In this morning’s OJ Blog, the reliably lurid Mr. Art Pedroza offers a typically insubstantial post that does little more than state that, among candidates, only his boy Steven Choi has any chance of winning the 70th AD seat here in beauteous and sunny Orange County, California. He has harsh words for Choi's competition in the race, including Don Wagner, whom Pedroza dismisses as "an obscure school board trustee."
Pedroza, who describes Choi as “popular,” seems to be one of those people whose rhetoric makes no distinction between “You oughta lose” and “You’re gonna lose” and that designates anyone who loses as a “loser.”
I have no idea whether Pedroza’s case for the imminent and overwhelming success of Mr. Choi holds water. Don’t much care.
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But one of Pedroza's designated "losers" is Don Wagner, who happens to be on the South Orange County Community College District (SOCCCD) board of trustees. Pedroza, who calls Don a "nutter," includes a Wagner campaign mailer. Upon an image of Don is written, “We need more faith in public life” and “Help defend Don from the attacks" (see above).Who is the "attacker" here?
Undoubtedly, in Don’s mind, I am one of those pesky attackers, for I am among a group of plaintiffs in “Westphal v. Wagner,” which asserts that SOCCCD has engaged in a pattern of actions, by trustees and other officials, that establish religion. The actions include religious invocations at the start of commencement ceremonies, scholarship awards ceremonies, etc.
But just who is the “attacker” in this case? Don plainly views a routine imposition of religious invocations at a community college as the right and the normal. Occasionally, he even appeals to the supposed popularity of his view among South Orange Countians.
So, in Don's mind, he represents the standard and the normal.
Such a man inevitably regards anyone who would put a stop to those activities as a trouble-maker and a scoundrel. But one who reads and understands the “establishment” clause of the 1st Amendment, and who does not presuppose that the routine and normal are also the right, might well view Don as, if not the scoundrel, then the aggressor, for, despite our Constitution’s ban on the government’s establishing religion, Don and his pious friends, acting as the government, impose invocations and “Jesus saved our souls” messages on the community, students, and employees during SOCCCD events.
Don is not alone in his failure to imagine that something else besides "faith" might be under attack here. Last week, the über-lurid Mr. Tom Fuentes, former boss of the OC GOP, was among the SOCCCD trustees who voted to reserve $2 million to continue to fight the "Westphal" complaint.
Upon asserting his staunch support for this extraordinary expenditure (ultimately caused, of course, by the Bible-toting arrogance of people like him), Tom added, "I hope that we can go after those who have caused the district to spend this money...." Go after? (And go after how? He seemed to have in mind the winning of "repayment of ... attorney fees.” That's what he said. But I'm not so sure that's the only kind of "going after" he had in mind.)
Clearly, in Tom's mind, as in Don's, this is a case of mere wrong-doers—"attackers"—coming down from the hills and into the peaceful village to violate the rights of the faithful. That these alleged invaders might have a legitimate grievance, or even an illegitimate grievance, does not occur to them. Scoundrels don't have grievances; they just have a desire to do evil.
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Don loves to say that people like me are attempting to prevent the faithful from praying and otherwise religionizing in “the public square.” But that’s nonsense. Don can pray there all he wants for all I care. The issue is whether he should be allowed to religionize there as an agent of the government. That’s all.Don also loves to ridicule the plaintiffs of this case, describing them as sensitive souls who seek not to have their "feelings hurt" by having to listen to prayers and such. (Yes, feelings really are silly things, aren’t they? I wonder if Don would experience any of those silly “feelings” if the government were to prevent him from praying at his church?)
Listen. This ain’t rocket science. Our Founding Parental Units were aware of a particular kind of tyranny: the imposition of religion on people by that awesome force known as the government. These fine (and sometimes not-so-fine) Revolutionary Units long ago said “no” to that.
And Don wants to say “yes.”
I shall now await the utterly predictable.
