I recently blogged about our experience at a York County Council meeting. I didn't mention but feel that I need to mention, with no disrespect to him, something that the oldest member, Curwood Chappell, 80 years old, said at the start of the meeting. He said that some people with "things wrapped around their heads" had recently recorded one of their sessions with a hidden device. (At least that's what I think he said; he has a very strong southern accent.) They must have sent in the recording with complaints about the prayer that begins the session in which Jesus Christ is named. He couldn't believe that he now was not allowed to say that prayer but that he was allowed only to provide a moment of silence for everyone to bow their heads, "and you'll know what I'm saying even if I'm not allowed to say it out loud." Dutifully everyone bowed their heads for a moment of silence... except the two of us.
I believe what he was forced to do was correct. I wanted to stand up and tell him so. Our country was founded of the principle of religious freedom and this ought to be exhibited in our government meetings. Our government should be modeling the ideas and rules put forth in our constitution and bill of rights. We may not always agree with the decisions our founding fathers made but these are the laws of the land and no one, not even the most senior member, can do what he wants just because he thinks his way is better. Since I was wearing a "Support the Animal Licensing Ordinance" button I sat quietly in my seat, but "you'll know what I was thinking even if I wasn't able to say it out loud."
2 comments:
With your final comments, I believe that you are now a follower of such conservative Supreme Court Justices as Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas who advocate interpretating the Constitution as it was meant to apply when it was written and not in compliance with the changing sociocultural contexts.
That may be true if we were talking about something other than government functions being free from religious bias. On this issue I don't believe the current context is much different from the one in which the framers of the constitution were functioning. Additionally, although I may not often be on the same side of the street as Scalia and Thomas it's not impossible that I may agree with their views from time to time. They can't always be wrong. :-)
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