Twenty-one years ago, a Governor from the Midwest found himself in a tight spot. He had chosen to display the motto from his state on the grounds of the restored Statehouse. Only problem was the ACLU really hated that motto because it flowed from the Book of Matthew. Ohio had been without a state motto for a number of years when in 1959 a twelve-year-old boy started a petition campaign for a new motto, “With GOD all things are possible.” The idea caught on and the State Legislature adopted the new motto.
(Photo courtesy of American Policy RoundTable)
In 2000, the ACLU decided the time was up on that motto. So they sued in Federal Court to have that “religious expression” declared unconstitutional. They won their case in Federal District Court and won their first appeal before a three-judge panel in the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court. The Governor and Attorney General had a decision to make. Should they appeal again to the full panel of the U.S. Circuit Court and perhaps appeal all the way to the Supreme Court, or should they accept the “inevitable” reality that the ACLU had won the day?
We had a decision to make as well. Should we rally the nation in support of the Ohio motto and take on the ACLU and the secular media? Could an honest historic and constitutional debate be won in public and in the courts for this matter of free speech and religious liberty?
We began the battle in defense of GOD-given rights and the U.S. Constitution. We produced radio programs in support of the motto. We released a brief documentary titled “Remember the Motto.” We distributed thousands of bumper stickers that said the same. By April, polling data revealed that 62% of Ohioans were aware of the litigation and 88% of people who knew of the case were in full support of the motto.
By December of 2000, Attorney General Betty Montgomery acknowledged that over fifteen-thousand people representing thousands more had directly contacted her urging full support for the defense of the state motto. Even the U.S. Congress weighed in, passing a bipartisan joint resolution defending the Ohio motto by an overwhelming 333-27 majority. Shortly thereafter, the ACLU suffered a crushing defeat as the full bench of the Sixth Circuit Court overturned the lower court decision and declared the motto constitutional by a 9-4 majority vote.
We did not have much in our hand when that battle began. We gave GOD what we had and then just started walking out the task focusing on the reality that “With GOD all things are possible.”
We had a decision to make as well. Should we rally the nation in support of the Ohio motto and take on the ACLU and the secular media? Could an honest historic and constitutional debate be won in public and in the courts for this matter of free speech and religious liberty?
“We had a decision to make as well. Should we rally the nation in support of the Ohio motto and take on the ACLU and the secular media? Could an honest historic and constituional debate be won in public and in the courts for this matter of free speech and religious liberty?”
Dave Zanotti, President/CEO of the American Policy Roundtable and The Public Square
Today the attacks upon the very fabric of this nation are all around us. In a recent one-hundred page document a Task Force commissioned by the National Archives concluded that America must “reimagine the Rotunda” where the original documents of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution are on display. Giving full credit to the discredited “1619 Project,” the Task Force became an echo chamber of the crusade for Critical Race Theory. They expressed serious concerns over people being traumatized by viewing the Declaration, the Constitution , and the historic paintings of the National Archives.
For over forty-years we have studied America’s founding documents and the principles upon which they stand. We seek to articulate and defend those principles every single day across the nation on The Public Square, at the Statehouse, the schoolhouse, and in the courts. Today America is facing the massive tidal wave driving Critical Race Theory and the godless equation into nearly every classroom and media outlet in the land.
We all see it. The ocean of media power driving the deconstruction of America seems overwhelming. The rising waves of reconstructed socialism are everywhere. That ocean is so big, and our boat looks pretty small. Any oddsmaker would declare the assignment of defending the first principles of American Liberty to be a mission impossible.
But we have heard all that before. We still remember the motto: “With GOD all things are possible.”
Dave Zanotti serves as President/CEO of the American Policy Roundtable and The Public Square® Media Network. Article excerpt taken from this month’s “Four Minutes for America.
The Bottom Line:
Matthew 19 says, “Jesus looked at them and said to them, ‘With men this is impossible, but with GOD all things are possible.”
