Baboonery in Lake Forest

     I don’t know many residents of Lake Forest, though I am familiar with two of them: Holocaust denying former SOCCCD trustee, Steve Frogue, and seriously nasty and self-loathing Republican and trustee, Tom Fuentes.
     Knowing that those guys live in Lake Forest almost makes me expect zombies and Ku Kluxers to be wandering all over that town.
     Today, I read in the OC Register that Lake Forest has decided to be the next city in this county to put “In God We Trust” on the walls of city government. (Deciding Lake Forest vote: 'In God We Trust' not about religion)
     That fact is bad enough, but the Reg quotes some of the Lake Forest Councilpeople who made the decision, and their remarks are making me expect zombies again.
     After the vote, Councilwoman Marcia Rudolph, who initiated the action, evidently said: “It is the original motto to become part of our decoration. If we don't follow history we will be doomed to follow our mistakes.”
     Is it just me—or is Rudolph uttering gibberish? It is the original motto to become part of our decoration. Huh?
     If we don't follow history we will be doomed to follow our mistakes. Again: huh?
     I gather that she thinks that the Council is “following history” by deciding to write “In God We Trust” on the walls. Following history. Does she mean “maintaining tradition”? Maybe.
     Rudolph and colleague Kathryn McCullough tried to get the motto on the walls back in May, but they didn’t have the votes. Now that some guy named “Scott Voigts” has joined the City Council, they tried again. Thanks to Voigts, this time, they succeeded.
     Two of their colleagues voted against the measure. Mayor Peter Herzog proposed an alternative: scrawling a bunch of mottos on the walls. Don’t focus just on “our” trust in God.
     Herzog was quoted as saying, “The consequences of this will be significant. It's very unfortunate. I never suggested that 'In God We Trust' was inappropriate. I attempted to bring everything together. We have a very diverse community. To not be willing to place 'In God We Trust' with other things that are emblematic is unfortunate."
     Like his colleagues, Herzog is no silver-tongued devil. But at least he’s making some sense.
     Not so Mr. Voigts, who said: “As a national motto, this is a phrase that has brought together the people of America. So the fact that you [Herzog] want to get on your high horse and say this is about religion—this is not about religion, this is about the heritage of our nation. Thirteen cities out of the 34 in the county of Orange that have enacted it—they haven't fallen apart.”
     I do wish these people would finish an argument before moving on to the next one. How exactly is the motto not about religion? No doubt this is an allusion to some judicial reasoning. How does that reasoning go?
     Has this motto brought people together? I don’t think so (it traces back to the 1860s, a period of American history not noted for togetherness). In any case, our actual community—the Lake Forest of 2011—is nothing like those heterogeneous ones that embraced this particular slogan. Like Herzog says, Lake Forest is pretty diverse. You’ve got your atheists, your agnostics, your Santerians, your Saddleback Churchians, and so on.
     Partly because our society’s mechanisms for transmitting shared understandings and traditions has grown feeble, lots of people, I think, don’t view the motto as a tradition (reading it on coins does not a tradition make) so much as a statement that asserts that “we” trust in God. And so, arguably, it is about religion, and, as such, to some, it is obnoxious.
     That thirteen out of thirty-four cities in our benighted county have chosen to highlight “In God We Trust” isn’t much of an argument. Most Orange Countians voted for George W. Bush. Twice.
     True—those cities haven’t fallen apart. (Well, arguably, lots of ‘em have been falling apart for years, but the motto likely has little to do with that.)
     But of course nobody is saying that displaying the motto will cause cities to “fall part.” Essentially, the point is that the action is obnoxious to some and, further, it is contrary to our foundational value according to which government should not establish religion or a religion.
     This Voigts fella is a logical baboon.
     Evidently, Rudolph was inspired to pursue the motto display by the work of Jacquie Sullivan, a Bakersfield councilwoman, who was on hand for the City Council vote. The Reg quotes Sullivan as saying, “A 'yes' vote demonstrates commitment to the values our country was founded upon. American patriotism is love of God and love of country. If we can do this in California, it can be done everywhere. It's up to the citizens and elected officials to keep our history strong.”
     Wow. Logically, that speech is mighty jerky, like Voigts’ blather. I think these people are non sequiturians.
     And what she’s saying is more logical baboonery. Our country was not founded on “trust” in God. It was founded on, among other things, a rejection of state religion—i.e. a rejection of religious unfreedom. These bozos wanna bring religious unfreedom back.
     More baboonery.
     Speaking of baboonery, there’s a chance that there will be some action in the “Wagner v. Westphal” prayer lawsuit tomorrow. Wait and see.