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William D. Randall's Blog (of no particular interest to no one in particular)
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"We Have Just Begun to Fight...." Winston Churchill "Audentes Fortuna Juvat" - "Fortune Favors the Bold"
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Friday, March 26, 2004
"Who keeps extending my Fifteen Minutes? By GREG HARDESTY The Orange County Register Mike and William Randall still hear it from time to time. "Say," strangers will ask them, "aren't you those atheist twins from Anaheim?" Thirteen years ago, it was difficult to miss the then-cherubic 9-year-olds ? agnostics, actually ? who were thrust into the national spotlight for refusing to say "God" during a Cub Scout oath. The boys did not belong to a church, and thought it was strange to swear allegiance to God. They were promptly booted out of the organization. The Randalls' seven-year legal battle went all the way to the state Supreme Court and has been cited in political-science textbooks as a key case in state civil-rights laws. The twins lost their fight in 1998, when the state Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts is not a business and thus doesn't fall under the Unruh Civil Rights Act, which prohibits businesses from discriminating on the basis of sex, ethnicity, religion or lack thereof. As the U.S. Supreme Court weighs dropping the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, the Randall twins, now 22, are completing their last semester at California State University, Fullerton, and preparing for law school. Their Boy Scout experience inspired them to pursue constitutional law. "It lit a fire under my butt," Mike Randall said Wednesday during a hectic schedule of classes, work and meetings. He and his brother have that eerie twin habit of finishing each other's sentences and answering questions together. "There are issues in the world worth fighting for even though people may disagree with you," Mike Randall said ? or was it William? Dr. Michael Newdow, the atheist who argued the Pledge of Allegiance issue before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday, called the twins last year to discuss his case. The Randall twins support Newdow's effort. They see parallels to their case in his argument that children in public schools should not be forced to cite "God" in the pledge. "The government is supposed to represent all the people," Mike Randall said. "We are all Americans, and no one should be able to define a person by their religious beliefs." The twins didn't say the pledge as schoolkids. They would stand, put their hands over their hearts ? and not recite it. Unlike Newdow, the Randalls - who spent two years in a Christian preschool - are not atheists. As William put it, they're "in the middle." After they lost their legal fight, the national Boy Scouts refused to recognize the twins as Eagle Scouts. But their local chapter elevated them to that coveted rank. Boy Scout sashes still hang in their bedrooms at the home they share with their father, James, a civil defense attorney, and their mother, Valerie, a medical transcriber. The Boy Scout experience has been a "motivating force for them to correct wrongs," James Randall said. William majors in political science with a minor in criminal justice. Mike majors in criminal justice with a minor in political science. Mike works as a salesman for Gateway Computers in Anaheim, William for a Rainforest Cafe in Anaheim. Both have been involved in various causes at Cal State Fullerton. They went to Sacramento last month as part of a group lobbying on behalf of student funding issues. William plans to go to Greece this summer to work as a volunteer for the Summer Olympics. Mike is active in the Democratic Party and hopes to attend this year's convention in Boston. Although their once red-hot notoriety has faded, the twins expect the stares and double-takes to continue. Joked William Randall: "We'd make a good Trivial Pursuit question someday." (reprinted only for personal use)
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