quote:

Originally posted by spanner69:
..........Today is "Constitution Day" here in the US -- formerly
known as 'citizenship day,' .........

quote:

Originally posted by OldArmyWOPA:

quote:

Originally posted by spanner69:
..........Today is "Constitution Day" here in the US -- formerly
known as 'citizenship day,' .........

From the oath:
”I ... will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; ...”

More than 50 years after I took the oath for the first time, It still seems like an awesome responsibility.

At least that’s the way this old soldier and proud Coast Guard dad sees it!

quote:

Originally posted by spanner69:
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&...D60213FF97D69F613969

Today is "Constitution Day" here in the US -- formerly
known as 'citizenship day,' it's a day during which
we're encouraged to celebrate and acknowledge that
special piece of paper written all those years ago:
The backbone of our country, the Constitution.
Federal facilities (mail) and banks do not close, nor
do schools. However, all educational institutes are
mandated to provide lessons and programming on the
history of the Constitution today.

Ultimately its one of those holidays where, unless
someone specifically points it out to you, you may not
know it occurred -- or you'll hear about it a week
later (if not for thecarpetbaggerreport.com, I
certainly wouldn't have known).

So is this what has me riled up today? Not quite,
though it was the catalyst for my anger. It stems
mostly from a survey done by The First Amendment
Center-- their tenth annual survey on the 'State of
the First Amendment.' According to the results, there
are many people out there with a skewed perception of
what the Constitution means, versus what it CLEARLY
says in writing.

Take this into consideration: Sixty-five percent of
Americans believe that the founding fathers intended
the U.S. to be a Christian nation and Fifty-five
percent believe that the Constitution establishes this
country as a Christian nation.

And yet, what are the five freedoms declared by this
piece of paper? Freedom of speech, Freedom of Press,
Freedom of Assembly, Freedom of Petition. And of
course freedom of religion.

Read that again folks. Freedom of RELIGION.

Not once ANYWHERE in the constitution do the founding
fathers make reference to Christianity, God, any sort
of holy book or any specific religious icons. The
document is totally secular. One would imagine, given
how strongly these men felt about their newly created
rights and privileges, had they wanted to declare the
United States to have one religion and one religion
only, they would have named it. And yet these
individuals, who lived two hundred years ago, seem to
show more progressive thinking than people living
today.

Strangely enough and seemingly in contrast with the
above, the same survey results indicate that 97%
polled said that the right to practice one's own
religion was 'essential' or 'important.' Apparently
the caveat must be "so long as your religion is
Christianity" or "So long as when asked you say you're
Christian." I guess 'don't ask, don't tell' doesn't
just apply to the military.

Incidentally the majority of those polled couldn't
even tell what the five freedoms were. Most got
"Freedom of Speech" right, but stumbled on the others.

I know it seems like I'm constantly bashing religion
(or Christianity) here. In truth, I'm not. I'm
bashing two groups here -- the truth-warpers: Those
that know exactly what things like the Bible and the
Constitution say and mean and yet take advantage of
the scared, the impressionable, the uninformed and
warp their perceptions. And I'm bashing the idiots:
Those who listen to this claptrap without attempting
to educate themselves to the truth.

You can find all the results of the survey here. As
the blogger of the Carpet Bagger said, "Happy
Constitution Day. We have a lot of work to do."