Inequality for All

Until today I had never even heard of Jessica Ahlquist or her struggle to have a prayer banner removed from her school wall. In the post is a link to a similar article in support of Damon Fowler. While both of these teens are atheists they help to bring light to a serious problem that everyone of a minority faith (or no faith at all) has experienced on some level in their lives.

There seems to be this opinion among most Christians (I understand that this statement doesn't represent all of Christian faith just a vast majority of them) that they're being attacked. That those of us who are not Christian are all out to rally together and stop them from practicing and celebrating their faith. They fight when Christian tablets are taken out of courtrooms, and when prayers are removed from town meetings and school functions, and take particular offense over the holiday season when people dare to say Happy Holidays rather than Merry Christmas. Conservative law makers even try to support bullies on the grounds that they should be able to speak their minds about whatever they want if their faith dictates them to do so.

There is always a common thread among those who get into a huff over these issues. "They're spoiling our fun" "We're not hurting anyone" "Really it's more historical than religious" ultimately what they mean to say is "How dare the little people challenge the status quo, we were happy with the way things were." They spout long speeches that have no basis in real fact saying things like "this country was founded on Christian principals" No it wasn't. This country was founded on principals of freedom and fairness. If you happen to see those principals reflected in your religious tenants it's simply because all positive standards are founded on common ground. Not because your religion was the ring leader.

It's doubly sad that they are so convinced that their religious freedoms are being infringed upon but have no problem infringing on the religious freedoms of others. If you want to display prayers and religious scripture on your own homes, in your church, and in your private schools be my guest. But I pay taxes just like everyone else, I am not Christian, I don't feel comfortable paying for Christian rhetoric to be shoved at my child, and if my child is not Christian they shouldn't be forced to have it looming at them every day. It is a clear example of the school supporting solely those that are Christian whilst suggesting that those of any other faith (or lack thereof) couldn't possibly wish for those things for their school.

I personally have no problem with the prayer, it says nothing offensive, however, why must it end in Amen and why must it address the Christian God. Why can't it simply be a school mission statement there by purporting a positive message and being inclusive. Why does it HAVE to be Christian, why does it HAVE to be a prayer. For some reason people think that unless it has some type of Christian flavor it's not really a positive message.

Meanwhile they get offended and attack Pagans and Atheists alike if they dare to try and celebrate their beliefs publicly. A woman who decided to challenge the "all are included" policy at her child's school was turned away and told after the fact, after bibles were distributed and long standing Christian activities had taken place within the school, they she could not hand out Pagan literature because policies were being revised. I've read countless articles documenting pagan shops being attacked and vandalized by Christian's, and recently a woman was told she had to check with the librarian in order to access pagan and occult websites because their filtering system deemed them as criminal.

There is a clear double standard out there and those who benefit from it are not happy that people are standing up and asking once and for all for things to be fair. Either ALL religions have a place in government or NONE of them do. Personally I think it easier if religion stays a private matter rather than a public one.

Just Not Funny

This afternoon I logged onto my facebook to take a break from some cleaning I was doing and see "If Fred Got Two Beatings Per Day..." WHAT?!?!?!? I just had to read this article and yet again I'm angered by the public school system.

Apparently Beaver Ridge Elementary School in Norcross Atlanta decided they would try some "cross curriculum problems" in an effort to combine social studies and math. One question was "Each tree had 56 oranges. If eight slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?" again I say WHAT?!?!?!? What the hell is wrong with these people? You wanna add some social studies to your math here's a question. "If 8 evil and bigoted slave owners are forced to free their slaves and each has 10 slaves, how many men does that free."

When, as would be expected, concerns were brought up the spokeswoman for Gwinnett County school Sloan Roach was quoted saying

We understand that there are concerns about these questions, and we agree that these questions were not appropriate.

"Oops our bad" I'm sorry but maybe you should have these discussions before you send home the damned homework, or gods forbid if you plan on changing your curriculum style you notify the parents with perhaps a sampling of what it would look like. These half-assed apologies are not good enough. They just aren't I'm sorry.

I want to have the utmost respect for teachers, I really do. Yet time and time again they disappoint us all. All over the news we hear reports of teachers beating students, bullying students, having sex with students, telling students to bribe them for good grades, shoving religion at them and generally warping their young minds in unspeakable ways. What does the public get in return? These half-assed, half-hearted "apologies" if you can call them that. "I don't know what I was thinking" "It was a misstep in judgment" "We were just trying something different" "I didn't realize the impact of what I did would have."

I'm sorry but don't our tax dollars pay their bills? I think we deserve a little more than some cliched speech. I'll say it again, it's just not good enough. We entrust these people with the future of our world and they treat it like it's a chore, and damn us for expecting them to be good at their jobs, because let's not forget, that's what it is. Teaching youth is their JOB, and if anyone else is bad at their job or abuses their power in grievous ways we would expect them to be FIRED. Instead these people wipe away tears in front of the cameras and act like they've been victimized. They're frustrated with the public for being expected to answer for their actions.

If you're a teacher and my little rant has offended you I apologize that was never my intention. I'm just sick to death of these people who just fall into education because their dream career fell. They're bitter and are treating innocent children like some sort of science experiment, or something less than human simply because they think they can get away with it. It is NOT acceptable.