There are subjects that are untouchable. Certain ideas and practices are left alone because they are “sacrosanct”. Sacrosanct means that something is regarded or treated as being above or beyond interference, criticism or, perhaps, it is holy or sacred. Here is the problem in a civil society nutshell: we Americans have no “American” shrines that are religiously holy or sacred. Some of us revere the WALL between CHURCH and STATE as a condition to insure we practice no “Official State Religion”. We think of the Statue of Liberty as a pretty important object manufactured in France and gifted to the United States. But is NOT a religious object nor is it an idol before which we must lay gifts to propitiate its power. The murderous attacks on the Trade Towers and the Pentagon have NOT changed these workaday structures into objects of veneration. Places such as the Alamo are remembered as we “Remember the Maine” and we shall remember each of the attacks on us by secret planners and murderous terrorists. We remember the attack on Pearl Harbor. We remember the Oklahoma bombing and the first attack in the basement of the Trade Towers. But these are not places we must revere. These current attacks MUST be remembered for what they are – the religious intolerance of enemies who hate the freedom of our women and the inventiveness of our minds and the success of our way of life.
Different religions are just that – but they are not sacrosanct. Gone are the times when religious conformance was demanded of all and others not of the faith were burned at the stake.
We have our remarkable and awesome natural wonders such as the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Bryce, Zion, Arches and so on and on. But, they are not holy or sacred like, for instance, the Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. That is a holy place. Infidels are not brothers in Islam and as such would be torn apart if they tried to be present at the Kaaba in Mecca. Here in America intrusions into almost all public lands by developers and speculators prove our marvelous natural treasures are not sacrosanct. Ideas are different. Some of them are more powerful than others but they are not and should not be sacrosanct.
Taxes are not holy but necessary. We seem to instinctively know that along with death, taxation is inevitable. However, certain taxation is sacrosanct. Why the rich in this country should be singled out as needing TAX CUTS is a puzzle. Yet, to the Republican leadership, recently invigorated by elections showing only that the conservative minded came out to vote, the TAX CUTS for the RICH are sacrosanct. These TAX CUTS are above or beyond interference, criticism and are holy and sacred to that Republican leadership. With a war looming and the expenses remaining of taking care of our own poor we are still expected to shore up the foundering economies of friendly countries and even our former and present enemies around the world.
The BUSH family is sacrosanct. For some reason this family is even more holy than the Kennedy’s were. They have two presidents and one governor while the Kennedy clan had one president and two Senators. The Kennedy family was Liberal and seemed to stand up for the worker, the immigrant and the poor so they have been desanctified. What is holy is anything that surrounds the Bush group. Just listen to the Conservative commentators to learn that this is so.
Motherhood is usually sacrosanct. Some types are not. What we see is that motherhood involving ENDING unwanted not-yet-living fetuses is proscribed. Teen age mothers are accepted while teen age fathers are not acknowledged. Some things are more important than others such as the teen having the baby but forbidding that teen sex education.
Having more money than one needs or can use in a lifetime is just fine. Wealth seems to insulate certain individuals or a class from troubles with law. We all know that money speaks with a louder voice than penury – it is desired possibly because it can buy public approbation and imitation.
Money is equated with power and the place to find both is in the Congress of the United States. There, too, is privilege and isolation from the pains suffered by poverty or accident of birth into a minority. The “perks” enjoyed by our “representatives” in the House and Senate are the best in the world and they have just voted themselves another raise in a time when our coffers have been emptied by the greedy practices of privileged people who control our finances. The suffering and pain of the sick, the very young, and the elderly could be ended if they too were gifted with the same benefits enjoyed by our lawmakers and LEADERS. Are they models of what it is to be an American?
Some nations in the Arab world sit on an ocean of oil. Arabs or the oil are sacrosanct. We could tell them to keep their oil by simply completing research on fuel cells, tidal, solar and wind sources of energy. But criticism of the Arab world is off-limits because most of it is Muslim. While preparing for war in the midst of our “friends” we are afraid of offending co-religionists of Osama bin Laden because certain aspects of OUR relationship (oil perhaps?) with them are sacrosanct.
The opposite of what is sacrosanct is what is presently being trashed. The chief examples of this are the State of Israel, Jews everywhere and the whole of the United States. The critics of Israel, Jews and the U.S. are sacrosanct while they pay for and deliver terrorist attacks while immune from being criticized because they are – sacrosanct.