HAVE YOU EVER RUN OVER A SKUNK?

From the May 2004 issue of The American Legion Magazine

"How many of you have ever run over a skunk with your car? I have many times, and I can tell you the stink stays around for a long time.

You can take the car through a car wash and it's still there. So the scent of this event will long linger in the nostrils of America." -- U.S.

Senator Zell Miller (D-Ga.) delivered the following statement on the floor of the U.S. Senate on February 12, 2004, addressing several social issues facing the country:

AMERICANS ARE IMPATIENT WITH DECLINE OF MORALITY

Arnold Toynbee, who wrote the acclaimed 12 volume "A Study of History", once declared, "Of the 22 civilizations that have appeared in history, 19 of them collapsed when they reached the moral state America is in today."

Toynbee died in 1975, before seeing the worst that was yet to come.

Whether it is removing a display of the Ten Commandments from a Courthouse or the Nativity Scene from a city square, whether it is eliminating prayer in schools or eliminating "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, whether it is making a mockery of the sacred institution of marriage between a man and woman or, yes, telecasting around the world made-in-the-USA filth masquerading as entertainment.

The Culture of Far Left America was displayed in a startling way during the Super Bowl's now infamous half-time show. A show brought to us courtesy of Value-Les Moonves and the pagan temple of Viacom-Babylon.

I asked the question yesterday, how many of you have ever run over a skunk with your car? I have many times and I can tell you, the stink stays around for a long time. You can take the car through a car wash and it's still there. So the scent of this event will long linger in the nostrils of America.
I'm not talking just about an exposed mammary gland with a pull-tab attached to it. Really, no one should have been too surprised at that.

Wouldn't one expect a bumping, humping, trashy routine entitled "I'm going to get you naked" to end that way?

Does any responsible adult ever listen to the words of this rap-crap?

I'd quote you some of it, but the Sergeant of Arms would throw me out of here, as well he should. And then there was that prancing, dancing, strutting, rutting guy evidently suffering from jock itch because he kept yelling and grabbing his crotch. But then, maybe there's a crotch grabbing culture I'm unaware of.

But as bad as all this was, the thing that yanked my chain the most was seeing that ignoramus with his pointed head stuck up through a hole he had cut in the flag of the United States of America, screaming about having a bottle of scotch and watching lots of crotch. Think about that.

This is the same flag that we pledge allegiance to. This is the flag that is draped over coffins of dead young uniformed warriors killed while protecting Kid Crock's bony butt. He should be tarred and feathered, and ridden out of this country on a rail. Talk about a good reality show!

The desire and will of this Congress to meaningfully do anything about any of these so-called social issues is non existent and embarrassingly disgraceful. The American people are waiting and growing impatient with us. They want something done.

I am pleased to be a co-sponsor of S.J. Res. 26 along with Senator Allard and others, proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relating to marriage. And S.1558, the Liberties Restoration Act, which declares religious liberty rights in several ways, including the Pledge of Allegiance and the display of the Ten Commandments. And today I join Senator Shelby and others with the Constitution Restoration Act of 2004 that limits the jurisdiction of federal courts certain ways.

In doing so, I stand shoulder to shoulder not only with my Senate co-sponsors and Chief Justice Roy Moore of Alabama but, more importantly, with our Founding Fathers in the conception of religious liberty and the terribly wrong direction our modern judiciary has taken us in.

Everyone today seems to think that the U.S. Constitution expressly provides for separation of church and state. Ask any ten people if that's not so. And I'll bet you most of them will say "Well, sure." And some will point out, "it's in the First Amendment."

Wrong! Read it! It says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

Where is the word "separate"? Where are the words "church" or "state"?

They are not there. Never have been. Never intended to be. Read the Congressional Records during that four-month period in 1789 when the amendment was being framed in Congress. Clearly their intent was to prohibit a single denomination in exclusion of all others, whether it was Anglican or Catholic or some other.

I highly recommend a great book entitled "Original Intent" by David Barton. It really gets into how the actual members of Congress, who drafted the First Amendment, expected basic Biblical principles and values to be present throughout public life and society, not separate.

It was Alexander Hamilton who pointed out that "judges should be bound down by strict rules and precedents, which serve to define and point out their duty." Bound down! That is exactly what is needed done.

There was not a single precedent cited when school prayer was struck down in 1962. These judges who legislate instead of adjudicate, do it without being responsible to one single solitary voter for their actions.

So, if I am asked why -- with all the pressing problems this nation faces today -- why am I pushing these social issues and taking the Senate's valuable time? I will answer: Because, it is of the highest importance. Yes, there's a deficit to be concerned about in this country, a deficit of decency.

So, with my time running out in this Senate and on this earth, I feel compelled to speak out. For I truly believe that at times like this, silence is not golden. It is yellow.