Thursday, May 21, 2009

NOTHING COUNTS - NOBODY CARES #1

I'm pissed, disillusioned, demoralized and angry. I have tried to contain it but NO MORE. Hence, the title of this posting.

The last straw was this past board meeting. I witnessed a wholesale marginalizing - by committee - of a religion (belief) in the name of diversity and multiculturalism all wrapped in PC cowardice.

Yeah, the Good Friday flap.

I defy the bored members to watch "Passion Of The Christ" and then tell the Christians and Catholics that what they want to observe is irrelevant, meaningless, unworthy of recognition.

If someone wants to observe a religious occurrence WHY NOT?! That's what "personal days" are for. By the way, where are the religious leaders and spokesman?

If a bus driver, food service worker, teacher, administrator want to, WHY NOT?!

If 60% of your employees want to, WHY NOT?!

If you want to try and keep the schools open with a skeleton crew, WHY NOT?!

Oh, and don't send a letter home telling me that my kids' absences after April 28th don't count towards anything, then pull this on employees and expect anything other than the one finger salute!

(Its laughable how sacred the Fair and Strawberry Festival days are.)


I'm taking ALL religious holidays off next year - in the name of diversity and multiculturalism.

Why?

NOTHING COUNTS and NOBODY CARES.

8 comments:

Ricky Ricotta said...

Honey, this “flap” is much ado about NOTHING.

The school board did not “tell the Christians and Catholics that what they want to observe is irrelevant, meaningless, unworthy of recognition.” The business of the school board is secular, not religious. They are not bound to observe your religion, but they leave you free to do so.

Your hysterical statements reveal not that the school board is “marginalizing” anyone, but rather, that you are blinded by religious bigotry.

Strange how there’s no problem in Pinellas, which also does not give people Good Friday off. I guess there must not be many Christians over there. Or Catholics. (Who will be surprised to learn that they are not Christians.)

Anonymous said...

Wipe him off Suzie.

He adds nothing.

Ricky Ricotta said...

Dear Mr. or Ms. Anonymous,

Just because you don't like what I have to say doesn't mean I don't add anything.

You, on the other hand, not only don't add anything, you propose censoring opinions you don't like.

How sad and pitiful. I'd stay anonymous, too, if I were you.

Love,
Ricky

Sally Swiss said...

"We’re going to address this up front with our employees, to have them understand the importance of being at work," Elia said.

“We have teachers who are paid to be in the classroom teaching that day,” she said. “We’re going to address this up front with our employees, to have them understand the importance of being at work.”

Candy cruising the church parking lots looking for "data".

There is a subtle threat.

Ricky is a Plant. Probably the same guy that whispered into goaders ear. Anyone in the county will recognize the company line.

I suspect he is a paid poster to try and neutralize the wall.

I detect a copy/paste mentality but in all fairness that's just me.

Maybe money drives him or power or position. He showed up a while back and is definitely not on the teachers side.

Suzie Creamcheese said...

Rickey has so elequently made MY point.

Notice he did not try to acknowledge my concerns, show empathy and attempt to explain where I might be wrong and persuade me that the Board had a difficult decision, considered all points of view, blah, blah blah.

Ricky immediately took to the offense, belittling my "feelings", calling them hysterical (a real gender slap), using trigger phrases to question the Christian faith, beliefs, and religion without actually knowing what mine were. Unable to accept the fact that, like Frank Zappa's character, I might be a Jew! A Jew schooled in the history of the U.S.
He then aggressively supports the district's position.

I recognize the tactic from a political campaign. Do you?

It has been a very enlightening 6 months traveling through this district. Stay tuned.

Anonymous said...

This is probably the ONLY thing where I agree with the school board.

I am a non-Christian who must use my personal days every year to observe my religious holidays. The school system is a government agency, and it's not the place of the government to observe any religion.

You are free to worship however you like. Just do it on your own time and keep it out of the classroom.

Suzie Creamcheese said...

"You are free to worship however you like. Just do it on your own time and keep it out of the classroom."

Well put.

I would also replace 'worship' with 'political leanings', 'sexual leanings', 'pharmaceutical leanings', 'lifestyle leanings' and the like.

There should be no problem with any employee taking a personal day for it. Neither should the district, the association, the media, or the public.

I take issue with employees encouraging students not to attend.

99% of the folks I work with, mentor and monitor, let the students know when they are having a sub and prepare them for it. If most of the teachers do that and it falls on the same day and the student decides that going to school is a waste of time: how can you blame those teachers?

If you're going to go totally secular on an educationally grounded philosophy then, in all fairness, you can't leave commercially-based days alone.

Wouldn't you agree that had the school district eliminated "Fair/Strawberry Day" off, this might have been easier to defend? Of course then the data would have hit the fan when absenteeism climbed on those days too.

Will the district, knowing what they do, have a plan? Orwellian plan be based on bullying and intimidation?

Time will tell. Stay tuned and cue up Cindy Lauper's "True Colors".

Anonymous said...

"employees encouraging students not to attend" is exactly what SDHC did following the April 28 no further penalty policy.

MaryEllen