KPBS.org
citizenvoices

God Bless America?

May 01, 2008 @ 09:05 am by Trina Boice

Did you know today is the 57th Annual National Day of Prayer? Oh, stop rolling your eyes. Our country desperately needs all of the prayers it can get right now. The National Day of Prayer is an annual observance held on the first Thursday of May, inviting people of all faiths to pray for the nation. What? Are those crazy Christian fanatics at it again? No, this annual look to the heavens was actually created in 1952 by a joint resolution of the United States Congress (PDF), and signed into law by President Harry S. Truman.

"What about separation of church and state?" you worry (or in the case of Florida, the separation of church and plate). Where in the Constitution does it say as a nation we can't pray for divine guidance? Since the first call to prayer in 1775, when the Continental Congress asked the colonies to pray for wisdom in forming a nation, the call to prayer has continued through our history. Benjamin Franklin observed "the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men... and if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?"

I would submit that a nation can certainly fall without it. Some would say that America is on a precipice right now, very much in need of inspired aid.

Read full article

Posted In: National, Presidential | 5 Comments
Link to this:

Time for War on the War on Terror

April 01, 2008 @ 10:04 am by Chris McConnell

"I am a wartime President." - George W. Bush to Tim Russert before the 2004 Presidential contest.

Four years later and he's still very much a wartime president – it is in fact the most honest thing that can be said about his presidency. The next man or woman who swears the oath of office will inherit W.'s legacy and with it his mantel of Wartime President – none will relish and revel in it the way W. has and does.

Former presidents Abraham Lincoln (suspension of habeas corpus) and Harry S. Truman (seizing privately held steel mills) legitimized extraordinary executive acts as necessitated by wartime emergencies – both caught flak for it and both were rebuked by the courts. Bush has used the undeclared war in Iraq and more nefariously the War on Terror to pull off the most audacious and cynical power grab in the history of the American Presidency.

I don't think it is hyperbole to say that he has managed to blast a lasting crack in what seemed the most solid of American values –  the Constitutional system of checks and balances.

We have been taught and told that the War on Terror knows no single front and must be fought on all fronts at all times. The greatest weapon against terrorism, according to this President, is secrecy. Secret prisons, secret courts, secret wiretaps, secret renditions, secret violations of privacy and civil liberties.

Read full article

Posted In: National, Presidential | 6 Comments
Link to this:
Page 1 of 1 pages