This Is What Your House of Representatives Did On Tuesday

We have an unemployment rate over 9%. We are still in the midst of a mortgage and foreclosure mess. The European debt crisis remains unresolved and threatens to throw the world financial markets back into chaos. That's just a few of the issues facing the President and Congress. Pretty important issues, wouldn't you say?

So what did your Republican-led House of Representatives work on yesterday? After all, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) has said that the House would only work on "substantive and meaningful issues," so I'm assuming it must have been something important.

Well, in this New York Times article Jennifer Steinhauer informs us that the House of Representatives spent Tuesday on a resolution "reaffirming 'In God We Trust' as the official motto of the United States."

Yes, folks, you heard that right. Our House of Representatives voted on a resolution that does nothing, changes nothing, and by the way "reaffirms" a national motto that is completely contrary to the notion of separation of church and state guaranteed by our
Constitution. Apparently that was more important than anything else they could have been doing yesterday, including voting on a resolution that had already been passed by the Senate honoring the heroes who rooted out and killed Osama bin Laden. More important than passing a jobs bill. Certainly more important than doing anything to address the concerns of the hundreds of thousands of people all over the world who have spent the past several weeks demonstrating in order to call attention to the decline of the middle class vs. the wealthy.

I had to do some research on the national motto. Until 1956 the national motto was "e pluribus unum," the Latin phrase meaning "from many, one" that you see on our currency. During the Eisenhower administration (i.e., the McCarthy era, when "under God" was also added to our Pledge of Allegiance), the motto was changed to "In God We Trust" and it then appeared on our currency, in federal buildings, etc. etc. I guess that pesky separation of church and state thing doesn't really mean much to the people who inhabit the Congressional offices. Hence, to address this "crisis" they felt the most important thing to do this past Tuesday was to vote to "reaffirm" a national motto that worships a supernatural deity referred to as "God" by only a segment of the population of this country, completely ignoring the Constitutional right to freedom of religion.

Good work, guys. Nice to know you're on top of things, and that you're so inclusive of all non-Christian and secular Americans and their diversity. I feel so much better about the people leading our country now.