RRN Online Volume 353

March 08 '03

Volume 353

A Monkey’s Uncle Pledge Ruled Unconstitutional

Remember the decision last summer by a three-judge panel of the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals (West Coast) in which the panel ruled the inclusion of the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance as unconstitutional, citing that such wording endangered the principle of "separation of church and state" which is based upon the "Establishment Clause" of the U. S. Constitution? Well, last week the larger court allowed the ruling to stand without commenting, meaning that recitation of the Pledge in schools in states along the West Coast will now be illegal.

Last July, President Bush voiced his opposition, as did most members of Congress, to the decision by a three-judge panel that voted 2-1 in deciding for the plaintiff, an admitted atheist. Last week, Attorney General John Ashcroft, condemned the court's most recent decision.

The First Amendment to the Constitution states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

Historians have long recognized the importance of the First Amendment as a means to disallow the fledgling Federal Government from imposing a national religion upon the citizenry. After all, most of the early colonists had fled the persecution meted out at the hands of the state religion in England and sought refuge and freedom on America's shores. Thus, it was only natural that the framers of the Constitution and members of the first Congress would seek to insure that our new nation would honor those principles.

As you can see, the First Amendment addresses concerns other than opposition to a national religion, but the first portion of the amendment deals with that particular protection and is referred to as "The Establishment Clause."

I don't know how many Supreme Court rulings have dealt specifically with the First Amendment, but surely there have been hundreds. Freedoms we Americans hold dear are found herein, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press. Additionally, we are granted the right to petition our own government to redress (set right) our grievances (complaints). In the words of our Italian friends, "that's a some amendment!"

There's a lot in our legal system that is desirable, but there is much that is undesirable. There is within the legal jargon something called "precedent." According to my American Heritage Dictionary the definition of precedent with regard to law is "A judicial decision that may be used as a standard in subsequent similar cases: a landmark decision that set a legal precedent."

Therefore, every Supreme Court ruling becomes something of a precedent to be considered as similar cases are judged. Lower court rulings are also precedents, in a similar regard. Lawyers should feel free to correct me if I am misstating something; just don't sue me.

As decisions are rendered, it stands to reason there will eventually be a ruling that seeks to clarify or interpret the Constitution and the subsequent amendments to it. It also stands to reason that mistakes of interpretation will be made, and the mistakes will become precedents, too.

However, we have no legal precedent to the text of the First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. I fail to understand how the use of the two words, "under God" as part of the Pledge of Allegiance and recited by millions of school children is remotely related to the "establishment of religion" as defined by the Constitution. I propose no one can offer a satisfactory explanation of how the two are related, short of resorting to "precedent."

In slightly more than two hundred years, we've allowed judges and courts to distort the meaning of the Constitution until we can hardly recognize it. At its present rate of refinement, the Constitution doesn't stand a chance of lasting another two hundred years, unless we go back to square one. Yes, we could do it. We could start all over again, forget all the court rulings, forget all the precedents, burn all the law books, and tell all the judges to base their findings on the Constitution and not upon some precedent of a precedent of the nth precedent removed from the Constitution.

Actually, I don't support book burning in form or fashion, or for any cause, and would suggest the books be kept as a reminder of a legal system run amuck, though we might want to shred enough books to make enough paper mache monuments to have one in every community, testifying to the failings of a system that found precedent more important than the Constitution, itself.

In all likelihood the Justice Department will appeal the "under God" decision to the Supreme Court where there is a better-than-good chance of having the lower court's ruling overturned.

Personally, I don't view the inclusion of "under God," as bestowing upon America any special blessing or blessings, or to imply that America is under any greater protection by God than any other nation on this earth. I know there are folks who believe differently, but they're wrong. Instead, I see it as an affirmation that there is a God who is a higher power, mightier than our nation or any nation, one who is greater than the sum total of all of His creation, a God not just of Christians but of all faiths and a God of even those who say there is no God. That may or may not be the intended meaning of the "under God" clause held by those who supported its insertion into the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954, but it's the meaning I attach to it, and if asserting that this nation is "under God" violates the "Establishment Clause," then I'm a monkey's uncle.

Endodontic Endurance An Iuka Connection

Pleasurable is not a word normally associated with one visiting a dentist, but in my last trip to a dentist, or more particularly an endodontist, I actually found the experience pleasurable. I wasn't too worried about feeling any pain, since the nerves in the root of my molar had been removed a month earlier. That's not to say there was no apprehension on my part, because I grew up in the era of painful, rather than painless, dentistry. With bountiful memories of what has been, it's only natural that I'm a little nervous sitting in a dentist's chair.

Dr. Harry T. Cosby did the root canal procedure by drilling through my bridgework. The first visit required just under three hours, and the second was only marginally shorter. I was surprised that finishing the procedure was as time consuming as that in the removal of the tooth's nerves. In my first visit to Dr. Cosby, I learned he was born in Iuka, MS, the small town in the extreme northeastern portion of North Mississippi where I began my formal schooling. Though a number of years separate the two of us, he knew some of the families I knew, and because there was once a Sunflower Food Store in Iuka, Dr. Cosby also knew its owners. I suppose that in learning of a shared bond we had with Iuka, MS, I was more at ease with Dr. Cosby.

It normally takes up to an hour for the region surrounding a "jaw tooth" to become numb enough for a dentist to start working on it, so when Dr. Cosby finished with another patient, he came into my room and we chatted for a few minutes as my jaw became numbed by the anesthetic. I recounted several names of individuals that I knew or that my parents knew and was pleased to learn that Icie Lominick and Estelle Lominick are still living, though both are in a nursing home. My mother judged all her neighbors by the Lominick Standard, and as far as I could tell, Mom loved her Iuka neighbors more dearly than all others in all the places of my childhood.

We talked about the location of the Kroger Store my dad had once managed, but I could not elaborate on its downtown position except to say it was downtown. However, I remembered a dime store nearby as well as a soda-fountain drug store that had some truly great root beer. I tried to speak normally, but my tongue was numb enough to hinder my speech. Yet, with some effort, I was able to make myself understood.

At one point, Dr. Cosby left the room to call his mother to ask if she remembered where the Iuka Kroger store was once located. She remembered, and it was on a corner as Dr. Cosby had supposed. She also remembered my Dad, or at least, his name.

Bill Cosby, the entertainer, bears no relationship to Dr. Harry Cosby, but Bill Cosby and I both recognize a trait common to all dentists, that of asking a patient questions while the patient has a mouthful of instruments and fingers of the dentist. In such cases, communications by the patient are mostly undecipherable and sound more like grunts than speech.

I suppose I'd been under the gun, so to speak, for thirty minutes when, Dr. Cosby tried to remember the names of the Wadkins brothers who once owned the Iuka Sunflower store.

"What was Edgar's middle name?" he quizzed me. "I know it, but I can't think of it."

I had a plastic contraption holding a rubber sheet around the work area inside my mouth. There was a clamp around my bridge, and yet, my dentist wanted me to talk to him.

I managed to produce a guttural sound that was close enough for him to say, "Earl, yeah, that's it. Edgar Earl."

If you want to hear that sound, you can simulate it by depressing your tongue with a Popsicle stick, tongue depressor, or just a finger, and pronouncing "Earl."

A minute or so passed and Dr. Cosby stopped his work, as he sought to remember the name of Edgar's brother. We could both remember he was politically active and was a member of the House of Representatives in the state legislature, but neither of us could remember the brother's name.

"This is ridiculous," he said. "I know his name. It'll come to me in a minute."

Minutes passed as Dr. Cosby's dental assistant tried to trigger a memory by listing common names such as, Larry, Fred, John, James, all to no avail. I was almost as frustrated as my dentist, because I could not think of the name either.

"Let's start at the beginning of the alphabet," he said. "Anthony, Adam…Barry, Bob…Charles, Chris…"

A few more minutes passed and another assistant stepped into the room and asked, "Is it Lloyd?"

"Lloyd Wadkins, Lloyd Wadkins," Dr. Cosby repeated. "I think that's it."

I wasn't sure but was in no position to indicate my uncertainty with more than a shrug, though it didn’t sound right until Dr. Cosby tied it to "Mack."

"Mack Lloyd," he finally stated, and with the double name, I too remembered, though in speaking to or of Mack Lloyd, I always called him Mack and supposed that was partly the reason Lloyd did not sound right to my slightly anesthetized brain, until Mack was associated with it.

I told my dentist his inability to remember names was a sign he was getting old, but I'm not certain how much of my restricted speech he understood.

I learned a lot about Dr. Cosby that afternoon. He impressed me as an unassuming man, one who can afford many of the finer things of life, but also one who can live comfortably with far less. He drives an '84 Nissan pickup, and his wife's car is a mid-nineties model, but I don't remember the make.

"I want a smaller house," he dreamed aloud. "Fifteen hundred square feet would be plenty."

His assistant laughed, "The four bedrooms would have to be pretty small, then," alluding to the size of his family and the 3,000 square feet of spacious home he now occupies.

"No, really, I want a smaller house," he insisted. "And, I want a big porch that goes all the way around it. And windows, it's got to have lots of windows."

It was then that he digressed from explaining his dream house to tell me about the office he and a few others are in the process of building.

"The windows are six feet wide and ten feet tall. They start at the baseboard. I've said, ‘If I ever get out of this place (no windows in the patient rooms), I'll have windows.’"

"So, they go all the way to the ceiling?" asked his assistant.

"No, the ceilings are fourteen feet. It's an open ceiling, like a supermarket, you can see up to the roof," he gently elaborated, as his eyes glistened with the excitement of a small boy awaiting the coming of Christmas.

"I'm talking about a porch that extends from the house twenty feet," he explained, turning the conversation back to his dream house.

I sensed his nostalgia for a home based upon his youthful remembrances of perhaps a grandparent's home or an older home of his parents.

"I want a well," he continued, "Not one with an electric pump, but one you can draw water from with a windlass."

Actually, he didn’t say windlass, but used his hands to indicate a winding motion.

I had to wait until he had everything out of my mouth to ask him, "That well you want, what about a dipper for the bucket?"

"Yeah, I'll have a dipper, too."

I don't know if I'll have the opportunity to see his dream house, but with construction soon beginning on the new office, I'm certain to see it. After all, one of his office partners is my "gum doctor," Dr. Michael Robertson.

I found it refreshing to meet someone who scales dreams to meet needs more so than wants. Such individuals are a rare find, almost as rare as a pleasurable excursion to a dentist.

Bodock Beau The Year 2035

Folks who predict the future often rely upon trends. That seems to be the case here for life in the year 2035.

Ozone created by electric cars now killing millions in the seventh largest country in the world, California.

White minorities still trying to have English recognized as California's third language.

Spotted Owl plague threatens northwestern United States crops & livestock.

Baby conceived naturally.... Scientists stumped.

Authentic year 2000 "chad" sells at Sotheby's for $4.6 million.

Last remaining Fundamentalist Muslim dies in the American Territory of the Middle East (known as Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, and Lebanon.)

Iraq still closed off; physicists estimate it will take at least ten more years before radioactivity decreases to safe levels.

Castro finally dies at age 112; Cuban cigars can now be imported legally, but Pres Chelsea Clinton has banned all smoking.

George Z. Bush says he will run for President in 2036.

Postal Service raises price of first class stamp to $17.89 and reduces mail delivery to Wednesday only.

35 year study: diet and exercise is the key to weight loss.

Massachusetts executes last remaining conservative.

Supreme Court rules punishment of criminals violates their civil rights.

Upcoming NFL draft likely to focus on use of mutants.

Average height of NBA players now nine feet, seven inches.

Microsoft announces it has perfected its newest version of Windows so it crashes BEFORE installation is completed.

New federal law requires that all nail clippers, screwdrivers, fly swatters, and rolled up newspapers must be registered by January 2036.

Congress authorizes direct deposit of illegal political contributions to campaign accounts.

IRS sets lowest tax rate at 75%. The Year 2035

Submitted by Gwen Cottrell

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