In a time where theocrats & theocons are meeting some degree of success in their efforts to transform America into a fundamentalist Christian version of Iran, it is refreshing to see the values of the Founding Fathers reflected in the town hall of the municipality where I live. Despite the fact that our freedom is largely because of the separation of church & state guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, there are many today who would institute a Christian government here. How they forget that our government receives its powers from "We the people"; that this is a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people", as President Lincoln reiterated in his famous address in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and that kings supposedly ruling by divine right, appointed by God; are not an American value. Liberty's greatest enemy has been the rule of the church.
That rule gave us the Inquisition, the Salem Witch Trials, and the Dark Ages. Yesterday, the church threatened the life of Galileo, declared Copernicus a heretic, and burned Bruno at the stake. Today, the church remains the enemy of advancement and progress by pushing ignorance about Darwinian evolution and modern cosmology to be taught in public schools as science. It seeks to shut down stem cell research which could save the lives of millions, and alleviate the suffering of millions more; all for the idea that a fertilized ova has rights superior to those of a living human being.
Therefore, I am greatly pleased that the town of Parker, Colorado recognized the rule of the people on its Town Hall by posting the quote from James Madison that affirms that "The ultimate authority . . . resides in the people alone."
