[Vision2020] Ten Commandments Removed:Religious Anti-Gay Monuments In City Parks?

[Joan Opyr]

On Aug 18, 2005, at 5:34 PM, Kai Eiselein, LatahEagle Editor wrote:

> A sidebar to Joan:
>
> Why did that woman identify herself as a Wiccan? Could it be to draw
> attention to herself? Could she have not done the same without 
> mentioning
> her religion?
> The same thing happened with the "under God" debacle.....the guy stated
> emphaticaly he was an atheist.
> Frankly I don't care whether a meeting starts with a prayer or not, I 
> don't
> regularly attend church ( I spend enough time in them shooting 
> weddings)And
> I have yet to be offended by any religious ceremony (and I've been to
> plenty).
> Maybe I should sue if I happen across a pentagram with a candle at each
> point on public property.....but then again, what do I care as long as 
> they
> don't burn down the forest?


Why did the Great Falls plaintiff identify herself as a Wiccan?  I 
don't know, Kai.  Perhaps because some nosy newspaper reporter asked 
her what, if any, religious affiliation she claimed?  I have no idea if 
this information appeared in the lawsuit or not.  Neither, apparently, 
do you, but you're a newspaper editor, so why don't you spare us your 
assumptions and look it up in Lexis-Nexis?

Now, about "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance -- who cares if the 
plaintiff was an atheist or not?  I'm not an atheist, but I object to 
the "under God" phrase in the Pledge.  Why?  Because I do believe that 
this is one nation, but whether or not its citizens want to be "under 
God" is a matter of individual choice.  I'll stand under God, but I 
don't think that makes me any better (or any worse) than those citizens 
who'd rather stand under a bus shelter.

Your argument, Kai, boils down to this: things ought to be the way you 
want them to be, and if they're not, they're wrong.  And the people who 
disagree with you are wrong.  And we're all like pies, except that 
we're not, because some pies are custard and some are blueberry and 
some don't even have real crust but instead used crushed up graham 
crackers or Oreo cookies.  (Just for the record, if you had tried that 
pie analogy in one of my Freshman Composition classes, I'd have flunked 
your ass.  It's terrible.)  I am glad that you have yet to be offended 
by any religious ceremony.  I have been offended by many.  But it 
really doesn't matter if I've been offended and you haven't.  There's a 
secular, Constitutional standard of conduct to which we are all bound.  
This is not, as you assert, the work of icky, tricky, stinky cheese 
lawyers, but the work of the Constitution's authors and of more than 
200 years worth of legal precedent.  Given a choice between your 
interpretation and that of the U. S. Supreme Court -- even one tainted 
by Rehnquist, Scalia and Thomas -- I'll go with the Supremes.  I'm 
afraid, Kai, that you're beginning to remind me of Barbara Bush, who 
explained her support for school prayer by saying that she'd "never 
known anyone who'd been hurt by it."  Wow!  Barbara knows everyone in 
the entire world!  You'd think that pearl necklace might slow her down 
a bit in America's dodgier neighborhoods, but, no, that rich old woman 
really gets around!

Should you happen across a pentagram -- or a crucifix or a Star of 
David -- on public property, I suggest that you do what I'd do: ignore 
them.  Unless, of course, those symbols were placed on public property 
by elected government officials using our tax dollars, in which case I 
invite you to reread the First Amendment (preferably with the help of a 
Constitutional expert) and join me in the lawsuit I'll file to have 
those symbols removed.

ACLU Forever!

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
www.auntie-establishment.com

PS: My mother graduated from high school in Raleigh, NC, in 1964, one 
year after the Supreme Court struck down prayer in school.  She can 
still remember the one Jewish kid in her who got up each morning to go 
wait out in the hallway while the teacher led the class in a very 
Baptist prayer to Jesus Christ.  I guess my mother knows someone 
Barbara Bush doesn't?