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Wednesday, May 19, 2004

My Amendment

Freakin' comments won't let me comment, once again. Ergo, I shall post my answer to Ann's writing assignment.

This is a tough assignment, Ann, for all the reasons you cite, and also because I didn’t come up with it myself. I’m excited; it's good to be stretched. My initial thought was also to shorten the workweek, only--Pinko Commie that I am—I was going to make it 35 hours. You talked me right out of that. Most logical.

Next on the agenda would be to clarify the separation of church and state. To do so, we return to the roots of that separation: People were tired of being forced to pay taxes to/worship at the Anglican Communion, even if they didn’t particularly believe in it. So, we write something like:

No person shall be forced to participate in any worship of any kind; nor shall any person be prevented from any worship s/he desires, unless it breaks some other Law deemed constitutional or causes direct harm to others. [Note: I know “causes direct harm to others” is a loophole waiting to happen; any suggestions for improvement are most welcome.] Any government-sponsored place that a person would attend by mandate—including but not limited schools, prisons, and courthouses—shall be free of public worship, proselytizing for any faith, and displays of religious symbols, although its employees and the aforementioned attendees may worship or carry religious symbols privately and discreetly in said place. Religious organizations shall not pay tax dollars, nor shall they be allotted tax dollars. Likewise, no one shall use a public court to sue a religious organization, nor shall a religious organization use a public court to sue another party, unless the alleged crime allegedly violates this Constitution. [Not sure why I added the bit about courts, but it seems like it might be helpful.]

This all might get a little tricky, though. Perhaps, if we amend the Constitution of this great nation at all, we should simply add the pithy saying, “Your right to swing your fist ends where my face begins.” Then again, many people (imagination-lacking Fundamentalists of all stripes) would interpret this literally.




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