Discussions solution for political discord
by Frances Matteck, Reporter

   Recently, the news has reported a lot of controversy over the separation of church and state.
   In Montgomery, Ala., Chief Justice Roy Moore installed a monument of the 10 Commandments in the rotunda of the courthouse. More recently (and closer to home), senior citizens have been denied the right to pray and their senior band the right to play gospel music in their own senior center.
   In Balch Springs, a small town outside of Dallas, the senior center is populated daily by hungry seniors coming for lunch. They usually ask for someone to rise and say a prayer of thanksgiving over the food before they eat. A few weeks ago, three seniors complained, so the city council decided the seniors should not pray or sing gospels in the city-owned building.
   Such a decision is outrageous. But since three seniors complained, the group is punished by the restriction of First Amendment freedoms of speech and religion.
   Ironically, when the seniors attended a city council session to protest the ban on prayer and gospels, an invocation was offered in a public building. This is the same council restricting the seniors. Doesn’t that seem like a double standard?
   Some of the seniors are threatening to take their case before the judicial system, and they are being represented by Kelly Shackelford, head of the Liberty Legal Institute. He agrees that the seniors’ rights are being trampled upon.
   “We don’t lose our First Amendment rights and religious freedoms,” he said, “when we walk into a public building or step onto a public park or public street or public sidewalk.”
   Several seniors said they would continue to pray and sing gospels at the senior center even though the city has forbidden them to do so.   They maintained that if the city police wanted to haul them off to jail, then they would be happy to spend the night there to protect their freedoms of free speech and free exercise of religion.
   Forcing seniors to fight for their right to pray before their meal is testimony to the decline of our government. America is about freedom: religious and political freedom, the right to bear arms, the right to vote. If we allow our rights to be trampled upon, then what do we have left?
    I realize a few seniors may have felt uncomfortable, but couldn’t they have discussed their feelings with the other seniors and found a resolution to the problem? Most people really are understanding. I’m sure they could have come to a conclusion that was beneficial to all.