Row and Bee

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Malevolent speech

Kilre

on Dec. 14, 2010

A billboard reading "One Nation Indivisible" that was recently erected in Charlotte, North Carolina, displayed an additional message on Monday, June 28. Someone had added the words "Under God" in blue paint, along with an arrow indicating where the omitted words should have appeared in the Pledge of Allegiance quotation…

While vandalism should not be condoned, these recent events shed light on what some Americans will do when they feel that their freedom of speech is threatened. An atheist spokesman in North Carolina said their message is needed to "let people know we exist and that there's a community here."

Yet he failed to mention the concerted effort of atheist groups to stop religious Americans from freely exercising their religion. Not content with having the freedom themselves to worship or not as they see fit, militant atheists increasingly seek to shackle the beliefs of their fellow citizens through their own distorted interpretation of "separation of church and state."

It is perhaps not surprising that some of those fellow citizens object.