A Crime for Prayer

It is clear that times continue to change. I have been able to see the changes that we face in my short lifetime. Perhaps I am beginning to understand the phrase "back when". This was especially true this week when I laid down at night and turned on the TV only to see the changes we see happen from day to day. The story that I saw on the news, two school officials are facing charges for blessing their food.

This last week two Florida school district officials are facing contempt charges for offering a prayer at a luncheon to dedicate a new athletics building for the high school. All employees in the entire district had been banned from promoting any religion to students by a court order, and when the administrators offered a blessing on the food, they where apparently in contempt of court and face charges for their actions.

I recall as a 5^th grader in my elementary school in TX, we had a prayer offered every morning as we started our day. We would hear the morning announcements, recite the Pledge of Allegiance, and a student would offer a prayer. I offered the prayer myself on several occasions, not out of malice, rather I wanted to show the respect I had for my classmates by offering a prayer of gratitude for the fortune we had of getting an education.

Are we not taking the separation of church and state a little too far? When is it that the state can prevent a group of adults from offering a prayer? The luncheon was for adults only. There were not student present. The ACLU claims that there were students present, but what they fail to mention was that the students were members of the culinary arts class who were responsible for preparing the food and were completely separated from the event preparing the food.

We should all be concerned with our right not to have another's beliefs forced upon us. Should that not, however, also apply to those of us who do have religious beliefs? Why is it that we are forced to have the beliefs of those who do not believe in a higher power forced upon us? Many believe that we offer blessings on the food that we eat. It is a religious principle that has existed for thousands of years. Those who have the belief that it does not matter, and yes it is a religious view, are considered agnostic. Why is the agnostic community allowed to force their non-belief on those around them? If a teacher wants to offer a prayer, let them offer a prayer. If a teacher fails a student because he will not pray with the teacher, arrest the teacher. Why are we so scared of being sued by the ACLU that we are allowing this idea that to be a government worker or to attend a school that we must have no religion?

We should offer prayer in school. It does not always have to be a Christen prayer. It should be Jewish, and Christen and Muslim. Diversity is not removing what makes us different, but embracing it. We are different. We always will be different, and trying to keep us from that is not helping. It only leads to well meaning school officials being brought up on criminal charges and facing jail time. It seems it is a pat on the back to believe nothing, and a crime from prayer.

Safety Second

President Obama seems to be showing the people that he is not the level headed man that can focus on running the government and not the problems that surround race. When asked about the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr., a black Harvard professor who was taken from his home in handcuffs, the president responded that the Cambridge Police Dept had "acted stupidly" in choosing to arrest the man. The President then went on to say that quote…

"…there's a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latino being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately"

It is clear that the President is more concerned with the feelings of the professor, who Obama freely admits is a personal friend, than that of the safety of the Cambridge Police Officers, or any police officer for that matter. If he was to take to time to study the situation and standard police procedures, the President would realize that the initial confrontation did not involve any wrong doing on the part of the officer.

A report was made that a break-in was in progress at the professor's home. When the officer arrived, he was alone and began to address the report. Not knowing what the situation was, the officer asked the person inside the home to identify themselves. When Gates refused, the officer informed Gates that he was investigating a report of a break-in. Gates response was to open the door and state… "Why, because I'm a black man in America?". Gates then went on to refuse to identify himself to the officer, according to the report. It was not till later that he chose to identify himself and provide a Harvard faculty ID.

I find nothing wrong with the actions of the officer involved, Sgt. James Crowley. It is standard that a law enforcement officer asks an individual to identify themselves when they arrive at the scene of an alleged crime. Only through this information can an officer assess the situation and act appropriately. Far too often, when someone is in the middle of committing a crime, they will flatly refuse to identify themselves in the hope of being able to avoid prosecution. This is why it is a common law in most states that you must identify yourself when ask to do so by a law enforcement officer in the performance of his duties. Failure to do such is considered probable cause for arrest until you can be identified. By failing to do such, Gates was not only creating a problem where one did not exist, but was implying to the officer that he had something to hide. Personally, if a police officer arrived at my home, after confirming that he was an officer, I would gladly identify myself and thank the officer for trying to protect my home.

We should be concerned that Gates, a professor at one of the most prestigious universities in the world, would immediately turn a simple attempt to provide service by a civil servant into a racially motivated attempt to persecute another being. We should be even more concerned that the champion of "Change" would not find it prudent to abstain from comment on the arrest of his friend, when there are much more pressing matter that he is responsible. It is clear that the President was not showing sound judgment when he chose to use the word "stupidly" rather than something that showed he was acting more from a position of concern and not of emotion.

Race relationships are something that we need to continue to work on, but we cannot expect for things to get better when the director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research does not seem to be able to avoid attacking the very men that are trying to protect his safety, or even worse, when the President of the United States of America does not find it prudent to avoid getting involved in a conflict in which there is so clearly a conflict of interest.

What will happen then next time that an officer is confronted with a man that is claiming racism when the officer asks the man to identify himself? Who will be responsible when that officer makes the decision not to place a man in handcuffs because he is concerned that the President of the United States may become involved, and then that officer is injured by the same individual in the commission of a crime.

If what the officer did was racially motivated, that the act is reprehensible, but it is not the true issue. We need to overcome our racial stereotypes, regardless of who we are: a police officer, a construction worker, and student, and stay at home mother or president of a country. Only then will we be able to fulfill the potential that we have as a people.