___Okay, so today I open my mail and, as is a fairly common occurrence, one of the messages is from my grandfather (on my mother's side). This message, like many that he sends me, is fairly religious in nature and in specific it is about the fact that the Christian religion has a large influence on our government. To be precise, it notes that the ten commandments and various bible verses are all over our central government buildings and that according to James Madison (fourth president):
"We have staked the whole of all our political Institutions upon the capacity of mankind for Self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to The Ten Commandments of God."
___Alright, as far as that goes, after all, the general purpose of the ten commandments is to keep an orderly society, the only real thing I have an issue with was toward the end where the e-mail goes on to complain about the fact that, although 86% of Americans believe in god, there seems to be a great deal of complaint about the fact that the ten commandments are displayed so gratuitously throughout our government and "In God We Trust" is printed on our currency and is part of the pledge of allegiance. The writer's purposed solution to this is to just tell the other 14% of the nation to "Sit Down and SHUT UP!!!"
|
___Seriously? In a nation founded on the principles of freedom and free speech, you seriously just think we should ignore and/or repress 14% of us some 40 million people just because they don't agree with the majority. I recognize that it may come as a shock in a predominately christian society, used to being told what to do, think and reject out of hand, but I enjoy and benefit from people disagreeing with me, even, and perhaps especially, when I'm certain that I'm right. The entire reason that this nation is as powerful and advanced as it is is due to the fact that unlike almost anywhere else in the entire world, we are free to spout our own opinions and that is a great thing so long as your opinions don't include, as a presupposition, that everyone else must be wrong and you don't even want to hear what they want to say.
|
___Honestly, is it that hard to have someone out there that doesn't see your point of view? Even though I disagree with the email there isn't a chance in hell I'd tell the writer just to shut up.
|
___The title of the email is "Agree or Delete". I'm sending it back with the title it should have had to begin with, "Agree or Debate", along with the text above.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hell yes.
ReplyDeleteGo, Dun!
ReplyDeleteAgreed. (not deleted.)
ReplyDelete