Church and State...

I am an American. I understand the Constitution. I understand the basics of our laws. I long for the day when we can fully realize that separation of church and state. I long for the days when I won't hear God Bless you and God Bless America at the end of a presidential address. In my eyes, that will be the true end and separation.

I'm not saying that I don't believe in a higher power, but not everyone believes in the same higher power. We are all Americans, that doesn't mean that we all believe in the same God, and our founding fathers understood and knew that well. That is why they were believers in that separation.

I fear that all members of society will not see full equality until that happens. I recently stood up for my sister, as her Maid/Man of Honour and I signed two documents as a witness to her marriage. One for the Church and one for the State. Complete separation, as she did not need the church for the license to be official, she would be married if all I signed was the state certificate. Why can't we separate other things that way?

I am not asking to be married in a church or by any religious entity, my brother and sister in law weren't, and their marriage is treated in the same manner by the country as that of my parents and now my sister and brother in law who were married in church. I am asking for nothing less. Why does it have to be any other way?

Why do we always look to religion to define who we are and where we need to go as a people? Why can't we look to the values our country was founded upon - the equal treatment of all it's citizenry.

I guess I'm just a little fired up after watching the abysmal state of our union. We will not advance as a nation until we start to go back to our founding principals and start believing in that document we talk about all the time.