{ 2007 04 24 }

In Krishna We Trust

inkrishnawetrust.gif

“Ive been to hell. I spell it…i spell it DMV
Anyone thats been there knows
precisely what I mean
Stood there and Ive waited
and choked back the urge to scream
And if I had my druthers
I’d screw a chimpanzee-call it pointless”
- Primus, DMV

Indiana now has these “In God We Trust” license plates. They’ve had them since the beginning of the year. Seeing them around town, I’ve had a bit of trouble with the idea that separation is accomplished via a couple of steel bolts. Wouldn’t that be the fastening of church and state? But hey, if people want to profess their love of God on their cars, well, it’s free speech, right? There’s just one hitch. To get any other custom plate in Indiana, you pay $40. Custom plates like Support Our Troops, Purple Heart, the Boy Scouts, and the Colts football team. That $40 goes toward a $15 administration fee and a $25 donation to the organization you want to support. The God plates, however, are free. The $15 fee is waived. With a manufacturing cost of $3.69 a plate and almost a half million of them out there now, that means Indiana taxpayers have paid about $1.8 million to Trust God. Sounds to me like Indiana’s legislators have quite clearly made a law respecting an establishment of religion. Perhaps Rep. Woody Burton was too busy keeping my gay friends away from the altar to have read the damn constitution.

I was down at the BMV this morning to get plates for Hotaru (and found my personalized plate with her name won’t be here for just over a year). They were definitely promoting the God plate. I was shown the regular plate, the God plate, and no other custom plates. The ACLU is suing the BMV over this bit of political theatre. Good for them. I should send them a few bucks. When will these legislators either a) stop wasting our money passing these laws promoting their favorite religion? or b) just come out and try to repeal the first amendment outright?

I suggested to the editor of our paper this morning that perhaps they could continue to waive the fee if they also offered “In Krishna We Trust”, “In Allah We Trust”, and “Are You Kidding Me?” plates. I’d pay $15 for one of those.

Posted by jase on Tuesday, April 24th, 2007, at 11:52 am, and filed under Politics.

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