From: bolton8@juno.com
Date: Mon Dec 15 2003 - 19:38:32 PST
Monday, December 15, 2003
By Scott Norvell
The ACLU has successfully stopped Santa from visiting public schools in
Baldwin, Kan., because his presence constitutes illegal proselytizing by
the school, reports the Baldwin City Signal.
After receiving a letter of complaint from the American Civil Liberties
Union, the school board there voted to put a stop to the nefarious
activities and said it will re-examine how it treats all religious
holidays in the schools.
The ACLU complained that in a visit to an elementary school last year,
Santa gave out candy canes and asked the kids why Christmas is
celebrated. The kids had the nerve to pop up and answer Jesus’ birthday.
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Rewriting History
High school students in Florida studying World War II could be forgiven
for thinking the American armed forces were happily integrated and that
people of color died in numbers equal to whites during the conflict,
reports the Palm Beach Post.
The main history textbook used by students in Palm Beach County high
schools, a Prentice Hall effort titled "A World Conflict," presents what
one World War II vet describes as a view of the conflict colored by
politically correct lenses.
The first five pages of the WWII chapter cover such topics as women in
the armed forces, racial segregation and the war, black Americans and the
home front, Japanese Americans being interned, and women and the war
effort.
Some 292,000 Americans died in the conflict, almost all of them white,
but in the school texts, white male soldiers are represented far less in
photos and words than all the others.
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Not the Right Kind of Victim
A student who is being harassed at Pennsylvania State University had to
quit the college after her complaints to administration officials were
met with a you’re-imagining-things and a cold shoulder, reports the Daily
Collegian.
Vicky Cangelosi resigned her position in student government and said she
would leave the university because she attended a controversial,
off-campus, private party. The party was controversial because it was
hosted by a College Republican leader and one of the attendees was
dressed in blackface.
Matt Midles, a gay student leader, said the harassment serves Cangelosi
right.
"I'm glad that you've been given an insight to what the students who have
been targeted feel every day," he told the paper. "You're being treated
the same way that I've been treated my whole life."
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A-Caroling We Won't Go
A Washington state teacher substituted the word "Christmas" with the word
"winter" in a carol to be sung at a school program so as not to appear to
be favoring one faith over another, reports the Tacoma News Tribune.
Music teacher Mark Denison of Clover Creek Elementary in Bethel, Wash.,
changed the lyrics in Dale Wood's "Carol From an Irish Cabin" to read:
"The harsh wind blows down from the mountains, and blows a white winter
to me."
A Hanukkah song that includes lyrics about the "mighty miracle" of
Israel's ancient days will be included in the program, however.
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Didn’t They Used to Call Those …
A middle school in New York state has borrowed from the early
16th-century German custom of bringing a tree into a building and
adorning it with decorations, reports the Oswego Daily Herald.
But it is not a Christmas tree, said teacher Debbie Smith. It is a
"diversity tree" and is decorated with ornaments celebrating the world's
cultural, ethnic and religious differences.
Repeat: It is not a Christmas tree.
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Under Any Circumstances
A Philadelphia elementary school principal who spelled out a racial
epithet while lecturing pupils about what sort of words are not
acceptable in school is under investigation, reports the Philadelphia
Inquirer.
District officials have not decided whether to take disciplinary action
against Mary Rita Sheldon, principal of the predominately black Overbrook
Educational Center, but they have mandated diversity training for the
entire staff as a result.
KYW News Radio reports that the principal was reprimanding a class in
which a visually impaired student was called a "one-eyed jack." Miss
Sheldon reportedly stated to the children, "How would you like it if I
called you a n-i-g-g-e-r?"
Parents are demanding that Sheldon be removed from her post. "The use of
the N-word in any context is inappropriate," said parent Carol Bangura,
mother of an eighth-grade student.
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Those Enlightened French
A commission in France has recommended that Muslim students not be
allowed to wear headscarves or other "conspicuous" religious signs in
school because they violate the country's secular traditions, reports the
BBC.
Such a ban, if approved by President Jacques Chirac, also would outlaw
Jewish kippas, or skullcaps, and large Christian crosses.
Chirac has said that France feels under attack by the display of such
signs of "religious proselytism" which run "totally contrary to its
secular tradition."
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Mailbag:
Dennis R. corrects our Indiana Xmas tree item:
It's "Currier and Ives" not "Courier."
Joel S. writes:
If the Native American student group complaining about Michigamua
"because it sounds too much like a Native American word and is therefore
disrespectful" were to be consistent, then they ought to also object to
the very name of the University and State.
The State Library tells us: "Michigan" comes from the Indian word
"Michigama" meaning great or big lake. The French first used the word for
the Great Lake that Native Americans called the "Lake of the
Illinois"--now Lake Michigan. It was first used officially to refer to
this land area when Congress created the Territory of Michigan in 1805."
Scott W. writes:
One wonders if the Meriden Library System will now feel inclined to
remove books containing paintings of "The Last Supper", or statues of
David. Perhaps they could just tear the offending pictures out of the
books, maybe have a bonfire in the parking lot.
The question I have is this: Just where would you have a picture of Jesus
in a "non-religious' setting"? Of course! Maybe that would be Jesus Alou
in the outfield for the San Francisco Giants. Unless his name has been
excised because of religious connotations.
In the words of Lewis Carroll, "It's getting curiouser and curioser."
Helen N. in Boulder Creek, Calif., writes:
I am a Jew, and in elementary school I refused to sing songs about
"Christ the Savior" and to write an essay about the sounds of Christmas.
That's right, I asked to be excluded, rather than be forced to
participate in someone else's religion. I have never, however, felt
excluded by a tree (decorated or otherwise)!
Barbara D. in Massachusetts writes:
OK, let me get this straight: Purdue University was forced to remove a
Christmas tree because of the anguish a student suffered due to feelings
of "exclusion" upon viewing said tree. But when Sister Souljah spewed her
anti-white racist venom in a speech at the University of Louisville, an
upset student was told that "the university has a responsibility to place
people in uncomfortable situations to help them grow."
So let’s get this straight: it’s okay to be upset over a Christmas tree
but it’s not okay to be upset over racist speech? Does that mean it’s
okay for a white student to complain about, say, a Kwanza decoration but
it’s not okay for a black student to be upset over an anti-black racist
speech? Sure sounds that way to me.
Nate W. in Phoenix writes:
Regarding Sister Souljah being invited to speak at University of
Louisville in Kentucky. I guess I don't mind her being paid to come in
and spout her racist bigotted message. However in the interests of
fairness, perhaps they should also invite David Duke to come in and spout
his racist pap as well. Oh, and of course they would have to pay him a
similar amount of money for his idiocy.
Erik in Dayton, Ohio, writes:
This will probably come as a shock to you, but there are actually people
in this country who do not share the same religious beliefs as you. And
whether or not you agree with it, they have the right to not be
discriminated against. Would it still be 'whining' if it were christians
who were offended by an islamic display? Maybe you should keep that in
mind in your next attempt at 'fair and balanced' reporting.
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