Divided We Stand

Once upon a time we were the United States of America but that no longer seems to be the case. Why? What made the change? By act of Congress in 1782, the motto “E Pluribus Unum” (latin for “Out of Many, One”) was adopted but never put into law. It was, however, considered to be the de facto motto of the United States. The statue of liberty standing proud in New York harbor said it all:

“Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breath free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” – Emma Lazarus

We have also been called “a melting pot”.

America: A Melting Pot of Cultures. The United States is a country of immigrants. It is a place where people from all over the world come to build a better life. Some immigrants bring their families.

My, how times have changed. In 1954 Congress added “under God” to the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States making it . . . “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”.  Then in 1956 Congress passed an act making “In God We Trust” the official motto of the United States. This was done during Cold War when the“godless” Soviet Union was our enemy. These changes were made, apparently, to prove that not only was God on our side but that He hated the Soviet Union.

Of course, this flies in the face of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution adopted in 1791 which is as follows:

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.

But we did it anyway so the question then becomes, whose God, the Christian God, the Muslim God, the Hindu God (or Gods), the Native American God (or Gods), the Wiccan God (or Gods). What about Atheists or Agnostics, how do they fit into this? The evangelicals and the religious right now say that America is a Christian nation and that the founding fathers were all Christians. This is simply not true. Many if not most of the founding fathers were not Christians but Deists and Unitarians among several other beliefs or lack thereof. The Treaty of Tripoli, signed by President John Adams in 1797, even states that this country is not a Christian country. Article 11 reads:

Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen (Muslims); and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan (Mohammedan) nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

We now have a republican presidential candidate who wants to ban all Muslims from entering the country, wants to deport 11 million Mexicans and wants to build a wall along the entire Mexican border. And, to make matters worse there is a significant percentage of our population that agrees with him. When did “We the People” quit being “United”? There were always intolerant people here but now our new motto “In God We Trust”, meaning the Christian God, gave them the power to be intolerant bigots because, obviously, their God is the only God and the God on which this nation is based. This is absolutely not true and this intolerant, bigoted, racist attitude must be eliminated.

I suggest that the first step we should take to reverse this current trend in intolerance is to remove “under God” from the pledge of allegiance and make “E Pluribus Unum” our official motto again.