Cramming Religion Down the Throats of Pennsylvanians - Chilling

The breadth of legislative arrogance never ceases to amaze, and the the Pennsylvania General Assembly is near, if not at the top of the pack. Members of the ironically-named House "Education Committee" have voted 14-9 to approve the "brainchild" of State Representative Rick Saccone (R-Elizabeth Borough), a man of religious fervor. Unchastened and unbowed from his ill-advised and offensive “Year of the Bible”  resolution last year and this year's "Day of Prayer" initiative, he now seeks to impose religion on all in another manner, to mandate that schools display the phrase, “In God We Trust”: how ironic for a conservative Republican to support getting the government IN the way rather than OUT of the way.

Efforts to require a recognition of God prompt one to ask whose God is being exalted and how does such official action cause those of other faiths and those of no faith to feel?  Do we recognize them as our fellow Pennsylvanians and care about them?

Representative Saccone seeks to bolster his legislation by asserting that it is supported in his district 500-1.  Even if that were the case, have we not learned the danger of legislating based on the principle of "majority rules"?  If the majority were to prevail, some states would not have recognized mixed race marriages or ended the tenet of "separate but equal" in public accommodations.

At a time when there are so many weighty and critical matters before the General Assembly, including a shortfall of at least $47 billion in public employee pension funds, it is a particular affront that any time would be wasted by some of the most unholy residents of the Commonwealth seeking to impose their religious fervor on others.  Is this good government?

Perhaps next will be license plates which read, "You've Got a Theocrat in Pennsylvania".