Posted on 12/09/2003 12:22:39 PM PST by BurkesLaw
Oh, sure, Jerry Falwell might complain, but how was he to know? And who else was there besides Jerry?
Well, the school found out in a hurry. There were 150 to 500 'who-elsers' -- depending on who did the counting. The school said 150; the protest organizers said 500....
(Excerpt) Read more at iconoclast.ca ...
Len Cesene, a 7th grade teacher at Royal Oak Intermediate School in Corvina, California, had a great idea. Wouldn't it be wonderful if he could teach his students history and at the same time "promote a greater understanding and empathy towards the Muslim religion?" Yes, that would be wonderful, said the PC crowd. It was an idea whose time had come. And it was the perfect time of the year too. It was Islam's Holy Month.
So Mr. Chips went ahead with his wonderful idea. He would give his students an extra credit for participating in the Muslim Ramadan fast. They could go without eating from one to three days and then write a brief summary of their experiences -- like how many times their stomachs had growled; how many times the Devil had tempted them with jujubes and pork rinds; how many times they had hallucinated; how many times they had filched a French fry from a tray in the cafeteria. And the assignment would be voluntary. Oh, yes. Those with horrendous appetites or those who had scruples against fasting could write a 2-page paper, comparing how different religions encouraged sacrifice.
The wonderful thing about the assignment was that it wouldn't be promoting any religion. At least, that's what Mr. Chips thought. Hadn't the NEA (the National Education Association) and the ACLU (the American Civil Liberties Union) turned the schoolyard into a God Free Zone?
snip
It was a peaceful demonstration. The protestors stood on the sidewalk near the school grounds to "tell the truth about Islam." They were Coptic Christians. They had migrated to California from Egypt because of the discrimination they had suffered at the hands of Muslims in their native country. They had been beaten, murdered, and raped because of their faith.
Steve Klein, a Viet Nam veteran who helped organize the protest, said, "They (the Copts) had survived 14 centuries in Egypt by not getting involved in politics." Now, for the first time in their lives, they were exercising a right to free speech -- a right denied all non-Muslims in Muslim-majority countries. What should one make of this? Did Mr. Chips screw up big time? Where did he get his lesson plan? Was he aware that Muslims had been persecuting Coptic Christians for untold centuries? Had he ever heard of the Coptic Christians? What did he use for a textbook? Was it "Across the Centuries", that politically correct, NEA-approved Houghton-Mifflin textbook that portrays Islam as the last best hope of the world? Well, it sure wasn't "What Went Wrong" by Bernard Lewis.
If Mr. Chips had wanted to teach his 7th graders about real suffering and real fasting he could have found many examples in American history. And he wouldn't have had to mention God, Jerry Falwell or Mel Gibson.
What does he think happened at Valley Forge? There were no burgers and fries for Mad Anthony Wayne and the boys at the Forge. The menu was bone-and-clabber soup -- heavy on the bone -- with an occasional side dish of cornhusks whenever enough of them could be found in the mud where the officers kept their horses. Whatever could be boiled in a pot -- roots, sassafras, pieces of cowhide, or that all-purpose staple, shoe-leather --served as coffee.
And there were no Bob Hope USO tours back in those days! There was no one to entertain the troops -- no Angie Dickinson; no Raquel Welch (and thank goodness, no Hillary Clinton). Talk about war being hell! And it was so cold in the barracks at night that ice formed on the water in the drinking bucket! Nonetheless, an awful lot of those Yankee Doodles toughed it out -- not for one to three days, but for month after month! What incredible sacrifice! Mr. Chips could have used Valley Forge as an example of fasting and sacrifice. He could have talked about Andersonville; he could have talked about sharing nonexistent rations on the Bataan Peninsula. Ah, but mention of those historical milestones would have been a tad too patriotic -- and patriotism was banned from the schoolyard right after God was given the heave-ho.
As far as the War in Iraq -- George W. Bush's war -- is concerned, it hasn't received, nor ever will receive, the NEA's stamp of approval. So forget that.
The local school superintendent, John Roach, said Mr. Chips had intended to promote empathy with Muslims, and not to promote Islam.
Perhaps Mr. Chips will learn something from this little episode. If he does, he will chuck those school-approved textbooks he's been using and switch to Serge Trifkovik and Robert Spencer. And if he still wants his 7th graders to experience fasting, he should forget Ramadan and use Jethro Bodine for an example. Jethro was involved in one of the greatest recorder fasts of all time. For two incredible days, he was locked in Granny's root cellar! The first day wasn't bad, but by the second day there was absolutely nothing left in the way of food in the cellar! Now that was pure unadulterated fasting!
They should teach more Americana at the Royal Oak Intermediate School in Corvina, California -- more about Valley Forge and Jethro Bodine -- and a lot less of that politically-correct idealizing of a certain religious minority that has become the PC order of the day.
Teach History? Teach that the Muslims were among the first slave traders to move Black slaves from Black Africa. Teach the the United States from its inception advocated the abolition of slavery. Teach that Slavery exists today in Muslim Africa. Teach that the opportunity for Blcks in the United States far out-preforms any nation in the world. Teach that only five pecent 5% of all the slaves from Africa came to the United States, and were transported and sold by the French, Potugese, Dutch, and English. Teach that the Blacks in Africa Sold their own people.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.