From: ghee@vision.larc.nasa.gov (Terry A. Ghee)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.clinton
Subject: Re: Gays in the Military..what nobody is talking about:
Date: 18 Dec 1992 17:56:52 GMT
Organization: NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA  USA
Distribution: usa
NNTP-Posting-Host: vision.larc.nasa.gov

>>>However, on the matter of school prayer: it's a bad idea because it
>>>violates equal rights.  

>>How does a voluntary moment of silence violate equal rights?  How does 

>Because it is irrelevant to the purpose of school, which is secular education.
"Quiet time" might be a good idea for kindergarteners, but why is it necessary
>in higher levels of education?  How does it >educate?

Some points:

1) Some religious groups believe they must pray
at certain times of the day.  An example, at my university a number of Moslems prayed toward
Mecca at 12:00 noon.  Did you ever think that
some people believe they must pray at certain times
of the day.  What really gets my goat is that
some people expouse their philosophy that all
Christians are hypocrits because they are
intolerant but these same people will turn 
around and say moments of silence (Quiet time)
are infantile acts for kindergarteners.  
Talk about intolerance.  What excuse can one
give these kinds of statements?  I was only
doing what others do to me?

 Liberals
are always saying "I have the right to this or
that" but _you_ don't have these same rights because it
upsets our sensitivities.  Good grief.  Just
an aside, I'm a moderate who is getting fed up
with the hypocrisy of the radicals from both
extremes.

2)  Let's talk relevance in school.  Could
someone please explain how such rubbish "Heather
has two Mommies" is going to make this country
more competitive.  Do we really believe that a
school can or should teach moral values?  There
is a place for teaching morals (and your definition
of what is moral is for you to decide) and its called the home.  That is where values are founded.
Also can a day or two of sound bites about Heather
and two mommies have any lasting effect on a child.
If no, then is the answer more of these moral lessons?  I don't think so.  This country is in a fine pickel because we have neglected the basics a
child is going to need to get ahead in this world
(math, sciences, english, geography, history, and
social studies).  Give our children the tools to
succeed, encourage parents to get involved and
can the social engineering.  When I was in school
in the seventies, it was being put forth that
competition was bad for children, it created to
many pressures.  Bull, competition and reward are
what children thrive on (if you don't agree with
this, you might agree the grown up world is highly
competitve and reward driven?).  School is to
prepare children for life, it is not supposed
to be a babysitting service or a teacher of morals.
With such a diverse population, how could it 
possibly teach morals if there is no clear cut
standard of morals.  Leave the teaching of morals
to the families.  

3) The second poster questioned how a moment of
silence could be considered a violation of rights.
The third poster claimed moments of silence
irrelevant to the purpose of school.  Any good
liberal worth his weight in salt will point out
(I hope), that relevance or irrelevance has nothing to do with the violation of equal rights. The 
principle is the importance. When I was in elementary and high school, 
our moment of silence occurred during homeroom and lasted a minute.  I don't think my education
suffered from this "waste" of a minute in homeroom.