Have you ever heard the expression, “Frustrated to a parade rest?” I don’t know how common the expression is. In fact, I tried to Google it with the quotes and got zero hits. I first heard it in Abilene Texas from an old Chief that worked for me at the Precision Measurement Equipment Laboratory at Dyess Air Force Base. Chief Ginn was what they might call in the Navy “salty” and full of “life in the military” experience. He once told me, “If there was a 50-50 chance of something going wrong, the odds were 1000 to 1 that it will.” We got along fine because I could understand him. I was a captain, an officer, but I had the advantage of ten years of enlisted service behind me. Chief Ginn came into my office one day. He looked at me and said, “I see the commander has you frustrated to a parade rest.”

It was true and he captured in a single phrase what was going through my mind at the moment. I was second in command in the squadron; I had the mission responsibility of maintaining the avionics on 33 B-1B bombers and a similar number of KC-135 tankers. The squadron was in a SAC (Strategic Air Command) wing. In SAC it seemed that we were either participating in an exercise (a simulated war or terrorist attack) or preparing for an exercise. There was another pithy saying we used to describe SAC, “Reward for a good job is no punishment.” I’m sure many of the people reading this can identify with that, especially if they’ve been in SAC.

Today, I have a similar feeling.

I received an Action Alert from the Secular Coalition for America. It was an alert talking about pending legislation in Michigan that will allow counselors to discriminate against patients on religious grounds. In order to cut down the possibility of a translation error here is the quote from the alert:

 The Michigan House of Representatives recently approved House Bill 5040, also known as the “Julea Ward Freedom of Conscience Act.” If passed, the bill would protect therapists who discriminate against everyone from non-theists to members of the LGBT community. H.B. 5040 would prevent colleges and universities from taking any disciplinary action against counseling students who discriminate against patients, as long as that discrimination is based on “sincerely held religious belief.”

 The alert asked that I sign a petition and send a note to the state senator but I can’t. I don’t live in Michigan. The fact that I can’t help is a bit frustrating but what is MORE frustrating is the similar type of actions that are happening in this state (Arizona) with this legislature. We’re not alone. There are 46 other states that specifically allow medical professionals to refuse health care based on “sincerely held religious grounds.”

There are too many assaults on the wall of separation. We see attacks on science classes. The military is considered by many a missionary arm of Christianity. The hospitals decide on treatment based on religious philosophy. We live in a country where the most intelligent people are effectively barred from high political office because of their lack of belief in an imaginary being. The best armed civilization in all of history is in the hands of people that respond to directives from an invisible entity. We live in a country where our current leaders with their irrational beliefs find it is more important to protect potential life than care for the already living–the sick, the disabled, and the old. We live in a country where it is more important to teach children that the ideas from a Bronze Age relic are more truthful than the results of careful scientific investigations and reasoning. We live in a country where we are expected to respect a person’s belief in the supernatural. It seems like there is very little that we can do about it. I’m simply, “frustrated to a parade rest!”

This entry was posted on Friday, June 22nd, 2012 at 1:10 am and is filed under Abortion, Atheism, AZ Politics, Christian Self-Righteous Arrogance, Christianity, Creationism, Critical Thinking, Education, Faith, Fundamentalism, Gay Marriage, God & Bible, Government, History, Logic, Question of the Day!, Reason, Religion, Responsible Government, Science, Separation of Church & State, That's Life!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.