This Is Progress? School 1957 vs. 2007

Scenario: Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack.
1957 - Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2007 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after school.
1957 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.
2007 - Police called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it.

Scenario: Jeffrey won't be still in class, disrupts other students.
1957 - Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by the Principal. Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2007 - Jeffrey given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a disability.

Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
1957 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.
2007 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang. State psychologist tells Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has affair with psychologist.

Scenario: Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.
1957 - Mark shares aspirin with Principal out on the smoking dock.
2007 - Police called, Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario: Pedro fails high school English.
1957 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college.
2007 - Pedro's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. Pedro given diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

Scenario: Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle, blows up a red ant bed.
1957 - Ants die.
2007 - BATF, Homeland Security, FBI called. Johnny charged with domestic terrorism, FBI investigates parents, siblings removed from home, computers confiscated, Johnny's Dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenario: Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.
1957 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.
2007 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.

Found in the Blogsphere

Keep the Faith

Having grown up in a pretty diverse environment with a heavily Jewish segment I do not consider myself to be anti-semetic. Actually, having experienced it myself, I find any kind of discrimination to be intolerable. While I may not, and most often do not, agree with other religious views, I strongly believe in religious freedom: that every person has the right to choose and practice their faith. That being said, I must say I find the Jewish position on Pope Benedict's liberalization of the use of the Traditional Latin Mass highly insulting and anti-Catholic.

At issue is the fact that in the older form of the rites celebrated on Good Friday there is a prayer for the conversion of the Jews. It reads: "Let us pray also for the Jews, that the Lord our God may take the veil from their hearts and that they also may acknowledge our Lord Jesus Christ..." This prayer itself is a revised from that which was used before the changes in the Holy Week liturgies made by Pius XII which referred to the Jews as "perfidious." The Church, on her own initiative changed the terminology. Once again, with the publication of the new Missal of Paul VI in 1970 the language was changed agan, but, as they have for centuries, Catholics have continued to pray for the conversion of the Jews. Indeed, Catholics pray for the conversion of all people.

Some sectors and leaders of the current Jewish world have demanded that this prayer be changed as they find it offensive. However, no one has raised the issue that the Talmud speaks of Jesus in highly offensive ways, calling him "bastard," "sorcerer," "blasphemer." The Talmud also says it was right to kill Jesus, that he deserved it and that he was the son of a whore. This language more offensive than the prayer in the Catholic Holy Week rites yet no Catholic or Christian is demanding a change. No one from the Antidefamation League or the Jewish Defense League is offering to make changes in the Talmud or apologize for it's contents, yet that is what they demand of the Catholic Church. This is highly offensive and one sided. It is blatent anti-Catholicism. Yet the issue is never raised.

The way to improve relations between peoples of different faiths is not conciliation or watering down. It is not by apologizing for beliefs as if they were wrong (if they were they wouldn't be believed). It is not by changing our religious beliefs or asking others to change their religious beliefs resulting in some homogenized humanistic pseudo religion. The way to improve relations between peoples of different faiths is to understand why they believe what they believe and respect their freedom and rights to do so. And, perhaps most importantly, for each of us to take seriously what we believe and live it in our daily lives.