June 2002

Under the Stars, Festival Seating for Everyone

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
You are all familiar with the Pledge of Allegiance. Most of us have recited it countless times, many of us in our schools.

Today, some of these words don't seem to ring true with everyone (I'll leave the "with liberty and justice for all" to another time!). And today, a three judge panel declared that the statement "under God" makes the Pledge of Allegiance an "unconstitutional endorsement" of religion, meaning it can no longer be recited in schools.

A co-worker of mine suggested we change "under God" to "under the stars, with festival seating for everyone." That aside, this ruling brings up some interesting questions. In the end, it won't matter much.

The Supreme Court will overturn this lower court ruling, probably in something no closer than a 6-3 vote. Shortly after the vote today, we saw a rare display of non-partisanship from the U.S.

Senate. They unanimously supported a resolution "expressing support for the Pledge of Allegiance" and asking Senate counsel to "seek to intervene in the case." The vote was 99-0 (was it Strom Thurmond who was unable to vote today?

)
How could two judges of a three judge panel get it so wrong in the eyes of 99 senators?
The Court says that the Pledge, as it reads with "under God" sends a message to unbelievers "that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community, and an accompanying message to adherents that they are insiders, favored members of the political community."
I don't know about you, but every time I hear that Pledge I snicker to myself about how all those non-believers are being kept out of my cool little club!

The phrase "under God" and the phrase on our money "In God We Trust" are not an attempt to establish religious conformity in our country. No one is forced to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Many people probably don't even realize that "In God We Trust" is written on our dollar bills.

It is the fanaticals on the liberal left who believe that saying "under God" is an attempt to force all Americans to believe in one God and one God only. It is the fanaticals on the liberal left who believe that the phrase "under God" causes undue psychological harm on those who do not believe in a God.
More importantly, this phrase, when recited in a school is not unconstitutional.

That's really all that must be decided by a court. The Constitution (and certainly not the intent of the framers of the Constitution!) does not prohibit this phrase from being recited in a public school.

Adding that phrase "under God" to the Pledge is not an attempt to create one religion in the United States. If that was the intent of Congress in 1954, their actions have certainly not produced the intended results!
Does this mean we should change our money?

Isn't our money unconstitutional as well?
The Constitution says in the First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..

." The phrase "separation of church and state" isn't even in the Constitution. Thomas Jefferson didn't write that phrase until 11 years after the First Amendment was ratified.

So it's not just that this three judge panel is morally wrong, this panel isn't even right on the law. That will become apparent when a Supreme Court strikes down their ruling. And by the way.

.. the 9th Circuit is the most overturned appeals court in the country.

Chalk up one more for the radical liberal left...

It's over, and it appears as though positive campaigning won out over negative campaigning. At least, that's what all the spin will be. Is that the case?

I guess we'll see come November. That's when voters will go to the polls to decided between Republican Mark Sanford and Democrat Jim Hodges.
Sanford says he will continue to run only a positive campaign.

There's little doubt that Hodges, and his campaign staff will come out swinging. Soft money ads will likely hammer Sanford for his congressional voting record, just as Bob Peeler did. I hope Sanford has learned how to better answer those attacks.

During the runoff, he allowed himself to get bogged down in the issue of negative campaigning. By the end of the runoff, he got back on message, and I think that helped him.
More than anything, I want to see Governor Hodges lose in November.

Now I just have to hope that Sanford is a good enough candidate to win.
I'm not sure how old I was when my parents took me to my first baseball game. I do remember that it was an Orioles game at the old Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

I'm sure I ate at least one hot dog. I don't think I've ever been to a baseball game where I didn't eat a hot dog. I'm also pretty sure I took my glove along.

As a young baseball fan, there were few things I wanted more than a chance to catch a foul ball.
I never did.
Last night, I lived vicariously through an 8-year old girl (that's not illegal, is it?

). We were at a minor league baseball game between the Greenville Braves and the Birmingham Barons. The baseball was mediocre, the hot dogs were average, but the play by this 8-year old girl was amazing.

A player bounced a foul ball toward the first three rows of the stands when this little girl calmly threw up her glove and snagged it. The crowd went wild. It was the biggest cheer of the night (the G-Braves gave us very little to cheer about!

). The girl acted as though it was no big deal, but her father finally convinced her to stand up and show the crowd the ball. We cheered again.

That father must have been the proudest father in the stands. I'm sure my father would have been proud if I ever caught a foul ball.
I'll keep trying.

..
Okay.

.. so it's been awhile.

It's not that I haven't had anything to blog about, but I've had less time at work, and little motivation at home. Today I have a few minutes, so you'll get some random rambling from me.
1) I love politics.

I hate covering politics. To me, politics seems a lot like sports. It's two teams doing all they can to win.

Anything goes, winner takes all. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone at home watching their evening news wants to see 5 minutes a night of political coverage. It doesn't matter how well we do it (and I think we do it really well, about as well as you can), the viewer would rather see something else.

Another problem I have with political coverage is that it's virtually impossible to avoid letting a bias show through. The newsroom I work in is overwhelmingly pro one of the two candidates (at least the people who are more directly involved in the coverage). It's possible I'm overstating this, but I don't think I am.

Has this affected the coverage? I don't know. I'd like to say, "No," but I'm not sure.

Things have been done that I wouldn't have done. Contacts have been made with campaign people that I wouldn't have made, but I'm not sure it's affected our coverage. The problem, in my mind, is that the appearance of impropriety exists.

DISCLAIMER: If you're reading this, and involved in the political coverage in my newsroom, I'm not talking about you.
2) I hate Georgia. Well.

.. not the whole state, mostly Atlanta.

And more specifically, I hate the drive to Atlanta. On the other hand, I've developed a great deal of affection for Athens. I'll put it this way, the road trip was so wild, we would love to do it again.

It was also so wild, we'll probably never do it again. For a more complete (but still cryptic) description of the night, check out blog from Monday June 17th. Oh.

. I didn't get the tatto or the piercing..

but I saw them both done. It was quite a thing to see!
3) I love poker.

For the second straight poker night, lady luck was smiling on me. My last two hauls have added up to about $100. At one time, I figured I'd have to start losing or they'd never invite me back.

Then I realized they'd keep inviting me back in hopes of getting their money back. Good luck ;-)
My sister is an officer in the U.S.

Navy. Right now, she's in Salinas, California, and far from harm's way. And right now, she's not actively involved in the war on terrorism.

I don't know when that may change. I'm selfish. I hope she never has to go near that war.

A few years ago, her ship helped support the evacuation of Marines from Somalia. She wasn't allowed to tell us where she was or when she might get home. I never want to feel that feeling again.

Today, we learned that some 3,000 troops from Fort Bragg in North Carolina will head to Afghanistan this summer. A friend of mine, and a friend of many of yours is stationed at Fort Bragg. Our first thought was, "What about Daly?

??" Without really knowing, we still worried about what might happen to our friend should he be sent to the war zone.

We're all very proud that he's willing to fight for our freedom...

we just don't want that to have to happen.
We found out that Mike isn't headed to Afghanistan. For that, we are all thankful.

But we are also very thankful for the thousands of American men and women who are risking their life so that we can remain safe and free.