Just My Rant

Well you probably think I’m going to whine about the 2004 presidential election but you know what? I’m over it. There is a larger danger looming on the horizon of the United State of America. A danger that threatens to plunge this country into the brink of civil war, or more likely a 21st version of the Spanish Inquisition. I’m speaking of this morality wave, this “mandate” that has supposedly been presented to the same man who claims “god got him elected (well maybe he helped him fix the election)”.

This spiritual blurring of government has been slowly creeping into the mainstream of American life for the past 4 years & it’s starting to get scary. Remember when Pat Buchanan went extreme right during the republican convention back in 92? The American public RAN from the party, scared to death that the ideals of the EXTREME radical right would be taken into the mainstream … so what the hell has changed since then… 9/11. Plain & simple the far right has seized upon the fear Americans felt after the attacks and taken FULL advantage of it. They’ve managed to feed this fear over the past years just as the old time Fire & Brimstone, tent toting faith healers have done for years just before they fleeced their parishioners of their worldly goods & headed out of town. America is headed into a 21st century version of the Salem witch trials if this nonsense isn’t stopped DAMN soon.

Before you start calling me communist, pinko fag I’d like to say that I LOVE this country & would die to protect it from ALL enemies foreign & domestic at any time but, at this point in time I consider this movement 1000 times more dangerous to what we know, & love about this country than ANY threat from terrorism. For that fact this new moral movement crap is, more than likely, feeding the threat against us from the outside. What really makes me want to vomit are these mealy mouthed spineless wimps who keep coming up with this “The country was founded on Christian beliefs” crap … MY ASS IT WAS!

Let me educate those of you who think I’m off on some undocumented tangent here. The In God we Trust on on our money was added to the two cent coin in 1864 and other coins in 1865. Here is an exact quote from the US Treasury on the subject:

The motto IN GOD WE TRUST was placed on United States coins largely because of the increased religious sentiment existing during the Civil War.

So argument number one goes right out the window. If you really want to use the In God we Trust as an example of these so-called Christian roots you really need to look into the other symbolism on our currency. The eyed pyramid portrays an ancient free mason symbol - does this mean our country was built on the Masonic beliefs? Yes? Well then you need to know that one of the founding principles of the masons was the absolute inalienable right of a man (yes they were sexist) to worship as HE FELT and the temple was NEVER to infringe on that right or for ANY member to attempt to force his beliefs on another member!

Let’s move on. How about that line in the pledge of allegiance, “One nation under God” .. how about 1954. Yes, that’s when that line was added. The same era that gave us the beginning of the cold war, Joe McCarthy, the nuclear arms race & the Korean conflict. Looking back at that era, my parents time, I’m almost ashamed to acknowledge it at all. I also have heard countless times that the founding fathers wanted a Christian society. I’ve almost smashed my TV hearing this drivel ooze out of it. The founding fathers we’re as violently opposed to the mix of religion and government as I am, trust me I am a student of history. Let me beat this fallacy into submission with a few quotes. Please feel free to check them, they are in fact actual quotes from our founding fathers.

But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends, have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed. - John Adams in a letter to F.A. Van der Kamp, Dec. 27, 1816

The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity. Nowhere in the Gospels do we find a precept for Creeds, Confessions, Oaths, Doctrines, and whole carloads of other foolish trumpery that we find in Christianity. - John Adams

Religion I found to be without any tendency to inspire, promote, or confirm morality, serves principally to divide us and make us unfriendly to one another. - Benjamin Franklin

Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God, because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blind faith. - Thomas Jefferson

The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. - Thomas Jefferson

What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments had on society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; on many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny; in no instance have they been the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wish to subvert the public liberty may have found an established clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate it, needs them not. - James Madison, A Memorial and Remonstrance, 1785

I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my church. - Thomas Pane

Of all the systems of religion that ever were invented, there is no more derogatory to the Almighty, more unedifying to man, more repugnant to reason, and more contradictory to itself than this thing called Christianity. - Thomas Pane

Truth be know most of the great minds who formed the basis of our government were in fact deists. For those of you who don’t know that term, a deist believes there is some higher power at work in the universe but acknowledges no organized religion, instead its basis is on a persons own common sense. It’s two founding principles are reason and nature. Many of the writings you will find by these great minds mention this, and their belief in it. So had enough? Let me tell you there are thousands of just such quotes from almost all of the men we hold up as the heroes of the American revolution. These men realized that ANY influence on government by a religious group infused that government with one-sided opinions that prejudiced some part of the population and could not express the “will of the people”. If you take the time to read the documents that were the foundation you will notice the distinct lack of any terminology referring to a higher power. This country was meant, and created to be a sanctuary for ANYONE to worship as they wanted, in the privacy of their home or a church and to keep those beliefs as a part of their heart NOT a part of the governing powers, let alone to be forced into the lives of those unwilling or unwanting.

But here we are, 2004 almost 2005. We have sent men into outer space, discovered what chemical formulas are the building blocks of the human genome, created vehicles that can fly 10 times the speed of sound BUT the sound philosophies and foundations that built this great nation are being threatened by a group of zealots who feel their way is the ONLY way. They intend to recreate this great country in the image they derive from whatever book they pray from. The scary part of this whole thing is that they are being allowed to do it, and, are being lead into this battle of reform by a population and government affected by a knee jerk reaction to something that most other countries have been dealing with for decades. I in no way mean to diminish the cowardly acts of Sept. 11, 2001. I was brought to tears, as was the rest of the nation, by the sites and sounds I saw on TV. I drove to my job in New Jersey the next day in an almost surrealistic cloud, unsure if it was all real. I still haven’t been able to go to ground zero, buildings I was used to seeing on a daily basis & had visited regularly. No I take nothing away from that horrible day, nor from the heroes of that day who risked all, and died for the risk they took in an attempt to help the innocent victims. It was the act of a group of animals who acted as animals do, they lash out in any way possible no matter what the consequences. But I try to look deeper into what happened, to breach the surface of the problem & try to find the root cause. These people were driven by an unbending, tyrannical version of their religion! Almost the exact same short sighted interpretation of a supposed holy text these American fundamentalists now try to force down our throats!

It strikes me funny that in almost every other nation in the world the idea of bringing religion into politics is the proverbial third rail, the kiss of death for any potential leader. No where else in the world would a politician DARE to bring religion into the political foray and hope to get elected …….. except for one other place. Any clues? …. come on, it’s right there in front of you …………. the fundamentalist Islamic governments of the middle east. Not even Israel, a secular country built on the premise of the Jewish religion has this religious banter infused into it’s political process. Now that’s a scary fact - we are allowing this nation to become exactly what we criticize about these Islamic nations, a county & government driven by edicts from a religion, not reason or logic OR the will of the masses. A government that all the while preaching tolerance casts out the people & other countries it deems ‘unclean’. When the most powerful politician in the world starts spouting chapter & verse from the the bible the whole damn world is in deep trouble.

Yes I was mad as hell that Tuesday in November, watching this crusade unfold in front of my eyes, mad as hell. My first knee jerk reaction was to pack up & get the hell out of Dodge, to look for a land that freed me from the religious persecution the Pilgrims ran from but then I thought about it & I got even madder. Who in the hell gives these right wing bible belting spineless excuses for human beings the right to chase me out of MY OWN country. The country I have spent my whole life supporting. Who appointed them the grand executioner responsible for the decision of what is to be deemed moral and immoral … certainly not me and I intend to stand and fight back until I, like so many of our forefathers, have no life left to give in this fight against this tyranny.

So folks we ALL have to get busy. If we waste one day from this point on we have let them win. Our refusal to get involved is their passage into full control of YOUR life. Go ahead & sit there on your butt, living in your bubble. I can hear you saying “well it doesn’t really effect my life, nothing has changed for me” … go ahead, keep thinking like that. The next thing you know they will be asking you for your papers, telling you what you can read & watch on TV (that’s already happening), telling your son’s & daughter’s schools what propaganda they can teach, go ahead sit on your ass & do nothing. Just sit there & allow EVERYTHING this country stands for to be flushed into a cesspool of prejudice, intolerance and fear. Hey, who cares if your great grandchildren have a land of the free, home of the brave?

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