European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 12, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Monday december 12, 1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 13 ase prayer As a. Kid i prayed in school. Fast. I can say the our father three times in the same amount of time it takes to eat a twinkle. The Way you do it is you run near thasitis heaven and All together. It s As Rich in meaning As the multiplication tables. Y v ,. I m not making Light of prayer Here but of so called school prayer which bears As much resemblance to real spiritual experience As that freeze dried astronaut food bears to a Nice standing rib what i remember of praying in school it was almost an insult to god a Rote exercise in moving your Mouth while daydreaming or checking out the cutest boy inthe seventh Grade that was a far far cry from soul searching. But the current conservative mania for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing school prayer does t have much to do with prayer anyway but with a time a place a ethos that praying and pledging allegiance at the beginning of each school Day represent. It is an attempt to resuscitate an America that died a natural Anna Quindlen quite school Toap son death and like most dear departed is now shrouded in the Rosy tones of selective a member of the East Stroudsburg pa., school Board said to a local reporter of his support of school prayer the country has certainly gone downhill mor ally since they took it in the schools represents a return to those Good old Days. They were Days in which 12-year-Olds did t carry guns in which children did t Mouth off to their elders in which divorce was rare and marriages stuck for life in which condoms stayed in wallets and out of were also Days in which Black men were Strung up from tall Trees women poured caustic cleansers in Side themselves rather than face pregnancy and no body talked about daddy s drinking. Queers were sick women were irrational and real men taught their sons to use their fists and never mind about their feelings what Are you a Sissy boy nobody Ever seems to remember that part. The surface of that America gleamed As Brights a breakfront freshly rubbed with paste Wax with no notice taken of what sort of mess might be inside. Som of it truly shone main Street Church suppers the Industry the neighbourliness the embrace of extended family. ". -. Or a but it was also the America in which parents Rule their children but did not know them nor the children their parents in which what was handed Down from generation to generation was distance and silence it was the America in which the family so Fine in Broadcloth and Patent leather sitting in the Pew on sunday could have terrible secrets but no one would Ever know it to look at them. It s not surprising that when Newt Gingrich the new speaker of the House was trumpeting the Virtues of orphanages for poor kids he did t illustrate his Point with the group Homes by crating today the arduous actual the real thing. Gingrich who wants to make everything old new again instead chose As the epitome of a Happy Home for Little indigents the 1938 movie boys town tic was living hot Only in the past but in a past that Only existed on celluloid a Potemkin Village in which Only the facade is real. The Issue of prayer in schools which Gin Grich supports wholeheartedly is just such a facade Symbol substituted for substance. Prayer is personal by the tire a homogenized version can be cooked up to suit most faiths and creeds it will be distasteful to anyone who takes the soul seriously. Prayer heals this Issue has divided for a Long longtime. " the family behind one of the landmark suits that found school prayer unconstitutional school District of Abington township is. Schempp were tormented by neighbors for heeding the Call or conscience. So called christians sent abusive letters and made abusive phone Calls Disho Noring what they professed to prize. T Only wish a moment of spiritual Rote recitation before class would put a Halo around the head of a kid or begin to solve our social problems. It would make being a Parent and a citizen so much easier. But learn ing to forgive those who trespass against us is not that simple., a state of Grace owes More to Home than school and much much More to the Early years and the everyday acts than to 90 seconds before classes. Speed speaking the lord s prayer is the least of it. C new York timer mushroom Cloud will never replace Mistletoe ". -. You would think that the folks atthe . Postal service had enough on their minds shoulders and backs this time of year without adding a mushroom Cloud to their burdens. But right in the Middle of the Holiday season the dropped a bomb on the Public. They announced that the stamp designed to commemorate the end of world War ii would carry the image of the a bomb sex plodding Over am not sure exactly what Public they had in mind. It s unlikely that the average american would Post a birthday card or a love letter with an atom bomb in the Cor Ner. Perhaps it was intended for letters to Bill collectors or the irs. But even in miniature this Mega weapon created an enormous controversy. Not just because of the image but because of the caption that proclaimed in carefully chosen words atom bombs hasten War s end August 1945."what was this a positive spin on the bomb an attempt to treat the Bombas a morally Neutral historic fact either Way it brought some volatile mixed feel Ings Back to the controversy was an Echo and not a very Distant one of the juror that erupted earlier this fall when the smithsonian institution was forced to redesign its upcoming exhibit on the last act the atomic bomb and the end of world War in october the smithsonian was widely criticize for emphasizing the devastation at ground december the Post office was widely criticized for having its head in the Cloud. The museum exhibit seemed biased against the american and wartime Point of View. The Post office seemed ignorant of the japanese and postwar Points of View. Both proved that it s impossible to treat the atomic bomb As a military Arti fact a bigger and better Rifle. During the Long and horrific struggle against German and japanese aggression millions of people lost their lives. The world became numbed by num Bers. Indeed near the end of the War in Ellen Goodman Europe 1,300 Allied planes firebombed Dresden leaving 35,000 dead in one night. The news that one bomb could kill140,000 in Hiroshima must have seemed dizzying by different in scale but not immoral weight. After the War Many be came conscious of and often conscience struck by the death of japanese civilians. Many became haunted by the children of Hiroshima. But these ghosts Don t Block out the other picture the Young Ameri cans waiting to invade Japan the me who heard about the bomb and said maybe now i la nevertheless to my generation the atomic bomb can never be something that just hastened the War s end August 1945." it will Al ways be the image of the next War the cold War. To us the mushroom Cloud is a Cen trial recurring Nightmare not an etching. To our descendants it will remain the potent Symbol of the worst we can still do end the world. In the Post cold War we have tried to push the bomb out of our minds beyond the Edge of the Enve Lope. We have turned the hands of the doomsday clock Back comforted our selves with treaties that Start to Dis Arm changed the targets of russian and american missiles. In what Boris Yeltsin Calls the col peace we the bomb terrible chilling but too Short bouts of attention no where near the priority that we give to crime. We Haven t maintained the sense of urgency the need to get further arms reductions while the getting is Good we think of nuclear War when we hear about the possibility of atomic weapons in North Korea or Iraq Libya or Iran. We Stop for a minute when we read about missing plutonium in Russia smugglers in Germany terrorists anywhere. And we flinch when the Post office wants to trivialize the icon of death. The bomb is in the mail. The postmaster general Learned this the hard Way. On thursday he was forced to disarm his stamp. He tipped his hat to what he labelled Japa Nese sensitivity As if americans had embraced his mushroom Cloud with peace of mind. The new stamp will Bear the por trait of Harry Truman announcing the end of the War. The a bomb image will remain where it must stamped indelibly in a Corner of the human mind. C Boston Globe
