There was an article on the Net by Reuters headlined “Court saysflag pledge violates Constitution.” As I read this article, I beganto get angry. The more I read, the angrier I got. Why? Because onceagain the courts of this country are bowing down, kissing thebehinds of the minority in an act of political correctness, insteadof adhering to tradition and the wishes of the majority.

Atheist Michael Newdow has a case in a California court seekingan injunction against a Sacremento school to keep them fromreciting the pledge.

The court said that “the school district’s policy with regard tothe pledge is an unconstitutional violation of the children’s rightto be free from a coercive requirement to affirm God.” Excuseme?

Wasn’t this country founded on Christian beliefs? Aren’t therepassages from the Bible and images of the Ten Commandments onfederal buildings?

Yes it was, and yes there are. While the Constitution of thisgreat nation grants its citizens the right to believe however theywish without fear of persecution, including the right not tobelieve, it also gives them the right to express those beliefs. TheFirst Amendment covers that, the right to freedom of speech.

Unfortunately, it also grants people who are in the minority theright to let fly from their lips whatever the heck they wish whenthey don’t like something the majority believes in and make a bigstink about it, such as with the pledge. We have the right to saythe pledge of allegiance if we want to, as we are guaranteed thatfreedom of expression by the same constitution this man and otherssay is being violated because we or children are reciting it usingthe words “under God.”

We as a society have become so politically correct, bending overbackwards so far to the point of breaking so as not to offendanyone that the majority of us are being offended. The handful ofchronic whiners out there are being given more consideration andrights than the vast majority of US citizens. Why should we changeour way of doing things because of they aren’t happy with it?

If this man or his friends don’t want their children recitingthe pledge because they feel it’s infringing upon their right notto believe in God, then by all means have the children leave theroom when it’s being said. If they don’t want to believe in God,then by all means don’t go to church and don’t believe. But theydon’t have the right to infringe on the rights of the rest of us,the majority of this country, who do believe in God, who do wish tosay the pledge.

If there is a television program you happen across while channelsurfing that you don’t care to see and everyone else wants to seeit, do you sit there and watch it anyway thinking it’s infringingon your right to watch something else or do you leave the room andfind something else to do or watch what you want to watch onanother TV in another room? Same principal. Have the kid leave theroom and let the rest of the class recite the pledge.

Why should we be concerned with something happening on the otherside of the country? Because what happens over there will open thedoor for other such occurrances. What happens there will eventuallytrickle over to the rest of the country, to our neck of the woods,and we will all be effected by this. The handful of disgruntled,misguided souls will have once again gotten over on the rest of us,and it’ll be just as much our fault as the courts’ because onceagain we wouldn’t have banded together as a country, as Christians,to say enough is enough.

I think it’s time we did just that, and I, for one, say to thosehandful of chronic whiners out there, “Enough!”

Katrina A. Case is a resident of Brookhaven.