[Foundation-l] Chapter-selected Board seats - brainstorming

[Michael Snow]

Anthony wrote:
> On Sat, May 3, 2008 at 9:22 AM, Gerard Meijssen
> <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>> Hoi,
>>  Easy you answer it yourself. The USA is one country under God, Europe is
>>  not.
>>  Thanks,
>>        GerardM
>>     
> I've never referred to the USA as "one country under God", but this
> begs the question as to whether being "one country" matters at all.
> The USA is not "one state under God".  (I've never called it "one
> country under God" either, but that's irrelevant.)
>   
Anthony neglects to mention that the language in the US Pledge of 
Allegiance is "one nation under God" rather than "country". Since Gerard 
presumably did not regularly recite the pledge as a child, it's 
understandable that he might get a word wrong. (There's also the issue 
about the phrase "under God" being a later addition to the text, but 
that's a matter for a separate debate.)

We can easily lose ourselves in the semantics of 
similar-but-not-identical concepts like state, country, and nation. With 
the latter, perhaps we need to look more at the native peoples of North 
America. That would be a very different approach to having multiple 
chapters in the US, for example. I can think of people who might take an 
interest then - Mark Williamson, or Jeff Merkey. Any takers?

--Michael Snow