This is a report on Atheists United's Indivisible Day activities in 2008 and my participation in them. AU has no activities planned yet to mark it this year:
Indivisible Day is a holiday first proclaimed on July 4, 2002 by Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura. It celebrates the unique secular nature of the American Constitution and offers a counterpoint to all that piety political candidates seem to be expressing these days. There were a number of demonstrations for it here in Southern California. I attended a small one at the Ventura County Government Center..jpg)
We had about a dozen demonstrators there drawn from humanist and freethinker groups from Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. We held up signs with slogans on them like, "E PLURIBUS UNUM", "BRING BACK THE ORIGINAL PLEDGE (of Allegiance)", "KEEP THE PULPIT OUT OF POLITICS (this one was my personal contribution)", etc. A couple of hundred free pies bearing the original version of the Pledge of Allegiance on the container were handed out to onlookers. We also played patriotic music and songs like John Lennon's "Imagine" over the loudspeakers. Audience reception of everything but the pies was mild interest for the most part but I did get to talk to a few people who came up and expressed support and sometimes astonished delight to find that groups like ours existed.
I was one of five speakers, all of whom did bang-up jobs. Here's the text of my speech:
INDIVISIBLE DAY
My name is Hugh Kramer but my name is less important to me than a title I bear; that of citizen of the United States of America. I am proud of that title and would rather be a citizen of the United States than any other nation in the world. I am proud of it not because of our military might or industrial power; other nations have been strong in both before. No, I am proud because we, first among nations, defined the principles of freedom and civil liberty as the basis of our government and still work to make those principles equal for all.
Today, a group of people have gathered here to protest what they regard as an infringement against the Constitutional principle of separation of Church and State; the 1954 addition of the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance. It’s a hot button issue for a lot of people. Those for it and those against it will often argue over the precise meaning of those parts of the First Amendment that refer to the establishment of religion or the free exercise of it. Others talk about the intentions of the Founding Fathers and whether or not this country was established as a Christian nation. Me, I just want to talk about what the concept of civil rights and liberties means for each and every one of us. Don’t be afraid to stick around and listen. I promise it’s not as dry a subject as it sounds!
There’s nothing mysterious about civil liberties. They are the rights and privileges citizens of a nation define for themselves when they set up a government. In the United States they include freedom of speech, of religion; freedom of assembly and of the press. These and other rights, along with the rules the government is run by, are set down in a contract called the Constitution, and it behooves us to know where the ideas and ideals set down in this extraordinary document come from.
And it really is an extraordinary document; the first of it’s kind where neither the power nor the inspiration descends from a monarch, earthly or divine. Instead, right from the very first word and all throughout, it’s clear that sovereignty is derived from “we the people.” Now you all probably had to memorize the preamble to the Constitution while you were still in school but now, with maturity aiding your reasoning, I think it bears repeating:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
It’s a great principle, that “we the people.” Sovereignty resides in us. We decide how to govern ourselves. We decide the rights and privileges that government guarantees. And with these rights and this new font of sovereignty, the Constitution becomes not only a humane document, but a very human one; for it enshrines the principle that the security and rights of the people is the most important reason for government to exist.
Some people today still think that certain groups seem to get more rights than others; that this minority or that minority gets special treatment by legislation or judicial activism, often at the expense of the majority. That is simply not so. No group, either minority or majority has civil rights. The special genius of the Founding Fathers was the realization that civil liberties and rights reside in the individual and not in any group. This was done because the Founding Fathers were quite aware that, if unfettered by law, tyranny by the majority against a minority can occur in a democracy as readily as it can through the will of any despot.
Now we’ve never been a perfect country and we definitely didn‘t start out that way. Certain compromises were made that, even at the time, many recognized were inconsistent with the concept of “liberty and justice for all.” But the ideal was there; enshrined in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. And the entire history of our nation from that day to this has been the struggle to extend the equality and rights of that ideal to every segment of our society.
Do you know that when this country was first formed, only men of property had the right to vote? Since that time, restrictions on the rights of the individual based on race, on gender, on religion and on social status have been successfully fought and eliminated. But the battle’s not over yet. There are still people out there who think that, because their view is the majority one, they have the right to use the power of government to push their agenda on everyone. Such is the case with the 1954 addition of “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance. It amounts to a government endorsement of religion in general and monotheism in particular. There are significant minorities of people in this country who are not monotheists. They may be atheists, agnostics, Wiccans, Buddhists, Hindus or what have you. But it doesn’t matter who they are or how many they are. If only one person or even one child is confronted with the choice of having to say or not say the Pledge in it’s current form, then the “indivisibility” that pledge boasts of, is made a mockery.
Now it’s true that, for the most part, no one is forced to say the Pledge, but it’s kind of hard to avoid it. It opens sporting events, city council meetings and, more importantly, it’s recited every day in school. Think of a child, perhaps your child or your neighbors, being the only one in an entire class not saying the Pledge of Allegiance. All eyes are on him or her, perhaps even those of the teacher. The pressure to conform has to be enormous. Should any child be forced to face that kind of pressure simply to remain true to his or her own conscience?
It may not be your child or you this time, but once you agree to the idea that the will of the majority trumps the rights of the individual, everyone’s rights are endangered. You may not always hold the majority viewpoint on issues of conscience. Your child may not always hold the majority viewpoint. It may get pushed on them anyway. This is not what the Founding Fathers meant when speaking of freedom of conscience, of religious freedom and the right of the individual to pursue his or her own destiny within the framework of just and equal laws. The fight for civil rights and civil liberties will not be over until we realize, as a nation, that the foundation of these rights resides in the individual and only in the individual.
That’s why, when someone tells me that America was founded as a Christian nation, I regard the idea as absurd as saying it was founded as a white nation or a male nation! Now, while it’s true that the majority of the country at founding was Christian and that all of the members of the constitutional convention were white and male - and that males were the only ones allowed to vote, it’s flat out wrong to say that the ideals they espoused and committed to the Constitution were religious, racial or sexual in character.
Men like Washington, Franklin, Jefferson and others espoused the ideals of that all-too-short period in human history called by names like “the Enlightenment,” or “the Age of Reason.” They got their ideas from the works of philosophers like Montesquieu and John Locke, of deep political thinkers like Jefferson and Madison and humanist authors like Thomas Paine. And few if any of their ideas -were inspired by religion, or race, or gender.
I’d like to leave you with one final thought. There are no minority rights. There are no majority rights. There are only human rights. If and when tyranny comes to America, it will come wrapped in the flag, blaring patriotic music, with eyes piously lifted and the cheers of the crowd ringing in every ear. So remember; remember the individual - you may not agree with what he believes, but his freedom is also your own. Thank you.
***
Here's the text of another 2008 Indivisible Day speech given by Stuart Bechman, then president of AU. Currently Stuart is serving as president of the Atheist Alliance International (AAI).
Photo Credit:
1) It's a grand old flag and it belongs equally to all Americans
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This article, with some changes, is a reprint of one that was used last July 4th.
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Comments
Nice article but I am proud to be a canadian, we are multicultural, a democracy where enterprise can flourish along side social programs for the disadvantaged, freedom of speech, freedom of political affiliation freedom of religion, we pride ourselves on our cultural freedom and diversity.
We have universal health care, and even though our system is aging and far from perfect it is still considered one of the best health care systems in the world, (usa ranks 37). And I would want to live anywhere else in the world.
I don't even lock my doors at night. I live in a big city as well. And without throwing caution to the wind, I am not afraid to walk the streets at night. The biggest crime in canada according to stats can is cheque fraud, that beats homocides any day.
foood for thought....and BBQ on the fourth luv it!
Good article making excellent points. It is hard for kids to make such a statement, and hard to memorize the pledge with the pause to leave out the "under god" offensive addition.
Excellent speech, Hugh! It would have been enjoyable to hear you deliver it.
Agreed, exellent speech.
One wonders why Terry is again silent on the subject... ?
thank you for this insightful article
Interesting article. Thanks from a subject of the 51st State. Just a short clip for thought on "Human Rights" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh3BbLk5UIQ
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