Montgomery: a desecration or a tradition?

Make no mistake about my opinion about the recent flap about the 10 commandments being displayed in the state courthouse in Montgovery Alabama: I think these people are misguided. Misguided is a polite, and accurate, term, rather than what I want to call them.

<rant> I just think that it is a lot of effort to protect a symbol, whose removal will have no effect on anyone, except those arguing about it. There are MUCH, MUCH greater issues at hand. And why do they need our institutions to shore up their religion? The Europeans did that hundreds of years ago, and today very few people hold Christianity as a personal faith. And I am sure that their position that our founding fathers built our government on Christianity is not accurate, either. It was also built on Masonry, which should send some of those Baptist scurrying.</rant>

Having recently visited the city of Montgomery and toured its historic sites, I learned more about the bus boycott and the even more disruptive march led by MLK to the state capital in 1965. These were great, noble events that helped change America. Which leads me to the title for this post: Is this a desecration of those noble events, or just a continuing tradition of social unrest?

(Be sure to check out the link about the march, the photos are terrific. If you go to the Alabama Archives, you can see these and more. I have a copy of them at my home, too.)

To greater effect...does today's protesters' activities bother me because they disrupt the status quo and question it, much the way the bus protesters did to whites in the 50s? Yea, I guess they are. But I think it is a lot less clear what side is right, or what side will win this time.