Another way my school is becoming religious...

[Julsgirl17]

I live in a very religious part of IL and our state has just passed a new law stating that every public school must start with a moment of silence. This is just a way to set up precedent for when we try to put prayer in school because that's what it is. You can give it a nice, politicaly correct name, but it's a clear violation of church and state. This occuring around the same time that i dicovered we have a club called FCA, the Federation of Christian Athletes. I could of sworn this was a PUBLIC high school.

[rlrose328]

I was born in Illinois... and I will NEVER live there.  My aunt still lives there.  But this little piece of news is ever so disturbing.  Once it happens in one state, it will be easier to propagate to all states.  VERY disturbing.

[Julsgirl17]

Yeah, it's a blue state....i'm told....still no evidence to suppot it.

[rlrose328]

Must be Chicago pushing it into Blue?  I'm in Oregon and with the exception of Portland and Salem, we're quite Red, but the populations of those two cities pushed us into Blue in the last election.  Thank goodness for BIG metropolitan areas!     Without those havens of rationality and logic (with big businesses that hire highly educated people), we'd be hosed.

[Julsgirl17]

Not sure if you lived here long enough to discover this...but everyone I know considers Chicago to be it's own place...It's an amazing, liberal, tolerant, and cultured city...the rest of IL is a corn field....(except for when it's a soy bean field)!

[rlrose328]

I never really "lived" there... my dad was in the AF (Chanute) and my mom was living with her parents when I was born because dad was overseas.  After he got back shortly after I was born, we moved to NM then MA then CA.  So I never had the pleasure to do more than visit.  And the TINY town my mom's family lived in is basically ALL corn fields with a smattering of houses gathered around a grain elevator and a general store (in which you'll find the post office).  Quaint...

[LSchune]

Damn.  They just try to get their claws into everything...

I'd simply refuse to be a part of it.  Read a book during the silence, or do homework.  And if it actually comes to prayer, paint or file your nails, read a porn magazine, stretch out and take a nap.

That's just in the waiting line for a lawsuit  :?

[LSchune]

Damn.  They just try to get their claws into everything...

I'd simply refuse to be a part of it.  Read a book during the silence, or do homework.  And if it actually comes to prayer, paint or file your nails, read a porn magazine, stretch out and take a nap.

That's just in the waiting line for a lawsuit  :?

[rlrose328]

A mom on the Atheist Moms yahoo group I'm on lives in Illinois and she's making Tshirts for her kids saying, "I WILL NOT BE SILENCED..." on the front and on the back, "FOR PRAYER OR ANYTHING ELSE".  The front says it all for me, actually.

An article that my husband found online had this quote from the guy who sponsored the bill:

"Rep. Will Davis (D-Homewood), the bill's chief sponsor, denied he was promoting school prayer but instead said a moment of silence possibly could avert tragedies like the recent school shooting in Cleveland, where a troubled 14-year-old shot two students and two teachers before killing himself.

"'Just think if that student had an opportunity maybe to sit and reflect,' Davis said."

( http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/ ... 12.article )

Yeah, I'm SURE a moment of silence would have stopped that kid.  Here is what these people do... they play on the fears of the masses... "If we let the kids pray, they won't shoot us!" they cry from the rooftops and anyone who is afraid of a kid opening fire in a school will say YES, WE MUST!!!  It's a load of crap!  If violence is going to happen, it's going to happen!  A moment of silent reflection, prayer or what have you will NOT stop that.  Intense therapy, maybe... a moment of reflection, NO!

I say stand up and say the pledge.... even if the class has already done that.  By all means, do it silently if doing so aloud will get you in trouble.  (I also like the porn magazine idea... that would get their attention.  LOL!)

And the article said that a moment of silence has ALWAYS been an option in Illinois... it was a law BEFORE this!  Now, it's MANDATORY.  Just like the believers to make something that is optional in their favor into something mandatory.  Guess not enough teachers were observing the silence.  I mean, it's not like they don't have ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD to sit around and pray with the kids.

(Yes, I know I've capped a lot of stuff in this article, but after the Moms in Touch prayer group this morning, I've got a bit of a bee in my bonnet. )

[Will]

I'd play a magnificent trumpet solo of the national anthem during the moment of silence and then lead into reading Friedrich Nietzsche through a bullhorn walking through the halls. I'm not a nihilist, but his stuff is really fun if you're not a theist.

[Julsgirl17]

Yeah, we read the quote about the boy from Clevland in current events....I got in trouble because i tend to say everything that pops into my head.....

"Oh please! 10 seconds of silence is just long enough to decide which classroom you're hitting first."