Letters to the Editor
Judges Should Stop Picking on Students
This writer has been called stupid many times during his 61 years on the good planet. But one thing has been going on now for several years in the greatest county the world has ever known that I do not understand.
Not being too smart, I know you can pray in the woods, behind the barn or anywhere you want to. And I read in the papers and see in the other news media that Alabama is right in the national spotlight in that one judge has ordered Judge Moore to take the Ten Commandments off the wall in his (or our) courtroom. The judge who ordered that decision got a big award for doing that.
Now we have another judge in Alabama who has ruled (again) that school children cannot pray in public places, football games, etc. Maybe he thinks he may get an award.
I do not understand why the two judges in Alabama, the Supreme Court justices and the ACLU pick on the little schoolchildren and Judge Moore.
Max E. Bell
Flomaton
DeKalb County
Weak in History
Don't the people of DeKalb County known any history? Don't they know that the Supreme Court banned school prayer and Bible readings back in 1963, and that therefore they should have been stopped in 1964?
Don't they know that the court's decision forbids advocacy of religion in governmental entities such as public schools and courts in accordance with the doctrine of separation of church and state?
Don't they know that mass meetings can have no effect on Supreme Court decisions? Or that school prayer has never been a national thing, but only a Bible Belt affair?
Or that Mr. Chandler, by trying to stop the illegal activities in Valley Head schools, is following the long Baptist tradition of supporting separation of church and state? Looks as if they ought to change the name of Valley Head to Ignorance Holler.
Norman A. Brittin
Auburn
Prayer in Order For This StateAlabama is a state of proud tradition. We might call ourselves Alabama the Police State. After all, our history includes governors standing in defiance of federal law.
Gov. James furthers this stance by questioning the legitimate authority of the judicial branch. We are to believe that he knows best, including his views on the law, his religion and that the bill of Rights does not apply to Alabama.
We are to believe that anti-Semitism does not exist in Alabama and that qualified black nominees are similarly nonexistent.
Sheriff Franklin of Elmore County proposes involuntary drug testing of school children. Judge Moore insists you pray his way.
Indeed, prayer is in order. In a paraphrase of the popular song, "What you gonna do, good ole boy, when they come for you?"
Paul D. Bivins
ElmoreWe Choose Unlikely Path to Peace
I read in the Advertiser recently that God is not welcome in our schools. And not just that, but we the taxpayers are paying to see that God is kept out.
Our tax dollars can't seem to keep children from harm's way in our schools, so by keeping God out of our children's lives we can hope to have peace? I don't think so.
B.L. Culpepper
Montgomery
The Montgomery Advertiser, Tuesday November 18, 1997
Bill proposes a moment of silence
A mandatory period of reflection no longer than a minute, would give time for silent prayers by students.
By PHILLIP RAWLS
Associated Press WriterMONTGOMERY — State Rep. Perry Hooper Jr., who may run for lieutenant governor next year, proposed a bill Monday to require public schools to have a moment of quiet reflection each morning so students may pray silently.
Copied after a Georgia law that a federal judge upheld, Hooper's bill comes amid political and religious debate about U.S. District Judge Ira DeMent's ruling last month limiting religious activities in Alabama public schools. The Legislature opens its regular session Jan. 13.
Bob Russell, chairman of the Christian Coalition of Alabama, joined Hooper at a Capitol news conference to support the bill. Russell said students can pray silently now in school, but without a specified moment of silence "they are looked upon as doing something out of the ordinary if they bow their heads and pray."
Martin McCaffery, Alabama spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union, said the issue is pointless, because teachers can already tell students to be quiet.
The bill provides: "At the opening of school every day in each public-school classroom, the teacher in charge shall conduct a brief period of quiet reflection for not more than 60 seconds with the participation of every pupil in the classroom. The moment of quiet reflection ... is not intended to be and shall not be conducted as a religious service or exercise, but shall be considered an opportunity for a moment of silent reflection on the anticipated activities of the day."
Hooper introduced a similar bill in the 1996 session, but he said he dropped it at the request of Gov. Fob James because Alabama's school-prayer litigation was pending in court....
The Mobile Register, Tuesday November 18, 1997
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