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** WELCOME! ** HUMAN EVENTS is
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From the
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the Future covers election politics, national defense, education, the
environment, and the economy -- while always defending the values that make
America great.
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October 16, 2007
Vol. 2, No. 42
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It
Takes an Eagle Scout ... to Protect Faith in the People's House
All
17-year-old Andrew Larochelle wanted to do was
honor his grandfather.
Andrew was
being inducted into the Eagle Scouts, and he thought a wonderful way to
celebrate this achievement would be to honor the man of patriotism and
faith who was his inspiration.
So, as
approximately 100,000 other Americans do every year, he requested, through
his congressman's office, to have a flag flown over the U.S. Capitol. It
would be a gift for his grandfather, an Army veteran. Andrew asked that the
certificate accompanying the flag have this inscription:
"This
flag was flown in honor of Marcel Larochelle, my
grandfather, for his dedication and love of God, country and family."
(Continued below)
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A Government
Bureaucrat Removes God
But when
Andrew received the flag he had requested, government bureaucrats had
censored his tribute to his grandfather. The Architect of the Capitol,
which administers the flag program, had removed the word "God"
from the certificate.
The
radical secularists who want to see all references to God and faith driven
from our public spaces had claimed another casualty of religious freedom
and, in this case, free speech.
Democratic
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi initially defended the censorship, which is
particularly ironic, seeing as how references to God are throughout the
Capitol where she serves. As my book, Rediscovering God in America, details, public appeals
to God and faith are an inseparable part of our national heritage and are
present prominently in the Capitol.
Even the
document that most radical secularists claim gives them the justification
to censor public references to God -- the Constitution -- concludes with a
reference to "our Lord."
A Dangerous Precedent
Or maybe
these enemies of God in the public square did notice all these references
to faith and religion. Maybe that was the point.
As
Republican Congressman Eric Cantor (Va.) pointed out, the
Architect of the Capitol's policy of removing religious expressions from
flag certificates "establish[es] a dangerous precedent that, if left unchallenged,
could eventually lead to the removal of the word God from all government
buildings, currency and documents."
We Owe Andrew Larochelle and
Congressman Michael Turner a Debt of Gratitude
But this
story of a government bureaucrat's attempt to censor references to religion
in the people's House has a happy ending -- unlike many stories of faith
being purged from our public life.
The heroes
are Andrew Larochelle and his congressman,
Michael Turner (R-Ohio).
Andrew and
his family contacted Rep. Turner, and the congressman refused to let the
bureaucracy's religious censorship stand.
More then
100 of his Republican colleagues joined Turner in writing a letter to House
Speaker Pelosi demanding that the policy of deleting references to God from
flag certificates be abolished.
The letter
got right to the heart of the matter, stating: "The Architect's policy
prohibiting 'God' from appearing on certificates for flags flown over the
U.S. Capitol puts at risk our religious freedoms and heritage."
An Incomplete Victory for Religious Freedom
After
feeling the outrage of the American people, late last week, Acting
Architect of the Capitol Steven Ayers announced that the policy of
censoring religious statements was being "revised." But his
reasoning was flawed, to say the least.
The
Architect of the Capitol said that the policy was changed because it was "beyond the scope of this agency's
responsibilities to censor messages from members of Congress."
Notice
that he doesn't defend the legitimacy of religious expressions on the flag
certificates, just the illegitimacy of his office's censoring the requests
of members of Congress.
He doesn't
stand up for the right of religious expression, just the prerogatives of
members of Congress.
We can do
better. We must do better. Congressman Turner and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.)
are the sponsors of the "Andrew Larochelle
God, Family and Country Act of 2007."
Call your
senators and representatives now and demand that freedom of religious
expression in the people's House be affirmed, not just the right of members
to get their way with bureaucrats.
(Continued below)
Second Take on
Second Life
I've written before about the potential of metaverses such as Second Life -- online, virtual,
immersive 3-D worlds -- to radically transform how we work, play and
interact. The technology is still in its infancy, but it has the potential
to be as transformational an evolution in the way we use the Internet as
e-mail has proven to be since it was first introduced commercially in the
early 90s. By eliminating physical and geographical boundaries, metaverses could be the next step forward in human
cooperation and productivity.
It was
with this potential in mind that American Solutions hosted a workshop on
the potential of metaverses in Second Life during
our Solutions Day kickoff September 27. I spoke for about a half hour on
the virtual steps of the Second Life Capitol Building, just as 13 years ago
that day I spoke on the real steps of the Capitol to announce the Contract
with America.
One of the
members of Second Life News Media created a 10-minute video recap of the
speech for YouTube, which you can view here. After only a week, the clip has been viewed
more than 100,000 times. You can watch the entire Second Life workshop as a webcast at AmericanSolutions.com.
A Great American Institution Loses a Great President
Chris DeMuth, my friend and president at the American Enterprise Institute, this week announced he
will step down as president before the end of 2008.
Chris DeMuth led AEI for 21 years and was precisely the kind
of leader America most needs: a
president who takes seriously his responsibility for intellectual
integrity; a scholar who believes deeply in the importance of ideas; and a
man who inspires all those around him -- young and old -- to excellence and
achievement.
As a
senior fellow at AEI, I share Chris's view, expressed well in the Wall Street Journal last week that "it is imperative to maintain
intellectual sanctuaries in a world where Harvard University forbids the
discussion of certain important issues and Columbia University welcomes the
contributions of a master terrorist. Our sanctuaries have been instrumental
to the expansion of human freedom in recent decades. We are laying the
groundwork for further advances -- as opportunities arise, as they surely
will."
AEI is such a sanctuary.
The good
news is that, although Chris is stepping down as president, he intends to
remain at AEI as a scholar. I know I join all my colleagues in regretting
that Chris DeMuth will no longer be our president
but celebrating that he will now be our fellow scholar.
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Your friend,
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Newt Gingrich
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P.S. -- Cal Thomas has co-written with Bob Beckel a badly needed new book on how to replace red
vs. blue politics with red, white and blue solutions. It's called Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That is
Destroying America. It is gratifying to see more Americans -- Democrats
and Republicans, conservatives and liberals -- calling for a more
constructive and civil national dialogue. I recommend the book wholeheartedly.
(Continued below)
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