Quotation: “Sir, no nation has ever yet existed or been governed without religion. Nor can be. The Christian religion is the best religion that has been given to man, and I as chief magistrate of this nation am bound to give it the sanction of my example.”

The above-referenced quotation was alleged to have been made by Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father, Principal Signer of the Declaration of Independence, and Third President of the United States of America.

Many today debate whether America was founded as a Christian nation or not. It appears to me that while the Constitution makes no direct reference to God, circumstantial evidence existent at the time of its drafting and passage clearly support the idea that it was indeed founded based on Christian principles.

For me (a Christian by birth and a believer in God), the issue today facing America and the world is not whether America is a Christian nation or not. There is a larger issue, in theocracies where they exist (as in the Middle East and elsewhere) and in other countries, of how best to safeguard the rights of those within who share dissenting beliefs.

Certainly, in God’s good earth, very few would argue that a nation should expel individuals who do not subscribe to the prevailing religious doctrine. Likewise, too, it is a tough idea to sell that governments and constitutions must be required to obliterate all religiously-inspired principles of right and wrong in their establishment and functioning.

Constitutions, statutes, judicial rulings and interpretations are not created in a vacuum. Human beings are behind the drafting, enactments, and rulings. Human beings are influenced by what they believe in and their ideas of what is just, what is evil, what is right, and what is wrong.

Therein lies toady one of the biggest challenges facing many countries around the world – how to reconcile religious conviction with the rights of other citizens who may be atheistic, agnostic, or of differing religious beliefs and interpretations of divine principles. It is not an easy road to travel.

Today, one often turns on the TV or goes online, and sees horrific examples of people in many parts of the world becoming victims of atrocities committed by others inspired by their religious convictions. Throughout history, there has been much violence, bloodshed, and victimization of others because they were considered heretic or evil for deeds deemed punishable by scriptures.

As a believer in a Divine Being, I enjoy the company of believers, but I also recognize that, as with all other living species, there is diversity in the human race. We must live and let live. We often have to tolerate without approving. We must ensure, as best we can, our own rights, while safeguarding the rights of others who may not be part of the majority consensus. This is all easier said than done.

As a writer, I explore and question. Unfortunately, an artist cannot solve the world’s dilemmas. He or she can only raise questions, or address the consciousness to issues that matter.

It is collectively as human beings that we must find answers. And one of the most pressing matters we face today is how to balance religious beliefs with the rights of non-believers and those whose beliefs are dissimilar to our own.

When I think of the pros and cons of living in NYC, I list the subway both places. It’s a pro in that you save on the costs of owning a car. That’s it for subway pros.

The cons? How about jam packed trains and cars, people reading their newspapers on your back, shoulder, or any of your body extremities that happen to be in view? How about the people with their ipods and backpacks who can’t hear you say excuse me so that you can get by them in a crowded car and who hit you with their backpacks if you do try to squeeze by anyway? Or the well dressed guy in the 3-piece Armani who grabs the seat next to you and smells like the bum that you tried to avoid sitting next to in the other car?

The folks who decide it’s their constitutional right to stand at the exits of the car all the way from uptown Manhattan to downtown Brooklyn and who look at you with a scowl when you try to make your paid for ingress and egress from the train? The people seeking handouts who decide to board the train at 5:00 p.m just in time for rush hour? You move over to another car and there’s a five-man vocal group who never made it in the 60’s and strangely enough still think they have a shot at it in the 2000’s and need to exhibit their talent in an overcrowded train full of tired, frenetic, depressed commuters who just heard on the news before leaving work that the Dow plummeted another 500 points thus converting their 401k’s into 101k’s?

The old lady who shoves you out of the way almost causing you to lose your balance as she dashes for the one available seat in the car competing with a 350-pound man who gets there first and hastily sits down, in the process displacing two seated individuals to the left and right?

How about the subway conductor to whom you ask a question about how to get to South Street Seaport and who refers you to the map in the car which you can’t see properly because of the tall fella sitting next to it and whose body covers it entirely? What about those tourists that just have to saunter in with their maps, papers, backpacks, luggage at rush hour rather than taking an earlier train since they pretty much can control their own schedules?

The crowds, the scents, the perverts having a field day with crowded cars, the scowls, the pole and door huggers, the ipod wearers who don’t give a damn about you trying to get by, the seats designed in the Orient for smaller sized people and unsuited for Americans thus forcing you to stand if an even slightly overweight person sits since she then needs to occupy 1.5 seats leaving you no room? And some highly paid MTA consultant probably recommended the ordering of fore mentioned cars in order to “save costs” but in reality to show that they are earning their grossly paid fees.

I tell you, if I could land a job somewhere nice where I could drive to work, secure a house with even a small yard, and seduce a loving woman to worship the ground I walk on (lol), I would exit the city in a New York minute and never look back at an NYC subway again.

Ah…a little fantasy never hurt anyone. What’s that, sir, the train is out of service again and I’d better wake up or get kicked off?