The Burning Alchemist

From The American President

I just recently received the following email from a friend

FW: It has begun...Refuse new coins!

Not a difficult thing to do and I believe that “In God We Trust” should not be removed from our money. Besides, who wants more coins to throw in your pocket or purse.

 

REFUSE NEW COINS

This simple action will make a strong statement.

Please help do this.. Refuse to accept these when they are handed to you.

I received one from the Post Office as change and I asked for a dollar bill instead..
The lady just smiled and said 'way to go', so she had read this e -mail.

Please help out...our world is in enough trouble without this too!!!!!

 

U.S.Government to Release New Dollar Coins

You guessed it
'IN GOD WE TRUST' IS GONE!!!
If ever there was a reason to boycott something, THIS IS IT!!!!

DO NOT ACCEPT THE NEW DOLLAR COINS AS CHANGE

Together we can force them out of circulation...

If you agree, you might want to;
send to all on your mailing list!!!

In GOD we trust!

As did our forefathers!

As it turns out the motto has merely been move to the edge of the coins.

However, I still felt like I needed to put my 2 pence in, and here is my response.

Considering that "In God We Trust" was a relatively recent addition to our currency and national motto, I don't see what the big deal is.

http://ffrf.org/timely/igwt/

Also, by my understanding, many of our founding fathers were deists, and at any rate they were explicitly against any influence of religion within the government (http://candst.tripod.com/bjcpa1.htm), and would have been appalled at the concept of having this motto attached to our currency and government.

In my opinion, we should honor our founding fathers' will by removing "In God We Trust" and leaving "E Pluribus Unum" as our sole national motto as it far better encapsulates what we are as a country where our greatest strength is in our diversity of peoples, philosophies and faiths.  To me faith is a very personal thing and as a society we should let not one faith or group of faiths be granted ascendancy over the others, as we can learn things of value from all of them, and then we can use that learning as the foundations of a wisdom that can let us govern ourselves with justice, compassion and fairness to all of the peoples of this world.

This was posted to one of the email lists that I'm on and the poster encouraged us to pass it on.  I thought that this was a good place to post it.

We rarely get a chance to see another country's editorial about the USA.

Read this excerpt from a Romanian News paper. The article was written by Mr. Cornel Nistorescu and published under the title 'C'ntarea Americii (meaning 'Ode To America') in the Romanian newspaper Evenimentulzilei 'The Daily Event' or 'News of the Day'

~An Ode to America~

Why are Americans so united? They would not resemble one another even if you painted them all one color! They speak all the languages of the world and form an astonishing mixture of civilizations and religious beliefs.

Still, the American tragedy turned three hundred million people into a hand put on the heart. Nobody rushed to accuse the White House, the Army, or the Secret Service that they are only a bunch of losers. Nobody rushed to empty their bank accounts. Nobody rushed out onto the streets nearby to gape about. Instead the Americans volunteered to donate blood and to give a helping hand.

After the first moments of panic, they raised their flag over the smoking ruins, putting on T-shirts, caps and ties in the colors of the national flag. They placed flags on buildings and cars as if in every place and on every car a government official or the president was passing. On every occasion, they started singing:'God BlessAmerica!'

I watched the live broadcast and rerun after rerun for hours listening to the story of the guy who went down one hundred floors with a woman in a wheelchair without knowing who she was, or of the Californian hockey player, who gave his life fighting with the terrorists and prevented the plane from hitting a target that could have killed other hundreds or thousands of people.

How on earth were they able to respond united as one human being? Imperceptibly, with every word and musical note, the memory of some turned into a modern myth of tragic heroes. And with every phone call, millions and millions of dollars were put into a collection aimed at rewarding not a man or a family, but a spirit, which no money can buy.

What on earth can unite the Americans in such a way? Their land? Their history? Their economic Power? Money? I tried for hours to find an answer, humming songs and murmuring phrases with the risk of sounding commonplace, I thought things over, I reached but only one conclusion... Only freedom can work such miracles.

Cornel Nistorescu

It took a person on the outside - looking in - to see what we take for granted ! GOD BLESS AMERICA ! !

This is a pretty ringing endorsement for the character of our country.

And in the freethinking spirit of our founding fathers I double checked this on Snopes to be sure that it wasn't just another urban myth, and I was quite pleased to find that it had been verified as true ( http://www.snopes.com/rumors/romania.asp ).

Long live a country where our differences are celebrated, where we can argue our opinions till we're blue in the face, and where we come together in a united front when truly threatened, just like a good family should.