Off the Editor’s Desk 6-26-2024

What do you call your noon meal?

I have been called to task for calling my noon meal Dinner. In my life it’s always been breakfast in the morning, dinner at noon and supper at six in the evening.

I’ve been told that I am wrong as it should be first, breakfast, then lunch and it is Dinner in the evening. According to my Oxford Dictionary, Dinner is “the main meal of the day, taken either around midday or in the evening, a formal evening meal.”

For me, lunch, is the afternoon coffee break around three o’clock. As our entire family worked in the newspaper office, we almost all of the time left the office and had the main meal in a local restaurant and a light meal in the evening, except if we were attending some event. On Sunday, the main meal was also at noon following church services at home or sometimes with my grandparents.

So all you folks that tried to correct me, dinner will still be at noon and supper in early evening, so let me enjoy my meal time with what ever it is called.

So let’s move on to a more serious matter. It was 62 years ago this week that the United States Supreme Court banned prayer in public schools. I remember a quote from that time which said; “There will always be prayer in schools as long as there are math tests.”

Louisiana has become the first state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom, the latest move from a GOP governor and state legislature and it looks like several other states will follow. We have taken God out of our daily life and attendance at local churches has suffered.

Reading the First Amendment of the Constitution, it states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” It does not say freedom from religion.

But, what the Supreme Court ruled 62 years ago is that “State officials may not compose an official state prayer and require that it be recited in the public schools of the state at the beginning of each school day.” I am sure that this Ten Commandments posting will find its way to the Supreme Court. It will be very interesting to see how this court feels about prayer. President Biden has failed to adhere to the ruling of the Supreme Court in several rulings, including that he does not have the authority to forgive student loans. That power is in the hands of Congress. But, Biden went ahead and forgave billions of dollars in student loans.

Our Republic is governed with the “Separation of Powers” and Biden not following the ruling of the Supreme Court is probably an impeachable offense.

Thanks for reading!     ~Carlton