April 17, 2009
OUTRAGE! SD Lincoln High School students subjected to PRAYER!
The Todd Epp-driven outrage over Lincoln High School students being asked to sing at the Sioux Falls Tax Day Tea Party is about to fizzle out so I thought I'd sneek this in before it's too late. While the other left-of-sanity bloggers giggle about things like "tea bagging" and laugh at the fun I and others had at the tea party (here and here), a couple local media outlets decided to try to make a story out of a non-story. I decided to drop my two cents just a moment ago in the comment string at Dakota War College. Here's what I said there:
The real outrage is that these young people were subjected, during school hours, to a prayer. I led it - and I even used the words “In God We Trust.” I thought perhaps you’d be interested in the bi-partisan opening sentences of the prayer I prayed…
“Heavenly Father, today a great diversity of the citizenry of this great nation— citizens young and old, male and female, rich and poor, employees and employers, republican, libertarian, democrat and independent, students, parents retired, veterans — are gathering in communities from sea to shining sea to take a stand. We recognize our silence at this time would be a sin against our children and grandchildren. We live and prosper at your mercies, and reject the notion that the government is our salvation, our source or our supply… Today we declare what is still on every dollar— IN GOD WE TRUST.”
My two youngest are still in the high schools here in Sioux Falls. A couple years ago my child, at school, was shown Al Gore’s movie TWICE, in it’s entirety. So– it’s okay to bring in that kind of partisan indoctrination. You say, “But that’s backed by science!” Yeah, right. There are as many economists that say Obama’s spending spree is irresponsible as there are scientists who think Al Gore's alarmism is justified.
The bottom line on this event is that it was a public protest of government spending - intentionally no candidates or elected officials were invited to be on the stage. This wasn’t a time for them to speak, it was a time for them to listen to the people (for once). I wish I took my kids out of school for this event. They would have learned more about this great nation and our founders intention in a setting like this than they would even if the same material were covered in a classroom. It’s important we expose the next generation to the front line of the culture wars. They are the ones who will have to finish the fight (and pay the bills). All they did was sing a patriotic song.
Good teachers and parents would jump on these opportunities, exposing youth to them, discussing all sides of it with them so students learn and figure out what they believe. I’d say the same thing if my kid was bussed to a Tim Johnson event, even a Planned Parenthood event. I’d have them take good notes and then I’d hammer the foolish ideology hard.
Comments on OUTRAGE! SD Lincoln High School students subjected to PRAYER! »
Haggs @ 3:27 pm
I disagree that this controversy is about prayer. It was a partisan conservative event. This event was against President Obama's policies and those kids were used as political props. I would've been uncomfortable too.
I'm not sure if they were misled or just didn't understand what these teabag parties were, but I can understand how they might've been surprised. I'm a political junky and watch news shows everyday, so I knew about these events. But not everyone follows the news. They might have actually believed it was just a reenactment. Instead they were at a conservative anti-tax, anti-government protest.
Will the real OBAMA PLEASE STAND UP! @ 3:37 pm
Haggs -
The tea parties are not anti-tax, anti-government events. They are anti-irresponsible, anti-self-loving, anti-not listening, anti-hypocrite politicians (on all sides of the isle) events.
My dad is a die hard Democrat, I am lucky that my indoctrination failed, and he is completely disgusted with the way our federal government is acting. There are thousands of Democrats all across this nation that agrees with what the tea parties represent.
It is disgusting that the politicians have reached a point that they do not care about you and I. We are supposed to be their boss, and they have forgotten that.
Haggs @ 4:39 pm
Yeah, I've heard a lot of conservatives say that these events had Republicans, Democrats and independants attending. But I call shenanigans on that. Every liberal I know was mocking these tea parties. So I'm doubtful of the talk of these events being nonpartisan.
The numbers that I think matter are recent polls showing Obama having high approval ratings from both Democrats and independants.
Also, do you guys know how our democracy works? The Democratic Party won both the White House and a large majority in Congress. What kind of policies did you expect them to have? They are going to support more liberal policies just like Republicans supported conservative policies when they were in charge (well… except on spending). I've seen a lot of conservatives lately seem to act shocked that the Democrats in charge of our government are giving us liberal policies. Who could've guessed that?
Will the real OBAMA PLEASE STAND UP! @ 5:59 pm
You hit it on the head, Every Liberal you know.
Translation, the Socialists made fun of those Democrats, Republicans, and Independents that still believe in Liberty and Freedom.
What conservative policy? The republicans have been leading us down the road to bankruptcy for far too long.
Last election we upgrade from our moped to your sprint car. At this rate we will have completely sold out all of our national sovereignty before Obama’s first term is done.
I am not shocked in the direction we are going. I have seen this coming long before the last election. It just makes me sad that there are so many uneducated people out there, and common sense seems to be such a rare commodity.
Haggs @ 7:08 pm
Common sense is good, but I haven't seen much common sense coming from conservatives lately.
Taxed Enough Already @ 11:35 pm
Haggs,
There were sign-in sheets for future events on clip boards at the event. I have the contact information. I know that it will be hard for you to believe but there is a good share that are NOT Republican's on those lists and a really GOOD showing of Democrats! I haven't done the data entry yet so I don't have hard numbers but there are many people who circled DEMOCRAT on the form and we also registered some Dem voters–so your guesses sure don't line up with the facts.
Will the real OBAMA PLEASE STAND UP! @ 9:27 am
Taxed Enough -
On the socialist side, guesses usually do not line up with facts.
Will the real OBAMA PLEASE STAND UP! @ 10:36 am
Haggs -
The lack of common sense on the "so-called conservative" side is why the tea parties are not partisan. We are just as mad at the Republican's Waste as we are at the Democrat's Waste.