Collegiate Times

God is not attacked, man?s interpretation of God is. God is found in the Pledge of Allegiance, in the oath of military service and the oath taken in court. If you are a traitor to the United States, desert the armed forces or commit perjury the punisher is the government. Does that imply the phrases ?so help me God? or ?one nation under God? mean that the government is God, because they are the only ones who could help you or punish you for these crimes that these saying represents? What is scary is when people put together God and government. Government is a tool of man, and I am not going to define God, mostly because I can?t. If government was in control of the ?man created God? then they could control right and wrong, good and evil. It has been done with communism during the Cold War and American Indians during the conquest of the west. Could the same thing happen again for example, the Axis of Evil? Are our enemies being made for us?

Everyone respects a soldier?s commitment to take the ultimate sacrifice. What becomes the problem is dying and killing in something that is not right. Ut Prosim doesn?t give a specific noun to serve. It doesn?t say God; it doesn?t say country, people take it to mean this, even those who made it the university motto. When it is taken the wrong way, orders are followed without questions and complete power is given to those with authority.

One should always question the motives of those who are not going to be doing the actual dirty work. If this meaning of Ut Prosim was followed throughout history, there would be one king ruling us all. Questioning the will of the powerful has been the spark of progress for freedom. One quick question ? if the United States fights for the ideals of freedom, why is terrorism first priority when more people die from disease, AIDS and hunger ? over 20 million a year? How much sacrifice, service, honor, leadership, loyalty or brotherhood is this country giving to those problems?