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Edited on Fri Dec-19-03 08:22 PM by stopbush
Yeah, I'm a member of the ACLU.
Nadine Strassen is right on in her remarks. She pointed out that this was a matter of equal protection for all religions. Lou and his guest tried to float the red herring of "banning Xmas carols in school." Nadine would have none of it, stating that she has no problems with Xmas carols being sung as part of an overall holiday celebration. Of course, Lou scoffed at that as well. There's no pleasing the Xtain RW. Guess their god and their country are simply too weak to tolerate other views.
And as far as "this has NEVER been an issue before this year and suddenly its an issue? OH PLEEZE!" Never been an issue? What country have you been living in the past 40 years? If it's any more of an issue this year it's only because the repukes are trying to make it an issue to divert attention from bush's policy implosions.
And what is stopping children from seeing a nativity scene? Absolutely nothing. They're all over the church lawns and church interiors, as well as the homes and yards of plenty of their neighbors. But I'll be damned if I want my tax dollars going to PROMOTE one religion over another in the public schools.
My kids are both in elementary school here in Vegas, and they did projects on Xmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah and other winter celebrations. They were informed of the religious nature of these holidays as well as the secular overtones...and the commercial overtones, for that matter. But what they didn't have to do was parade themselves out on a stage en masse with wire-and-tinfoil halos attached to their heads and sheets covering their bodies to sing a few choruses of "Joy to the World" or "Jesus Loves Me," like we had to back in the 60s when I was in elementary school, nor did they have to decide which black kid in school would have the honor of playing a Magi in some lily-white representation of the Nativity (complete with a blond-haired baby Jesus doll).
Our nation is better than that - better than what the religious nuts would like it to be, and better than what the right-wing talking heads who use them for their political ends would have us believe.
BTW - every year, some Xtian nut sends out the call to put Christ back in Xmas. That conveniently ignores the fact that the Winter solstice was first celebrated as a pagan ritual. It was Constantine who promoted the December date as Jesus' birth to essentially hijack a pagan festival. After all, if you're to believe the Xtian myths, the shepherds were out tending their flocks by night when Jesus was born. I live in the desert, and it's effing freezing out here at night. People keep their livestock under wraps in the winter, even in the desert. So obviously, Jesus wasn't born in the winter in the first place. You think they'd be complaining about THAT misrepresentation of their lord. I say we move Xmas to August 13th, or somewhere around there. Of course, we'd lose all the snow-related images, and the sun goes down later so the Xmas lights wouldn't be as nice to look at, and people are on vacation as that would REALLY mess things up for them, but, hey! If it's truth you're after, I say August. Yup. That's the ticket.
I also wonder why their fervor doesn't extend to other national holidays? Nary a wimper that fewer and fewer crowds attend Veteran and Memorial Day parades. No demands that it be required that the Constitution be read aloud in the town square every July 4...and right at BBQ time. No demands that the Labor movement be acknowldged and praised from every rooftop when their holiday rolls around.
And, come to think of it, there doesn't seem to be much of a movement afoot to make national holidays out of the various Islamic and Jewish holidays, for starters. Surely if these Xtian types are for freedom of religion, they'd be promoting the recognition of such non-Xtian holidays with equal fervor. Nah gonna happen? Didn't think so.
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