kitsap_charles | I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more!

This is the text of an email letter I sent to my Senators, Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray:

As a constituent, and as a member of a non-mainstream minority religion, I was appalled and dismayed at your decision to turn your back on a key provision of the First Amendment, the principle of separation of church and state. I understand the need to appear patriotic before the cameras, but true patriotism sometimes requires one to take an unpopular position.

I believe Judge Goodwin took a brave stand in affirming a precious bulwark of freedom and liberty: the Senate's resolution to support the Pledge of Allegiance is misguided at best, and diverts that body's attention from the far more pressing problems facing America today.

I would much rather see you and your colleagues seeking the truth about the 9/11 attack and what could have been done to prevent it. I would rather see you insisting that former Governor Bush, former Secretary Cheney, and their corporate-sponsored appointees answer the hard questions about who knew what, and when. I would rather see you and your colleagues asking why the Hart-Rudman report on homeland security was so blatantly ignored.

I would rather see you and your colleagues asking the Attorney General why it appears necessary to abrogate the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth AND Tenth amendments to the Constitution, why he refused to consider funding counterterrorism efforts until far, far too late.

I would rather see you and your colleagues grilling the executive officers of Enron, Global Crossing, Worldcom, and so many others as to their malfeasance and fraudulent dealings.

I would rather see you and your colleagues working for a just, lasting peace in the Mideast, South Asia, and the rest of the world. I would rather see America fulfilling its treaty obligations instead of unilaterally rescinding them.

I would rather see you protecting the environment from rapine and greed, protecting our judiciary from ultra-conservative ideologues, protecting our freedom from a government intent on crushing it.

I would rather see you doing almost anything EXCEPT holding one of America's core principles at arm's length to pander to the majority.

If you're as upset as I am about the foofraw over the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' decision that the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance violate the First Amendment principle of separating church and state, then I urge you to write your Senators-- all of whom voted to cater to the tyranny of the majority-- and tell them what you think.

And if you think they did a good job, and that the so-derided "liberal" jurist-- who just happens to be a Republican, appointed to the Court of Appeals in 1971 by Richard Nixon-- made what Senator (or rather, Vice-President Elect) Lieberman called the most senseless, ridiculous decision issued by a court (might I suggest Bush v. Gore?), then tell your Senators that as well.

Speak up. Be heard. Get off your ass and do something!