Scholarship Essay (2003)

Bush Editorial (2003)

            As the presidential election draws ever closer, I took the time to research the term of our current president, George W. Bush.  As I read about the man’s successes and failures and perceived a general trend in the overall administration, one small thought kept surfacing.  What were we thinking?

            In the nearly three years we’ve had our current president things have gone steadily downhill.  Our economy has fallen faster than a speeding bullet, and economists are still arguing about whether we’ve stopped falling.  The Enron scandal opened up a vast multitude of bankruptcies and downsizing, as corruption was revealed within corporate America (incidentally, former CEO of Enron Kenneth Lay is the largest lifetime donator to Bush’s campaign). 

Bush waged war on Afghanistan to capture Bin Laden, and failed.  Bush pushed through the war on Iraq to prevent Saddam Hussein from pursuing his Weapons of Mass Destruction program, proof of which we never found. . Coincidentally, Bush’s big push for that war came right around the congressional elections two years ago, effectively shielding coverage of the administration’s failure to stop or even halt our economic troubles.  Don’t get me wrong, I feel Saddam was an evil man and am personally glad his regime is almost completely gone.  I just can’t help but wonder when our president leads us into a war against a man who his father couldn’t stop to prevent a weapon’s program that it looks like didn’t exist.

 As a president, George W. Bush has set many records.  For example, in his first year of office Bush set the record for the most amount of vacation time taken by a president.  Bush is also the first U.S. president ever to have the UN remove our country from both the human rights commission and the elections monitoring board.  Finally, Bush has dissolved more international treaties than any president in our history.

While I personally am appalled by the lack of effectiveness of both our leader and his administration, I can take comfort in the fact that I am not alone.  According to a recent survey, the vast majority of people in Europe (over 70%) feel that our president is the greatest threat to world peace and stability in existence.  And yet Bush’s approval ratings remain high, which begs two questions.  Have the people asked about Bush’s administration been paying attention to what he’s done, and are the people asked Bush and his administration?

- MATT DALEY

Under God (2003)
 

In August of 1892, Francis Bellamy wrote the original Pledge of Allegiance.  His words read “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and (to*) the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”  In the 1920’s, against the protest of Bellamy, the words ‘my Flag’ were changed to ‘the flag of the United States of America.’  It wasn’t until 1954 that the Knights of Columbus campaigned to Congress to add the words ‘Under God’ to pledge.  This made the pledge become both a public prayer and a patriotic oath.  In the past couple years there has been much controversy over this issue.  Every morning students are directed to say the Pledge of Allegiance.  In 2002 this issue was taken to court due to the religious content that was now brought into public schools.  Michael Newdow filed this suit because as an atheist he believes he has the right to raise his children without the presence of God. 

            As a child I was raised in a household of different religions, my mother being Jewish and my father being Christian.  Several questions were answered to me with two different responses.  The one truth that I was always able to rely on was the fact that, to me, there has always been a supreme being watching over me.  This is something that I have grown to count on in everything that I do.  I am not saying that others shouldn’t have the choice to disagree.  In fact, it is those people that disagree that help to strengthen my beliefs.  Newdow was asked in court when his daughter was ostracized for not saying the pledge in school.  In his response, Newdow admitted that she never had been ostracized for this.   The first Amendment ensures freedom of speech and that was being upheld in the elementary school.  At no time has it been forced upon the children to stand and recite the pledge.  Yes, it has been encouraged, but at any time a child could refuse without retribution.  It is my belief that freedom needs to be preserved by allowing the words “Under God” to remain in the pledge.  The orator has the option to speak these words or not. 

            - ADAM WISZOWATY

The Ten Commandments Should be Removed from the Alabama State Judicial Building (2003)

             It all started 2 years ago when Alabama’s Chief Justice had a 5,300 pound monument to the Ten Commandments installed in the Alabama State Judicial Building.  To many people this seemed strange.  After all, does our constitution not clearly separate church and state?   What seemed even more interesting was the fact that the Chief Justice chose to sneak the monument into the building in the middle of the night.  Obviously he knew the monument would create a controversy.  Now, two years later, the Chief Justice is defying a federal court order to remove it.

            There are really two separate arguments for why the monument should be removed.

            First, prominently displaying the Ten Commandments in the center of a state judicial building violates the constitutions mandate of freedom of religious expression.  It may be argued that other government buildings depict biblical themes.  However, most of these cases show how the ideals and beliefs of our founders influenced the nation today.  No one can argue that belief in Christianity was a central them in our early history, but the founders saw fit to try to refrain from specific references.  Some argue that other monuments should be set up for the other major faiths, but to me the idea that our judicial system is some how tied to a central belief in a god is not true.  After all, there are countless different religions and even persons who chose to believe in no god, so how can a system based on one god be applied to people who do not believe in it?

            Secondly, that the Chief Justice is openly defying the federal court’s ruling is inexcusable.  In any other profession, such a breach would be grounds for immediate dismissal.  If you had been working and refused to do an important task that your superiors had commanded, you would probably be fired.  It is even more important that the Chief Justice obey the commands of this superiors considering he is charged with upholding the law.  The Chief Justice is trying to turn the situation into a battle for Christian religion when all he is really doing is defying the law.

            The monument in Alabama is scheduled to be removed.  I gaze in amazement that it has taken 2 entire years to remove it and that throngs of people still seem to believe that the Chief Justice is simply defending his right to freedom expression, even while he is trampling over the rights of others.

            - ADAM BETZ

Comments: drusia@indiana.edu or cjbischo@indiana.edu