) [via Philo]