Quote from stu:
A conversation about âunder God.â
By stu, with very few apologies to William F. Buckley Jr.
âExcuse me, sir. Are you Maureenâs father?â
John Dickson looked over at the children playing on the school playground. He ducked, but the football grazed his questioner, bloodying his nose. âCan you use my handkerchief?â Dickson brought it out from his pocket.
âNo. No thanks. Iâll be okay. Iâm a doctor, by the way.â He extended his hand.
âIf you mean her,â Dickson pointed at the girl on the swing, âyes, thatâs Maureen Dickson, my daughter.â
âWell, John â may I call you John? â you saw the newspapers this morning, the Supreme Court refusing to take my case against the school our kids attend.â
âYes, I read the whole story hereâ â he pulled the paper up from his bicycle bag. âYouâre mad because the Court refused to forbid the recitation of the pledge with the phrase, âunder Godâ in it.â
âYes. What Iâm wondering is, would you be willing to enter the case as a plaintiff, since your little girl there, Maureen, has to recite the same pledge?â
âI forget. Why wouldnât the Supreme Court see your case through?â
âBecause Sally â my daughter â canât be represented by me.â
âWhy not? Youâre the father.â
âWell . . . I donât live with Sallyâs mother. And under the law, if the parents arenât married, the mother has legal rights, and her mother is â a Christian.â
âYou donât live with Sallyâs mother, youâre divorced â â
âActually, we were never married. Sallyâs mother didnât want to marry. She wanted to remain single . She maintains "Life is complicated" and that she " was not walking with the Lord when my daughter was conceived." I still cannot get my head around that idea. By the way, Iâm also a lawyer.â
âAnd youâre against the pledge of allegiance because it includes, âunder Godâ?â
âRight. None of that business of a state invoking God!â
âYou took a pledge when you became a doctor?â
âYes, the Hippocratic oath, modern form.â
âThe Hippocratic oath has you saying you âmust not play at God.â Are you going to ask the Supreme Court to declare that oath unconstitutional?â
âIt is not necessary. Most Hippocratic oaths, modern form, make no reference to God. I just wanted to know if you would agree to serve as a plaintiff on behalf of your daughter, Maureen â â
âBut I have to figure out what youâre trying to do for your girl, before I decide whether I want to help you.â John Dickson reached for the newspaper. âYou said when interviewed after you presented your case that appearing before the Supreme Court had been a great experience but . . .â â he looked down at the text â ââBut the experience of a lifetime is to love your kid and be with her.â But it isnât the court thatâs keeping you from the experience of a lifetime. Whatâs keeping you is you have yet to marry the mother.â
âThe fact is Sandra doesnât want to marry and that has nothing to do with the pledge of allegiance.â
âI am not trying to take the pledge of allegiance away from the students at my daughterâs school, or students everywhere. I am trying to have it returned to the wording which the original author gave it. The mother of my child is in favour of her reciting the amended pledge, that of course California law gives her, but not the unwillingly-absent-from-the-house father, which makes an unfair and one sided standing in a court trial. I would very much like to get that law changed too, if nothing else but for the sake of fair-mindedness and balance. And if you cared to get off your high horse and do your homework before making these misleading statements Dickson, you might also care to consider why the Hippocratic oath had to be altered from the classical form to the modern form.
âWhat about Hippocratic oath ,classical form ?â
For your information, many physicians consider the words âmust not play at God.â As inappropriate , meaningless and wrong just as âunder Godâ is. 90% of Hippocratic oath modern forms taken, hold no convenant with or to a deity at all.
It all looks a little silly when you consider the classical form, there by the grace of Hippocrates the father of medicine himself.
It requires doctors to â swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and Panaceia and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfil according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant: .â Superstitious pagan God worshipping has no place in medicine any more than children being required to submit to being âunder a Godâ of modern day versions.
âI apologize for jumping to conclusions and for pre-judging you . Although you impregnate a woman who gives birth to the child, you are unable to marry her or live with her - by her own free will. You protest the policies of the school the girl goes to, and you are told you have no right to. Any little boys in that school who grow up like you, to be a doctor upholding through honor his outdated Hippocratic oath, and would live up to the responsibilities of a father, but is stopped from doing so, gets my support! I call that playing fairly..â
This time Newdow ducked, avoiding the speed ball that whizzed by, knocking Dickson out cold. Dickson was fortunate though. A doctor, who bore no grudges, was close at hand.