Defending God and Explaining “Criminal Minds”
I’ve got a couple of unrelated things to talk about in this column. Best we get to it.
First off, I am really sick of people trying to remove the words, “under God,” from the Pledge of Allegiance. The latest battleground is in my own home state,Massachusetts, where the state Supreme Court has agreed to hear the appeal of a non-religious family challenging the mandatory daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in their children’s classrooms.
The family of secular humanists claims the phrase “under God” is a violation of the state’s constitutional ban on religious discrimination.
You know, I was in first grade in 1954 when then-President Dwight Eisenhower put the words “under God” into the Pledge. I remember it well, and I remember feeling proud.
What followed, however, were years of God-bashing that basically got Our Maker thrown out of the classroom. And this isn’t an issue from the 1950s. Even at the Democratic National Convention this year, delegates had to vote to put God back into the party platform.
If you ask me, I think God is getting a pretty raw deal. I know He is forgiving, but these constant efforts to make our human condition more important than the Lord is just plain ignorant. If you don’t want to deal with God, which is a personal decision, you shouldn’t try to take Him away from all of us.
Sometimes, I wonder if God is getting tired of the planet He created and the people He nurtured. Every religion recognizes a Supreme Being of some sort. A few nut cases seem to clog our courtrooms with ridiculous stuff.
The way things are in the world and theUnited Statestoday, we need God more, not less. If these wackos win their case, I’m going to keep saying “under God” until I can no longer speak.
CRIMINAL MINDS
I recently discovered a TV show that I have really begun to enjoy. The program is “Criminal Minds.” And while it is regularly broadcast on CBS, I didn’t discover it until Ion Television began broadcasting reruns.
I was a little shocked to find that the program has been on the air since 2005 and I never knew about it. New episodes are shown on CBS.
The show follows the exploits of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) based inQuantico,Va. They fly to various crime scenes in a jet (kind of like Captain Midnight) and usually assist local authorities solve bizarre crimes.
Members of the BAU are profilers, so the shows concentrate on criminals rather than the crimes. I’ve gotten to know each team member and his or her strong and weak points. Aaron Hotchner (Thomas Gibson) is team leader. He rarely smiles and is always dead serious. He is trying to raise a son despite the loss of his wife, who was killed by an FBI-pursued suspect just before “Hotch” arrived.
Derek Morgan (Shemar Moore) is a former tough kid from Chicago who often provides the brawn. Dr. Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler) is just the opposite, the super-smart son of a mentally erratic mother (Jane Lynch). He talks a lot, knows his stuff, but is essentially a wimp when the chips are down.
Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster), the daughter of an ambassador (Kate Jackson), came on board in the second season, left, then returned again and quit again after the 7th season. Coincidentally, she showed up as an assistant DA on the first new episode of “Law and Order SVU.” I was particularly fond of her since she is aBayState native, too, born inConcord.
Jennifer “JJ” Jareau (A.J. Cook) is the FBI’s PR person who handles diplomacy issues with victims in grief. Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) is a hoot as the wildly dressed and coiffed, but super-intelligent computer whiz that gets the info to the team in a heartbeat.
Perhaps the only known player is Joe Mantegna, who portrays David Rossi, a former FBI agent and best-selling author who returned to the team when Jason Gideon (Mandy Patinkin) left.
It’s a program well worth watching.
