Members of the graduating class of 2009 at Florida's Pace High School have expressed their objections to ACLU restrictions on statements of religious faith at their school by rising up en masse at their ceremony and reciting the Lord's Prayer.
The incident happened just days ago, but has been virtually ignored by media outlets throughout the region, according to officials with Liberty Counsel, a legal team representing Principal Frank Lay and teacher Michelle Winkler in their battle with the ACLU, which had complained that faculty and teachers were talking about their beliefs.
Nearly 400 graduating seniors at Pace, a Santa Rosa County school, stood up at their graduation, according to Mathew Staver, president of Liberty Counsel.
Parents, family and friends joined in the recitation, and applauded the students when they were finished, Staver told WND.
"Many of the students also painted crosses on their graduation caps
to make a statement of faith," the organization reported.
"Neither students nor teachers shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate," said Staver, who also is dean of Liberty University School of Law. "The students at Pace High School refused to remain silent and were not about to be bullied by the ACLU.
"Schools are not religion-free zones, and any attempt to make them so is unconstitutional," he said.
Liberty Counsel has been representing Lay and Winkler against ACLU demands that all statements of faith be censored. The law firm also had volunteered to represent the school board in the dispute, but board members chose their own outside counsel.
The ACLU had sued the school six months earlier and as part of the discussions over that dispute, the school's separate counsel had agreed to a consent decree that "essentially bans all Santa Rose County School District employees from engaging in prayer or religious activities," Liberty Counsel's report said.
The ACLU had alleged that during a dinner event at the school, Lay had asked the athletic director to bless the meal. In a second incident, the ACLU claimed Winkler's husband, who is not a school board employee, offered a prayer at an awards ceremony.
As preparations were being made for the 2009 graduation, the ACLU demanded the school censor students from offering prayers or saying anything religious. As a result, two student leaders traditionally allowed by the school to address their graduation were banned from doing so.
Staver said class members, furious with the ACLU for hijacking their free speech rights, assembled the plan on their own. As soon as Lay asked everyone to be seated for the ceremony, the graduating seniors remained standing and recited the Lord's Prayer.
A local Fox station had reported that students enjoyed a baccalaureate at a nearby church before the graduation. Class President Kaitlynn Floyd said then class members were grateful for the opportunity to attend that event.
Staver reported concerns over the application
of an agreement reached by the school board to students' rights remains an unresolved issue.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Friday, June 5, 2009
Frightening!!!
By Pam Geller
I am a student of history. Professionally, I
have written 15 books in six languages, and
have studied history all my life. I think there issomething monumentally large afoot, and I do
not believe it is just a banking crisis, or a
mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes, these
exist but they are merely single facets on a
very large gemstone that is only now coming
into a sharper focus. Something of historic
proportions is happening. I can sense itbecause I know how it feels, smells, what it
looks like, and how people react to it. Yes,
a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is
something happening within our country that
has been evolving for about 10 - 15 years. The
pace has dramatically quickened in the past two.
We have spent two or more decades intentionally
de-industrializing our economy. Why?
We have intentionally dumbed down our schools,
ignored our history, and no longer teach our
founding documents, why we are exceptional,
and why we are worth preserving. Students by
and large cannot write, think critically, read, or
articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers arenot picketing, school boards continue to back
mediocrity. Why?
We have now established the precedent of
protesting every close election (now violently in
California over a proposition that is so
controversial that it wants marriage to remain
between one man and one woman. Did you ever
think such a thing possible just a decade ago?).
We have corrupted our sacred political process
by allowing unelected judges to write laws that
radically change our way of life, and then
mainstream Marxist groups like ACORN and
others to turn our voting system into a bananarepublic. To what purpose?
Now our mortgage industry is collapsing, housing
prices are in free fall, major industries are failing,
our banking system is on the verge of collapse,
Social Security is nearly bankrupt, as is Medicare
and our entire government. Our education system
is worse than a joke (I teach college and know
precisely what I am talking about.) The list is
staggering in its length, breadth, and depth. It is
potentially 1929 x 10. And we are at war with an
enemy we cannot name for fear of offending
people of the same religion who cannot wait to
slit the throats of your children if they have the
opportunity to do so.
And now we have elected a man no one knows
anything about, who has never run so much as a
Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla,
Alaska. All of his associations and alliances are
with real radicals in their chosen fields of
employment, and everything we learn about him,
drip by drip, is unsettling if not downright scary
(Surely you have heard him speak about his idea
to create and fund a mandatory civilian defense
force stronger than our military for use inside our
borders? No? Oh, of course. The media would
never play that for you over and over and then
demand he answer it.. Sarah Palin's pregnant
daughter and $150,000 wardrobe is moreimportant.) I have never been so afraid for my
country and for my children as I am now. This
man campaigned on bringing people together,
something he has never, ever done in his
professional life. In my assessment, Obama willdivide us along philosophical lines, push us apart,
and then try to realign the pieces into a new and
different power structure. Change is indeed
coming. And when it comes, you will never see the
same nation again.
I thought I would never be able to experience
what the ordinary, moral German felt in the mid-
1930s. In those times, the savior was a formersmooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets,
about whom the average German knew next to
nothing.. What they did know was that he was
associated with groups that shouted, shoved,
and pushed around people with whom they
disagreed; he edged his way onto the political
stage through great oratory and promises..
Economic times were tough, people were losing
jobs, and he was a great speaker. And he smiled
and waved a lot. And people, even newspapers,
were afraid to speak out for fear that his "brown
shirts" would bully them into submission.
And then he was duly elected to office, with a
full-throttled economic crisis at hand [the Great
Depression]. Slowly but surely he seized thecontrols of government power, department by
department, person by person, bureaucracy by
bureaucracy. The kids joined a Youth Movement
in his name, where they were taught what to
think. How did he get the people on his side?
He did it promising jobs to the jobless, money
to the moneyless, and goodies for the military-
industrial complex. He did it by indoctrinatingthe children, advocating gun control, health
care for all, better wages, better jobs, and
promising to re-instill pride once again in the
country, across Europe , and across the world.
He did it with a compliant media - Did you know
that? And he did this all in the name of justice
and ... . .. change. And the people surely got
what they voted for. (Look it up if you think I am
exaggerating.) Read your history books. Many
people objected in 1933 and were shouted down,called names, laughed at, and made fun of.
When Winston Churchill pointed out the obvious
in the late 1930s while seated in the House of
Lords in England (he was not yet Prime Minister),
he was booed into his seat and called a crazy
troublemaker. He was right, though. Don't forget
that Germany was the most educated, cultured
country in Europe. It was full of music, art,
museums, hospitals, laboratories, and universities.
And in less than six years - a shorter time span
than just two terms of the U. S. presidency- it was
rounding up its own citizens, killing others,
abrogating its laws, turning children against
parents, and neighbors against neighbors. All
with the best of intentions, of course.
The road to Hell is paved with them. Since many of
you enjoy senior citizen status or will sometime in
the not too distant future, I thought you might be
interested in this information.
IN GOD WE TRUST
Every body that is on this mailing list is either a
senior citizen, is getting close or knows somebody
that is.
Most of you know by now that the Senate version
(at least) of the "stimulus" bill includes provisions
for extensive rationing of health care for senior
citizens. The author of this part of the bill, former
senator and tax evader, Tom Daschle was credited
today by Bloomberg with the following statement."Daschle says health-care reform "will not be pain
free." Seniors should be more accepting of the
conditions that come with age instead of treating
them."
If this does not sufficiently raise your ire, just
remember that Congress has their own healthcare
plan that is first dollar or very low co-pay which
they are guaranteed the remainder of their lives
and are not subject to this new law if it passes.Please use the power of the internet to get thismessage out. Talk it up at the grassroots level. We
have an election coming up in one year and nine
months. We have the ability to address and reverse
the dangerous direction the Obama administration
and it's allies have begun and in the interim, we
can make our voices heard! Lets do it!
If you disagree, don't do anything.
I am a student of history. Professionally, I
have written 15 books in six languages, and
have studied history all my life. I think there issomething monumentally large afoot, and I do
not believe it is just a banking crisis, or a
mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes, these
exist but they are merely single facets on a
very large gemstone that is only now coming
into a sharper focus. Something of historic
proportions is happening. I can sense itbecause I know how it feels, smells, what it
looks like, and how people react to it. Yes,
a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is
something happening within our country that
has been evolving for about 10 - 15 years. The
pace has dramatically quickened in the past two.
We have spent two or more decades intentionally
de-industrializing our economy. Why?
We have intentionally dumbed down our schools,
ignored our history, and no longer teach our
founding documents, why we are exceptional,
and why we are worth preserving. Students by
and large cannot write, think critically, read, or
articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers arenot picketing, school boards continue to back
mediocrity. Why?
We have now established the precedent of
protesting every close election (now violently in
California over a proposition that is so
controversial that it wants marriage to remain
between one man and one woman. Did you ever
think such a thing possible just a decade ago?).
We have corrupted our sacred political process
by allowing unelected judges to write laws that
radically change our way of life, and then
mainstream Marxist groups like ACORN and
others to turn our voting system into a bananarepublic. To what purpose?
Now our mortgage industry is collapsing, housing
prices are in free fall, major industries are failing,
our banking system is on the verge of collapse,
Social Security is nearly bankrupt, as is Medicare
and our entire government. Our education system
is worse than a joke (I teach college and know
precisely what I am talking about.) The list is
staggering in its length, breadth, and depth. It is
potentially 1929 x 10. And we are at war with an
enemy we cannot name for fear of offending
people of the same religion who cannot wait to
slit the throats of your children if they have the
opportunity to do so.
And now we have elected a man no one knows
anything about, who has never run so much as a
Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla,
Alaska. All of his associations and alliances are
with real radicals in their chosen fields of
employment, and everything we learn about him,
drip by drip, is unsettling if not downright scary
(Surely you have heard him speak about his idea
to create and fund a mandatory civilian defense
force stronger than our military for use inside our
borders? No? Oh, of course. The media would
never play that for you over and over and then
demand he answer it.. Sarah Palin's pregnant
daughter and $150,000 wardrobe is moreimportant.) I have never been so afraid for my
country and for my children as I am now. This
man campaigned on bringing people together,
something he has never, ever done in his
professional life. In my assessment, Obama willdivide us along philosophical lines, push us apart,
and then try to realign the pieces into a new and
different power structure. Change is indeed
coming. And when it comes, you will never see the
same nation again.
I thought I would never be able to experience
what the ordinary, moral German felt in the mid-
1930s. In those times, the savior was a formersmooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets,
about whom the average German knew next to
nothing.. What they did know was that he was
associated with groups that shouted, shoved,
and pushed around people with whom they
disagreed; he edged his way onto the political
stage through great oratory and promises..
Economic times were tough, people were losing
jobs, and he was a great speaker. And he smiled
and waved a lot. And people, even newspapers,
were afraid to speak out for fear that his "brown
shirts" would bully them into submission.
And then he was duly elected to office, with a
full-throttled economic crisis at hand [the Great
Depression]. Slowly but surely he seized thecontrols of government power, department by
department, person by person, bureaucracy by
bureaucracy. The kids joined a Youth Movement
in his name, where they were taught what to
think. How did he get the people on his side?
He did it promising jobs to the jobless, money
to the moneyless, and goodies for the military-
industrial complex. He did it by indoctrinatingthe children, advocating gun control, health
care for all, better wages, better jobs, and
promising to re-instill pride once again in the
country, across Europe , and across the world.
He did it with a compliant media - Did you know
that? And he did this all in the name of justice
and ... . .. change. And the people surely got
what they voted for. (Look it up if you think I am
exaggerating.) Read your history books. Many
people objected in 1933 and were shouted down,called names, laughed at, and made fun of.
When Winston Churchill pointed out the obvious
in the late 1930s while seated in the House of
Lords in England (he was not yet Prime Minister),
he was booed into his seat and called a crazy
troublemaker. He was right, though. Don't forget
that Germany was the most educated, cultured
country in Europe. It was full of music, art,
museums, hospitals, laboratories, and universities.
And in less than six years - a shorter time span
than just two terms of the U. S. presidency- it was
rounding up its own citizens, killing others,
abrogating its laws, turning children against
parents, and neighbors against neighbors. All
with the best of intentions, of course.
The road to Hell is paved with them. Since many of
you enjoy senior citizen status or will sometime in
the not too distant future, I thought you might be
interested in this information.
IN GOD WE TRUST
Every body that is on this mailing list is either a
senior citizen, is getting close or knows somebody
that is.
Most of you know by now that the Senate version
(at least) of the "stimulus" bill includes provisions
for extensive rationing of health care for senior
citizens. The author of this part of the bill, former
senator and tax evader, Tom Daschle was credited
today by Bloomberg with the following statement."Daschle says health-care reform "will not be pain
free." Seniors should be more accepting of the
conditions that come with age instead of treating
them."
If this does not sufficiently raise your ire, just
remember that Congress has their own healthcare
plan that is first dollar or very low co-pay which
they are guaranteed the remainder of their lives
and are not subject to this new law if it passes.Please use the power of the internet to get thismessage out. Talk it up at the grassroots level. We
have an election coming up in one year and nine
months. We have the ability to address and reverse
the dangerous direction the Obama administration
and it's allies have begun and in the interim, we
can make our voices heard! Lets do it!
If you disagree, don't do anything.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
WAKE UP AMERICA!!!!!
The following is from Pravda, the English version obviously. Pravda is a Russian news source.
It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.
True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists.
Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters.
First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their "right" to choke down a McDonalds burger or a BurgerKing burger than for their constitutional rights. Then they turn around and lecture us about our rights and about our "democracy". Pride blind the foolish.
Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different "branches and denominations" were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the "winning" side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the "winning" side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power. Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America.
The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.
These past two weeks have been the most breath taking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, loses and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These make our Russian oligarchs look little more then ordinary street thugs, in comparison. Yes, the Americans have beat our own thieves in the shear volumes. Should we congratulate them?
How incredibly sad is it that other countries think we are a joke and can see our country going down the toilet and our own people cant freakin see it????????
It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.
True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists.
Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters.
First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their "right" to choke down a McDonalds burger or a BurgerKing burger than for their constitutional rights. Then they turn around and lecture us about our rights and about our "democracy". Pride blind the foolish.
Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different "branches and denominations" were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the "winning" side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the "winning" side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power. Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America.
The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.
These past two weeks have been the most breath taking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, loses and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These make our Russian oligarchs look little more then ordinary street thugs, in comparison. Yes, the Americans have beat our own thieves in the shear volumes. Should we congratulate them?
How incredibly sad is it that other countries think we are a joke and can see our country going down the toilet and our own people cant freakin see it????????
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