Republican Representative Randy Forbes (Va.) took time out of Congress' busy schedule yesterday to float a resolution reaffirming "In God We Trust" as our national motto.
"Unfortunately, there are a number of public officials who forget what the national motto is, whether intentionally or unintentionally," Forbes said, adding, "There are those who become confused as to whether or not it can still be placed on our buildings, whether it can be placed in our school classrooms.”
Now, I don’t know about you but I feel much better about the problems facing our country now that we’re all clear on what our motto is. A more shortsighted legislator might have felt compelled to be laser focused on jobs since that’s what his party promised to be at the last election but, giving Rep Forbes credit, it’s hard to see how we could have moved ahead on other pressing issues without getting this clarification first. Some legislators might have voted on a bill to create jobs through infrastructure repair or using some unemployment monies to subsidize small business hiring thinking our motto was E pluribus unum or Remember the Maine and then where would we have been.
It would have been understandable if Rep Forbes had taken the easy road and not introduced this legislation. After all, Speaker of the House John Boehner said, upon taking office, that no time would be wasted by this House on purely ceremonial or vacuous motions. Apparently, the Speaker just wasn’t aware of how many representatives didn’t know what the real motto was or where they could put it. Without this legislation some well-meaning but poorly informed Congressman might have written 54-40 or Fight or even Tippecanoe and Tyler Too on a government building. Now, thanks to Randy Forbes they all know what the real motto is and, hopefully, where they can put it.