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GTG
Was lost but now am found
Joined: 30 Dec 2002
Posts: 2387
Location: Peoria, Arizona, originally from Rocket City, USA
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 Posted: 7/15/2003, 6:58 am Post subject: Thanking heaven for godless Canyon |
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http://www.azcentral.com/news/columns/articles/0715montini15.html
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Thanking heaven for godless Canyon
E.J. Montini
Republic columnist
Jul. 15, 2003 12:00 AM
Like you, I saw the front-page article in Monday's Arizona Republic describing how plaques with Bible verses on them were being removed from the Grand Canyon, and I thought to myself, "Thank God."
Like you, I switched on the radio while driving to work and heard local talk-show hosts furiously discussing the plaques and their impact on the separation of church and state, and I thought to myself, "Hallelujah."
Then I got into the office and a number of you had left messages on my answering machine or sent e-mails stating without qualification that a guy with my job had a professional obligation to write something about this outlandish controversy. And I thought to myself, "Amen."
I pushed my chair away from my desk, got down on my knees and (after some frightful under-the-desk revelations involving long lost snack food) thanked the Man Upstairs for answering the prayers of people everywhere.
Apparently, we are no longer losing a soldier a day in Iraq, because if brave, young Americans still were being killed in what so many of us consider to be a godforsaken country, then surely we wouldn't have time to obsess about a few plaques that even those of us who have actually been to the Grand Canyon didn't know existed.
Sometime overnight, the Big Fella must have cleared up that whole Arab-Israeli situation, too. And folks in Afghanistan evidently aren't fighting one another anymore or trying to kill American men and woman. And I guess we've got nothing to worry about over in Liberia or any other country.
And no problems at home, it seems. While the rest of us slept, the Head Honcho must have cleared up any lingering issues we have had with affirmative action, discrimination or immigration. If not, the folks at the Arizona Civil Liberties Union would not have had time to send letters of concern to the National Park Service complaining about the plaques.
Similarly, the Almighty must have cleared up any messy situation going on with federal land use, timber sales, commercialization, pollution or preservation of the nation's most precious natural resources. If not, the Park Service wouldn't have had the time to answer some cockamamie correspondence about Bible verses.
It must be the Lord Himself who blew out the forest fires. We just haven't noticed yet. That's got to be it because no intelligent, concerned individual in this state would waste time complaining about the fact that rock formations named after Hindu gods would not be changed when the beautiful area in which we live is going up in flames and dying of thirst from a multiyear drought.
I feel really bad about this. People are always telling journalists that we don't pay enough attention to the good news. Clearly that is true. If it were not the case, we'd have noticed that the Supreme Being took a few moments to rid us of all crime, poverty, illness and cruelty. He must have. If there were actual problems in this world, would the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary, the pious order of nuns who mounted the plaques, take the time to issue a statement saying that they were "stunned"?
Then again, the TV sets in the newsroom Monday showed scenes of forest fires. They showed soldiers taking cover in Iraq. This, while some people argued about plaques, as if such things are needed to inspire those seeing the Grand Canyon. Still, I knelt down and thanked the Lord. I had to. It turns out that it wasn't the prayers of the pious that God had answered, but those of talk-show hosts and newspaper columnists.
Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-8978.
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Good things come to those who walk. |
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maryphyl
Grand Canyon Enchantress
Joined: 04 Jan 2003
Posts: 669
Location: Flagstaff
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| Posted: 7/15/2003, 8:21 pm Post subject: |
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_________________
Shikekeh hozhoogo naasha.
I walk in beauty. |
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ck1
Joined: 04 Jan 2003
Posts: 1331
Location: Mesa
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| Posted: 7/15/2003, 8:32 pm Post subject: |
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Now that's some quality writing. 
_________________
-Colin
"The Journey is the Destination" |
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