Pledging and Praying

FOR THE THIRD DAY in a row, we recited the Pledge of Allegiance at the senior center, right before we prayed, after which we ate. We eat at eleven thirty. It used to be eleven, which I might prefer. Never before, either during the almost four years I've been going there, or before that, had the Pledge been incorporated into the routine. I thought that strange. After years of frustration, I finally just pulled the trigger; I stood up, asked everyone else to stand and face the flag in the corner by the piano, and let 'er rip. It seemed to go over well. Then, I went right into the prayer as usual. Technically, its illegal to pray in an organized fashion, at a place which receives federal assistance. But, we do it every day. On the one hand, it seems rather obtrusive, petty, and manipulative to require prayer abstinence as a precondition for receiving the rather paltry amount of support we do from the federal government. On the other hand, the first amendment does seem to require the prohibition of prayer. We take turns praying, just a few of us regular prayer sayers; I am one of them. I love to pray, even though I'm not "religious". My prayers are pure pantheism. Today I slipped and used the word "worship", which I don't like. I much prefer "admire" and "appreciate" than worship. But I always express thanks, and ask for nothing. Everyone seems to like my style, even though I never make mention of Jesus, nor of anything "christian." One need not be Christian to pray, or to believe in God. Doing the pledge just sorta seems natural. A little secular civic celebration to accompany the religiosity. One day I finally decided to just do it, and I just did it. One need not be a Christian conservative to be patriotic. One can be a left wing democratic socialist, and love America, and want to make America great. Personally, I think that by instigating the pledge at my local senior center, I have done more than Trump and all his bizarre followers have done to make America great. It seemed to work out well. The senior center is veritably awash in first amendment issues. The crazy man (every organization or group of people of any sort must have one, correct?) is becoming a problem. He's close to eighty, and despite advanced diabetes resulting in the loss of half a foot he gets around pretty well. He's illiterate, literally, a big mouth from Boston who has found the Lord, has been saved, and is very proud of it. He considers it his purpose in life to make sure everyone else is saved to. When he found out that I am unsaved, or decided that I am not, he told me in no uncertain terms that I am going straight to hell. I should have decked him, but he would have killed me. He knows how to fight, how to hurt people, as if he once did it for a living, which I suspect he did. He's caused so many problems that he has virtually been banned from the senior center, but has stopped by briefly a time or two and started ranting about freedom of speech. That's alarming, because it looks like he truly believes that he has an unalienable right to come to the senior center and rant about Christ and God as much as he wants, and nobody can stop him. He's got a rude awakening in store for himself. The first amendment says that congress can make no law infringing on freedom of speech, but it doesn't say anything about a mothers, fathers, bosses, and senior center directors. The first amendment protects free speech from harm from congress, but not from anybody else. The term "congress" has been extended over the decades and centuries to mean the government in general, but still, only the government, and not parents or bosses or teachers. Most Americans probably think their right of free speech is ubiquitous, and applies everywhere, under all circumstances. Wouldn't that be crazy, ten year old kids waving a copy of the first amendment at their parents? so, we'll see what happens when my man finds out that his preaching has been prohibited at the senior center. Meanwhile, I'll just keep right on with my pantheistic, new age prayer style.