Good morning, It’s Monday once again. Two issues of some importance surfaced in the past week. One of them is quite visible to all of us, and the other running under the surface, which may be more important. The first is the furor over In-vitro fertilization, created by the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. The second is the attack on the doctrine of Separation of Church and State. This is important because the first issue naturally flows from the second.
To start this off, the phrase, under God, was not added to the Pledge of Allegiance until 1954, under the Eisenhower administration (Republican), to somehow counteract communism. I remember when this happened because I was in grade school at the time, I think maybe second grade. There was this misguided belief that all communists are atheist, and that Americans are not. If you are old enough, you will also remember that we used to pray in school. Both things are an establishment of religion; one has been corrected and one has not. If you are not comfortable with this what would your feelings be if your children were forced to read from the Koran or recite some Shinto prayer each morning at school?
I was taught at an early age that freedom of religion also meant freedom from religion. I take that to mean we are all free to believe what we want and to practice any religion we want, but we must keep it within our own church and homes. The idea that we could codify into law any religious belief or practice would not be permitted by The Constitution. I believe this is a simple concept, however, there are some who would codify religious beliefs into law and would abridge the rights of others to satisfy their desire to be “right with God.” This manifests itself in the policies of anti-LGBTQ, anti-women’s health care, criminalizing transgender care, and even book banning. We are on a path, if we allow it, to be ruled by the American Taliban.
This is exactly the case in the matter of in-vitro fertilization. It is an attempt to codify that a fertilized egg is a person. There is a long road ahead for a zygote to become a living breathing child, or even become a viable fetus. It is known that more than 20% of all pregnancies result in miscarriage. Pregnancy and childbirth may be natural but can be complicated and are highly personal. The state should have no input into health care decisions that should be private. We are not stopping people from following a more restrictive lifestyle, but neither should they dictate to us a religious belief-based agenda. This belief-based agenda is a dark hole we should not want to fall into because it is faith based. Taking ideas as real based on faith is not necessarily logical or true and may not be compatible with other belief systems. The absolutism of “I’m right and nothing else meets my standard,” may be the prime reason The Founders put separation into the establishment clause, along with free speech.
This is a gritty, roll in the mud fight, that has the potential to change the way our nation is administered in a very fundamental way. Let’s not take our eye off the ball here. We know what needs to be done. Support Democratic Candidates, vote in every election, every time. Get involved with your local party organization, with both time and money. JeffDems has several open slots for willing participants. I’m positive there is a bright young Democrat out there that could help Tammy with website and Facebook updates, maintenance, and administration. Perhaps other platforms could be utilized as well. Put your outrage to good use and join JeffDems. Text 724-541-6189 and we will be in touch.
Participate, Donate, Vote.
John Huot, JeffDems Chair
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