National Day of... Really, Guys?

So, I can't pretend I've actually been paying a whole lot of attention (what with studying for exams and writing end-of-term papers taking precedence over even my blog-reading addiction), but even I know that today was the National Day of Prayer.

A friend of mine put forth the opinion that given that today is Cinco de Mayo, the National Day of Prayer probably should've come afterward, so that folks could easily repent for their tequila-fueled transgressions.

Of course, I opined that the whole thing was planned on the fifth on purpose so as to try to offset some of the terribly unamerican partying that goes on. I mean, what's less American than celebrating a Mexican holiday?? We'll only encourage illegal immigrants like that! Clearly we should all get down on our knees and pray for those damn dirty Mexicans to get out of our country and stop doing the jobs no one else wants to do. Like construction. Or farm work. You know, all those unnecessary things that we couldn't possibly pay a fair wage for.

To be quite serious, though, government sponsorship of this kind of event is unconstitutional and divisive. I'd also suggest that the people in charge of this nonsense bone up on classics like the Treaty of Tripoli. Not that they'd actually give a damn about anything that didn't support their desire to push their beliefs on others.

And it's not that I've really got much hope left for politicians, especially any in the "moral" majority, but somehow my opinion of the government just keeps sinking and sinking. Oh well, I'm surely getting old and jaded.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the little protest at the Planned Parenthood here in Blacksburg. Because just praying for all the poor little bunches of cells isn't enough.

Sigh.

Why I Support Planned Parenthood

Really, I have to be honest, I feel that most of this should go without saying to anyone who knows anything about women's rights or the state of health care and sexual education in the United States.

Even without bringing a woman's right to sovereignty over her own body into this by arguing for the legality of abortion, there is no doubt in my mind that the Republican party is trying to whittle down women's rights with this legislation. Only a tiny fraction of what Planned Parenthood does is related to abortion, and the rest of it? Well, the rest of what they do just as clearly empowers women, but in much less controversial ways.

Planned Parenthood provides birth control. They provide STD testing. They provide general health care and test for problematic conditions. They help improve women's body image. They provide care to pregnant women, and promote healthy relationships, and educate women about their sexuality and how to have a safe sex life. They even provide services to men!

Why We'll Never Reach Utopia

With all that is going on these days, from the protests in the Middle East to the bill passed by the House to pull funding from Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers to the resistance against prohibiting unions in Wisconsin (of course, the Social Problems course I'm taking now and the Morality & Justice course from last semester may have a bit to do with my thinking as well...), I really have to wonder what it would take for governments to actually do what I've always been told is their job: Protect the people of the nation through law and regulation.

The fact of the matter is, while this is a lovely utopian ideal, governments have never done this in a satisfactory manner. There is no government in the world that has ever been able to offer true equality of treatment. There has always been an unequal distribution of power, and those who possess that power are in no hurry to let go of any of it. Whether the imbalance is fiscal or political, it seems that the priority of equality and actually doing the job right has always taken a backseat to the priority of maintaining power.

But would it hurt to try to get it right on occasion?

In God We (Should Not) Trust

"In God We Trust." That's the lovely message we get every time we save up quarters for laundry, or pay cash for our groceries. Schoolchildren are made to repeat the sentiment that all of our country is superseded by a divine power when they recite the Pledge of Allegiance every day.

And some members of Congress feel that we don't remember it enough.

As a nation that at least tries to maintain the appearance of opposing government-sponsored religion, the United States seems to be doing a poor job at keeping God out of government when Congressmen are sponsoring bills like this one: