Answer: Ponies.
Gee, thanks, Conservapedia! Now that mystery is solved, my new investigation will be why any women would consider themselves conservative when they’re treated like brainless 5 year olds.
Brought to you by the same people who claimed all atheists were fat. I so wish this were a Poe.
An update on Damon Fowler’s struggles getting prayer removed from his graduation. Tonight was his school’s “Class Night,” which is apparently a tradition in the south. From what I can get from Googling, it’s partially a rehearsal for graduation, in addition to being a night where they announce senior awards.
Here’s the new “moment of silent” went in the graduation rehearsal:
This makes my blood fucking boil.
This is exactly why the separation of church and state is so important. This is why something so seemingly trivial to some – school led prayer – is so fucking important. They’ve proved our point. This girl used prayer as a weapon to separate the Good Christians from The Others. To alienate. To shun. To mock. And even more disgustingly, the community cheers along like a pack of warriors who have defeated their enemy, and laugh condescendingly at the mention of a moment of silence.
Bastrop High School, prepare to get the living fuck sued out of you. This may not be graduation, but it’s still a school function. It doesn’t matter if you told this girl not to say a prayer – the fact that you let it go on for three minutes is a crime. You should have turned off the mic and pulled her from the stage the moment “but” left her lips.
Despicable.
(Via the Support Damon facebook group)
It’s bad enough we have a gay bullying epidemic going on in this country. It looks like life isn’t much easier for atheist students.
Damon Fowler is a high school student in Bastrop, Louisiana. I’ll let him tell his story (emphasis mine):
My graduation from high school is this Friday. I live in the Bible Belt of the United States. The school was going to perform a prayer at graduation, but due to me sending the superintendent an email stating it was against Louisiana state law and that I would be forced to contact the ACLU if they ignored me, they ceased it. The school backed down, but that’s when the shitstorm rolled in. Everyone is trying to get it back in the ceremony now. I’m not worried about it, but everyone hates me… kind of worried about attending graduation now. It’s attracted more hostility than I thought.
My reasoning behind it is that it’s emotionally stressing on anyone who isn’t Christian. No one else wanted to stand up for their constitutional right of having freedom of and FROM religion. I was also hoping to encourage other atheists to come out and be heard. I’m one of maybe three atheists in this town that I currently know of. One of the others is afraid to come out of the (atheist) closet.
Though I’ve caused my classmates to hate me, I feel like I’ve done the right thing. Regardless of their thoughts on it, basically saying I am ruining their fun and their lives, I feel like I’ve helped someone out there. I didn’t do this for me or just atheists, but anyone who doesn’t believe in their god that prayer to Yahweh may affect.
Moral of the story: though the opposition may be great, majority doesn’t necessarily mean right. Thank you for reading. Wish me luck at graduation.
EDIT: Well, it hit the fan a couple hours ago. They’ve already assembled a group of supporters at a local church and called in the newspaper. I’ve had to deactivate my Facebook account and I can’t reason with any of them. They refuse to listen. The whole town hates me, aside from a few closet atheists that are silently supporting, which I don’t blame them looking at what I’ve incited here. Thanks for the support though.
Damon’s brother Jarret gives us an update on how bad the situation has gotten:
My brother has been cut off from all communication by my mother. He is not allowed to speak to me and I live 6 hours drive away from him. There’s nothing I can do. My sister is supposed to go pick him up tomorrow and he will no longer be living in that town or with my parents. He’s coming to Texas with me.
[…]My sister called my brother and was able to conference me in without my mother knowing. My brother is overwhelmed by all the support that I told him about. He literally didn’t know what to say and was not expecting this to happen. He is extremely grateful for all your support and he says “Thank you.” He will be on the internet tonight to respond personally.
As far as his spirits are concerned, he sounded scared. Really scared, actually. He sounded as if he was about to cry on the phone with me, although I’m not sure if it was because of all the support here or because he’s scared. He has gotten death threats already and threats of bodily harm if he shows up to graduation. We’re still assessing if it is safe enough for him to be there.
Because a student tried to make his school enforce the law, he is getting death threats. Death threats because one less sentence will be said at a high school graduation. Death threats because some people can’t pray to their imaginary friend on their own, and feel compelled to force everyone to. Wow.
His brother also adds what this probably means for Damon’s future:
As a personal note, I have disowned my family over this. No one will ever keep me from my brother, not even my mother. The moment any family starts acting like this, they aren’t any family of mine.
If I told you the story of how this all started, you’d think it was something out of fiction. I think it’s a story that my brother needs to tell, though. This is his time.
Sadly, because of this, my brother is probably going to be cut off financially from my parents and I will be taking up the slack of making sure he gets through college. I don’t mind this, it’s just a matter of fact. We’ve got a long hard road, yet.
Want an example of this community’s ignorance about the law and bias against atheists? Just look at what one of the teachers had to say:
“[In the past, non-religious students] respected the majority of their classmates and didn’t say anything,” [Bastrop High School staff member Mitzi] Quinn said. “We’ve never had this come up before. Never…And what’s even more sad is this is a student who really hasn’t contributed anything to graduation or to their classmates.”
Hopefully the rest of the administration isn’t as ignorant about the law as Mitzi Quinn (who, I should add, has a perfect storybook villainess name). This has nothing to do with who’s in the majority. Non-Christians shouldn’t have to sit down and shut up in a public school. And regardless of your opinion, it is against the law the have school sponsored prayer at high school graduations.
Not to mention snide remarks about a student’s contribution is completely unprofessional, and frankly, immature. You’re supposed to be teaching children, not acting like one.
To make sure the administration realizes what the law is, you can find a list of their emails here and here. And spread the news – wouldn’t it be nice if the nation saw this is how this community treats it’s non-Christians?
(Via WWJTD?)
In case you weren’t aware of the parallels, here’s a Focus on the Family affiliate to clear things up:
…Because arbitrary, constantly evolving, man-made social customs are exactly the same as physical laws of the universe that have been empirically tested.
……And because gravity works by making things go downward.
………And planes fly by…no, I can’t even keep thinking about it. I need these brain cells for school.
Thank you, FotF, for adding “fucking scientifically illiterate” to your resume. I’m sure it looks nice below “hateful stone-aged thinking bigots.”
INDIANAPOLIS | Overturning a common law dating back to the English Magna Carta of 1215, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Hoosiers have no right to resist unlawful police entry into their homes.
In a 3-2 decision, Justice Steven David writing for the court said if a police officer wants to enter a home for any reason or no reason at all, a homeowner cannot do anything to block the officer’s entry.
Seriously, were my family’s votes the only thing keeping this state from going totally insane? Did three liberal people moving plunge the state into complete madness? Aaauuuggghhhhh!!
If that article isn’t upsetting enough to you, you should check out Feministe’s summary of the effects of Indiana’s new abortion laws and defunding of Planned Parenthood.
You’re welcome.
If you have no idea what’s going on in this country, you better go read this.
I wish I could contain the stupid to Indiana.
The bad news first:
Indiana is on the way to becoming the first state to prohibit Medicaid patients from visiting Planned Parenthood clinics after the Senate today approved a bill that would cut off taxpayer money to the Planned Parenthood of Indiana because it performs abortions.
“The taxpayers will no longer fund an organization that provides abortion as part of their services that they give to the public,” said Sen. Mike Young, R-Indianapolis, who introduced the bill for the sponsor, Sen. Pat Miller.
The Senate voted 13 to 35 to approve HB1210, a wide-ranging abortion bill that would cut off federal taxpayer funds to Planned Parenthood of Indiana.
The bill also sets 20 weeks as the cut-off when a woman can no longer seek an abortion. The current cut-off is viability, which a doctor determines, usually around 24 weeks. It codifies into law the idea that a fetus feels pain at 20 weeks and it requires doctors to tell women seeking abortions certain information, such as that abortion is linked to infertility.
Aka, lie and harm thousands of women in the process. Good going, Indiana!
If you’d like a small respite from the rage, I’d like to direct you to this delightful feminist rant by a 10 year old girl from Avon, IN. A small glimmer of hope that Indiana doesn’t suck the intelligence and independence out of everyone. But at the same time, a sad reminder of the kind of misogynistic environment this little girl is growing up in.
A long time ago I knew a very similar little girl – she moved away from that backwards state the moment she could.
Today was National Ask an Atheist Day. The Secular Student Union at the University of Washington had a table out on Red Square. The result? We had seven people sign up for our mailing list. Two white haired, bearded professors laughed and gave us fist bumps. One guy asked what our favorite food was.
Guess Seattle doesn’t have much to ask atheists.
But Virginia Tech’s day wasn’t so peaceful:
Virginia Tech Police were called to the Drillfield Wednesday afternoon following a report of a student stabbing his own hand with a pen.
Police were called at 1:19 p.m. by a 911 call from a witness at the scene.
Alexander M. Huppert, a freshman university studies major, then assaulted an officer who approached to check his welfare, according to a police press release. After a short struggle with the officer and several witnesses, he was taken into custody.
The incident took place near a table promoting a local version of “Ask an Atheist Day.” The student group Freethinkers at Virginia Tech sponsored the table.
Witnesses said Huppert stood near the table for nearly an hour. Approaching the table, Huppert borrowed a pen and drew a circle with a cross inside on the back of his hand.
Nicole Schrand, a senior psychology major, said Huppert then asked students at the table to stab him in the cross with the pen to “prove to us God existed.” The students declined.
“We don’t believe in assaulting people,” Schrand said. “We’re very against assaulting people.”
Huppert then asked for the pen back, a request Schrand and other students declined. Seeing another pen, Huppert grabbed it and began stabbing himself in the back of the hand.
…WTF?
Here’s the article from the ACLU:
On December 23, 2010, Shuai, a 34-year-old pregnant woman who was suffering from a major depressive disorder, attempted to take her own life. Friends found her in time and persuaded her to get help. Six days later, Shuai underwent cesarean surgery and delivered a premature newborn girl who, tragically, died four days later.
On March 14, 2011, Shuai was arrested, jailed, and charged with murder and attempted feticide. Had Shuai, who is being represented by National Advocates for Pregnant Women and local attorneys, not been pregnant when she attempted suicide, she would not have been charged with any crime at all.
Of course, no one would deny that what happened in this case is terrible and tragic, and probably no one feels that more than Shuai herself. But this case is about so much more than whether attempted suicide should be a crime — in Indiana it is not — and the death of her daughter; its implications go much further.
The state is misconstruing the criminal laws in this case in such a way that any pregnant woman could be prosecuted for doing (or attempting) anything that may put her health at risk, regardless of the outcome of her pregnancy.
That’s right: according to the ways the laws are being applied here, the state of Indiana believes that any pregnant woman who smokes or lives with a smoker, who works long hours on her feet, who is overweight, who doesn’t exercise, or who fails to get regular prenatal care, is a felon. And the list of ways these laws could be construed to unconstitutionally prosecute pregnant women goes on and on.
Allowing the government to exercise such unlimited control over women’s bodies, decisions, and every aspect of their lives, and to send them to jail when they disapprove of a woman’s behavior, would essentially reduce pregnant women to second-class citizens by denying them the basic constitutional rights enjoyed by the rest of us.
Moreover, what does it say about our society — about our obsession with incarceration and using the criminal justice system to treat public health issues, and with controlling women’s lives and treating women as if they were somehow separate from their own pregnancies — that we would give a life sentence to a woman who tried to kill herself, just because she did so, in a moment of utter despair and distress, at the end of a wanted pregnancy? Is this (or any) punishment really appropriate here? Does anyone really think this will somehow deter desperate and distraught pregnant women from attempting suicide in the future?
If, as a society, we truly cared about healthy moms and babies, our focus would be on how we can support pregnant women, not how we can manipulate our criminal laws, and undermine basic constitutional principles, to find new ways to punish them.
Sigh. I’m too dragged down by this stuff to have anything to add.
Because shit like this keeps happening:
On Wednesday, House Representatives of the Indiana state considered a controversial anti-abortion bill, introduced by state Rep. Eric Turner (R), that would make abortions illegal in the state after 20 weeks. Representatives were also considering a bill amendment, proposed by Rep. Gail Riecken (D), that would make exceptions for “women who became pregnant due to rape or incest, or women for whom pregnancy threatens their life or could cause serious and irreversible physical harm.”
You know, pretty common sense exceptions.
There’s just one problem with the amendment, argued Turner, the original bill’s sponsor: Women would then have a “giant loophole” where they could simply lie about being a rape or incest victim and procure an abortion anyway.
The amendment was voted down 42 to 54 and the anti-abortion bill itself passed the House 72 to 23.
Fuck.
I really don’t know what else I can say about this sort of shit. I know I may not live there anymore, but I care about my friends and family – fuck, I care about strangers who are having their rights and fucking dignity ripped away by people like Eric Turner.
The only thing giving me hope for Indiana is that there are amazing people like Rep. Linda Lawson (D), a sex crimes investigator for six years, who managed to passionately defend the women of Indiana in a situation where I would have been speechless.
…
Fuck.
