If you're going to do it, do it right

defending the First Amendment against the Christian right ...

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If you're going to do it, do it right

Editorial, Bakersfield Californian, October 26, 2007

Chad Vegas may be on to something after all. The Kern High School District trustee, who wants to see the slogan "In God We Trust" posted in each of the district's 2,375 classrooms, has proposed a followup proposition that has merit -- if it's massaged a bit. The school district, Vegas says, should require that all 2,375 classrooms also display the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence.

If that sounds like a lot of patriotic wallpaper, that's because it is.

Ever taken a good look at the inside of a high school classroom? Some are relatively barren, but most have artwork, announcements, assignments, maps, teacher-honored student work and assorted other things intended to stimulate, encourage or notify students. Would adding founding American documents into the mix truly call attention to their virtues and significance?

More likely it would add to the visual clutter, essentially rendering those important documents all but invisible.

Here's an alternative: Create a donation-financed freedom shrine on each campus in the district -- a centrally located spot frequented by students where the founding documents proposed by Vegas might be displayed in perpetuity.

Sponsors might add additional documents to the mix, rotating them among the campuses over time: the Treaty of Paris (ending the Revolutionary War), George Washington's farewell address, the Monroe Doctrine, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (authorizing women's right to vote), Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, the text of Brown v. Board of Education (written in 1954 by Chief Justice Earl Warren), John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, etc.

What about the poster featuring "In God We Trust"? Next to the historical documents Vegas proposes, it inspires a chorus of the old "Sesame Street" song, "Which of These Things is Not Like the Others?" A set of historical documents, alongside a four-word slogan?

The solution: add historical context to "In God We Trust" by pairing it with Dwight D. Eisenhower's 1961 farewell address (best known as his "military-industrial complex" warning). During Eisenhower's time as commanding general and then president, the nation dealt with fascists and communists abroad and self-serving propagandists at home -- all of which contributed to the slogan's adoption as the national motto in 1956.

"You and I, my fellow citizens, need to be strong in our faith that all nations, under God, will reach the goal of peace with justice," Eisenhower said in his farewell address. "... We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great human needs satisfied ... and that, in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together ..." Admirable ideals, to be sure.

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