"In God We Trust?"

I suppose I am slightly confused by your meaning in this editorial. You appreciate the sentiments of our founding fathers, yet you are tired of this country being called a Christian country? This leads me to want lay my ideas on the table. After reading your very helpful links on the National Treasury and also the original article, I must say that I do agree with part of the Fox News article sentiment. Lamar Vest is right to say that our nation’s foundations were influenced by words of the bible. It would be silly and uneducated to say anything otherwise, however I must say I am tired of that same argument being used to somehow make it ok to haze the line of separation between church and state in this country. While Christianity was a building block for this country…simply because almost all the immigrants in the heavily populated cities, were Protestants or some other off shoot trying to escape the tyranny of the Catholics in Europe…it is easy to see that it was influential simply because the majority at the time all believed in generally the same ideas.

Today, however, we do not have to take dangerous trips in horse-drawn carriages to make a year journey to California. We are extremely connected to all parts of the world at almost any given time (there are about half a million cell phone towers in the U.S alone), our exposure to other cultures and especially religions is mind boggling. In 1957 when “In God We Trust” was printed on paper money, my mother and aunt were Air Force children(who lived in 5 different countries) -had never even heard of Islam. Unfortunately I have not been able to find actual statistics on this, but just think about that for a moment. There we were putting faith on our money, and I’ll bet a majority of U.S citizens were not even aware of a religion that only became a known household fact in this country after 9/11.

 We are not the same country we were two hundred years ago, or even sixty years ago. Times are changing rapidly, and I think it is time for the United States to truly embrace ‘freedom of religion’. Theologically, the Bible is fascinating. I believe that people can learn wonderful things and may even find answers for their lives, but faith is a personal choice. As a voter, do I really need to be concerned with what religion a senator is? By law in our constitution, that senator has the right to be whatever he would like to be religiously, just as I have the right to believe what I want in return.

According to the Fox News article, people living by and reading the bible have dropped about 6% in a year. According to the article 31% of people do not believe the Bible contains a meaningful path to life. Furthermore, 18% of the people in this country “do not revere the bible as sacred literature.” Am I saying these are staggering numbers to pull “In God We Trust” off of our money? No. Honestly, I could care less whether it is there or not. It is part of our history; we shouldn’t see it as a strike against non-Christians. We shouldn’t even see it as pro-Christian. As a country, we are slowly learning to celebrate the differences in our cultures, and because of this I hope that one day religion won’t even be mentioned when discussing our government. I believe it is safe to say that the sane, hardworking citizens in this country all want the same thing – to live healthy, long, peaceful, safe and happy lives. Whether or not so and so is Christian and that guy over there is Buddhist, or the woman who works at the doctor’s office is Muslim…. It doesn’t matter! What matters is, we want a functional and honest government that we don’t have to fear. We want a government we can trust to do the right thing for us. Our founding fathers ran this country well all that time ago, we should respect their methods. But just because something fit and worked for them 200 years ago, certainly doesn’t mean it will fit into our society now. Yes change can be daunting, but it is happening whether we, as a country, want to stop it or not. 

Birthday Suit

Guess what everybody, now if you get arrested for failure to use your turn signal…you can get strip searched when they take you into jail. All the police need is “reasonable suspicion” that you are carrying contraband. This court ruling was set into place today by the Supreme Court, and while they did admit that some ‘minor’ crimes can be omitted because of the fourth amendment, cases under similar laws have wound up with ‘criminals’ with unpaid ticket warrants, trespassers, and those arrested for driving without a license stripped down. This is, however, only allowed before you get put into general population, but it requires that you undress and get inspected by a guard. While I understand the conservative mindset that people can hide a variety of objects in places I do not even what to think about, and that they can be potentially dangerous or drug related…I sincerely dislike the terminology associated with allowing these searches. The fact of the matter it, there are corrupt strange people out there…who even make it into uniform. If I were to suddenly get arrested because I didn’t realize I had a ticket somewhere in ‘lala’ land that was never paid, I do not want to be at the disposal of a rule called “reasonable suspicion”. What exactly does that mean anyway? This also bothers me, because in some of the reports of these strip searches, women who had been sexually assaulted and also others menstruating have been required to strip to their skin in front of some stranger. This reminds me of the body scanners now allowed in many airports, and I do not understand how the Supreme Court could have declared these invasions constitutional on some level.  Like I said, I understand that some people have and will continue to carry illegal substances and weapons on their person. I also do understand that allowing dangerous people to continue to hold these in their possession when put into jail can cost someone their life. But strip in front of a stranger searches? No I do not think that is completely necessary. Honestly, I would feel better if they did use those body scanners. Aren’t they supposed to be able to detect almost anything? Then also the pictures would be sent to someone away from the room and people would not be put through the humiliating aspects of standing in front of a perfect stranger in your birthday suit. The scanner can then notify if ‘cavity searches’ are necessary right? I think that would spare everyone the uncomfortable atmosphere. 

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