Post
I proudly pledge allegiance
Commentary
On my almost-daily 30-minute drive to the Brownfield Ag News main office, I listen to a local news/talk radio station. Each morning a different member (or members – sometimes it is an entire Cub Scout troop or 4th grade class) of the community recites the Pledge of Allegiance. Call it corny if you like, but for me, it is inspiring. I love my country and believe the Pledge is a confirmation of my patriotism.I was inspired again today when I learned that the St. Francois County, Missouri Circuit Court dismissed a lawsuit against Judge Kenneth Pratte for beginning each day in court with the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. Upon entering the courtroom, Judge Pratte invites those present to remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. The judge then faces the flag and leads the recitation of the Pledge. Apparently, a father and son sued the patriotic Pratte, claiming their First Amendment rights were violated by this practice.
I’m always confused when people claim their First Amendment rights have been violated by talk of God. The First Amendment reads “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
I’m no attorney, but I know words. Have we fallen so far that such misinterpretation of this statement could make its way to Circuit Court? Are we such a litigious society that we sue at the drop of a hat. . .or mention of God?
It seems obvious to me that the First Amendment allows us to freely exercise our religious beliefs. The good judge didn’t force those present to recite the Pledge. Just as I have the freedom to turn the dial to another radio station if I don’t want to listen to Lucy Smith, a greeter at Wal-Mart, recite the Pledge of Allegiance tomorrow morning at 7:05am, those in Judge Pratte’s courtroom could have stayed seated and silent.
The reason our country became a country in the first place was because people living here were concerned with their rights. The right to practice religion however they wished brought the first settlers from England to America.
I frequently use this column to get you stirred up. I hope you will take action. I hope you will tell your story. In return, I receive many insightful, thought-provoking and quite often entertaining notes from listeners and readers. Many of those notes are in response to my commentaries regarding HSUS and its anti-meat agenda.
Pete Rood, a farmer and hog farm manager from Amboy, Illinois has been active in a Farm Bureau program that brings city people to the farm.
He wrote, “Several (city visitors) were retired people who spend the winter in Arizona.”
Rood explained that these snowbirds told him the commercials that aired during the 2006 campaign to ban both gestation stalls for sows and veal calf stalls were “terrible and one sided.”
He continued, “Me, being ‘shy and bashful’, jumped right in. I told them ‘The Bible says to eat meat. You know where it says that? When the prodigal son came home, the father ordered to have the fatted calf killed. He did not say ‘Hey let’s all sit down and have a salad.'”
First God created all the animals and then he created man to be superior to all the fish in the sea, all the birds in the air, and all animals that roamed the earth.
The separation of church and state was not put in place to keep God out of government or the courtroom or the classroom. It was put in place to keep our government from deciding that we all have to be Presbyterians or Catholics or Evangelicals. If there was ever a time in the history of our world when we all needed to join together and recite the Pledge of Allegiance, it is now.
AMEN, Mz Cyndi!! WEIS 990-AM in North Eastern AL does the Pledge at 8:00 a.m. each morning also. Thank goodness there are still some that will!!