"This conflict isn't about "free speech" or even a 60-second prayer; it's about who gets to define what kind of nation we are."
Charles Haynes
First Amendment Center
Charles Haynes
First Amendment Center
I agree with this insight. I don't think this issue is about the majority of students bullying a classmate as some have suggested. I think it is about students taking a stand against a particular view of America, a view that wishes to impose a strictly secular establishment in the schools. I guess they (the students who took a stand and their parents who applauded) would say that it is better for the people to define the role of religion in the schools than for the ACLU and federal courts to do so.
I personally am not one who wishes to use public schools to impose religion on dissenters. But I am also strongly imposed to the public schools becoming an engine of secularization, a place where religious
children need to wear a secular mask when taking part in school activities.
Again, school choice is the solution to this problem of "defining" what kind of nation we are and what kind of schools we attend. It does not have to be either religious schools and prayer or secular schools and no prayer. It can be both. The one for those who value religion as a necessary part of the education of children; and the other for those who don't.
But if we have a government school monopoly, and if someone tries to impose a strictly secular environment within that monopoly, then I will applaud students who stand up and say "we will not be silenced; we are going to participate in defining what kind of nation we are." These kids are heroes in my book. Their parents should be proud of them.
Rick Duncan
Rick Duncan
Welpton Professor of Law
University of Nebraska College of Law
Lincoln, NE 68583-0902
Welpton Professor of Law
University of Nebraska College of Law
Lincoln, NE 68583-0902
"It's a funny thing about us human beings: not many of us doubt God's existence and then start sinning. Most of us sin and then start doubting His existence." --J. Budziszewski (The Revenge of Conscience)
"Once again the ancient maxim is vindicated, that the perversion of the best is the worst." -- Id.
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