The holiday season has arrived and so has the contempt for religion. In the land of legal, nude bike riding, there is a new holiday display at the state capitol of Washington that isn't so jolly. Freedom From Religion, an atheist group, put up a display next to a Christian nativity scene and a "holiday" tree in which they make controversial statements about religion in general.
The placard says, "May reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds." They go on to also say that the winter solstice is the real reason for the season, and they plea that we need to keep church and state separate. This is offensive to the majority of Americans who believe in one religion or another. No matter if you are a Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, or Scientologist, this an attack on the core beliefs of your religion.
Someone needs to give organizations like Freedom From Religion a copy of the Bill of Rights because I don't think that they have ever read it. It doesn't say "freedom from religion" or "freedom of speech except for religious content". It says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech". That means no matter how much they don't like it, we can talk about religion anywhere that we see fit even in schools. I'm not saying that they don't have a right to say what they believe, but they should be tactful. They could have said something like "Just be good for goodness sake". That would have been fine. However, they had to belittle and demean other religions. Why is there such hatred for the religious in this country? We were founded on Judeo-Christian principles. The attacks need to stop.
Gov. Christine Gregoire of Washington could have asked them to tone down the offensive rhetoric without trampling on their freedoms of religion and speech. That was not the time or the place for such divisive language. By saying that religion "hardens hearts and enslaves minds", they spew hateful and discriminatory speech against the religious people of this great nation. You wouldn't see a tribute of Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, next to a tribute of Martin Luther King on MLK day, nor would you see a NAZI swastika next to a menorah celebrating Hanukkah.
Freedom From Religion co-president, Dan Barker, says, "Our members want equal time not to muscle, not to coerce, but just to have a place at the table." Whatever...They don't just want a place at the table. They, also, want a megaphone to make fun of all those that disagree with them at that table. What the display portrayed wasn't just their beliefs, but an attack on other's beliefs. Even many of the liberals that usually champion atheists and the overblown separation of church and state, like David Goldstein, agree that the way it was worded was way over the top.
Gov. Gregoire needs to take down the display and ask them reapply a display that isn't such a huge embarrassment for the state. Like many left-wing ideas that are said to be made not to offend some, they actually offend many. The state of Washington has become a rising hotbed of left-wing lunacy for some time now. They are starting to rival San Francisco in stupidity. We need to send a letter or call Olympia and tell the governor that such offensive language doesn't belong in the public square.
Showing posts with label PC insanity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PC insanity. Show all posts
Friday, December 5, 2008
Thursday, November 27, 2008
PC Nuts Attack Thanksgiving in California
The politically correct fruitcakes are attempting to ruin Thanksgiving for the kindergarten students of two Claremont, California schools. The two schools said that it will suspend the tradition of having their students dress-up as Pilgrims and Indians during an joint event celebrating the holiday. For over four decades, the two schools have come together while one school dressed as Indians and the other as Pilgrims. Now, a few in the loudmouth minority have muscled the two schools into discontinuing the tradition.
This has sparked a huge controversy in this once quiet small town. People are divided in between those who want traditional Thanksgiving depictions and those who want Thanksgiving to have no visual references to the original guests at the Thanksgiving dinner. They feel that the way that Native Americans are dressed is a racial stereotype that must be averted. Now, I don't believe that modern day Native Americans shouldn't be represented in such a way. I don't know any that still dress like that, but the historically accurate portrayals of Indians from the first traditional Thanksgiving didn't wear a t-shirt and jeans. They wore moccasins, feathers, and other stereotypical dress.
"It's demeaning," Michelle Raheja, the mother of a kindergartner at Condit Elementary School, wrote to her daughter's teacher. "I'm sure you can appreciate the inappropriateness of asking children to dress up like slaves (and kind slave masters), or Jews (and friendly Nazis), or members of any other racial minority group who has struggled in our nation's history."
She is greatly misrepresenting the dynamic of the traditional first Thanksgiving. (The actual first Thanksgiving was in Virginia not Plymouth Rock three years earlier.) Comparing the pilgrims to slave masters or Nazis is like comparing Ghandi or Martin Luther King to Osama Bin Ladin. They don't portray Lieutenant George Custer dining with Squanto. The Pilgrims were a very peaceful people. There is not one account of them mistreating the Indians or trying to eradicate them.
Raheja, who is of Native American descent, went on to call dressing up like Native Americans of that era racist stereotypes. Is dressing up like Squanto or Pochahontas racist? No. She feels that it demeans her as a stereotypical Native American, but there are others who disagree with her. Kathleen Lucas, a parent of Choctaw heritage, said that her son was proud to wear the clothes of his ancestors.
Many people cower to the politically minority because they have the biggest and loudest mouths. Most of Americans don't want to secularize the holidays or become so uptight with all the land mines we have to evade in the PC culture that is so prevelant today. People wouldn't dare to disagree with them because of the fear of being called racist, sexist, or just plain mean and hateful. I'm personally tired of a few knuckleheads telling me what to do or wear because they think that they are better.
Dressing up in the historically accurate dress for the Indians at the time is not racist. It might be racist to have modern day Native Americans portrayed in that way, but not in a historical reenactment. Where does this insanity that is political correctedness end? Will Shakespeare's "Caesar" have to be played by men in three piece suits, so we do not offend Italians by having them dress in togas and sandals? The insanity must come to an end.
This has sparked a huge controversy in this once quiet small town. People are divided in between those who want traditional Thanksgiving depictions and those who want Thanksgiving to have no visual references to the original guests at the Thanksgiving dinner. They feel that the way that Native Americans are dressed is a racial stereotype that must be averted. Now, I don't believe that modern day Native Americans shouldn't be represented in such a way. I don't know any that still dress like that, but the historically accurate portrayals of Indians from the first traditional Thanksgiving didn't wear a t-shirt and jeans. They wore moccasins, feathers, and other stereotypical dress.
"It's demeaning," Michelle Raheja, the mother of a kindergartner at Condit Elementary School, wrote to her daughter's teacher. "I'm sure you can appreciate the inappropriateness of asking children to dress up like slaves (and kind slave masters), or Jews (and friendly Nazis), or members of any other racial minority group who has struggled in our nation's history."
She is greatly misrepresenting the dynamic of the traditional first Thanksgiving. (The actual first Thanksgiving was in Virginia not Plymouth Rock three years earlier.) Comparing the pilgrims to slave masters or Nazis is like comparing Ghandi or Martin Luther King to Osama Bin Ladin. They don't portray Lieutenant George Custer dining with Squanto. The Pilgrims were a very peaceful people. There is not one account of them mistreating the Indians or trying to eradicate them.
Raheja, who is of Native American descent, went on to call dressing up like Native Americans of that era racist stereotypes. Is dressing up like Squanto or Pochahontas racist? No. She feels that it demeans her as a stereotypical Native American, but there are others who disagree with her. Kathleen Lucas, a parent of Choctaw heritage, said that her son was proud to wear the clothes of his ancestors.
Many people cower to the politically minority because they have the biggest and loudest mouths. Most of Americans don't want to secularize the holidays or become so uptight with all the land mines we have to evade in the PC culture that is so prevelant today. People wouldn't dare to disagree with them because of the fear of being called racist, sexist, or just plain mean and hateful. I'm personally tired of a few knuckleheads telling me what to do or wear because they think that they are better.
Dressing up in the historically accurate dress for the Indians at the time is not racist. It might be racist to have modern day Native Americans portrayed in that way, but not in a historical reenactment. Where does this insanity that is political correctedness end? Will Shakespeare's "Caesar" have to be played by men in three piece suits, so we do not offend Italians by having them dress in togas and sandals? The insanity must come to an end.
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