>One case comes to my mind. A public school teacher wore a gold cross around >her neck. Just a little necklace. > >A child complained that it was offensive (we won't discuss the silliness of >this assertion). The ACLU came swooping in on the side of the CHILD. This >really bothered me, as I see the teacher's right to wear a small, personal >sign of her faith, as an important right. > >If she was using the cross to preach her religion to the class, or was >wearing an inappropriate religious message of some ilk, I might >understand....but this just seemed stupid to me.
While I agree that this may be a bit extreme I can also see the kid's point of view. Consider that the teacher is in a position of power with respect to the student. It can be considered to be a form of coersion in this case. So the implication is that from his or her position of power, the teacher is advocating a certain religion. > >Many times the ACLU comes down on the right side, but there are a fair >number of times where I don't think they do. I guess for myself, I'd just >prefer to judge each distinct case on it's own merits, and see where my >opinions fall. If i've already given money to the ACLU...that decision is >made for me. As I said we all have the same rights, no matter how objectionable you may find the person or their beliefs. Because of that we cannot be selective about whose rights to defend. By extention to follow your reasoning, its OK to suppress a radical trotskyite's rights. Then what's to stop the government (federal/state/local etc)from suppressing your rights next week, just because you happen to be on the wrong side of a political divide? You either support all people's rights or none. larry > >> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Discover CFTicket - The leading ColdFusion Help Desk and Trouble Ticket application http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=48 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:162208 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
