OVERREACTION

Bipartisan excess prevailed after a federal court said the Pledge of
Allegiance should be restored to its original form if schoolchildren are
required to recite it. Congress interrupted serious business to bash some
judges.

Here in Arkansas, Gov. Mike Huckabee called the decision "One of the
craziest pieces of nonsense that ever came out of a group of kooks in black
robes." His opponent in the governor's race, state Treasurer Jimmie Lou
Fisher, found the ruling "shocking" and "deeply disturbing." Sen. Tim
Hutchinson and his opponent, Attorney General Mark Pryor, were united in
horror.

Sen. Blanche Lincoln chose "absurd" as the adjective du jour. Reps. Mike
Ross and Marion Berry and would-be Rep. Jay Dickey fulminated likewise.

This because a three-judge panel ordered the removal of two words, "under
God," that weren't even in the pledge until Congress inserted them in 1954,
at the urging of the Knights of Columbus. The pledge was first published in
1892 in a youth magazine, now long-dead, as part of a private company's
strategy to sell flags.

Easily recitable, the pledge was eventually institutionalized as a sort of
loyalty oath for children.

Generations of Americans recited the pledge without the religious
reference, and grew up to be no more or less patriotic or religious than
Americans before or since.

God did not petition for inclusion, and, we suspect, remains indifferent to
this day. In any event, He's big enough to look out for Himself. The kids
are the ones who need protection, and two other judicial decisions last
week are far greater dangers to them. Both rulings came from a radical
majority of the Supreme Court (which, incidentally, will overturn the
Pledge of Allegiance decision, unless a lower court does it first).

By allowing public money to go to church schools, in the form of vouchers,
the court undermines the public-school system that has always been the best
hope for advancement for middle- and lower-income Americans. It also
invites the sort of holy warfare that people historically have come to this
country to avoid.

The Middle East, Northern Ireland, India-Pakistan - they should be copying
us, not the other way around.

Give Huckabee credit on this one: He resists vouchers, a reminder that for
all his faults, he practices about as much moderation as his party will
permit, dominated as it is by the Bush-Ashcroft faction.

In another 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court authorized mandatory drug testing
for all students who participate in extracurricular activities: Pee to
play. The best that can be said of this decision is that it does not
require that local schools impose random drug testing. But many already do
so, and more will now that the Court has given its blessing.

Some of our most intelligent and idealistic young people will have to give
up the band and the drama club and the honor society to avoid an insulting
and unwarranted invasion of privacy.

The sacrifice will prove their patriotism better than reciting the Pledge
of Allegiance ever could.

Valuing freedom is the essence of being an American.