Re: vision2020-digest Digest V01 #250

["Earth Life" <onewildearth@hotmail.com>]

America is indeeed a melting pot of cultures, ideas, languages, food, music, 
political ideologies, religions and other things that make us diverse.
America's "culture" is influenced by all Americans.  It is not corporate.  
It is not consumerism.  It is not your way or my way.  It is Freedom and the 
ability to choose the lifestyle most suited for the individual.  There 
certainly are laws which attempt to restrict a person's personal life 
choices, but they are made by people who are unaccepting of other people's 
point of view.
English is our national language, but it does not mean others can not speak 
spanish, russian or martian.
Our constitution has given us unalianable rights.  Free speech, the right to 
assemble and the separation of church and state are crucial for insuring 
that Americans have the freedom to not comform to supposed religious 
foundings.
We are not a Christian nation.  God means many things to many people.  A 
person may believe in God, but that does not mean that person is Christian.
It does seem odd to me that many of our national identities (money, national 
athem) contain the word "God" in them.  This seems a contradiction to the 
"separation of church and state" ammendment to the Constitution.  That is, 
it seems unconstitutional.  Thus the controversy over school prayer and the 
like.  If this issue was not important, I doubt the founders of America 
would have included that ammendment in the Constitution.  But obviously they 
saw the importance of keeping religion out of government.  Perhaps religious 
or moral views are imposible to separate from political leanings, but it is 
important to be aware of the fact that our founders specified the desire to 
keep religion out of politics.
In my opinion, we cannot aspouse to be a free and democratic country if our 
policies limit the freedom people have in regards to lifestyle choices.  As 
long as that person is not hurting another, that person should be allowed 
that freedom.
We all have our ideas of what it means to be an American.  Stand up for your 
beliefs, but don't force them on another person.  If someone agrees with 
what you say, it's probably because they appreciate your lifestyle, not 
because they are made to conform.

Garrett Clevenger

"What are we doing to our Home?!:("



>From: vision2020-digest-request@moscow.com
>Reply-To: vision2020@moscow.com
>To: vision2020-digest@moscow.com
>Subject: vision2020-digest Digest V01 #250
>Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 18:38:28 -0700 (PDT)
>
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