By Don Feder
06/18/2012
If Barack Obama is re-elected, Greta Hawkins will be his next Secretary of Education. The principal of PS 90, Brooklyn’s Edna Cohen School, thinks a song about God and country could traumatize children.
The kindergarten class was rehearsing for their June 20 graduation when Hawkins stormed into the room and ordered the CD player shut off. It was playing Lee Greenwood's “God Bless The USA,” which the children were going to sing at the ceremony.
Teachers who were there said Hawkins told them, “We don’t want to offend other cultures.” And which cultures would those be? Unpatriotic druids?
Hawkins later offered another explanation, saying the lyrics were “too grown up” for 5-years olds, then provided a classic illustration of brain-dead bureaucracy in action by substituting Justin Bieber’s “Baby.”
In other words, “I’d thank my lucky stars to be living here today. ‘Cause the flag still stands for freedom and they can’t take that away,” is too much for impressionable minds, but “Are we an item? Girl stop playing,” is fine for 5-year-olds.
Luz Lozada, parent of a kindergartener at PS 90, was furious: “A lot of people fought to move to America, so that song (Greenwood’s not Bieber’s) should be sung with a whole lot of pride.” Lozada said that when “God Bless The USA” was featured at previous graduations: “Everybody applauded and whistled. They gave it a standing ovation.”
A doctrinaire multiculturalist with a chip on her shoulder the size of Obama’s ego, Hawkins also tried to end the tradition of starting the school day with the Pledge of Allegiance and singing “America The Beautiful.” “I’m black. Your previous principal was white and Jewish. More of us are coming,” Hawkins is reported to have said. Huh?
Called our second National Anthem, “God Bless America” was written by a Jew named Irving Berlin. Black patriots have served in every American war, from the Revolution to Afghanistan (while not always receiving the respect they deserved).
A face-saving compromise has been reached: Both the Bieber and Greenwood songs are out.
Instead, the kids will sing “America The Beautiful,” which invokes the Deity eight times, including “God mend thy every flaw.” It’s impossible to find a patriotic ballad that doesn’t acknowledge the Creator and beg His blessings, including “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” (“Our fathers’ God to Thee, Author of liberty….”) and “The Star-Spangled Banner” (“And this be our motto, In God is our trust.”).
In “Rediscovering God In America,” Newt Gingrich observed: “There is no attack on American culture more destructive and more historically dishonest than the secular left’s relentless effort to drive God out of America’s public square.” This multi-pronged offensive takes place in the public schools (especially over prayers at sports events), at city council meetings (regarding invocations), over holiday displays (Christmas trees, Nativity scenes, even candy canes) and on the college campus where Christian groups which won’t accept non-Christian leaders are banned.
There’s a rationale for every move to separate God and America: It’s a violation of the Establishment Clause. Calling a Christmas tree a Christmas tree is tantamount to a state church. When constitutional arguments fail, multiculturalism and sensitivity are rolled out. “We don’t want to offend other cultures.” And, my favorite, some people will feel excluded.
We should probably get rid of Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Those who didn’t serve must feel excluded. Father’s Day and Mother’s Day probably alienate non-parents. The 4th of July must make the president feel like an outsider.
This hyper-sensitivity applies only to favored minorities. If you’re a veteran, a patriot, a Christian, an observant Jew, a right-to-lifer or the average parent, and are rightfully offended by something repulsive you’re forced to subsidize, well – tough.
| • The June 5th Los Angeles Times describes a pioneering partnership between Planned Parenthood and the L.A. Unified School District. The nation’s largest abortion provider is now running clinics in the district’s schools, where students can get “free” (taxpayer-funded) and “confidential” (your parents will never know) services like birth-control devices, pregnancy testing, STD screenings – even the abortifacient morning-after pill. And if a 15-year-old needs to “terminate” her unplanned conception, I’m sure the in-school clinic will refer her to one of its other clinics, and perhaps even transport her there. Think anyone who hasn’t been liberally lobotomized is offended by this? • On Friday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ordered the U.S. Armed Forces to celebrate “gay pride” month, and thanked homosexuals in uniform for their service. “Now you can be proud of serving your country, and be proud of who you are,” Panetta prattled. I can think of a few million ex-servicemen who might be insulted by this obscene pandering to further the president’s agenda in an election year. • In 2003, U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton ruled that telling seventh-graders in California schools to memorize verses from the Koran, pray to Allah and simulate the Ramadan fast (as part of a history and geography class) does not constitute indoctrination. Families of 3,000 Americans who were murdered in the name of Islam on 9/11 might disagree. • Obama should write a book, “How to Alienate The Faithful In Ten Easy Steps.” Wall Builders’ David Barton calls him “America’s most biblically-hostile president.” That hostility is manifested by: refusing to host National Day of Prayer services in the White House (while never missing an opportunity to celebrate Islam); on at least two occasions, misquoting the unalienable-rights section of the Declaration of Independence by omitting the words “their Creator;” nominating three pro-abortion ambassadors to the Vatican (all rejected by Rome); leaving God out of his 2011 Thanksgiving Proclamation; opposing the inclusion of FDR’s D-Day prayer in the World War II Memorial; trying to force a contraception/abortion mandate on Catholic institutions and insisting that America is not a Christian country. He’s also the president most hostile to Israel and enamored of Islam. |
Try as they might to rewrite history, revisionists can’t overcome the fact that God, the Bible and Judeo-Christian morality are such an integral part of our national saga that it’s impossible to imagine an America without them.
The Mayflower Compact said the Plymouth Colony was “undertaken for the Glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith.” The earliest settlers were drawn to these shores by faith: the Puritans and Pilgrims in Massachusetts, Quakers in Pennsylvania, and Catholics in Maryland. And, Barton notes, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Georgia were “founded by ministers for religious purposes.”
The religious revival called the First Great Awakening led to the movement for separation from Great Britain. The Declaration of Independence refers to the Almighty as “Nature’s God,” “Creator,” “The Supreme Judge of the World” and “Divine Providence.”
When the Minutemen assembled on the Lexington common on April 19, 1775, the Rev. Jonas Clark was in the front rank. Up and down the 13 colonies, liberty was preached from pulpits. After a particularly fiery sermon, Lutheran Minister Peter Muhlenberg threw off his clerical robe to reveal the uniform of a Colonel in the Continental Army. The next day, he led 300 men from his church into that army.
In America’s second baptism by fire: the abolitionist movement came primarily from Northern churches. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was written by the daughter of a prominent religious leader.
Lincoln rallied a war-weary Union with the hope “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.” In his second inaugural address, our 16th president invoked God 14 times, and quoted Scriptures twice.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the president Obama compares himself to most often, declared in a May 27, 1941 radio address, that the war in Europe and Asia was “between human slavery and human freedom – between pagan brutality and the Christian ideal.” On October 27, 1941, FDR said the Nazis planned to “abolish all existing religions” and replace “the cross of Christ” with the swastika and a sword.
On D-Day, Roosevelt led the nation in prayer: “Almighty God, our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.”
It’s not that God has something to do with America. He has everything to do with America.
No encounter at Sinai, no impetus to create a shining city on a hill. No Pilgrims, Puritans, Quakers, etc. No Founding Fathers who took their inspiration from the Bible. Benjamin Franklin proposed for the Great Seal of the United States Moses extending his hand over the Red Sea, with the motto, “Rebellion to Tyrants is obedience to God.” Cast on the Liberty Bell is a verse from Leviticus (Chapter 25, verse 10).
No religious impulse, no abolitionist movement, no Civil Rights movement, either. No 1963 speech at the Lincoln Memorial, where the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. shared his dream that, “One day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places plains, and the crooked places will be made straight, and before the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.”
No hope of Heaven, no reason for young soldiers to make the ultimate sacrifice. No D-Day. No liberation of Nazi death camps. No one to thwart the advance of communism in the post-war era.
For that matter, no Israel, which was founded with the support of a president from the Bible Belt steeped in the history of ancient Israel.
No liberty and justice for all. No land of opportunity. No shores of refuge. No melting pot. No engine of prosperity. No workshop of industrial wonders and technological innovations. No example of liberty and self-government to people everywhere.
In short, dear Greta – dear ACLU, dear People for the American Way, dear Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, dear New York Times editorialists, dear president – no God, no America.
The Mayflower Compact said the Plymouth Colony was “undertaken for the Glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith.” The earliest settlers were drawn to these shores by faith: the Puritans and Pilgrims in Massachusetts, Quakers in Pennsylvania, and Catholics in Maryland. And, Barton notes, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Georgia were “founded by ministers for religious purposes.”
The religious revival called the First Great Awakening led to the movement for separation from Great Britain. The Declaration of Independence refers to the Almighty as “Nature’s God,” “Creator,” “The Supreme Judge of the World” and “Divine Providence.”
When the Minutemen assembled on the Lexington common on April 19, 1775, the Rev. Jonas Clark was in the front rank. Up and down the 13 colonies, liberty was preached from pulpits. After a particularly fiery sermon, Lutheran Minister Peter Muhlenberg threw off his clerical robe to reveal the uniform of a Colonel in the Continental Army. The next day, he led 300 men from his church into that army.
In America’s second baptism by fire: the abolitionist movement came primarily from Northern churches. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was written by the daughter of a prominent religious leader.
Lincoln rallied a war-weary Union with the hope “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.” In his second inaugural address, our 16th president invoked God 14 times, and quoted Scriptures twice.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the president Obama compares himself to most often, declared in a May 27, 1941 radio address, that the war in Europe and Asia was “between human slavery and human freedom – between pagan brutality and the Christian ideal.” On October 27, 1941, FDR said the Nazis planned to “abolish all existing religions” and replace “the cross of Christ” with the swastika and a sword.
On D-Day, Roosevelt led the nation in prayer: “Almighty God, our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.”
It’s not that God has something to do with America. He has everything to do with America.
No encounter at Sinai, no impetus to create a shining city on a hill. No Pilgrims, Puritans, Quakers, etc. No Founding Fathers who took their inspiration from the Bible. Benjamin Franklin proposed for the Great Seal of the United States Moses extending his hand over the Red Sea, with the motto, “Rebellion to Tyrants is obedience to God.” Cast on the Liberty Bell is a verse from Leviticus (Chapter 25, verse 10).
No religious impulse, no abolitionist movement, no Civil Rights movement, either. No 1963 speech at the Lincoln Memorial, where the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. shared his dream that, “One day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places plains, and the crooked places will be made straight, and before the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.”
No hope of Heaven, no reason for young soldiers to make the ultimate sacrifice. No D-Day. No liberation of Nazi death camps. No one to thwart the advance of communism in the post-war era.
For that matter, no Israel, which was founded with the support of a president from the Bible Belt steeped in the history of ancient Israel.
No liberty and justice for all. No land of opportunity. No shores of refuge. No melting pot. No engine of prosperity. No workshop of industrial wonders and technological innovations. No example of liberty and self-government to people everywhere.
In short, dear Greta – dear ACLU, dear People for the American Way, dear Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, dear New York Times editorialists, dear president – no God, no America.
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