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Arianna Huffington and Harry Shearer

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The Freedom to Pray and to Vend

By Arianna Huffington
Posted Thursday, June 4, 1998, at 5:09 PM ET

Harry, I've just landed in New York where the raging controversy is to ban or not to ban street vendors--you know, hot dogs, warm chestnuts, cool ties--from the streets of Manhattan. I believe that not only should we not ban them, but we should allow them to display copies of the Ten Commandments, the Torah or the Koran, and pray while selling. You are right, there is nothing in the Constitution intended to ban the practice of prayer in the public square. But successive Supreme Court rulings over more than a quarter of a century have limited religious expression in public places. So the amendment is an end-run around the courts--admittedly not something to be encouraged, but there is nothing to make you fear that it will be a cramming of religious beliefs down agnostic throats. Here is the amendment's key sentence: "To secure the people's right to acknowledge God according to the dictates of conscience." Diversity of beliefs is fully protected.

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Shalom Harry, I'm off to get myself a holy Sabrett.