Orrin, this was a great article and a very important topic for discussion. As always, you 'hit the nail on the head' regarding the importance of strong, moral values in our society, especially in our political leadership. I really enjoyed your analogy to the Dutch and their dams. There were a few things that really popped out in my mind while reading todays blog. As you wrote above, the 1st Amendment to the Constitution states "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free excercise thereof." That would lead me to believe that prohibiting students from praying (free excercise of religion) in school is "unconstitutional." I don't see any problem with that as long as prayers are not lead by the administration (the State), as that would be in violation to the first part of the amendment. I'm interested in hearing what you and others think about this as a solution the the school prayer issue. As I stated above, the analogy about the Dutch is extremely fitting. When you put it like that the whole controversy seems petty. Regarding the final statement, "It was designed to keep the State (ocean) out of the Church (Dutch people), but now keeps the Church and its values out of the State." I agree with you that keeping the Church's values out of the State is a gross misinterpretation of Seperation of Church and State. However, I feel the Founders did intend for it to keep the Church 'proper' out of State affairs. One of the things that really set the U.S. apart from Britain and Europe at the time was that the leaders of the Anglican or Roman Catholic Churches could not dictate what legislation was put into action by the government. The Founders left the power with the people not with the Bishops. There were also a lot of opposing beliefs between the Christian denominations of the early U.S. and for the government to come under the control of any one of them would lead to the alienation (and I would argue, the seccession) of the others. Finally, I agree that our Republic will not survive unless our people become more educated in the affairs of citizenship and morality. I think, in our schools, there is too much emphasis on skills geared toward being accepted to a college and not enough emphasis put on the things that impact the daily affairs of our lives. I graduated from High School in 1998 and during my High School years I had 3 years of advanced math which I've never been required to use ( I do feel a basic knowledge of arithmatic is neccasary though), I also had 4 years of Science (interesting but not particularly useful). But I only had a HALF a semester of Government and a HALF a semester of Economics. I feels those two things impact my daily life more than any other subjects taught in school with the exception of History. Again, thanks for the insight and thank you for spreading an important message. I can't wait to see what happens when it falls on a million plus welcoming ears. Thanks again for all you do. Sincerely, Bert