In the small town of Dugger, IN a coalition of churches came together and raised a large cross on the edge of town on municipal land. The cross that says "Jesus Saves" and stands as a welcome to the community of less than 1000 people. The problem is this is just the kind of display on public land that the Supreme Court has time and again violates the establishment cause. While courts have created compromises to allow for religious expression in public, it is clear that certain actions violate the Constitution. This is good for all. No one faith tradition should have government support over another, or even the appearance of such. But that is exactly what is happening here. I trust a compromised will be reached as a group supporting the separation of church and state have gotten involved. (I will say that an outside group took up the cause to save any locals opposed to the church from threats of violence, I will let you comment on the irony of that.) While the story is interesting what is scary is the comments the public made on this story. Read here:
http://www.indystar.com/article/20120717/NEWS05/207170330?odyssey=mod|mostcom
This is an on-going problem in our country. We have no educators helping us through news stories like this. What we have are news readers who are sounding more and more like talking point generators for one or the other political parties. So often falsehoods replace reality and it is done on television programs that laughingly call themselves news. Be it the clowns of Fox or someone like Ed Shultz they paint all with the same brush. Even if someone steps out of line and does journalism they are labeled with the most horrible phrases including being elitists. Imagine, telling the truth to power makes you a smug elitist. Wow. In the last few days I have seen 100s misquote the President in a recent speech including the Republican candidate for President. I have seen surrogates for the GOP use it to call the President unAmerican and lastly I have seen members of the campaign lie, openly on a great show Meet the Press, only to go unchallenged. I think those kind of lies should be front page news and everyone should be appalled, but they continue to be repeated by so-called journalists. But while the right is the '92 dream team of political deception the Democrats are the team of distraction. I understand the issues of Bain Capital are part of the picture of Gov. Romney but it is not an issue that should dominate the discussion for a week. (the tax returns I am not sure of). The President and his surrogates must show why he will be a better leader of country even if not perfect. He can use the GOP's own words if he would like but the idea of talking about Bain is a losing issue and does nothing but polarize the population as much as the GOP and their right wing noise machine.
We need a real voice to cut through the garbage. I would love it to be the President. I would love it to be a real news person. But in the world of bumper stickers and Facebook we don't get conversations. We get people arguing that the Constitution says "It is separation OF Church and State not separation of Church from State," neither is true. We argue over birth certificates and SEC documents. When a news show does have a smart reporter (print journalism is not dead) on a show they are played off with pop music and followed by a story about Lyndsey Lohan's father and a Mashed Potato vending machine. Pledge with me, fight ignorance, eshew talking points, and challenge news stories and the comments that are simply stupid. It is your duty as an American. You can still be a partisan but lets make sure if we lose an election or an issue that it was about facts and not the droning of a loud mouth with a microphone or a fake journalist who is paid to lie to the world. We are smarter than that.
Oh and Dugger, I don't like the cross, I think it is a wrong image to put up. I think this kind of religious chauvinism is not an American value, but find a compromise, you can do it.
http://www.indystar.com/article/20120717/NEWS05/207170330?odyssey=mod|mostcom
This is an on-going problem in our country. We have no educators helping us through news stories like this. What we have are news readers who are sounding more and more like talking point generators for one or the other political parties. So often falsehoods replace reality and it is done on television programs that laughingly call themselves news. Be it the clowns of Fox or someone like Ed Shultz they paint all with the same brush. Even if someone steps out of line and does journalism they are labeled with the most horrible phrases including being elitists. Imagine, telling the truth to power makes you a smug elitist. Wow. In the last few days I have seen 100s misquote the President in a recent speech including the Republican candidate for President. I have seen surrogates for the GOP use it to call the President unAmerican and lastly I have seen members of the campaign lie, openly on a great show Meet the Press, only to go unchallenged. I think those kind of lies should be front page news and everyone should be appalled, but they continue to be repeated by so-called journalists. But while the right is the '92 dream team of political deception the Democrats are the team of distraction. I understand the issues of Bain Capital are part of the picture of Gov. Romney but it is not an issue that should dominate the discussion for a week. (the tax returns I am not sure of). The President and his surrogates must show why he will be a better leader of country even if not perfect. He can use the GOP's own words if he would like but the idea of talking about Bain is a losing issue and does nothing but polarize the population as much as the GOP and their right wing noise machine.
We need a real voice to cut through the garbage. I would love it to be the President. I would love it to be a real news person. But in the world of bumper stickers and Facebook we don't get conversations. We get people arguing that the Constitution says "It is separation OF Church and State not separation of Church from State," neither is true. We argue over birth certificates and SEC documents. When a news show does have a smart reporter (print journalism is not dead) on a show they are played off with pop music and followed by a story about Lyndsey Lohan's father and a Mashed Potato vending machine. Pledge with me, fight ignorance, eshew talking points, and challenge news stories and the comments that are simply stupid. It is your duty as an American. You can still be a partisan but lets make sure if we lose an election or an issue that it was about facts and not the droning of a loud mouth with a microphone or a fake journalist who is paid to lie to the world. We are smarter than that.
Oh and Dugger, I don't like the cross, I think it is a wrong image to put up. I think this kind of religious chauvinism is not an American value, but find a compromise, you can do it.
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