"And now, South Park Elementary presents the happy, non-offensive, non-denominational Christmas Play, with music and lyrics by New York minimalist composer, Philip Glass!"
Posted on 08/15/2007 2:29:04 AM PDT by neverdem
NEW HYDE PARK, N.Y., Aug. 13 — The temperature in the room was over 90, and the crowd was angry. The topic at this regular August meeting of the school board: what else?
Christmas.
When most people complain about the Christmas season beginning earlier and earlier each year, they do not usually mean the kind of kick-start that took place in this Long Island town on Monday night when more than 250 people showed up to demand that the name of the annual Christmas Concert not be changed to Winter Concert.
And that was just to make a point — the board had already decided against making the change.
People were sweating visibly as they stood at the microphone and, one by one, railed at members of the school board and called for the firing of the district superintendent, Regina Cohn, who had suggested the change.
“In the private sector, a person who is out of touch with his bosses gets terminated, and we are the bosses here — not bin Laden over there,” said Brian Kerrane, gesturing toward Ms. Cohn. Mr. Kerrane, whose children attend one of the four elementary schools in the district, was cheered, just as the few people who stood to defend Ms. Cohn and the proposed change were loudly booed.
The small school district is one of the few in the New York region that continues to call its December program the Christmas Concert. Almost all the others have switched to the term holiday or winter concert, both to avoid seeming to exclude non-Christian families and to move toward the ideal of a level cultural playing field...
--snip--
One woman said she could not understand how anyone could object to Christmas, “which is about tolerance, love for your fellow man. Who would be against that?”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
It looks like there is a lot of work to do in greater New York!
the school board got that much negative feedback, and it still almost passed? typical liberal attititude: we know whats best for you, so just sit back and take it.
Why are we letting these people get away with this?
It’s time for separation of school and state.
“Why are we letting these people get away with this?”
I think we’ve been Tolerant Adults too long. Time to take up a switch and sting their backsides. It won’t solve their Liberal mental problems, but will put them on notice that American’s have had enough of their Leftist childish games.
I think it's the part about how, if you're not Christian, you're going to Hell. I'm pretty sure that bothers some people.
It would seem paganism as the focus is being shifted to celebrating the Winter Solstice.
"And now, South Park Elementary presents the happy, non-offensive, non-denominational Christmas Play, with music and lyrics by New York minimalist composer, Philip Glass!"
“how stupid can they be? what religion is being established?”
they are not stupid. they are concerned about establishment of a state religion. they just don’t want it to be something other than theirs. they’re fighting their culture war with the constitution as their camouflage and all that they are is bigots, bullies and scoundrels. (one would hope that someday the bully is recognized as such and sent packing.)
A winter concert held in the winter would quickly find its rightful place if held at approximately the end of January. That would put it near the middle of winter.
Everyone who wants winter concerts should do just that.
They can have big concerts about snowflakes. Kids can be off school during the winter, and no one is worse off.
We had a similar incident at our school about five years ago, when a counselor insisted that we replace the traditional Christmas tree in the school lobby with a “peace tree” which was more inclusive than a Christian-only celebration.
I am proud to report that we fought fire with fire. E-mail flooded administration about bigotry and hatred against those who practiced Christianity. The students gathered to protest, saying that they had free speech rights to put up a tree. Speaking for myself, I pointed out that the Constitution protected my right to the “free expression” of religion. Every time this counselor insisted that we shouldn’t have a symbol of a religious holiday in our school, we responded that he had no right to censor our thoughts and expression, and he especially had no right to replace our symbol with his own symbol, which appeared to be as religiously motivated as our own tree.
Eventually, the school gathered to sing Christmas carols around the Christmas tree.
I would highly recommend throwing the words and actions of the left back in their face when they try these stunts. It certainly shocks them. When a person wants to eliminate Christmas, label them a bigot and hater of religion. Tell them they have no right to impose their morality on you. Say that they are imposing their beliefs on you. Call them christophobic and reactionary. And always, always use the legal system to harass them with complaints, letters, protests, and general threats. I think of the left as the bullies I used to deal with in junior high school - you have to punch back once they hit you, or they’ll just keep on hitting you.
I'm pleasantly surprised. New Hyde Park SD enrollment is nearly 1/4 Asian and close to 10% Jewish. I thought for sure this was going to go the other way. In the neighboring Herricks SD(roughly 1/3 each) any argument against the change would never have made it to the meeting agenda.
Good grief!
The Left's Lust for Revolutionary Transformation
They won't know what hit them.
Baloney. It’s about the birth of Jesus. Now tell me, if someone doesn’t believe in Jesus, do they get into heaven?
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