Now is the time to put the Lord’s Prayer back in school
letter to the editor
Now is the time to put the Lord’s Prayer back in school
To the Editor:
Everyday I watch the news. Each day repeats the same stories. Different names and faces but the same topics. We all know them – rapes, robberies, murders, another senseless school shooting and now our malls. Violence in all its forms is on display. Then there are the stories of deceit – the lying, cover-ups and slander.
I asked myself the other night, “When is it time to blow the whistle on this grand experiment that started in my youth (1962)?” I am old enough to remember when we started our public school days with the Pledge of Allegiance and the Lord’s Prayer. If memory serves me correctly, the interior cornerstone in our main hallway had the Ten Commandments engraved into the sandstone. Nobody forced us to read or abide by those words but they stood as a silent sentinel, every day, as inspiring to mold and shape our thoughts and lives as any “inspirational” quote offered by a secular author we were studying that week in our lessons.
Then, one day, I remember the day started different. The grand experiment had begun. The prayer was no more. How long would it take for society to change? For the children to change? How long for violence to increase? I am not saying these things didn’t exist in society prior to taking prayer out of the schools but I don’t know of one kid in the 1940s, 1950s or early 1960s who ever would have worried about a fellow classmate coming to school with a gun. There were belligerent kids, rebellious and the trouble makers, but not even those would bring a weapon to harm their classmates or teachers. It took time, but I believe that’s what the purpose of the “experiment” has been – to see how much time it would take, how many decades or generations it would take to yield the violence and disorder we now see everyday on the news.
So now I reach out to all school and governing authorities and ask, “Isn’t it time to start a new grand experiment?” You have seen the last five (almost six) decades, and the generations in those years, deteriorate to where we are now. You have proven what happens when we take God out of our schools. I say now is the time to put the Lord’s Prayer back in school and the Ten Commandments. Let’s see how long it takes to reverse the effects of the last 55 years. The time has come – the time is now.
Deborah Ziebert
North Royalton
To the Editor:
Everyday I watch the news. Each day repeats the same stories. Different names and faces but the same topics. We all know them – rapes, robberies, murders, another senseless school shooting and now our malls. Violence in all its forms is on display. Then there are the stories of deceit – the lying, cover-ups and slander.
I asked myself the other night, “When is it time to blow the whistle on this grand experiment that started in my youth (1962)?” I am old enough to remember when we started our public school days with the Pledge of Allegiance and the Lord’s Prayer. If memory serves me correctly, the interior cornerstone in our main hallway had the Ten Commandments engraved into the sandstone. Nobody forced us to read or abide by those words but they stood as a silent sentinel, every day, as inspiring to mold and shape our thoughts and lives as any “inspirational” quote offered by a secular author we were studying that week in our lessons.
Then, one day, I remember the day started different. The grand experiment had begun. The prayer was no more. How long would it take for society to change? For the children to change? How long for violence to increase? I am not saying these things didn’t exist in society prior to taking prayer out of the schools but I don’t know of one kid in the 1940s, 1950s or early 1960s who ever would have worried about a fellow classmate coming to school with a gun. There were belligerent kids, rebellious and the trouble makers, but not even those would bring a weapon to harm their classmates or teachers. It took time, but I believe that’s what the purpose of the “experiment” has been – to see how much time it would take, how many decades or generations it would take to yield the violence and disorder we now see everyday on the news.
So now I reach out to all school and governing authorities and ask, “Isn’t it time to start a new grand experiment?” You have seen the last five (almost six) decades, and the generations in those years, deteriorate to where we are now. You have proven what happens when we take God out of our schools. I say now is the time to put the Lord’s Prayer back in school and the Ten Commandments. Let’s see how long it takes to reverse the effects of the last 55 years. The time has come – the time is now.
Deborah Ziebert
North Royalton
