Op-Ed
For God and Country No More
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Heartless, Not Stupid
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Reporting from Bataan in 1942, Army Lieutenant Colonel William Casey told NBC Radio that “there are no atheists in foxholes.” The opposite is now true when soldiers return home. The Department of Veterans Affairs adopted this policy last month when it banned the recitation of “The Meaning of Each Fold of an Honor Guard Funeral Flag” from military burials.
The recitation opens with “The first fold of our Flag is a symbol of life. The second fold is a symbol of our belief in eternal life,” and continues until the flag has been completely folded (13 times in total, one for each of the original colonies).
Last month, however, the Department of Veterans Affairs decided to put an end to this time honored tradition. After receiving just one complaint about the invocation of God in the flag folding ceremony, the National Cemetery Administration decided to permanently ban the practice from all 120 national burial grounds. The new policy does not even grant exceptions to families that want to see the ceremony performed.
The controversy stemmed from a service at the Riverside National Cemetery in California last September when the V.A. received a complaint about the meaning of the Eleventh Fold of the ceremony:
“The eleventh fold, in the eyes of a Hebrew citizen represents the lower portion of the seal of King David and King Solomon, and glorifies in their eyes, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”
Less than 100 hundred miles away from the Riverside Cemetery, atheists in San Diego are bringing suit against the city to remove a cross from the local Korean War memorial. The 30-foot tall cross has stood atop Mount Soledad for nearly a century.
The atheists contend that the cross violates the Establishment Clause and promotes feeling of exclusion. Sun columnist and San Diego native (not to mention Chosen Son of Israel) Noah Hy Brozinsky ’08 disagrees: “I can see why it’s wrong, but it does not bother me.” The immense popularity of the cross — in a 2005 ballot initiative, 76 percent of residents voted to save the cross by donating it to the federal government — has not stopped atheists in San Diego from foaming at the mouth in their bid to remove it.
The atheist attacks on “The Meaning of Each Fold of an Honor Guard Funeral Flag” and the Mt. Soledad Cross do not, by any means, represent a new trend in America; atheists and the American Civil Liberties Union have devoted nearly half a century to forcing religion out of the public square.
What is shocking about these events is the way in which the government is giving into the demands of these attention hungry heathens. These recent cases represent a most disturbing trend. It only took one complaint from one whining, narcissistic atheist to eliminate a longstanding tradition (and you know you’re in trouble when the Department of Veterans Affairs is surrendering without a fight).
It is easy to recognize why the government has taken these turns.
Much to the chagrin of liberals everywhere, the United States is one of the most religious countries in the Western world. But, luckily enough for the atheist bullies on the left, it also happens to be the most lawsuit crazed nation in the world. And these self-righteous anti-theist zealots should thank God — they would if they actually believed in Him — for judicial activism.
Michael Newdow and the American Civil Liberties Union may have failed to remove “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance. They may have even been laughed at for trying to excise “In God We Trust” from our nation’s currency. But their movement should not be dismissed.
Their ridiculous lawsuits have left the government paralyzed with fear. Their quest for a Constitutionally imagined “freedom from religion” has caused many public officials to feed tradition to the dogs.
The lack of tenacity in the defense of faith has only emboldened their movement. These nauseating activists have now begun to challenge the way that our country honors our fallen soldiers; heroes that gave their lives for God and country. They are desecrating the traditions that the Honor Guard has used to say goodbye to our nation’s bravest; they are denigrating the memorials that we put in place to honor their memories.
And we are letting them do it.
Fortunately enough for God fearing Americans, the spinelessness of V.A. does not reflect a shift in public attitude. Rees Lloyd, director of the Defense of Veterans Memorials Project for the American Legion of California, is not backing down from the fight:
“We will defy the ban … such issues should be decided by the veterans’ families, not by bureaucrats and lawyers in Washington, D.C., covering their own behinds in [fear] of lawsuits by the ACLU and others of its ilk on behalf of disgruntled atheists, agnostics, liberal secular-cleansing fanatics or Islamic jihadists.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Bill McMorris is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be contacted at bmcmorris@cornellsun.com. Heartless, Not Stupid appears alternate Wednesdays.
How is this about atheism?
As an atheist I find each of the phrases accompanying the folds entirely religious and certainly something I would not wish for in my funeral. However, the complaint was only because of the 11th fold. It appears the person complaining was OK with the other 12. That is hardly atheist.
You need to hang out with some atheists
Bill, I'm not sure what to say about this column in the short time I have but it seems to me you're jumping to conlusions and display a lot of ignorance. I would recommend you actively seek out atheists and speak with them instead of arguing with them and you should also call your local chapter of the ACLU to get their position on this and other issues of separation of church and state. It seems to me the ACLU toes a very fine line in attempting to keep government free of religion while defending religion's place in the public square. Take a quick look at snopes.com and look for the internet rumor that the ACLU is trying to remove crosses from military headstones at national cemetaries and then follow to the link to the actual ACLU position paper. I think you'll be surprised.
Bill, aren't you a little
Bill, aren't you a little too old to have an imaginary friend ? Come on now, time to grow up.
Please check into the facts...
Bill: You've made quite a few assumptions in this article. This so-called tradition is very new and only performed at a few cemetaries. My Father only died 3 years ago. He was buried at the military cemetary with full honors. There wasn't one word spoken. Certainly not during the flag folding portion. It was wonderful and full of honor for my Father's service to this nation. The silence made the 'click' 'click' 'click' of the bearers and the firing of the 21-gun salute stand out.
This recitation is something that has only been around for a short while and is not even uniform from one cemetary to another where it has been used. The person that complained that it was screwed-up during the recitation. The words were mispoken and mis-typed on the form that was given to the family.
The 11th fold, a tribute to Jewish veterans that "glorifies the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." In detailing its reason for the ban, the government said a handout accompanying the script used at some burial services included a "gross error" that glorified "the Gods Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."
I feel that the compromise is just fine...
Sup
On some level, I agree that the atheists you're talking about are tools. None of these things they're fighting for impose on their life; despoiling tradition is an ineffective M.O. On the other hand, your article reeks of bias. Our government is "paralyzed with fear" from the law-suits? God forbid the government be forced to follow its own laws. The language in your article is so virulent that it's hard to take you seriously. How can you quote somebody like Ress Lloyd, who groups Islamic Jihadists and atheists together? A baby when it is born has an absence of belief in God; it is an implicit atheist. Would you group newborns and islamic jihadists together? The grouping makes no sense! It's just disgusting rhetoric.
It seems as though the Cornell sun has no editor. How does such typo-riddled tripe actually make it through to one of the most prestigious university's papers? Anyway, I think you need to take a more balanced perspective next time you write an article.