Senate State Affairs spared schools a little bit of foolishness last week, voting to kill Representative Phil Jensen’s House Bill 1198, which would have required every public school in the state to acquire and display a big (3’ x 3’ minimum) replica of the state seal. HB 1198 also would have required that the state-mandated display of the divisive and unconstitutional declaration of Christian faith that serves as the state’s motto be at least one foot square.
Representative Jensen’s colleagues in the House actually thought this unfunded mandate was a good idea, passing it 41–27. But Senate State Affairs listened to the schools and unanimously ash-canned Jensen’s latest pious poseurity.
Senator Lee Schoenbeck (R-5/Watertown), whose local high school doesn’t need Jensen’s Big Government to tell them to show their pride in South Dakota, was among those nine nays. Senator Schoenbeck said Jensen’s bill impugns the patriotism of all good Rapid Citians, and he hopes Rapid City voters will notice:
“I didn’t know we had problems claiming people were being unpatriotic in the Rapid City schools,” Schoenbeck said to Jensen, who wore a red, white and blue tie. “Apparently that’s a concern, that this has been an issue with folks in the Rapid City schools. And I certainly hope the folks in the Rapid City schools understand that it’s been represented here by their representative that there’s an issue with their patriotism. I don’t believe there is” [Bob Mercer, “S.D. Schools Won’t Have to Show State Motto or Seal,” KELO-TV, 2022.02.27].
Schoenbeck also voted against Jensen’s Christofascist dipstickery in 2019, when Jensen proposed, the Legislature passed, and Governor Kristi Noem signed 2019 SB 55, which required public school districts to put South Dakota’s ill-advised “Under God the People Rule” motto up in every building. If Schoenbeck is sufficiently tired of Jensen’s distractions, perhaps he will throw some money and postcards into a District 33 primary. Jensen says we need Big Government to cure your lack of patriotism—vote for___?
“Under God the People Rule” is a lie in South Dakota. It’s a lie as long as the legislature and the governor overturn election results on ballot issues. It’s a lie as long as greedy legislators gerrymander the hell out of legislative district boundaries to hand pick their voters. It’s a lie when voters twice voted to keep big government off of reproductive rights, and pinheads in the governor’s office and the legislature falsely proclaim South Dakota is an anti-abortion state and pass unconstitutional bills eliminating access for most women to a legal, medically approved abortion procedure. To be accurate, the state motto should be “Under Pinheads, the People Are Screwed.”
A new low for trumpist patriotism. Humping the flag with a bible in your pocket screaming “I am a real patriot”. Amazing how quickly, for some, the patriot bluster disappears when they find out that unlike paper targets the opposite side shoots back at you.
Under God the people rule. Only if their bottoms, no versatility allowed.
Who determines what God wants by the way? What sex is God? So many questions, so little time…
Nostalgia definitely isn’t my thing. I need new things continually to be fulfilled. So, talking about the “old days” is rare. #dread – That painting above was painted by the lady teacher who taught me how to write cursive. At which point, it was written in my permanent record, “No artistic future!” She’d have been wrong but she’s long dead.
Florence “Flo” Bruhn would come to my elementary school each December and draw a colorful, seasonal mural on one of the blackboards. Took her about three days to a week. And that’s in every classroom in every elementary school in Watertown. She taught like a German but partied like it’s 1999 or so I was told by “Chubsie” Booth.
gawd’z a female and she hates me otherwise I’d be young, devastatingly handsome and filthy rich.
I’m with Porter on nostalgia, but I do like history. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of history on the State Seal or the state motto, “Under God The People Rule.” The state motto was the handiwork of Joseph Ward from Yankton. He was a Congregational minister, and wrote a lot of the original SD Constitution at an extra-legal constitutional convention in 1883. That rump convention was followed up by a legal one in 1885. And at least one more convention was held to finalize the state Constitution for statehood in 1889. There doesn’t seem to have been much discussion on the state motto, which seems pretty much what most people thought back then. There was far more discussion over how the people should rule. Interestingly, there was a lot of discussion about what has been considered “the Dakota plan.” It was a way to give the people final say over all legislation. The original idea was to make every bill have to be voted by the people. Back then, they were really serious about “the people ruling.” The people were pretty fed up with Territorial government corruption. Things ain’t changed that much. In the years from 1883 to 1889, those ideas sort of got winnowed down to the initiative and referendum, but these were kept out of the statehood Constitution because they were worried about it being rejected after a long effort to get statehood passed by Congress. The initiative and referendum was proposed ten years later as a constitutional amendment.
We need to change this motto. Mottos are silly. What are we, some sort of bogus frat, like Iowa?
We should have no motto. For sure not with a mention of Buddha or some other devil or god.
Forget the State Seal, the painting American Gothic is the era that the kids in Pierre are stuck in.
“Under Rushmore, there is rock.”
“Nil Sine Numine” 1876
I’d submit, “If you think you’re so damn smart and better than the rest of us, move to Denver.”