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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Crocodile who wrote (65918)	11/27/2004 11:09:58 AM
From: Rambi	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 71178

I was just looking for articles on the recent CA. case filed against a school district by a teacher (Steven J Williams v. Patricia Vidmar). As inonesco said elsewhere, it made for a wonderfully provocative headlines (such as "School district sued for censoring founding documents!") There isn't much info out there yet on this, but I suspect, as ionesco does, that Mr Stevens was being monitored by his principal because of suspicions about his agenda and the way he was packaging his materials: What might have gotten him in trouble is this... A handout entitled "What Great Leaders Have Said About The Bible" IMO, a not very subtle attempt to influence fifth graders specifically about religion. However, I also don't believe that eradicating the importance and relevance of religion in the establishment of our country is wise or honest. While looking for stories on the Steven Creek case, I came across this one and thought it was ridiculous. In Garwood, N.J., 5th graders at a public school recently were asked to write poems about Thanksgiving. Ten-year-old Kaeley Hay wrote one that ended with, "Pilgrims thank God for what they were given, Everybody say ... happy Thanksgiving!" Her classmates voted to put the poem on display in the hallway. But when it was posted, one word was missing from what she had written: God. School officials apparently decided any mention of that subject was inappropriate for a public school, so they took it out. This kind of action reeks of the same extremism that marks the far RW agenda when it wants the Ten Commandments in every school. As Steven Chapman said in his recent column: I am not a religious believer, but to pretend you can learn about history while staying fastidiously clear of religion is just silly. Anyway, this was sort of off the topic of your post, which I enjoyed thoroughly, as always. It seems to me that a lot of what we see as intolerance on both sides of the religion issue is just another manifestation of our intolerance toward anything different, toward the Other. While we were in London, the London Times ran a column about the "pseudo-religion" of the liberals. It was a reaction to what is perceived over there as recent intrusions into personal lives by the government. (Foxhunting laws, healthy eating style stuff)I wish I could find it because I thought it had a good point, and I know I can't get it across (I tried at Thanksgiving dinner and was met by uncomprehending stares). It was along the lines of how the religious extremists dictated within a spiritual and moral framework, while the liberals are dictating life style rights and wrongs, in their own way pushing a PCness religion that is at times intrusive and intolerant of variance because they are quite convinced "their" beliefs are best for us all. Anyway, I am one of those retreat to solitude people also, preferring to allow a lot of space for everyone to do his own thing. Only when it comes to kids, there does need to be special attention to how certain adults may be filling that space. Last night, I was telling the boys about the praying before the show, and CW said that at every mandated pre-game pep rally in high school, there was always a prayer by some very religious athlete asking for Jesus to be with them during the game. (I won't regale you with CW's imitation of this prayer which under the influence of buttery nipples, seemed inordinately funny.) This, as harmless and even as positive as I am sure all the participants saw it, is wrong. But you won't get far in Texas yet with this stuff. We have to wait for those extremist Californians to lead the way, I guess. On the other hand, I think the wiccan objecting to the poor images of witches at Halloween needs to get a life. And cities telling eating establishments they can't allow smoking is stupid- people have a choice whether to frequent that business or not. Right now, after reading some posts at the Feelies thread, I am pondering the concept of hunting.

To: Crocodile who wrote (65918)	11/27/2004 9:07:05 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

<Now honey, you stay in your own back yard, Don't mind what the white child do; What do you think they're gonna give A black little child like you? So stay on this side of the high board fence And honey don't cry so hard. Go out and a play, just as much as you please, But stay in your own back yard.> That's not a racist song. Well, it is, but not in the sense of being against the melanin-rich. It's just about what nasty bastards in other tribes "out there" do. It's about being an alien and Americans arresting you for being probably an enemy combatant and having no rights to anything, even life, no habeas corpus, no lawyers, no freedom, because you aren't an American. Even American's better watch it. Put an apostrophe wrong and Homeland Security will be leaning very heavily. Mqurice