Daybreak

On these frigid winter mornings near the solstice, when the Indignant Citizen’s alarm squawks and wakes him from deep, warm slumber, there is no light. It is dark outside, the kind of cold darkness that can make you believe all light has been extinguished from the universe forever.

But eventually the dawn comes, faintly at first, but determinedly. For the darkness cannot last forever. The light will not be denied.

In the Bible, when people are referred to as living in darkness the writers are referring to a darkness of understanding – a kind of intellectual darkness. Light – knowledge and understanding – is always in conflict with darkness in the Bible. People are always wandering from the darkness to the light, or allowing light to illuminate the darkness.

It is no different today, not just in the Indignant Citizen’s morning but also in life. Darkness has overtaken us and the light has been all but snuffed out. It is cold, and there seems no hope for spring.

Then, just when hope appears lost, the dawn breaks. Over Harrisburg, Pa., no less. On Tuesday, a federal judge – a Republican appointed to the bench by President Bush – ruled that a school board in Dover, Pa., acted unconstitutionally by presenting so-called intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in high school biology classes. The story in the New York Times does a good job explaining the ruling.

Just as good as that story, though, are the judge’s own words. In just this one excerpt, he destroys just about every potential right-wing nutzoid argument criticizing his ruling. The ruling is stunning in its rebuke of the “intelligent design” quacks and their disingenuous argument that no, they weren’t trying to promote religion, just have intelligent design taught on an “equal par.”

Here, then, is an excerpt of Judge John E. Jones III’s ruling:

“Those who disagree with our holding will likely mark it as the product of an activist judge. If so, they will have erred as this is manifestly not an activist Court. Rather, this case came to us as the result of the activism of an ill-informed faction on a school board, aided by a national public interest law firm eager to find a constitutional test case on [intelligent design], who in combination drove the Board to adopt an imprudent and ultimately unconstitutional policy. The breathtaking inanity of the Board’s decision is evident when considered against the factual backdrop which has now been fully revealed through this trial. The students, parents, and teachers of the Dover Area School District deserved better than to be dragged into this legal maelstrom, with its resulting utter waste of monetary and personal resources.”

Could it be? Morning in America?