The republicans are in full triumphant celebration in the frozen landscape of Washington D.C. They have weathered the campaign season, and they are blowing off their collected steam in the frozen waste that is the nation’s capital. The tuxedoed and tiaraed sets are figuring future tax write-offs, as they sit at thousand dollar-a-plate dinners toasting the success of their ideologies. Hooray for the red states!
However, like any party there is always the one guy who wants to pee in the punch bowl. In my fraternity, in the misspent days of my youth, we used to say that it wasn’t a real party until some furniture was broken, the cops had come at least twice or something had caught fire. So in the spirit of anarchy, I was greatly amused by the efforts of a lone atheist to remove god from the presidential inauguration.
His dubious legal effort was based on the concern he had over the fact that he “felt” the very mention of a deity was forcing him to acknowledge religion. I wonder how exactly they were going to do that? Did he imagine that evil government forces roll up in a Halliburton truck, grab his wife and children, then beat and rape them until he decided that this “god” thing was a good idea. Oh wait, that’s what they used to do in Afghanistan.I really believe that this poor, misguided individual is depriving a village of a perfectly good idiot.
What he doesn’t understand is that the most important freedom we have as Americans is the right to turn off anything we don’t like.Anything that offends our sensibilities, from the most outrageous hate speech to the most benign heavenly appeals to the Supreme Architect, can just be turned off. Until the government finds a way to penetrate the even the thickest skulled amongst us, we can always reserve the right to think for ourselves.
This essential right seems to be underused lately. When a fool or a moron finds himself on TV, and permeates the airwaves with idiotic polemics, turn the damn thing off. You don’t agree with Rush Limbaugh or other bastions of the political right, turn them off; that’s what the little button is there for. Our nation seems obsessed with questions about religion and faith, subjects that have eluded men to any satisfaction for thousands of years.
To be honest, I really wouldn’t care if George Bush stripped down to a loincloth and sacrificed a goat to the god Baal, smearing the blood and offal across his chest, screaming manically before the stunned crowd. Actually, I’d respect him more if he did that. Oh come on, most of you would love to see that make the networks too, wouldn’t you?
In the final analysis, our religious observance and articles of faith are ours and ours alone. Each one of us must exercise are own consciences and determine how and what we believe. America was founded under the principles that divine providence would illuminate our people so that various faiths and creeds could live together in peace. Now if we could only figure out how to deal with the stupid.
