OCR Text |
Show EDITORIAL (We break with newspaper tradition and print this week's editorial on the front page.) In recognition of the upcoming one-year anniversary of the heinous attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the tragic events that took place on the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania on Sept. 1 1 last year, we invited our readers to submit (in 50 words or less because we anticipated antici-pated hundreds of replies) a statement about the way those profound events have impacted their lives over the past year. Of the very few responses we received, several were somewhat more lengthy and worthwhile, but because we had made the rules, we edited them down very close to the limit we had set, still hoping that more would come in. We hope that you'll read them, appreciate the thoughts of those who sent them, their willingness to speak out publicly, and most impor-: tant, exercise of their right to freedom of speech. To say that we were disappointed in the numbers received is to be honest. hon-est. It made us wonder if perhaps too many of us may have so quickly forgotten for-gotten or lightly treated those events. Have we also forgotten also those other lives that were sacrificed to keep us comfortable, safe and prosperous? What do we think when we see the saddest of all memorials, the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C. with that long list of names of those who died for us, or those endless end-less rows of crosses at Flanders Field, Arlington, or the Veterans cemeteries cemeter-ies the final resting places of those who died so long ago to preserve what we now enjoy? There was nothing quiet about the founding fathers of our nation and its early leaders. They spoke out fervently about what they believed: "Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever. " Thomas Jefferson on the Jefferson Memorial Washington D.C. "We have staked the whole future of American civilization not on the power of government; far from it: we have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves our-selves according to the Ten Commandments. " James Madison 4th U.S, President and One of the Framers of the Constitution "Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles." George Washington 1st U.S. President "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ" Patrick Henry "Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side, my concern is to be on God's side." Abraham Lincoln "He who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of Christianity shall change the face of the world." Benjamin Franklin "The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: that it connected con-nected in indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity. " John Quincy Adams 6th U.S. President and some U.S. Supreme Court decisions of the past that make us wonder won-der how far Supreme Court decisions of more recent years have strayed from their precedent: "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians as its rulers. " John Jay First Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Runkelvs. Winemiller, 1796: "by our form of government, the Christian religion is the established religion and all sects and denominations are placed on the same footing." U.S. Supreme Court Decision. People vs Ruggles, 1811: "Whatever strikes at the root of Christianity tends manifestly to the dissolution of civil government. " U.S. Supreme Court Decision Vidal vs. Girard's Executor, 1844: "The purest principles of morality are to be taught. Where are they to be found? Whoever searches for them must go to the source from which a Christian man derives his faith - the Bible." U.S. Supreme Court Decision and finally, we close with a message we have printed frequently: "If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways: then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and heal their land, " II Chronicles 7:14 The Bible |