OPINION -- The ultimate
By Gene Price
Published in News on November 29, 2004 1:56 PM
Leave it to California to come up with the ultimate in political correctness.
It happened in the San Francisco Bay suburb of Cupertino. Fifth-grade teacher Steven Williams has been barred from sharing with his American history students any materials that have references to God.
This includes the Declaration of Independence!
Among other material banned are George Washington's journal, John Adams' diary, Samuel Adams' "The Rights of the Colonists" and William Penn's "The Frame of Government of Pennsylvania."
One must wonder how a teacher can adequately inform students on the history of this country without including a discussion of the Declaration of Independence. The teacher's attorney insists that the religious convictions of the founding fathers are "a fact of American history and to hide this from young fifth-graders in the name of political correctness is outrageous and shameful."
The ban was ordered by the school's principal, Patricia Vidmar, who refuses to comment because the matter is now "in litigation." Williams says he was singled out because he is a professed Christian.
Under the impetus of political correctness and irrepressible atheism we have regressed from a nation proudly upholding freedom of religion to perverse Constitutional interpretations purporting to insulate us from exposure to any references to God.
Perhaps the California case will go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. And maybe the justices, as they enter that imposing structure, will take note of its façade -- which depicts Moses holding a stone tablet bearing the Ten Commandments.