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Don't Include “Me” in Your “We”. Indiana’s new “IN GOD ‘WE’ TRUST” license plate can be seen popping up all over town, at least in my little town here in northern Indiana. And while the plate does help some of us know a bit more about our neighbors (always a popular pastime in Indiana), it more importantly represents the only plate that expresses a unique point of view (that is, one not shared by all Hoosiers) for which you DO NOT have to pay an extra charge.
To my way of thinking the plate itself is of no consequence. However, the fact that the State of Indiana has chosen to sponsor this plate by categorizing it differently from all other specialty plates and that “we” are all charged for its manufacturing costs and use does once again cause me to want to rise up and defend myself against any and all justly offended parties who may assume that I, as a Hoosier, am guilty by association. I state therefore please “DO NOT INCLUDE ‘ME’ IN YOUR ‘WE’”.
The state of Indiana provides a choice of over 75 specialty plates to its citizens. Specialty plates are designed to express a unique point of view for a variety of ideas, causes, and institutions that varying members of our state’s population choose to support. Each specialty plate is available for the cost of additional “group fees determined by the organization sponsoring the license plate.” These “group fees” are paid solely by those individuals who would associate themselves with the sponsoring group and who wish to display a specialized plate that represents that group’s point of view rather than the, until now, neutral Indiana State’s “regular license plate”.
But the new "In God We Trust" specialty plate breaks all the rules and creates a new category of plates in Indiana because “This plate is an alternative to the regular license plate” but “There are no additional group fees to pay at time of purchase” according to the Indiana BMV. So either people are left to assumes that the “WE” in “In God ‘We’ Trust” means every car driving citizen in the state or, and I think more correctly, "WE" just means that every car driving citizen in the state of Indiana are ALL paying for the cost of a plate whose sentiments only apply to some in a now State sponsored group. It is a distinction that can be confusing and one that can render any Hoosier non-supporter of this plate’s statement also guilty-by-association of its many offenses.
For me, I no more want anyone who sees that my car is from Indiana assuming that I support a State sponsored Christian doctrine anymore than I want people throughout the world thinking that just because I am an American that I support right-winged, neo-con foreign policies, the current war-on-terrorism debacle or all the misery it has brought upon my fellow citizens of both America and the world. I am tired of being made to feel like I have to stand up, raise my hand and state: “um…excuse me….but that’s not how I feel about things.”
By not categorizing the “In God We Trust” License plate as anything less than a very specialized plate designed for a select group of supporters who are willing to pay an extra fee for its use, the seemingly evangelical leadership of the State of Indiana can only be suggesting that either they are living under a false belief that their "we" means all of us, or that anyone who is not part of their “we” is, well, dismissed.
Admittedly, Indiana is a state perhaps far more homogeneous than say our coastal counterparts, but it may come as a surprise to our State officials to find that Indiana does in fact have a large population of tax paying citizens who are neither Christian nor supporters of the level of unity between church and state so embarrassingly represented by this plate’s sponsorship.
In fact, as hard as it may be to believe, Indiana’s tax paying citizens represent most, if not all, belief systems throughout the world, including the atheist and agnostic theologies. I should think, therefore, that logic would dictate to any reasonable person that ALL Hoosiers, that is to say the collective "We", DO NOT ALL "Trust In God", and certainly many Hoosiers who do "Trust In God", do not trust in the Judeo Christian God which is suggested in this statement. It is, of course, our right as Americans and Hoosiers to have this wonderful variety of opinions on the subject. But it should seem also a matter of course to understand that one point of view on this subject should not be given preference over another on a tax purchased and State sponsored banner which is suppose to represent us all.
My personal belief's withstanding, I am embarrassed and ashamed as an American and a Hoosier as to how this plate so easily divides and distances our citizenry, how it manages to place with such ambiguous slight anyone who may have an opinion which differs with a State sponsored sentiment of "In God We Trust" into a marginalized second class status, and how it manages to disregard and excuse so many other valid points of view as if they were not worthy of the American experience.
Quite simply, if the new Indiana license plate were categorized as a true specialty plate, available at an additional fee paid only by those individual members of the group who share it sentiments, I would give this subject only a passing thought of gladness that the freedoms of expression and religion were alive and well in my State.
However, the fact that this plate is offered at no additional fee places it into a special category of State sponsorship with an assumption that the plate’s sentiments are representative of every Hoosier who may have a thought on the subject. It is this State sponsorship of the plate, the billing of the cost of the plate to ALL Hoosiers, and the subsequent use of the plate by only some Hoosiers which I, as many, find an offensive embarrassment that is narrow minded, presumptuous, and arrogant in the extreme. The egotistical blindness and inconsideration of this situation goes against everything for which I believe America stands and for which Indiana should stand.
I steadfastly believe that everyone has the right to have and express their point of view; however, I also believe that we must all accept the responsibility to do so at our own expense. Therefore, as this situation currently stands, my point of view must remain that the use of Indiana’s sponsored “In God We Trust” license plate by some, is an embarrassment to us all.
I am delighted to say that no other citizen of the state of Indiana or of the United States was requested or required to subsidize any portion of the cost of my having or expressing this point of view.
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