Katie Doyle, Girl About Town

Friday, Dec. 17, 2004 - 4:00 a.m.

So, the fundamentalists in OKC are pissed. See, a school superintendant chose to remove a nativity scene from the Christmas pageant at an elementary school in his district. Traditionally, this particular pageant ends with a manger scene in which the kids sing "Silent Night". Superintendant Springer got a little freaked over the whole separation of church and state thing, worried that his school would fall victim to a lawsuit, so he asked the school district's attorney what he should do. The attorney said remove the manger. So Springer did. The kids still sang "Silent Night," they just did it without a manger nearby.

This monumentally pissed off the righteous parents of the little suburb smackdab in the middle of the red hell also known as the "Bible Belt." And a former Oklahoma legislator, who also happens to be Republican - but I'm sure that's completely incidental - worked to whip them into a further frenzy, so that when they went to the polls Tuesday, these staunch defenders of all that is good and true in the world did what any self-respecting, God-fearing Christian should do when faced with a similar situation in which young people aren't getting the education to which they are entitled.

They voted down $11 million bond dollars, a great deal of which were earmarked to build a new elementary school - and thus, I presume, ease overcrowding and improve the kiddies' chances for a good education.

Brilliant, no? The superintendant pisses you off, so you vote to hurt the kids.

Verily, I am struck speechless at the intelligence.

I tried to find other news sources to see how much of the $11M was earmarked for the new school (mine was the AP story), but all I found was a religious site and numerous neo-Christian weblogs astounding in their capacity for tolerance. Not surprisingly, a great many of them spewed bile about how the atheists are running the country, and not a few of them had facts contradicting the AP story...so I guess the liberal media got to the story and twisted it again. (please read that as sarcastically as possible)

Bygones.

It's not that I care whether or not people in Oklahoma are all bent over a school play and whether or not the Hanukkah portions of the play were allowed to stay in while the Christian elements were excised. What I mind is that people there were so blinded by their religious fervor that they penalized the children for it. Merry Christmas, kids; no new school for you.

::sigh::

Peace out,
Katie

1 comments so far

*HUGS* TOTAL! give katiedoyle more *HUGS*
Get hugs of your own

Yesterday's News - Next Stop

In which Katie shares sad news - Wednesday, Apr. 01, 2015
In which Katie returns after a very long absence - Monday, Jun. 25, 2012
In which Katie pokes her head in and brushes some of the cobwebs away - Thursday, May. 06, 2010
In which Katie asks you to write your congressman again. - Monday, Jun. 02, 2008
In which Katie asks you to please click the link and send the message to protect the rights of artists - Wednesday, May. 21, 2008