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Opinion
To swear or not to swear
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
This week I was sorely disappointed in my brothers in arms, the U.S. Air Force.
Actually it was some lawyer in the Department of Defense that made a politically correct judgment. "The resulting opinion concluded that an individual may strike or omit the words 'So help me God' from an enlistment or appointment oath if preferred." Tradition be damned!
The case came from an Airman at Creech AFB that somehow found any reference to God offensive to his atheistic beliefs. Obviously he was some rear echelon drone not a combat hardened front line warrior!
On his enlistment paperwork he scratched out the "So help me God" phrase. The Airman's unit was unable to process the paperwork due to Air Force guidance that prohibits any omissions of the reenlistment form as printed. Now after the official opinion from on high the Airman's enlistment paperwork will be processed to completion. Just wonderful!
I'm disappointed and several that I've spoken to are in agreement. It is just another building block that has been removed from the foundation of this great and formerly moral nation.
The phrase "So help me God" rang a bell as I remembered it from the oath of office that I took after being elected County Commissioner. I queried the Web and sure enough that moral and binding phrase is still included in the current oath of office that all Nebraska State, district, county, precinct, township, municipal, and especially appointed officers take and subscribe before entering upon their respective duties.
Now I am wondering how long it will be before some scumbag appeals to the sorely inappropriately named ALCU to press for elimination of "So help me God" from the State oath. The ALCU will jump on the request like a duck on a June bug because it will be a good fundraising gambit for them and prohibitively expensive for any small unit of State government to defend in court.
Something similar happened just recently in one of the Bible Belt Southern States. A high school was sued by the American Criminal Liberties Union for having a public prayer before each football game. Long standing tradition at that school had the announcer give a prayer over the sound system as the cheerleaders and players of both teams gathered, heads bowed and holding hands on the field. Can't have any prayer in a public place because some unbeliever may just be offended!
The school board folded like a cheap suit when the lawsuit was brought and recommended that the prayer be replaced with a moment of silence. Bless her heart when the moment of silence was called for, the Captain of the cheer squad spoke out loud the first words of the Lord's Prayer. The fans in the stands, the visiting cheer squad, and players from both teams all joined in and prayed the sacred words in unison. "And a child shall lead them"! Well done.
Public prayer in school at the start of the day and at the beginning of our football games was never the practice in the McCook schools that I attended so many moons ago. Thanks to Uncle Sam my family spent several years attending schools in Oklahoma and those practices were the way of life in the public schools there. I was surprised and thought in a nice practice. I have no idea if that practice continues today just as I have no idea why any would be offended. I just think it sad that any mention of public or personal morality is relentlessly attacked in the liberal society that we are degenerating toward today.
What good and moral thing is next for the chopping block? Vote wisely in the next election.
Thank you for letting your old columnist grumble in this public way but that is the way I saw it.
Dick Trail