In reply to: your (undated) appeal for funds
The American Legion
Dear Richard Santos:
Your mailing appealed for money to stop the “moral decay of our country.” I feel compelled to respond, even though I fear my reply will fall on deaf ears.
Let me address these issues of “moral decay”:
1.
You state that because there has not been amendment to prevent
flag-burning, “13 years later, the flag is still unprotected.”
I am a military man, and I (unlike, it appears, too many Legionnaires)
remember my oath of office. Let me
remind you: I swear that I will support and defend the constitution of the
2.
You state that “a federal court has ruled that saying the Pledge
of Allegiance in public schools is unconstitutional.” Have
you read the ruling? (No. 00-16423 of the
3. It may interest you that “compelling students to recite the Pledge was held to be a First Amendment violation in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 642 (1943) [which] was decided before the 1954 Act added the words “under God” to the Pledge.” (Ruling cited above.)
4.
You state that “prayer has been kicked out of the schools by the
courts and their elitist friends in academia”.
Do you remember why the pilgrims came here in the first place?
They were tired of being the victims of discrimination because their form
of worship differed from that mandated by the government.
When our government (of which the schools are a part) mandates a
particular form of worship, or indeed religious exercise of any sort, then it is
violating one of the most basic fundamental premises for the formation of our
country. And I must hold any who
would have the government mandate worship as enemies of the constitution and
oppose them. It is that same demand
for a “church state” that led 19 god-fearing religious men to fly airplanes
into the
Sincerely,
Robert R. Armbruster
, Member No. 201813632
CDR, USN