Don't Start the Revolution Without Me! - Jesse Ventura [83]
Another of the religious right’s scams is marching into public school science classes and trying to mandate teaching of “creation science,” as opposed to evolution. Somehow, they put evolutionism and creationism in the same category—believing that one makes the other impossible. But aren’t these two separate systems of knowledge? One is a scientific theory, the other is a religious doctrine. It’s kind of like comparing the law of gravity to the Sermon on the Mount. Evolution doesn’t pretend to disprove the Bible’s version of creation, or the belief in an all-powerful being as “prime mover” of the universe. Science only deals with what’s observable, definable, and measurable. It’s open to all possibilities, unlike creationism, which is a closed book. So leave evolution to the science teachers, and creation to the Sunday school of the parents’ choosing.
I find it one of the ironies of our times that DNA evidence is now considered indisputably scientific when it comes to convicting or releasing criminals. Yet, to many evangelicals, DNA evidence about how old the earth is or when we humans arrived here is dismissed—because the “literal truth” of the Bible says something different.
Given how many convicts awaiting capital punishment have been cleared because of DNA evidence, I no longer support the death penalty. Minnesota doesn’t have this on the books, so I’m thankful that, as governor, I never had to face the decision of whether to execute someone on death row. Again, I simply don’t believe that government has the inherent right to make those kinds of choices.
I don’t think that patriotism should be forced upon people, either. Patriotism comes from within. I learned about it from my mom and dad, from knowing that they went and fought in World War II. I don’t find it patriotic to make our youth pledge allegiance to their government. In fact, wasn’t that what the Hitler Youth did? Or something maybe the Taliban do today?
So when the Minnesota legislature passed a Pledge of Allegiance bill that would have required public school students to recite the Pledge, I had my veto pen ready again. That was the way my fourth, and final, legislative session ended. Let me expand on my reasoning a little bit. Take the “under God” part of the Pledge. If there is a child in school whose parents are atheists, why should there be a reference to God that they are forced to say? Yet what kid won’t do so, rather than face the pressure from their peers if they refuse?
Especially at these young ages, I call it brainwashing to make it mandatory to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. If a teacher wants to make this part of the classroom, all they need do is simply say, “You know, I’m very patriotic. And every morning when you come into class, I’m going to stand up and say a Pledge of Allegiance to my country. You’re welcome to join me if you’d like.”
In my opinion, this is even more apropos in a free society where we’re supposed to be able to protest our government if we don’t like what it’s doing. I saw a great bumper sticker recently, on a car being driven by an elderly couple in Minnesota. I’m going to use it now whenever I talk about my opposition to the Iraq War and to George Bush. It said, “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.”
Guess who said that? Thomas Jefferson. He is a helluva lot higher on my list than Bush, when it comes to who created this country and who knows what America is supposed to be all about.
“All that inspired by what the priests in Baja used to do to the Baja Indians?” Terry wants to know. I admit it’s pretty easy to get me standing on my soapbox, whether or not there’s anybody listening, something I do wonder about. We were back on Highway 1 again. Not far below San Ignacio, three spectacular