Hi Cecil,

Don't know that you were tarred and feathered... did see what turned into an interesting discussion.

Different country but same problem - things going downhill. On the other hand, my parents said the same and their parents, etc. Somehow, though, I *do* think that a few lines have been crossed!

But there is also a difference between our chosen form of government - democracy - and our constitutional (here too) RIGHTS.
In fact our constitutional RIGHTS have, as one of their design objectives, prevention of 'tyranny of the majority'. This is in direct contrast to democracy, designed to achieve majority rule.

The Supreme Court (here too) has a mandate to protect the citizens' constitutional RIGHTS, even overturning laws passed (by the majority) when necessary.

As I see it, (some amongst) us people tend to muddy the waters a bit, working hard to convince governmental leaders and/or purse-string-holders to do things that, while "good" for themselves or their cause(s) and doubtless acceptable to a majority, supress or stifle things for other people. Our constitution does not tolerate this, and I am most happy that it doesn't!

I look at the question of "God" and see chaos inasmuch as man's 'handling' of Him. Not only do we have Christians and Jews and Moslems who ALL acknowledge and pray to the same God but EACH of those has numerous sects! Each sect fights for resources to give its 'flavour' an edge over the others! Yet I think that each will tell me that "GOD IS LOVE". They say it, but their actions prove that they don't believe it! Add other religious beliefs to the mix as well as non-believers (in ANYTHING!).
Given that our constitutions both protect us from 'tyranny of the majority', what is a poor Supreme Court judge to do????
The Supreme Court places limits on Government to keep its nose out of religion. That way no single religious sect and its followers is given more of an edge (money/power/etc) in society than another from governmental sources. But individuals have no such limits on them and they are free to disburse their money and share their power as they see fit.

I personally doubt that curtailment of "God" in public government-funded things has a whole lot to do with our downhill slide. I attribute it much more to things like extremely heavy marketing that includes glorification of HAVING THINGS. I also think that movies and television have a lot to do with it, along with their availability to a much wider audience.
Basically our children are taught today, in school and by commercials, to be good consumers. This includes believing everything that one sees/reads/hears and always besting the Jonese. And the things we see on TV or in the movies today are largely aimed to the same objective. Property and money, along with the comforts and decadence and power they lead to, are widely shown today whereas not so many years ago they were very exceptionally protrayed. Now they ARE the story.
I often wonder how people in poor countries who see all of this stuff on their community TV set react after considering what they have around them. I can easily see envy and can understand how that might transform to greed or hate. Surely it is the same for some of the poorer people right here, who then have a much easier route to trying to take some for themselves.

Way over-simplified, but my 'take' that keeps me going.
Jim


>Hi DOug,
>
>I'm Cecil Champenois, a recently tarred and feathered developer (for my comments about proMatrix). Yes, it is about time that these crazy people came around and allowed School vouchers. Don't count on prayer in schools. You still ahve more crazy peopel, atheists out there who are always vigilant in taking the Word GOD out of everything, and I believe that many of the troubles facing our country are a direct result of this action; it seems to be no less than a spiritual war between good and evil.
>
>Cecil
>
>www.champenois.com