Preserving Our Rituals and Patriotism

Re “The Importance of Being Ritualistic,” Commentary, July 16:

Someone should advise Dennis Prager that younger Americans have never lived in a country with the motto E pluribus unum. The motto was officially changed by Congress in 1956 to “In God We Trust.” This was the same Congress that inserted a religious test (that we are somehow “under” God) into a previously secular Pledge of Allegiance, forcing Americans with different ideas about God to stop repeating the pledge.

Prager never mentions the changes made in the ‘50s--even though they lie at the root of what followed.

LANCE JENCKS

Costa Mesa

* Although Prager’s intentions and suggestions are commendable, his heartfelt desires for the return of patriotism and the preservation of rituals sadly ended when “Leave It to Beaver” and “Father Knows Best” went off the air.

America today is an ever-increasing multiethnic population whose roots and patriotism align with other countries. Does Prager really expect this segment of the population to ever explain to their children the true meaning of the 4th of July, or any other national holiday? In addition, collectively as a nation, the general feeling among most Americans is that we are overtaxed, underpaid and led astray by untrusting government officials.

Let’s face it; we are a nation concerned first with preserving our individual nationalities, downsizing, rising interest rates, IRS audits and hoping we can withstand the economic pressure from less than ethical politicians.

True patriotism and the preservation of rituals as Prager longs for have become secondary in today’s America.

R.J. DEAKINS

Temecula

* If you took the whole world, with all its peoples and cultures, and compressed it into one place, you’d have today’s California. It may be territorially in the United States, it just doesn’t seem that way sometimes. It seems that California now belongs to the entire world. No wonder governing the state is so difficult!

KEN MOSCARET

Pasadena