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The Gutless Supremes Just charming news out of the Supreme Court today. Rather than addressing the merits of the suit challenging the use of the phrase 'under God' in the Pledge of Allegiance, the court has weaseled out of the matter. They have declared, and this is a curious decision, that a non-custodial parent has no standing to question the way their child is being raised. One wonders how far-reaching such a ruling might go. Does this mean that one parent can choose to raise the children as Wiccans without fear of interference from their ex-spouse? And what public good is served by thus limiting access to the courts? Is the matter of official sponsorship of a particular worldview something that all citizens have a compelling interest in? I don't have kids, yet I still feel that I personally have a stake in this case. Flashback to high school. We had always been told that we were required to stand up and recite the pledge during homeroom. I, never one to take authority at its word, did the research to determine that they were lying to us. Not only did we not need to say the pledge, we were not even required to stand up. I had several heated exchanges with teachers, culminating with one particularly offended teacher hauling me off to the assistant principal's office. It took the a.p. all of about 30 seconds to explain to the teacher that I was right. Hah! This was a valuable lesson for me. First off, don't trust what so-called officials tell you. Check their facts. They may be deliberately misleading you. Or worse, they could be blindly believing things without actual knowledge themselves. I am sure that this teacher was honestly surprised to discover that I was under no obligation to honor the flag. Second off, don't be harassed into giving up what you know is yours. Don't let someone in power intimidate you into doing something you know is right. That may have been how the Gestapo and the Stasi and the KGB operated, but here in America we are supposed to do better than that. This can all be filed under the rubric (with thanks to Thomas Jefferson) ""The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." It seems to me that we as a country have gotten so soft and so comfortable with our wealth of material possessions that we have completely lost sight of what this country is really supposed to be about. We seem to be begging the wacko conservatives in congress to take what they will of our civil liberties so long as they don't interfere with our television reception. How bizarre that we turn our back on real American heroes so that we can watch a stupid television show called 'American Idol.' If we really believe so strongly in government by the people, for the people, and of the people, then we must be capable of being part of government. We must be educated, knowledgeable, informed. And no, watching Fox news does not count. Watching television does not count. Read. And read from multiple sources. And don't limit yourself to things that you agree with. If you don't understand where the conservatives are coming from, and you just dismiss them as idiots, then you are failing to defend your position. Only by understanding what they are saying, what they are doing, and what they really believe, can you effectively counter them.