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J. Brent Pichard

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"Thank you Tallahassee Democrat for publishing J. Brent Pichard's article, Class of 1960 has seen distrubing changes. Well done Brent!  Tea Party Rating: Five patriotic tri-corn hats to J. Brent Pichard and to the Tallahassee Democrat." Pace

J. Brent Pichard: Class of
1960 has seen disturbing
changes

J. Brent Pichard • My View • May 29, 2010

This month, the Leon High School Class of 1960
celebrated its 50th reunion. It was special for a
number of reasons.

We kicked off the festivities at Goodwood Plantation,
which, 50 years ago, was little more than a
deteriorating vestige of the Old South tucked back in
the woods behind the hospital. What a beautiful
setting and party place today. We were then
welcomed by Rocky Hanna, the dynamic principal of
our alma mater and son of our deceased classmate,
Jimmy Hanna.

The husband of classmate Shirley McEwan Moore,
DeVoe Moore, is the brains and brawn behind the
world-class Tallahassee Automobile Museum, where
we gathered the second evening. Elvis Presley, '55
Chevys and Cushman scooters combined to
magically transport us back to the days of our
youth.

Our senior year marked the end of an era and the
beginning of a monumental tipping point in
American history. We had never attended school
with a black student. There were only two religious
belief systems in evidence — Christians and Jews.
Christianity had the lead role in campus life. We
began every day with a Bible reading and devotional
broadcast over the PA system. Athletic events began
with a Christian prayer. Every morning during
homeroom, we said the Pledge of Allegiance to the
flag. We respected and feared the authority of our
teachers and principal. Choral concerts featured
patriotic and religious music.

Our Jewish classmates quietly and respectfully
endured. They did not complain, protest or file
lawsuits. Perhaps they were content in the
knowledge that all things Christian have their roots
in all things Jewish. Other belief systems — Hindus,
Buddhist, Muslims or atheists — were nowhere on
the radar screen in 1960.

All of this was about to change, for better and for
worse.

A few years later, in 1964, the Civil Rights Act was
passed. Many of us Southern white boys and girls
were ashamed of the injustice of racial
discrimination. Some were more outspoken with
these views than others. I will always wonder where
race relations would be today without government's
intervention. I do not believe the answer to that
question is as obvious as conventional wisdom
would hold.


In 1963, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled in Abington
Township School District vs. Schempp that school-
sponsored prayer and Bible reading was a violation
of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The
Amendment reads: "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

This "establishment clause" was originally intended
to prohibit the establishment, by law, of a state
religion. It has evolved into a much broader
application. Referred to now as "separation of
church and state," it raises the question: What is
"church"?

Atheists, led by Madalyn Murray O'Hair, were
emboldened by this court "victory." They pressed
their agenda and filed a steady stream of lawsuits
from one end of the country to the other. While the
intent of the court's ruling was not to prohibit
individual students from praying, reading the Bible
or organizing religious groups at school, the actual
result was that administrators and teachers over-
reacted. Educators became fearful of anything

"religious" on campus, which had to mean anything
Christian.

For several decades before 1963, the nation's moral
health — with Judeo-Christian ethics as the standard
— showed slow and steady improvement. After the
nation's moral matrix was declared illegal, these
indicators took a sharp turn for the worse. SAT
scores fell, and STDs, teen pregnancy, unwed birth
rates, violent crime, drug and alcohol abuse, pre-
marital sex, single-parent households, unmarried
cohabitation, divorce rates and teen suicide (to
mention a few) all turned sharply upward. These
trends have continued to the present day.

The crown jewel of all this was Roe v. Wade in 1973.
Since then, nearly 50 million American babies were
never allowed to see the light of the delivery room.

Is it possible this putrefaction in American society
was unleashed when it became unlawful to
acknowledge, in our public schools, the nation's
Judeo-Christian ethics? Have the terms "religion"
and "church" and "ethics" become synonymous? If
so, is it our intention to separate the American
"state" from any and all constructs of "right and
wrong"?


Teaching values

It would seem the "establishment" clause evolved
into the "separation of church and state" clause,
which is now evolving into the "separation of
America from its core values" clause. If it is illegal to
teach school kids about Judeo-Christian values,
pray tell what values can be taught legally? What set
of substitute "ethics" is poised to fill the void?

Every culture on Earth rests upon three legs: an
ethics leg that differentiates, for that particular
culture, between "right and wrong"; an economic leg
that orchestrates what will be produced, who will
produce it and who will get what is produced; and a
government leg that establishes and regulates
authority.

Of these three legs, ethics is predominant, because
it dictates the architecture of the other two. For
example, a culture that does not value individual
human life will not construct an economy or a
government that champions private property rights
or the individual's pursuit of happiness.

America's three legs — as founded — are best
described as: a "Judeo-Christian, capitalist,
constitutional and democratic republic." In others
words, our founding ethics are Judeo-Christian, our
economy is powered by ideas and free markets, and
our government is limited by a constitution with
ultimate authority vested in the citizenry through
elected representatives. Can anyone deny that
America's ethics, her economy and government are
all under relentless attack and in a serious state of
decline?

Author Gary Allen, writing about Karl Marx, said the
three goals of socialism are the destruction of
religion, the dissolution of the family unit and the
elimination of all rights to private property. I think
Marx would be proud of the "progress" being made
in America.

When the class of 1960 graduated, America was
only 184 years old. This July 4 will be her 234th
birthday. Meanwhile, members of the class of 1960
are flirting with age 70. Could the unsteadiness
some of us are beginning to feel in our own two
legs be a troubling metaphor of failing health for
the America we inherited a mere 50 years ago?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

• J. Brent Pichard is a Tallahassee businessman
  and a former Tallahassee Democrat community
  columnist (1988.) Contact him at
  brentpichard@gmail.com.