Page Two

Welcome to our annual "Best of Austin" issue. We'd like to thank the thousands who voted, as well as the staff members, interns, and freelancers who devoted so much time to making this issue what it is. As always, we view the annual "Best of" not as a stand-alone issue but as another volume in an ongoing catalog that celebrates as many special, wonderful, and unique places, businesses, people, things, and ideas of Austin as possible. This issue is not a closed destination, complete unto itself; instead, it is an open-ended kickoff: Here are some wonderful things about our town. There are so many more. Suggestions, criticisms, additions are not just welcome but expected.

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Appropriate that this is the "Best of" issue, because in so many ways it feels like the worst of times. The return of the Senate Democrats saw them shut out and ignored by the Republican majority in both the Senate and House. There was no interest in or attempt at bipartisan compromise. The only real controversy is within the Republican Party, over redistricting in West Texas. The goals here are not lofty. This is about neither representation nor the changing face of Texas. It is about petty, partisan politics.

A lot of folks wrote letters that chided the Democrats for leaving the state, pointing out that, as working people, if they didn't show up for their jobs they'd be fired, and politicians should be treated exactly the same way. By the same token, if you showed up at work but instead of listening to and cooperating with your fellow workers, you ignored them, going off on your own, you'd probably be fired as well. Those letter-writers seem to be overlooking this transgression, unfortunately proving themselves as shamelessly hypocritical as the state leaders who urged the Democrats to come back so they could all work together when they had no such intention -- all they really wanted was a quorum.

In contemplating those letters, we should begin to think about words and meaning. After the Supreme Court ruled against prayer in public schools, many were outraged. Others pointed out that this not only adhered to the Constitution but, independent of that document, respected the rich diversity of our American population. The genius of the United States is the assumption that many voices, many philosophies, many religions, many ideas form a whole that is much greater than the sum of its parts. But those of us who were brought up with prayers recited at the beginning of class didn't need these justifications. We lived with the reality: There was nothing spiritual about the exercise because no one paid any attention to the meaning, not even the more religious students. The recitations were as mindless as a lot of the learning in elementary school, with early reading lessons -- "See Dick, see Dick run; see Jane, see Jane run," having as much resonance. Long before the courts got around to dealing with them, school prayers had lost any spiritual meaning.

A tenet of many of those on the religious right is that teaching children about sex should not be done in public school and is solely the domain of family. Ironically, many of the same people are still outraged that God has been taken out of the classroom. I'd much rather biological and social information related to sex be taught in the classroom than see the imposition of religious beliefs. The study of religion is indeed an academic subject, but a family's own religious beliefs are personal and don't belong in public classrooms.

Back to words and meanings. Consider the following, especially if you believe those prayers in public school really have/had either impact or meaning. In arguments defending the Republicans' bullying and attacking the anti-redistricting Democrats, how many times have you heard or read a statement along the lines of: "Look it up in the dictionary: Democracy means majority rules. Get used to it"? Now, most of these people probably said the Pledge of Allegiance every morning for years. If they're taking time to write, they obviously have some civic concern. The truth is that they paid no attention to the pledge. As much as they may insist on their patriotism, the pledge was just a jumble of sounds, noise without meaning. Think about this: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands." We don't live in a democracy, but a democratic republic. "Republic" is defined as "a state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them." Which means that, though the majority rules, minorities are empowered and need to be considered in governing. The gloating majority-party bullying we are witnessing (and many are celebrating) is antithetical to the founding ideas of our republic.

My favorite news photo of recent weeks was from Alabama; it depicts a number of believers kneeling in the foreground, one hand on the earth, the other raised toward the Lord. In the background, you can see that controversial, multi-ton Ten Commandments monument. The easiest of the Ten to make out says, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image." Dozens, if not hundreds, of more-devout-than-the-rest-of-us true believers are there, busily engaged in just such an action.

Too much of the current religious debate is about God as defined and understood by man. God created the world in seven 24-hour days, we are told, or God is being assaulted by nonbelievers, or laws are being passed that displease God, and on and on. This strikes me as beyond blasphemy. Even if you believe in the most literal interpretation of the Bible as God's word, to suggest that, as a mortal, you not only completely understand but can use it as a predictive guide to other positions is outrageous. Worse, is there anything more demeaning to the divine than trying to manipulate the secular to defend God?

The God I love needs no moment of prayer from schoolchildren to establish majesty. Religious people I know need no orders from a state legislature to believe. God is not so small as to need the protection of legislators. God is not of man, needing to be celebrated by trinkets, words, or symbols, nor defined by simplistic bigotries and prejudices. Believers carry their love in their hearts, in their minds, blood, families. Earthly affectations are only restraints.

Likewise, the greatness of the country I carry in my heart and love with all my being is in the power of its ideas -- that we are all created equal, that we all have certain inalienable rights. Fanaticism over its decorations and invocations trivialize rather than honor. This country is made stronger when its flag is burned because it is based on freedom of thoughts and beliefs that the flames devouring that cloth cannot singe.

Isn't one of the great ironies of our time that those who talk most of God show no real belief nor respect, and those who rant about patriotism are most determined to destroy the ideas and visions that make this country great? Insisting God be propped up by secular supports is lazy blasphemy. Imposing one's vision of God on others is base, not spiritual -- a demonstration of shallow ego, not devotion. Those proclaiming "love it or leave it," that the only way to save freedom is to destroy it, that Democrats are traitors -- and Communist traitors at that -- loudly announce themselves as citizens of some nation not created by the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. There are those who assert again and again that the greatest enemies of this country are Americans, and who would gleefully disenfranchise anyone with different opinions. They assert that their vision of America is not only the true one, but truth itself, a vision shared with God. These folks need only look in the nearest mirror if they want to see the most dangerous and terrifying threat to this great country.

Yes, I'm harping on some of the same topics again and again. But the storm of paranoia and hatred seems to be getting worse. When we get a press release that by the most spurious logic announces that Democrats and Communists are almost the same, it is shocking. Not just because in 2003 it is so mind-boggling that, despite all evidence to the contrary, the Communist menace is still being evoked as a way to scare people, but that hating people in the name of patriotism is so casually accepted. As the snow rises higher, it is important to keep pushing signposts up above it, to help us all find our way.