Wednesday, December 22, 2004
No Christ? No New School.
Earlier today I posted a sideblog item on the publicity craze of the day, that of Christians who are mad as heck and not going to take it anymore. Don't wish them Happy Holidays, Season's Greetings, or ask when their Winter Break is. Christmas is about Christ, and to deny them the right to impose this belief on everyone in the vicinity is simply persecution of their religious expression.
My Con Law professor mentioned before our exam that President Bush even caved in and wished people "Happy Holidays" during a press event the other day. He also speculated that the Republican Party would be coming down hard on him for that.
This morning this American holiday phrasing and display fracas was even a topic on the BBC broadcast on NPR, and now I see it's one of the main Yahoo! headlines.
Several pieces of that article triggered some raised eyebrows on my part, but particular the following paragraph:
I did a little Googling to find more information on this bond issue, and sure enough, the local voters were so outraged that the school superintendant allowed Santa Claus, a Christmas tree, and Hanukkah and Kwanza symbols to be displayed in the pageant, and let the kids sang Silent Night, but had the manger props removed, that they voted down two school bond issues. They needed 60% to pass but only got 55% of the votes.
One of the bonds was to build a new elementary school.
Great plan. Stop the town from improving the facilities and educational opportunities for your children because the mean superintendant didn't include enough specific Christian religious icons into the school play. Actually, this works well with No Child Left Behind. Perhaps eventually the existing school will fail to meet the minimal requirements for federal funding, and the angry parents can receive federal vouchers to send their kids to Christian schools. Then the public school will have fewer kids and even less funding, the quality will go down some more, and on and on until there's no public school and the Christian parents can send their Christian kids to the private Christian school on the taxpayers' dime.
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My Con Law professor mentioned before our exam that President Bush even caved in and wished people "Happy Holidays" during a press event the other day. He also speculated that the Republican Party would be coming down hard on him for that.
This morning this American holiday phrasing and display fracas was even a topic on the BBC broadcast on NPR, and now I see it's one of the main Yahoo! headlines.
Several pieces of that article triggered some raised eyebrows on my part, but particular the following paragraph:
In Mustang, Okla. on Dec. 14, parents incensed that a Nativity sequence had been dropped from a school holiday program organized to help defeat an $11 million school bond referendum.
I did a little Googling to find more information on this bond issue, and sure enough, the local voters were so outraged that the school superintendant allowed Santa Claus, a Christmas tree, and Hanukkah and Kwanza symbols to be displayed in the pageant, and let the kids sang Silent Night, but had the manger props removed, that they voted down two school bond issues. They needed 60% to pass but only got 55% of the votes.
One of the bonds was to build a new elementary school.
Great plan. Stop the town from improving the facilities and educational opportunities for your children because the mean superintendant didn't include enough specific Christian religious icons into the school play. Actually, this works well with No Child Left Behind. Perhaps eventually the existing school will fail to meet the minimal requirements for federal funding, and the angry parents can receive federal vouchers to send their kids to Christian schools. Then the public school will have fewer kids and even less funding, the quality will go down some more, and on and on until there's no public school and the Christian parents can send their Christian kids to the private Christian school on the taxpayers' dime.
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Posted by Rogueslayer at 10:34 AM 
