{"id":180,"date":"2005-12-11T23:50:53","date_gmt":"2005-12-12T05:50:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/?\r\n\r\np=180"},"modified":"2005-12-13T17:36:47","modified_gmt":"2005-12-13T23:36:47","slug":"bill-of-rights-dinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/nada\/dump-duhbya\/bill-of-rights-dinner\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill of Rights Dinner"},"content":{"rendered":"

This social season led <\/p>\n

us out a second night in a row, this time to the annual Bill of Rights Dinner for the ACLU in New <\/p>\n

Mexico<\/a>, for whom I am the webmaster.<\/p>\n

A few hundred folks gathered in a large room at the Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town <\/p>\n

(formerly the Old Town Sheraton). For many, it was a chance to see old friends seldom seen otherwise. The crowd was more old than young, <\/p>\n

but less so than at a PBS fund-raising concert. It was a drastically white crowd, hovered over by a largely Spanish-speaking wait-crew.<\/p>\n

Some may have been drawn specifically by Phil Donahue, whom we can blame for starting the whole day-time talk(back) show concept. <\/p>\n

Like it or not, Phil’s love-child is Jerry Springer or, shudder, Tyra B(l)anks.<\/p>\n

But, what do you know, an old white guy who <\/p>\n

frequently references his Catholicism opposes the corporate takeover of America with the assistance of the Army of God, the Radical <\/p>\n

Religious Right. A guy who must have enriched more than one corporation finds himself shutdown for speaking up. If the Right can revere a <\/p>\n

spoiled, failed faux-Texan, it’s no worse that the Left might support a daytime talk show host. Only in AmeriCo.<\/p>\n

I appreciated <\/p>\n

hearing that his first guest 40 years ago was Madalyn Murray O’Hair<\/a>, the atheist’s messiah (sorry, that would only <\/p>\n

irritate her). It was good to be reminded that 50 years ago the ACLU supported Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses who refused to pledge allegiance to America<\/a>. Between Supreme <\/p>\n

Court decisions against and in favor of the abstainers, Jehovah’s Withnesses were beaten, scorned, and churches burned. Finally, the <\/p>\n

Supreme Court decided that under the Federal Constitution, compulsion is not a permissible means of achieving “national unity.” These <\/p>\n

days, Fox News does the job.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Court Decisions – West Virginia State Board of <\/p>\n

Education v. Barnette<\/a><\/p>\n

Symbolism is a primitive but effective way of communicating ideas. The use of an emblem or flag to <\/p>\n

symbolize some system, idea, institution, or personality, is a short cut from mind to mind. Causes and nations, political parties, lodges <\/p>\n

and ecclesiastical groups seek to knit the loyalty of their followings to a flag or banner, a color or design.<\/p>\n

The State announces <\/p>\n

rank, function, and authority through crowns and maces, uniforms and black robes; the church speaks through the Cross, the Crucifix, the <\/p>\n

altar and shrine, and clerical raiment. Symbols of State often convey political ideas just as religious symbols come to convey <\/p>\n

theological ones.<\/p>\n

Associated with many of these symbols are appropriate gestures of acceptance or respect: a salute, a bowed or <\/p>\n

bared head, a bended knee. A person gets from a symbol the meaning he puts into it, and what is one man’s comfort and <\/p>\n

inspiration is another’s jest and scorn.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

O, the times they keep a changin’.<\/p>\n

I was particularly touched by Donahue’s observation that he used to wonder how we could have rounded up Japanese Americans for <\/p>\n

internment but now understands how fear drives us to do our worst, drawing an apt parallel. I hope he was wrong in believing things will <\/p>\n

get much worse — I take hope from seeing so many of BushCo’s excesses challenged by the left and right. mjh<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Court Decisions – Religious Freedom Page<\/a><\/p>\n

FIRST AMENDMENT CYBER-TRIBUNE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This social season led us out a second night in a row, this time to the annual Bill of Rights Dinner for the ACLU in New Mexico, for whom I am the webmaster. A few hundred folks gathered in a large room at the Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town (formerly the Old Town Sheraton). For … Continue reading Bill of Rights Dinner<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dump-duhbya"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}