April 13^th

Pat Buchanan is back again; still with his litany of unhappiness about how badly Christians are being abused. He claims that, “…Then followed the demand that no child be exposed to prayers or religious books nor have any day of the week set aside as a holiday if connected to Christianity. Out went Christmas and Easter in came winter break and spring break.”

Which public schools are open for classes on Sunday Pat? Which prayers and religious books should children be exposed to in our public schools? Don’t members of all faiths pay school taxes? Suppose we have a few weeks a year for Muslim prayers, perhaps time for Hindu and Sikh rituals? If we did that Pat would have apoplexy. He says, “Out went Christmas and Easter and in came winter and spring break.” That’s not even true in Washington D.C. Pat. Their school calendar does speak of winter break and spring break rather than Christmas and Easter…but they specifically mention Easter Monday as a holiday.

Of course there are other cities and other school systems that list their holidays differently; you probably didn’t bother to look at them. NYC public schools list Rosh Hashanah, Sept. 25^th as a holiday, as well as Christmas, Good Friday, Easter and Passover. I have no idea whether or not your comments referred just to the D.C. school system but that system is substantially smaller than New York City’s and there are many other school calendars across the country You need to get out more Pat, get out of the beltway and broaden your horizons.

Pat has a continuing problem with gay rights; he says, “first they demand that a bar…catering to homosexuals be left alone by the cops.” Then homosexuality becomes decriminalized and finally same sex marriage will be a right hidden in the constitution. No Pat that right, like the right to marry someone of a different “race,” was there all along.   

Pat seems to believe that the constitution can be set aside by majority vote; it can’t. Pat doesn’t understand SCOTUS very well. He says, “How is it that the greatest generation let itself…be dictated to by nine old men with lifetime tenure?”  It’s hard to know what Pat’s talking about here (There haven’t been nine old men on the court for nearly thirty-five years.) but it’s probably civil rights, legislation that Pat’s had stuck in his craw now for fifty years.  The greatest generation was composed of some black folks and white folks and maybe they all thought that black folks deserved better than to risk dying just to come back to second class citizenship. I guess Pat didn’t, and doesn’t, agree. 

Then on civil rights Pat claims, “That the segregationists held a pair of deuces. But a Christian majority that had the faith that created Western Civilization behind it rolled over and played dead. Christians watched, paralyzed, as their country was taken away from them.” Pat has always had trouble with civil rights and now he turns it back into a religious issue. Pat, even the Southern Baptists have apologized for their stand during and after the civil war. Civil rights legislation was decided 50 years ago Pat, get used to it.