Sunday, September 05, 2004
So, the traffic unit got shanghied for a dignitary protection gig, escorting the former Chief Justice of the Alabama supreme court, who was in town for a fundraising dinner to support the legal battle the county is in – a lawsuit filed by an anonymous person to remove a copy of the Ten Commandements from the courthouse. If that sentence didn’t wear you out, try standing around for 7 hours while a couple of hundred people eat dinner around you, then work traffic for a couple more hours.
Now, the whole ten commandments fight doesn’t really interest me- while I consider myself religious, or at least “spiritual”, in the sense that I believe there was a creator God; I can’t consider myself Christian, as I don’t think the Bible is the literal word of God. Some good ideas, yes, but filtered though the prejudices and biases of its human writers. Nor do I think that Christianity is necessarily the only way to know God. Had I voiced those opinions out loud at this dinner, I doubt I would have made it to the door. Which is, in a nutshell, my problem with this whole movement.
You see, while the Chief Justice spoke about how this legal entanglement isn’t really about separation of Church and State, or even the Ten Commandments per se; but really about the ability for governments to acknowledge God- he also made it clear that he didn’t consider other religions to be valid or acknowledgeble. Don’t worry, the government doesn’t care if you’re muslim, or buddhist, or jewish…
But it was obvious that he did, as did everyone in that audience. And that’s what bothered me. While they’re fighting to keep the Ten Commandments in the courthouse, they’re also fighting to say that christianity is the religion that founded this country and is the only one that counts. That bothers me a bit. How far do they want to go with this? How far will they go?
As for the title of this entry, there was a little dance number at the beginning of the dinner, featuring several late teen boys, with closely shaved heads, dressed in wildly colored camoflauge pants, black t-shirts, and black army caps, singing about being the Army of God while miming firing rifles, swinging sticks, and lifting weights. Aside from being laughable- my roommate was reminded of the Monty Python “gay army” sketch- it reminded me of certain ’30s propaganda films featuring an organization for young men wearing red armbands. The skinhead haircuts didn’t help, either.
In other news… there isn’t any other news. TruGreen came and aerated the yard, but left the dirt plugs scattered around like goose turds. We’re waiting for the rain promised when hurricane / tropical storm Frances finishes fist-banging Florida and makes it’s way through Georgia. I re-installed the webcam in the office. And that’s about it.