Purple Prose

The extremity of its evil had passed
beyond all struggle into some state which bore
a horrible similarity to innocence
--C.S. Lewis

The eye sees only what the mind
is prepared to comprehend
--Henri Bergson

Americans seem to be as interested in
Super Tuesday as they are in the Super Bowl
--Katie Couric
__________

Ah, Ms. Couric -- always has her finger on the pulse, ready to offer a peppy cheerleader's perspective. What good news she brings.

On another topic, Ranger asked the other day if George Washington said, "Jesus Christ is our King." Pretty unlikely, and a little research backed up that feeling. He asked me to write something about the recent article in the January/February Purple Heart magazine in which that spurious attribute is given.

Many of you have given up finding incisive commentary in your military fraternal magazines. It is unfortunate that these groups meant to represent all veterans toe such a biased conservative party line, a line which certainly does not represent the views of all fighting men. They would do their constituents a greater service by offering disinterested, factual material.

After reading The Constitution of the United States by member Gene Owens, one hardly knows where to begin in debunking his misundertandings. The point of the article is even unclear.

On the first page, Mr. Owen states the Benjamin Franklin requested an opening prayer at each meeting of the Constitutional Convention. From that opening misattribution, it was a hop, skip and a jump to prove God's existence:

"As you take in your next breath of oxygen, think, who created this process? How has this process happened? If you suddenly became unable to breathe for three to five minutes your life would be over. Did man create this process? Did man give you the right to breathe? The creation around us points to something beyond man."

At this point, I am breathless. How could such a nonsensical either-or fallacy (=either God or man created man) make it past the editors? Scopes in 1925 did expose us to the possibility of another way, namely evolution. Does no one vet the material which gets printed in this national magazine?

Mr. Owens mistakes the establishment clause as "plac(ing) a Creator where other nations place a dictator," and misunderstands that freedom of religion may also mean freedom from religion. The term "Creator" is not synonymous with "God".

He equates a "high standard of morality" with the belief in a Creator. Sadly, he need only look at some of those holding high office to see the fallacy of that belief. A rant ensues:

"Men, who wish to control your life and take your freedoms must replace a Creator with themselves. They need to destroy our morality so that we will lie, cheat, steal, and even kill each other. . ." Huh? People will kill each other just by virtue of signing on to be a soldier.

It is a scatter-shot article lacking any cohesion. A good place to start debunking the rants of our well-meaning conservative friends is snopes.com, the urban legends site. The page addressing some of Mr. Owens' misinformation is here.

Shame on Purple Heart Magazine for running such a non-sequitur bunch of clap-trap.