On courtrooms and icons...

Last time I looked, this country was full of all kinds of people. White ones, black ones, brown ones, yellow ones, big ones, little ones. And not all of them have the same beliefs. In fact, I would bet that NONE of them hold the exact same set of beliefs, even among those who claim to follow the same religious teachings. Rather than being a detriment, this fact seems to be one of the biggest strengths of this fine nation. If it weren't for the talents and labor of immigrants from all over the world, this country would not be the world leader that it is today. One of the things that continues to bring these wonderful people from other places is our tolerance and promise of opportunity. I cannot begin to fathom how it would feel to come to this country (or even to be born here to a non-Christian family) and be forced to have my case heard in a court where any religious icon is displayed that isn't my own. Could I really expect that I would be given a fair hearing? Would the person that I am suing, who happens to be Christian, get more empathy simply because he holds similar beliefs to those proudly displayed in the court? It is for reasons such as these that our founding fathers wisely included the separation of church and state in the Constitution of this fine nation. In order to be fair and to objectively weigh the case before you, a judge needs to be as unbiased as possible. Displaying religious icons in the courthouse obliterates any semblance of neutrality. It automatically makes a statement that those who hold certain beliefs will be given priority over those who do not. So, unless you want to place an icon from every religion in the world in every courtroom, we need to keep such displays off limits. To deny the posting of the ten commandments in a courtroom has nothing to do with the denial of a proud religious tradition and everything to do with maintaining the proud legal tradition of a fair hearing.

An ew post.....

So, its been awhile since I've acosted you folks with my rambling thought-forms. I know this because my one reader recently sent me an email chiding me in a friendly manner for not managing to keep up a decent pace of drivel. Well, far be it from me to keep my audience waiting tooo long. This past week has proven productive. For those unaware, I am writing my senior thesis in philosophy this summer, and I think that I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Page 23 was my stopping point today and it looks like I might have another 5 to 10 before I am done. But that's just the draft. After that, I'll be on pins and needles hoping that it doesn't come back to me dripping in red ink like the blood of a fresh kill. I'm not much on writing something more than once. That is, I like to go with my first draft. Sure, I may not put out the most polished of product, but I think it best conserves that original spark of creativity that spawned the piece if you leave it rough. That or I could just be a lazy ba$tard. Who knows. :)