Pat Robertson, the 700 Club dude, has warned the citizens of Dover, Pa., not to be shocked if God smites them for not teaching intelligent design. If someone wants to believe in intelligent design, that’s OK. But to resort to threats?

The fact that Robertson wants to speak for God is flat-out blasphemous. I’d hate to be this guy’s intern: “I told you I wanted Swiss cheese on my ham sandwich! Don’t be upset if God smites you for that!”

Now listen to what Bush says: “Even though we know that it was Osama bin Laden who plotted the Sept. 11 attacks, Saddam Hussein hates America just as much, and he has weapons that can hurt us and he might have even played a role in those attacks. Oh, and since these other people (the rest of the world) don’t agree, they must be corrupted and in favor of terrorism.”

That’s the way it must be, isn’t it? I mean, we are good people, the best, the masters of the world who have to keep it safe. We have to keep America safe from outsiders who want to do us or each other harm. And we have to stop anyone who gets in our way.

And all we have to do in order to have a nice, comfortable lifestyle is sit back and go with it, believe the lies, and push for nothing. Hand your kids over to the school system that will turn them into citizens too dumb and conformist to think about what they’re in for when they volunteer for selective service.

Next, go to church so that your other kid can pray the gay away so they don’t have to die from AIDS or be sent to the happiness camps run by the ministry of love. And then, pray for your wife/husband so that he/she might not have any more anti-Bush tendencies.

You don’t want your loved one hauled off to prisons like Guantanamo Bay and Eastern Europe where they can have their basic human and American civil rights ignored as part of the necessary sacrifice made to stop terror. And never wonder why, if terror is the enemy, you are always afraid and why people seem to be showing less humanity in order to be “humanitarian.”

It goes beyond douche-bags and those who enjoy sucking donkeys. It goes to your free choice. The choice you have to go with (the clear-cut and easy path causing you to act like a scared beast in the wild) has you scrounging for everything. The harder path has you thinking, learning, trusting, earning and gaining from the effort you put into each step.

It looks harder, but it’s easier to follow if you listen to your heart and follow your better nature. They can be like a map and compass in a confusing and dark wilderness. Good deeds don’t mean hurting and hating and mistrusting people you don’t know.

Karl Hopkins-Lutz is a senior German major and a guest columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact him at [email protected].