desertvixen (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
desertvixen) wrote2006-10-03 07:06 pm
desertvixen) wrote2006-10-03 07:06 pm
Where do they GET these people?
Courtesy of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mysticknight:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/03/america/NA_GEN_US_Harry_Potter_Protest.php
Withcraft or fantasy? Education officer hears about Harry Potter
The Associated Press
Published: October 3, 2006
ATLANTA A woman who maintains that the Harry Potter books are an attempt to indoctrinate children into witchcraft is pressing her case for the second time to have them banned from school libraries.
Laura Mallory, a mother of four from the Atlanta suburb of Loganville, told a Georgia Board of Education officer on Tuesday that the books by British author J.K. Rowling, sought to indoctrinate children as Wiccans, or practitioners of religious witchcraft and that the books are harmful to children who are unable to differentiate between reality and fantasy.
The children, she said, try to imitate Harry Potter and cast spells on classmates.
"They're not educationally suitable and have been shown to be harmful to some kids," Mallory said. She argued that teachers do not assign other religious books like the Bible as student reading.
It was Mallory's second public campaign against the popular fiction series, after trying to get her son's elementary school to ban the books in August 2005.
Victoria Sweeny, an attorney representing the Gwinnett County Board of Education in Atlanta's eastern suburbs, which had ruled against her in May, said that if schools were to remove all books containing reference to witches, they would have to ban mainstays like "Macbeth" and "Cinderella."
"There's a mountain of evidence for keeping Harry Potter," she said, adding that the books don't support any particular religion but present instead universal themes of friendship and overcoming adversity.
Sweeny said parents, teachers and scholars have found them a good tool to stimulate children's imagination and encourage them to read.
Referring to the recent rash of deadly assaults at schools, Mallory said books that promote evil — as she claims the Potter ones do — help foster the kind of culture where school shootings happen. That would not happen if students instead read the Bible, Mallory said.
The hearing officer presiding over the appeal will make a recommendation to the state board, which will then decide the case at its meeting in December. Mallory is appealing after the Gwinnett County school board ruled in favor of the books.
Wiccans consider themselves witches, pagans or neo-pagans, and say their religion is based on respect for the earth, nature and the cycle of the seasons.
****
The bit in bold? Is bullshit. Two of the "rash" were not committed by students, they were committed by intruders. Adults.
Here's the earlier bit in my LJ: http://desert-vixen.livejournal.com/177550.html
So she's switched from "Christian ideas are being persecuted" to "school violence! school violence!"
And she still hasn't found time to read the books.
WTF.
DV
mysticknight:http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/03/america/NA_GEN_US_Harry_Potter_Protest.php
Withcraft or fantasy? Education officer hears about Harry Potter
The Associated Press
Published: October 3, 2006
ATLANTA A woman who maintains that the Harry Potter books are an attempt to indoctrinate children into witchcraft is pressing her case for the second time to have them banned from school libraries.
Laura Mallory, a mother of four from the Atlanta suburb of Loganville, told a Georgia Board of Education officer on Tuesday that the books by British author J.K. Rowling, sought to indoctrinate children as Wiccans, or practitioners of religious witchcraft and that the books are harmful to children who are unable to differentiate between reality and fantasy.
The children, she said, try to imitate Harry Potter and cast spells on classmates.
"They're not educationally suitable and have been shown to be harmful to some kids," Mallory said. She argued that teachers do not assign other religious books like the Bible as student reading.
It was Mallory's second public campaign against the popular fiction series, after trying to get her son's elementary school to ban the books in August 2005.
Victoria Sweeny, an attorney representing the Gwinnett County Board of Education in Atlanta's eastern suburbs, which had ruled against her in May, said that if schools were to remove all books containing reference to witches, they would have to ban mainstays like "Macbeth" and "Cinderella."
"There's a mountain of evidence for keeping Harry Potter," she said, adding that the books don't support any particular religion but present instead universal themes of friendship and overcoming adversity.
Sweeny said parents, teachers and scholars have found them a good tool to stimulate children's imagination and encourage them to read.
Referring to the recent rash of deadly assaults at schools, Mallory said books that promote evil — as she claims the Potter ones do — help foster the kind of culture where school shootings happen. That would not happen if students instead read the Bible, Mallory said.
The hearing officer presiding over the appeal will make a recommendation to the state board, which will then decide the case at its meeting in December. Mallory is appealing after the Gwinnett County school board ruled in favor of the books.
Wiccans consider themselves witches, pagans or neo-pagans, and say their religion is based on respect for the earth, nature and the cycle of the seasons.
****
The bit in bold? Is bullshit. Two of the "rash" were not committed by students, they were committed by intruders. Adults.
Here's the earlier bit in my LJ: http://desert-vixen.livejournal.com/177550.html
So she's switched from "Christian ideas are being persecuted" to "school violence! school violence!"
And she still hasn't found time to read the books.
WTF.
DV
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Yeah, that whole bit about the concubine who was murdered and cut into twelve pieces -- that's so non-violent. The bit where God tells the Israelites to slaughter every inhabitant of a particular city, not even sparing the children? Totally peaceful. And hey, that story told in varying versions in all four Gospels? Get with the program -- crucifixion is just a party entertainment; nothing remotely violent about it.
(The only time I experienced violence during my school years was at church, in a fight with the pastor's daughter. I'm not terribly optimistic about Bible-reading's magical ability to prevent violence.)
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It sounds like she's just all over the place in her prejudice. Hello? The Bible helps *cope* with rotten stuff. If I am praying or holding a Bible as I jaywalk, I'll probably be just as dead when the SUV hits me - no religious airbags to protect me (that I'm aware of (g)) As OilHistorian mentioned below, the poor little Amish children were not immunized against evil by their life of religion.
This woman hates Harry Potter. I wonder if she's read any C.S. Lewis.
Also not big on my list? People who hate Halloween as an evil day of anti-God behavior. I consider myself a religious person, but Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.
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Yes, in her first attempt, she wanted Harry Potter replaced with Narnia.
DV
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Not to mention the quite seriously-presented contention that the world is FLAT.
What is that woman thinking? Recommending such an obviously evil and Satanic author! Just think of how HARMFUL such ideas could prove to those poor little kids who don't have a firm grasp on the difference between fact and fiction....
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Ohhhh, don't get Amber started. Really, we'll be here all night.
When I was in school, that's what the teachers said about me. Well, pardon me all to hell and back, fantasy was a much easier universe to live in than the Hell that was my reality.
So once we got to HS and the ultra-PC man-haters got their grooves on, the fact that I liked the TV show Airwolf and admired the *character* of Stringfellow Hawke must mean that I approved of domestic violence and all the other things the *actor* Jan-Michael Vincent had done to screw up his life.
But *AMBER* was the one who couldn't tell fantasy from reality. Yeah, uh-huh, right, whatever. Went back in '03 for my ten-year reunion, found most of my classmates still living in the "Use-the-Visa-to-pay-off-the-MC-to-pay-off-the-AmEx-to-pay-off-the-Discover-to-pay-off-the-Visa-don't-worry-IBM-will-babysit-of-us-from-cradle-to-grave" socialist utopian fantasy land their parents had raised them to, nevermind that IBM had ripped the rug out from under ALL of our parents in 1990!
The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.
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Also a peeve of mine, believe me. I used to work at a grocery store, and as soon as the Halloween stuff went up, we'd get incensed customers demanding to see the manager, insisting that we stop promoting 'the Devil's holiday.'
I myself consider Halloween to be the children's holiday, and how much you still celebrate as an adult is indicative of how much you're still in touch with your inner child -- as New-Agey as that sounds. When I was a kid, Halloween was a chance to dress up -- usually as something I *wasn't* -- and OH YEAH! there's chocolate involved :-D! The trick was making my Halloween candy last until Christmas.
My mother explained Halloween to my Mexican BIL by saying America is the only country that teaches its children to beg. *Rolls eyes in amused exasperation*
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How exasperating that must have been. Hello? If you don't like it, don't buy it.
We had our children in a small religious school for grade school. When our oldest was in kindergarten, we sent him off to school in his Halloween costume for the party that we knew was taking place that day. Imagine my chagrin when he came home with a note from the teacher explaining that the party had been an All Saint's Day party, NOT a Halloween one. Poor guy had been the ONLY kid there in a costume. Fortunately, he never cared a fig for other people's opinion. He was glad he was still wearing his costume...
We solved that problem by hosting a Halloween party every year for the kids and their classmates.
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That wasn't even the point. They didn't want to even SEE the stuff. They considered it a personal offense against them that we were even displaying and selling the stuff at all. I made it a point to always appear in costume if I had to work on Halloween.
Your story about your son reminds me of a story from my Mom. She went to Catholic school (to avoid a teacher at the public HS that her mother, uncles and my father all had) and when it was time to be confirmed, they all had to choose saint's names. Mom asked if she *had* to choose a saint's name, and Sister Bulldog gives her this scandalized look and says, "Well, what name would you like to choose, Suzette? Jezebel?" She ended up going with Ann (Mary's mother). My sister and I, BTW, both went to public school in the next town over.
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Oh, I know. It's what I would have *said* to them, had they complained to me. They *live* in a world where there are things they don't like. Too bad for them. I imagine they don't complain every time they go to a bookstore about Harry Potter or Anais Nin.
"what name would you like to choose, Suzette? Jezebel?"
Snort. Good story!
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This woman is stupid 'she hasnt found time to read them' What utter rubbish!
If you read the bible you see that women are very much second class citizens, is that the sort of society she wants to go back to?
grrrrr. I hate pretentious opinionated christians. Especially ones who hate aceness that is Harry Potter!
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You see why I want to leave Georgia...
DV
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What irritates me about her comparison is that two of the attacks were not "Columbine killings". The schools were INVADED by someone intent on doing harm, an adult intent on doing harm.
DV
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Bingo!
DV
Where do they GET these people?
What, no military personnel from KS are dying?
Re: Where do they GET these people?
I friended you, btw. I was actually rereading your Mainframe/Zarana "Meaning of Family" this weekend while nursing into the evening.
My husband would like to be stationed at Fort Carson again, but I'm a little leery of taking my liberal little self to Focus on the Family-land.
Phelps... don't get me started. Now he's wanting to go protest the Amish school shooting victims' funeral because the governor of PA is trying to silence him.
DV
Re: Where do they GET these people?
Awwwwwwwww. *Goes all warm & fuzzy inside*
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Let me introduce her to the book of Judges, and Sisera who got a tent stake jabbed through his head....
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Not to mention Holofernes, who gets his head whacked off. Again, by a woman.
DV
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