Who Cares?
America, reeling from World War I, sought a collective balm for the relative "normalcy" of pre-war society. In rural areas, particularly in the South and Midwest, Americans turned to their faith for comfort and stability, and fundamentalist religions soared in popularity. Fundamentalists, primarily the maniacal Baptists, who then as now, believe only in an absurd, literal interpretation of the Bible, locked into Darwin and the theory of evolution as "the most present threat to the truth they were sure they alone possessed." With evolution as the enemy, they set out to eradicate it from their society, beginning with our national educational bureaucracy.
By 1925, states across the South had passed laws prohibiting the teaching of evolution in the classroom. Oklahoma, Florida and Mississippi had such laws, and narrow margins determined those in North Carolina and Kentucky as well as other states residing in the muck of the "Bible Belt." More Fundamentalist states would gleefully follow in future years. However, for Tennessee, the Butler Law, which prevented the teaching of Evolution, had already passed in early 1925. Although the governor was not a fundamentalist, many of his constituents were. As he said, "Nobody believes that it is going to be an active statute” – no one but the American Civil Liberties Union, which was becoming increasingly more wary of what they saw as an infringement on their constitutional rights. With an eye on Tennessee, the ACLU set out to initiate a court case to test the constitutional
ity of the Butler Law.
Within days of the ACLU's decision to test the Butler Law,
George W. Rappelyea spotted a press release in a
Tennessee newspaper offering legal support to any teacher who
would challenge the law.
For Rappelyea, an ardent evolutionist and a Dayton,TN booster,
there was no better way to bring down the detested law and
promote the small Tennessee mining town. On May 5, Rappelyea
and other local leaders met at the town's drug store and hammered
out the details of their plan. All they needed was a teacher to test
the law, and they found him in John T. Scopes, a 24-year old science teacher and football coach. When questioned about his teaching of evolution as a part of teaching biology, Scopes replied, "So has every other teacher. Evolution is explained in Hunter's Civic Biology, and that's our textbook"
Scopes was hesitant, at first, to join the case, but Rappelyea was determined. The trial, historically dubbed as the "Scopes-Monkey" trial, was to be a grandiose affair and bring fame and fortune to the small town, Dayton, TN. He began his scheme saying, "Let's take this thing to court and test the legality of it. I will swear out a warrant and have you arrested ... That will make a big sensation. Why not bring a lot of doctors and preachers here? Let's get H.G. Wells and a lot of big fellows." With Scopes' agreement, Rappelyea wired the ACLU, and "the stage was set ... the play could open at once"
The fanfare battle between lawyers in the small Dayton, TN courtroom was historical. Scopes was found guilty of breaking the law and was forbidden to teach anything about Evolution. Said Scopes, "Your Honor, I feel that I have been convicted of violating an unjust statute. I will continue in the future to oppose this law in any way I can. Any other action would be in violation of my idea of academic freedom." The fiery legal battle would rage on.
Jump to the twenty-first century: New twist, new term creeps in: Intelligent Design, abbreviated “ID.” In 2004, the Dover, PA School Board required a statement to be read in all biology classes on “gaps” in teaching Darwin’s evolution theory and the plausibility in Darwin’s theory as an alternative theory. The statement, in brief, posed the new theory 
of Intelligent Design. A group of parents in the school system sued the School Board on the grounds that bringing in ID to a science classroom imposed a religious viewpoint on their children since ID implies the hand of an Intelligent Designer, namely God, which is “an interesting theological argument, but not a science.” After another six-week media-hysterical trial, comparable to the Scopes trial of 1925, both a pathetic waste of taxpayers' dollars, U.S. District Judge John Jones III, in Dec., 2005, agreed, stating that ID is “repackaged creationism, masked in scientific lingo and has no place in the classroom.” As with Scopes, supporters vow to pursue higher courts stating that ID does not necessarily imply any deity, but could also involve extraterrestrials and that other evidence, omitted at the trial, could easily show that ID is not another version of a deity-induced creationism or any another biblical account of life’s origins.
Who cares? In Dec., 2005, facts from New Orleans’ governor were presented: Still, after more than three months of Hurricane Katrina, there remain over 1,200 families still displaced without homes. GM announced the termination of 3,000 employees due to “cut-backs and financial restructuring for 2006.” GWB and his cohorts shamelessly admit to the fact of over 3,000 innocent Iraqi civilians being killed since the beginning of the Iraqi War, with over 2,000 of our American soldiers killed, over 2,200 maimed for life, and over 40 soldiers committing suicide, and that we still have a “strong economy” despite an all-time-record-high unemployment rate. PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is now in their eighth year of fighting the conglomerate meat industries, (with KFC still on the top of the list) for their brutal, massive, unnecessary slaughtering of animals due to the dollar-profit business maxim. Despite the universal disgrace of the Catholic Church’s sex scandal, originating in 2000, eighteen more priests and pastors were brought to trial – and found guilty – of their sexual abuse of youth – incidents occurring in 2004-2005. Numerous rivers and lakes in the U.S. remain polluted with little or no effort to rectify the situation because of the perennial excuse, “lack of funds” by government entities. Medicare and Social Security remain in disarray. Health and Homeowners’ insurance companies still swim in mountainous profits, offering premiums at gouging, unaffordable rates even to those who are a “minimum risk.” The list is infinite.
Whether via the man-created, fleeting theories of Evolution, Creationism, or Intelligent Design, how we got here is of miniscule importance. What we are doing in and about our present society, and what care and concern we show to our fellow man is of paramount importance.
