Gene Dammon
The Port Arthur News
PORT NECHES —
There seems to be a great deal of dissention lately. By “lately,” I mean since humans have inhabited the earth. It started in the Garden of Eden, when the snake tempted Eve into tasting the forbidden fruit. Eve gave Adam a taste. “We better get some clothes on now,” they both agreed.
God knew at once, of course, and he called Adam and Eve on the carpet. “She made me do it,” Adam said. That infraction got them, and all of their descendants, kicked out of Paradise. And got the snake an eternal sentence of crawling on his belly. It seems there has been dissention among people, and loathing of the snake, ever since.
These days, dissention seems to center around political issues. And what is political? Almost everything. Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary isn’t a great deal of help: “political” has to do with the government of a body, as in, The Federal, or The State, government, but could as easily have to do with the government of a church or synagogue, of a university, or a school district. Or how a “Neighborhood Watch” is run.
What we in America are used to thinking about “government” is usually about some people we have elected at some level, to whom we have endowed a degree of trust, and from whom we expect a degree of integrity and a sense of urgency, towards seeing that our will – or at least the will of the majority of the electorate – is done.
This seems so fundamental to us, and we therefore take it so for granted, that we forget just how new, revolutionary, and unique this idea is: government of, by, and for, the people. Our ancestors accepted that a Royal Family made the rules, that the King, Queen, Pope, Premier, or Fuhrer, etc., was ordained by God and was infallible. That thinking led to the axiom: “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The strong ruled, by consent or by sword, and that was that. That was the old world. This is the new world. We, the people, are the government, though we tend to forget that.
For this new idea to work, however, several things must be guaranteed, things our predecessors realized and then codified as “The Bill of Rights,” the first ten amendments to our constitution. The First Amendment obliterates most of the foundation upon which the kingdoms and dictatorships of the old world were built. Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, and No State Religion, are incompatible with governments run by despots, whether religious or secular.
At the top of this page in the newspaper you see the heading, “Editorial.” On this page you and I are permitted to say whatever we choose in expressing our opinions, even if we choose to call the current government administration a dangerous collection of fools, for example, and have no fear for our safety.
That right is not negotiable — even if it offends any particular segment of this or any other society. For instance, a cartoon depicting Jesus as a homosexual, or a married man, while objectionable to me personally, is within the rights of the cartoonist. Granted, you are not likely to see such a cartoon in this paper. But if the cartoon made unflattering depictions about Mohammed, the same Constitutional protection is in force.
That, dear readers, is why Sharia law is incompatible with the American way of life. Muslims who come here need to understand that we are not picking on them, when we say, “you can keep your religion, as long as the practice of it does not violate our Constitution.” The ability of many Muslims to make that transition does not have a good track record. Some European nations have had to go to more restrictive immigration laws regarding Muslims, and find themselves in a continual struggle to keep their national identity intact when faced with the aggressive demands of their ballooning Muslim populations.
Our freedoms of speech and press have served us well, even though the energetic debates between political factions sometimes seems acrimonious. But at the end of the day, we know we are all still Americans, all still dedicated to the rights of all citizens. So overall it has been a political experiment that has worked out quite well.
If you come here from another culture, don’t expect us to change ours to suit your religious bias; by coming here, you have acknowledged that we have something better than what you are fleeing. Why try to establish here, the very thing you were willing, at great cost, to escape?
Gene Dammon of Port Neches is a contributing writer to the Port Arthur News. His e-mail address is: rdammon@gt.rr.com.
