A Moment of Silence, Please

“We will now start the day with a moment of silence.”

An echo of loud thuds, zippers, and electric pencil sharpeners can be heard across the Klein High campus. A few thousand students simultaneously drop their heads on their desk, while a few hundred more scribble away at old homework assignments, or write test answers on their palms. I boil in my own disagreement with this school district, and ponder the meaning of this moment in which no one is silent; at least not mentally.

I know exactly what those few words were intended to mean. Something along the lines of “We will start the morning with a minute of prayer and worship”, or perhaps “thanks to God”. Whilst the ACLU clutches the bleeding stab wounds to its heart, I picture a more indiscriminant “moment of spiritual reflection” and then a more fundamentalist “moment of glory to Christ” being proposed, and a legislative body making a compromise just to get the various religious and non-religious representatives out of its sight. But it’s quite obvious what the hidden meaning of the “reflective moment” is: an unnecessary and even unconstitutional attempt to mix a little too much church with state. I can’t be the only person who’s figured this out–much less the only one offended by it.

Not that anything will ever be done about it. The moment of silence was a silly idea in the first place, and the only reason it’s here to stay is that not enough people really even care about it. I guarantee that 75% of the student body or more simply sees the minute as some time off second period, a minute to sleep, or an opportunity to finish late homework. The day I actually see people getting out their Holy Bibles, Torahs and prayer mats, then the more liberal students of the school will be able to talk about separation of church and state.

The whole issue is similar to the part in the Pledge of Allegiance about this country being a nation “under God”. The few people that bother to say the pledge don’t even consciously think about it when they do anyway. The “allegiance” we pledge is about as valuable or honest as a Middle Eastern cease-fire. The oath has simply been drilled into our brains every morning from elementary school until now. It means nothing. The point is, the only people who ever say anything about any of these matters are the aggressive, reformist types like myself, which are very rare in a high school environment–especially at 8:45 AM.

Nevertheless, I question the nature of groups like Bearkats for Christ, Klein Islamic Thought, and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. What drives people to bring these things into school if it’s obvious they’ll cause so much controversy? Legally, I could form Bearkats for Satan if I wanted to! Congress recognizes the Church of Satan, and I’m sure the ACLU would back me up. It’d be just as “unorthodox” as creating a club, according to some, “based on sexual activity”.

Is it just an American sense of unity that inspires us to establish moments of propagandistic holy sanctity in our ignorant academia? Perhaps it’s a result of massive tragedies such as 9-11. America gained an unmatched sense of pride, unity, little flags, and bumper stickers that eventually dissolved as crime rates went back up and people stopped wearing “God Bless America” T-shirts.

I don’t think God has blessed us if the only unified equality we experience in America is a result of national crisis and the systematic destruction of the Middle East. Perhaps we need that moment of prayer more than we thought.