DEAR EDITOR:
I was disappointed in the tone, bordering on sarcasm, of
Monday’s editorial in which you implied that striking
”
Under God
”
from the Pledge of Allegiance is
”
just the tip of the iceberg.
”
DEAR EDITOR:
I was disappointed in the tone, bordering on sarcasm, of Monday’s editorial in which you implied that striking “Under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance is “just the tip of the iceberg.” It is the tip of the iceberg, but the iceberg below is still dangerous and unconstitutional.
You suggest that it would be a mistake to accept and pass currency which carries the words “In God We Trust.” I agree. It is logically impossible to stop using such currency, but we can still print new currency and mint new coinage without those words. After all, in a country which prizes the separation of church and state, these mottoes do suggest government-endorsed religion.
You also suggest there is nothing wrong with the “time-honored tradition of swearing an oath on the Bible.” I believe a witness has a choice of whether to swear an oath on the Bible or not. But the idea that irks me is your suggestion that such swearing is a “time-honored tradition.”
Religion is, itself, a time-honored tradition, but time-honored traditions may be wonderful or terrible. Simply being time-honored does not necessarily mean honorable. Slavery was a time-honored tradition. Women not granted the vote was a time-honored tradition. Anti-semitism is a time-honored tradition. Gay-bashing appears to be a time-honored tradition. This country can boast numerous time-honored traditions that we have happily done without when we realized “time-honored” carries no cachet of sacredness.
You are correct in one important sense: whether the pledge does or does not carry those words, “In God We Trust,” the resolve of Americans will not waver. Yes, that is the true strength of Americans – not the God who is or is not trusted in, but the country itself and the freedoms it represents – freedom to dissent, to believe, to not believe. To state that atheists “should have better things to do” is a gross injustice to those who would preserve the religious freedoms America truly must stand for – and those freedoms include not practicing religion.
Finally, I would ask why we need a Pledge of Allegiance at all. Where will that lead? The Patriot’s Act, or new surveillance under consideration, or more racial profiling, or additional paranoid delusions that one is guilty as a terrorist before he or she is proven innocent. Terror from overseas, from the Taliban, Al Quaida, from other religious extremists is terror enough. Our own government need not foster its own brand of terrorism.
Ted Brett, Gilroy
Submitted Tuesday, March 11 to ed****@ga****.com
