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IN GOD WE FUSS
Plans to put this poster in high school classrooms are met with both praise and protest
| Monday, Oct 1 2007 11:40 PM
Last Updated: Monday, Oct 1 2007 11:54 PM
The phrase "In God We Trust" has no place in the public classroom -- so said most citizens speaking out at the Kern High School District board meeting Monday.
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Bakersfield City Councilwoman Jacquie Sullivan, founder of In God We Trust — America Inc., holds up a framed poster that trustee Chad Vegas would like to place in every classroom in the district.
Jared Thomas raises his fist during the reciting of the pledge of allegiance led by Bakersfield City Councilwoman Jacquie Sullivan at the start of the Kern High School District meeting Monday night in Bakersfield. Thomas felt that his gesture was meant to be a “stand of resistence when people are trying to consolidate power politically.”
Al Steuart, a retired educator, speaks against the proposal by describing to the Kern High School trustees how the German soldiers in World War II had belt buckles inscribed with the saying “Gott Mit Uns” (God with us).
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The meeting saw speakers argue both for and against a proposal by trustee Chad Vegas to place posters of the national motto in every high school classroom in the district.
"This is a beautiful poster, I don't deny it," said Bonnie Birch holding a sample of the proposed classroom signs. But the word "we" means all of us, she said and "in our community, our diverse community, gentlemen, there are a lot of students who would be made uncomfortable. ... No child should be made to feel excluded."
Bakersfield City Councilwoman Jacquie Sullivan's nonprofit organization, In God We Trust -- America Inc., proposed the idea to Vegas and would donate the posters.
"It became our motto back in 1956 when Americans needed to be encouraged and inspired," Sullivan said. "Certainly our students need that today more than ever."
Vegas' effort did garner support.
"I truly, truly agree it needs to be done," said Tami McClelen, whose son graduated out of the district a few years ago.
"Not only I think would this promote our nation's history," said Jessica Boden, Sullivan's granddaughter, "I think it encourages patriotism in our students, which is love of God and love of country, regardless of what god you worship."
But citizens who were moved to address the board spoke of other implications.
Some said the posters cross the boundary separating church and state under the First Amendment of the Constitution. Religion is a private matter and should be taught in the home and church rather than public school, some said.
A retired educator from Wofford Heights said declaring a belief in God doesn't necessarily imply goodness.
"Nazi soldiers had emblazoned on their belt buckles 'Gott Mit Uns,' which means 'God with us.'" Al Steuart said. "I would not like to see us be placed in the same historical category as Nazi soldiers."
The agenda item also drew out a couple of protesters from the Bakersfield chapter of The World Can't Wait -- Drive Out the Bush Regime! saying the posters were another way to push religion in the classroom and ignore science.