Posted on 12/27/2004 7:25:37 PM PST by Coleus
'Tis the season not to offend anyone?
Friday, December 10, 2004
Kaeley Hay is your typical fifth-grader from Garwood, N.J. Kaeley and her classmates were given the assignment of writing a Thanksgiving Day poem.
Who would have thought that such a traditional classroom exercise would trigger a Constitutional crisis? But, according the Newark Star-Ledger, that's pretty much what happened.
Kaeley's verse was such a hit with her classmates that her rhyme was posted on the hallway bulletin board.
The problem arose when school officials decided that the literary work of a 10-year-old violated the sacrosanct "separation between Church and State."
You see, Kaeley had been so bold as to include a historical truth in her assignment. Her poem cleverly concludes with the following verse: "Pilgrims thank God for what they were given, Everybody say ... happy Thanksgiving!"
Imagine that, a fifth-grader's artistic expression and accurate representation of history was deemed an offensive Constitutional threat. Fortunately, rational minds eventually prevailed. The poetry was left on display, but only after the school district's lawyer was consulted.
Sad to say, this sophomoric wisdom does not exist in a vacuum. School districts in Maplewood, and South Orange, N.J., expanded the ban on certain types of "holiday music." For years, the singing of religious Christmas carols has been strictly verboten. But now the proscription includes instrumental arrangements of these same pieces. The reasoning behind this warped decision is that the melodies could evoke religious thought. What's next? Shall we forbid Beethoven's Ninth Symphony? After all, several Christian hymns share the melody!
But the Sensitivity Stasi don't limit their inquisitorial reach to Christian expression.
From the Left Coast we have the following report:
"City boosters in Roseburg, Ore., are getting some flak about plans to put up a statue of a Greek goddess in town, reports The Oregonian. Apparently, some in town feel the image would foster goddess worship and offend Christians." [Fox News, Nov. 28]
I remember the day when diversity meant the freedom to celebrate different traditions, cultures and faiths. Ironically, the "politics of inclusion" have hatched an illegitimate child. This mutant can only be described as Secular Fundamentalism. What began as a movement to include everyone has morphed into dogma that has us all eating vanilla. I guess eating pistachio might remind us that these people are nuts!
This leaves me in quandary. It's December, and Christmas and Hanukkah are upon us. Normally, I extend the appropriate religious greeting to my Christian and Jewish friends. However, the Communication Commissars have invented this new right not to "feel" offended. I now fear "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Hanukkah" may qualify as hate speech.
I could always say "Happy Holidays." But that might offend those that get depressed this time of year. I could say "Season's Greetings," but what the heck does that mean? Sort of sounds like, "Hello, it's Tuesday." I'm certainly not extending any blessing. Besides, Christmas lasts 12 days and Hanukkah only eight. They hardly qualify as seasons.
What about the people that celebrate Arbor Day? They don't get to elevate their holiday to a season. Nope. Just doesn't seem fair, does it?
This begs another question. Should we really use the term "holiday?" After all, holiday is an abbreviation for Holy Day. Ah, but we might be safe, because the word "holy" is a translation of the Greek word "haggia." "Haggia" literally means "separate," thus holiday can also mean "separate day."
So I guess holiday is kosher for now. But then again there is the American Civil Liberties Union to consider. They may file a lawsuit claiming the recognition of separate-but-equal days violates the constitutional rights of ordinary 24-hour periods. Especially since the word "day" can be easily interpreted as being non-inclusive of those hours also commonly referred to as dawn, dusk, evening or night.
You know, it's getting harder and harder to have a Hallmark moment. But maybe that's the problem. Long before the militant secularists declared war on religion, consumerism reduced Christmas and Hanukkah to boilerplate verse. Sacred observances were watered down to a guy in a red hat and spinning dreidels. Rich traditions gave way to bargain hunting. Time meant for family, church and synagogue was spent in shopping malls; shrines built to the new god, Consumer.
Hanukkah is a Hebrew word literally meaning "dedication" or "consecration." In that spirit, let us refocus our thoughts on the true meaning of both these deeply religious traditions.
In the second-century BC, Judas Maccabee and his brothers, moved by their faith and against overwhelming odds, liberated Judah and cleansed the Temple. Jews believe God displayed his approval with the "miracle of the oil."
Christmas is the celebration of the birth of a Jewish boy born in the most humble of circumstances. As grown man, he would cleanse the very same Temple. We Christians profess him as the Son of God, the Prince of Peace.
As we celebrate these Holy Days, let us not be ashamed to share who we are with those who are different. We offend no one when we share ourselves; we only make each other richer for the experience.
Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas to all, and to all the tyrants of terminology, good night!
John DiMascio is a member of Watertown Citizens for Common Sense Government.
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Received a little story from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, described as "a nonprofit, nonpartisan public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions." Story is out of Garwood, N.J., and in particular the Lincoln-Franklin Elementary School. (Uh-oh: Those Lincoln and Franklin guys sound like "white males.") Fifth-graders were assigned to write Thanksgiving poems, and one girl penned, "Pilgrims thanked God for what they were given. / Everybody say . . . Happy Thanksgiving!"
But one word, "God," was edited out before the poem was displayed in the school hallway.
As the Becket Fund says, "Fortunately, the school changed its mind and decided to reinsert the word 'God' into the poem after the child's mother expressed outrage and the school consulted with attorneys." Still, sounds like a close call.
Thank God — I mean, thank Floyd Abrams, or Harry Blackmun, or whomever — that the school consulted with those attorneys! Lawyers tell us exactly what we may and may not do!
The radical leftist destroyers must be beaten into submission once and for all.
I hate the left.
Just keep shining the light of truth on them. Like cockroaches, rats, and vampires, they can't take it. Smiling all the way makes it better yet. :O)
I have a feeling this business may finally be turning around. Especially if Bush manages to appoint a bunch of decent constitutional-minded judges.
The Supreme Court's recent decision saying that there is a constitutional right to sodomy must also be reversed. I believe most of us are willing to tolerate private consensual behavior between adult homosexuals. It has been many years since the law was brought against such private behavior in all but a few very unusual cases in a few states, but in any case there is no such right in the Constitution.
That decision was a travesty.
I think you'll start seeing public sentiment swinging back to the right, if the majority continues to speak out for their constitutional rights
read later - Survive
Garwood. One of the dreariest looking towns in NJ.
We give thanks to God for what we have. Does the left think that we are thanking dead indians? The State?
I want the history books in schools to show what the left did to suppress free thought and American history in this nation for 40 years.
Prostitution laws still hold even though that is consensual sex between adults in private; it is not the financial aspect that makes it a crime (you can pay a neighbor to mow your lawn or even a minor to provide childcare babysitting), it is not the unmarried sex that makes it a crime, you can buy a stranger drinks at a bar all night long and hook up for a one night stand.
Incest laws hold as well. There was even a case in California that was prosecuted shortly after the SC decision. An 18 or 19 year old male had gotten his 21 year old sister pregnant and HE was charged with the crime of incest even though both were adults, it was consensual, and the ringer was I think that they weren't even biologically related (both adopted?).
The law is a ass. This was purely a special right for homosexuals.
If the cops had walked in on these 2 men smoking crack instead of having anal sex, we would not have seen our nation's drug laws over turned.
After that imbroglio in Maplewood, what NJ school district in their right mind would want anymore negative publicity?
I think it's going to turn around.
Where is it in NJ?
I wonder if any muslim children protested Thanksgiving celebrations in their schools:
http://www.islam.tc/ask-imam/view.php?q=4246
Garwood's between Westfield and Cranford in Union Cty NJ, along the old Rte 28 you go from one good-looking town to the other and between them there's this seedy patch. That's Garwood. Nice folks, if you have to stop, but it's one buttugly stretch of Jersey.
"Pilgrims thank God for what they were given, Everybody say ... happy Thanksgiving!"
Sigh. Will it ever cease?
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