Posted on 10/04/2006 6:54:36 AM PDT by SmoothTalker
"A suburban county that sparked a public outcry when its libraries temporarily eliminated funding for Spanish-language fiction is now being asked to ban Harry Potter books from its schools."
"Laura Mallory, a mother of four, told a hearing officer for the Gwinnett County Board of Education on Tuesday that the popular fiction series is an "evil" attempt to indoctrinate children in the Wicca religion."
"Board of Education attorney Victoria Sweeny said that if schools were to remove all books containing reference to witches, they would have to ban "Macbeth" and "Cinderella.""
Again?? I thought we settled this particular fetish years ago!
yeesh!
Too much time on her hands, that's for sure!
More idiocy.
I'm so glad she's reproduced 4 times.
I don't see a connection between a library's using its funds to purchase English materials, and an individual's asking a school system to remove books for "religious" reasons.
I suspect an attempt by the author to link those who think Americans should use the English language with this lone goofball. "Objective" media, right!
I feel sorry for her four children.
She sounds like a typical big-government conservative. Declaring jihad on harmless Harry Potter books, while ignoring real threats to our children, such as NAMBLA.
Hope she doesn't open a copy of "Lord of the Rings", "the Hobbit", or C.S. Lewis' "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe". Even "Winnie the Pooh" is suspect. I mean what's with all those talking animals; are they possessed?
Harry Potter "magic" is not even close to Wicca. Nor is it ceremonial magic either. It's really an elaborate system of puns and (mostly Latin but some Greek) words.
A kid isn't going to learn anything about actual magical systems from reading these books. Harmless fairy tale stuff.
C.S. Lewis had some unpleasant experiences with the real occult, and if you read the Narnia stories closely there are some cautions against fooling with magic . . . Dr. Cornelius's remark to Prince Caspian that magic "is not a fit study for princes," and Eustace telling Jill in The Silver Chair that Aslan doesn't like circles and signs on the ground and spells and "all that rot." Not to mention Lucy's experience with the Magician's Book in Dawn Treader.
All true. However, more to the point is the fact that a citizen has the right to make a petition to her elected officials, even if she's a dingbat. And the school board has a right to say, "Thanks for your input, honey. We'll see you!"
This is only "news" because the media is determined to depict religious believers as insanely threatening to basic liberties ... in other words, we're only reading this because someone felt it had anti-Christian propaganda value.
Don't worry; she can't be a big reader, if she's just discovering Harry Potter now.
Has she been in a coma for 7 years? This has already been done. Why is this news?
And a sideways smear for those in the same county (Oh my!) who think immigrants should learn English if they want to read library materials bought with public funds.
What? Is that why "scourgify" isn't working, and my house is a disaster area? I thought I was doing something wrong. Guess, I better get off FR, and clean it the old fashioned way. Darn.
Naw. Just Alahamora the front door and go shopping! :-)
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Seriously...why do dingbats think a book is going to have that kind of influence? Its a BOOK, for goodness sakes! It's not going to jump up, attack you and implant itself in your brain of its own volition, it's an inanimate object and just doesn't possess that type of ability.
Just don't read the silly thing...it's called Freedom.
When did the People start thinking Freedom meant freedom-to-do-only-what-I-approve-of?
When did we become such a nation of hoplophobes?
Or maybe ban Eragon. We know dragons are bad too. /s There are some who think that children should never be exposed to any type of fantasy play or stories. They think children learn better from only realistic material.
ping
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