Open Letter To Janet Travis

Modified Image on School Yearbook Cover Upsets Some Parents
'In God We Trust' Scrubbed from Image of Liberty Nickel
By Jim Brown
May 30, 2006
(AgapePress) - Parents in suburban Fort Worth, Texas, are expressing anger over an elementary school's decision to remove the phrase "In God We Trust" from its yearbook cover.
Officials at Liberty Elementary School in Colleyville deliberately omitted the words "In God We Trust" from a large image of the new "Liberty" nickel appearing on the cover of the school's inaugural yearbook. The coin features a portrait of Thomas Jefferson, the cursive "Liberty" inscription in Jefferson's own handwriting, and the national motto along the right edge -- except, that is, along the edge of the coin's image on this elementary school's yearbook.
Janet Travis, principal of Liberty Elementary School, explains that in making the determination, she wanted to avoid offending students of different religions. But for those who preferred, the yearbook came with a sticker that allowed students to put the phrase "In God We Trust" back on the Liberty nickel.
An attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union told the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram that the move by the school and the district was appropriate, sensitive, and constitutional. "Sometimes administrators and schools are really caught trying to make appropriate decisions with respect to people's views. Someone is always going to complain," said Dallas attorney Michael Linz. "I think that the school administrators were drawing the appropriate line by trying not to offend others."
But Debi Ackerman, whose ten-year-old daughter attends Liberty Elementary, says despite the school's intentions, it succeeded in offending "people who believe in our country and what it stands for."
Ackerman says she had a "huge problem" with the way it was handled. "Instead of printing 'In God We Trust' on the coin image, they didn't print it, and instead sent it home in sticker form in a concealed envelope," she says. The mom says it was explained to the young students that "there are some people who don't believe in God and that this might not be appropriate for some beliefs -- and when you get home, go ahead if you wish to and affix [the sticker] to the yearbook."

The decision to remove the motto from the coin's image, says Ackerman, is another example of political correctness run amok.

"For me it kind of stemmed from like, Christmas trees aren't being referred to as Christmas trees; they're being referred to as holiday trees," she says. "And instead of Christmas decorations, it's holiday decorations -- and Easter break isn't Easter break anymore, it's Spring break. Then this happened, and for me it was just like they seem to be worried about stepping on the wrong people's toes."
Interestingly, one of the parent leaders in the school turned the same phrase in an interview with Star-Telegram. "We are a public school," said Tom Gardner, Liberty PTA president. "We sure do not want to step on anybody's toes. I don't think any harm was intended."
In an effort to address and perhaps defuse the situation, the school district has issued what it calls an "apology letter" to parents. But Ackerman says it reads more like a "regret letter" than an apology.

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Janet Travis,

It was a sad thing to read in the news that those in charge of the education of children at Liberty Elementary School are so wanting for the basics in logic, not to mention character, civic pride and rudimentary patriotism.



To have deliberately defaced the reproduction of a beautifully rendered US coin to appease the rudeness of some un-named person or persons who would condemn others’ beliefs is a tragic misunderstanding of protocol. Logic would dictate that you might provide a sticker to cover over the letters for those that so dislike our country, its motto and what Americans stand for. A permanent marker would also do the job nicely. Sadly, you chose to alter an artist’s work, as it was commissioned by our government, to avoid offending someone who disapproves of our nation’s motto. It is this very motto that compels us as a people who trust in God, to be as generous as we are with our resources to those in need and to rush, at our own peril, to assist those in trouble. Europe is free today because of the principles imbedded in that motto which the Liberty School chose to make the object of shame, as it removed it from it’s inaugural yearbook.


The idea to remove those words, all the while offending the vast majority of Americans that truly love our country, for the sake of a handful that disapprove of what we stand for as a nation, is nothing short of a disgrace for you and all who are aligned with the Liberty School, an oxymoron if ever I heard one, as true liberty has become something of an object of shame in Texas it would appear. If those whom you were trying to protect from the roots of American courage and strength were truly offended by the words “IN GOD WE TRUST”, surely they would have the strength of character to avoid that phrase where ever it might appear. If they were truly people of courage and conviction, then I could respect their position. But for people to trade with and accept a currency emblazoned with words that truly and deeply offend them, so deeply offensive that it brings an American principal over the brink of unprincipled thinking and false logic, a logic that appears more rooted in fear and shame than in true sensitivity, then they seem to have no more principle or courage than one who would trade in a currency that maligned blacks or cursed Jews. To obscure such offensive language as that would be laudable. To obliterate and make a second thought of our official motto is not.


To accept the benefits of a God loving country and the protections which such a God loving country affords, while denying the same God that compels most Americans to be the truly courageous and generous people that they are, is nothing short of parasitic. To deface a work of art as it appears in the form of official US currency for the sake of spinelessness and false concern founded more in timidity than sensitivity, is to be willing to hand over the keys to the kingdom to anyone who cries foul because of your own beliefs. That is just tragic and anyone who subscribes to such a lack of character and principle doesn’t deserve the benefits provided by countrymen who truly do trust in God and are willing to put their lives on the line for those beliefs. Anyone willing to accept the benefits of a country which is primarily and overwhelmingly God-trusting while denouncing in shame the beliefs of those who provide those very benefits is disgraceful at best. There’s really no excuse for protecting, defending and preserving the denunciation of the roots of America. To remove the words which were rightly there by an act of Congress for the sake of those who cannot accept it is just weakness, not strength. A true educator would recognize such inverted logic and know that. A true educator would promote a tolerance for the country in which one lives and a gratitude for the benefits provided by a people that trust in God. A warped sense of values would do otherwise.



The fact is, those who don’t trust in God do surely trust in those that do as they stand, defended by the greatest army in the world, the vast majority of whom do trust in God and love this country because it does too. The greatest source of charitable giving in this great country is from the people who go to church on Sunday… people who trust in God. Without that great trust in God, it is unlikely we would be here today as a free people, since it would have been politically correct, at least according to the principles demonstrated by Liberty Elementary School, to hand over the US Constitution to the Nazis or the Japanese Emperor simply because they were so deeply offended by the principles of trusting in God, as ensconced in that document. Or maybe even obscure the nation’s motto to avoid offending those who are, in their ingratitude and lack of acceptance of our great country’s principles, offended because we believe as we do; and all the while sucking up all the resources that such God trusting people provide. Such cowardice and unprincipled behavior is a disgrace and I just needed to say so.


Education can come in either of two forms: what to do and what not to do. In God I trust that the children in Texas can distinguish between the two.

Thank you for your time

Congress To The Rescue

After reading my blog of March 27th, Recipe for Cooked Goose, it appears that member of congress have gathered in secret to cobble together an emergency tax plan to address the undue burdens placed on municipalities and states as they try to cope with the crushing weight of immigrants who broke our laws and arrived here illegally. Though it does not have an official title, I’ve discovered (with the aid of undisclosed sources) the working title of this “remedy”.

As with all working titles, the name connotes more the intentions of the bill more than the “selling points”, however it does speak directly to the problem at hand and the usual muster of support from Congress while keeping a realistic awareness of the nature of the fix in the fore.

Taxes
Underwriting
Fiduciary
Fiasco
Specially
Honoring
Illegal
Transition

Thank goodness help is on the way!

Ahmadinejad: Oil Price Is Lower Than Value - Yahoo! News

Ahmadinejad: Oil Price Is Lower Than Value - Yahoo! News:

When we're all running on clean burning hydrogen, oil as well as costly clean air accords, will be of very little value indeed.

"Wading into oil politics for the first time, Iran's hard-line president said Wednesday that crude oil prices — now at record levels — still are below their true value."

...A Texas-based pro-life advocate wants to help...

...A Texas-based pro-life advocate wants to help...:

"...A Texas-based pro-life advocate wants to help get the truth out about the world's largest abortion-provider. John Pisciotta of the group Pro-Life Waco has been working to publicize the fact that the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure -- a breast-cancer research fundraiser -- donates large amounts of money to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. He says Planned Parenthood has done a good job of painting itself as a group that helps women. But that is not the truth, says Pisciotta. "I call this organization 'Planned Promiscuity' -- and one of the things they're about is luring our children into promiscuous sex where they can sell them birth control and so forth and also make money off of diagnosing their STDs," the pro-life activist says. "They're an 'anything goes' sex philosophy, and they're the nation's number-one provider of abortions -- over a quarter of a million a year nationwide." Pisciotta encourages people to conduct their own research on Planned Parenthood, which he believes will reveal to them that the abortion-provider makes money through the suffering of women" (Agape Press)

TIMe to think: Wouldn't it be great to erect 250,000 billboards across America, one for each of this year's murdered unborn, that simply states the truth about Planned Parenthood:

"When women and children suffer,
Planned Parenthood make$ a profit"

What a great use for lottery winnings.

Family Advocate Fears Pro-Homosexual Education...

Family Advocate Fears Pro-Homosexual Education...: "


After reading the following article, it was easy to see that in California, there is a reduced need to teach other subjects of learning, since in California there would be a reduced need to learn them.

If, according to the direction being taken by the homosexual agenda people (there's really nothing gay about them... they're actually more nasty than most folks), the state of California needs to spend more time and money teaching about deviant sexuality, then it probably could drop altogether the idea of teaching language and math. That could create significant savings.

Everyone knows that the real homosexual lifestyle (not the hetero-wannabe that screams for "marriage" rights as if two people sharing the same bed constitutes a marriage) is all about multiple, if not innumerable, sex partners. Hence the rampant spread of venereal disease within that community. San Francisco was just named the "Gayest City in The World" where one in every five residents professes to be homosexual. That doesn't take into account those that don't profess to be so. With such demography and seemingly preferred lifestyle being taught in the schools, one can surmise that there would little need for spelling, since you'd only have to spell the other person's name once, if at all. One of the many benefits of anonymity. And since the number of partners would no longer be of any consequence or significance, why would one need to know how to count?

Now who was it that's sponsoring a movement to give California back to the Mexicans? I can't remember his name but I think I'd like to make a donation to the cause.

Family Advocate Fears Pro-Homosexual Education Bill Will Pass California Senate
By Jim BrownApril 11, 2006
(AgapePress) -

A California pro-family activist says a bill in the state Senate requiring public schools to teach homosexual, bisexual, and transgender history is an assault on the minds and bodies of school children.A bill sponsored by lesbian Senator Sheila Kuehl, SB 1437, places new mandates on California public schools to approve a curriculum that promotes and celebrates the lives of transsexual, bisexual, and homosexual "role models." The legislation has already passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, despite pro-family opposition.Randy Thomasson with the Campaign for Children and Families (CCF) testified against SB 1437 at a recent hearing. He is calling on California citizens to ask Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to veto the controversial measure.Thomasson believes the pro-homosexual bill is aimed at encouraging children not just to tolerate but to emulate homosexual behavior. "This is really teaching children this is how [they] can be, too," he says."Under the proposed curriculum changes homosexuals, transsexuals, and bisexuals will be depicted as 'heroic,'" the pro-family activist contends, "and this is all part of their agenda -- to be role models for children, so more children will enter these sexual lifestyles, perhaps even get a sex change."According to Thomasson, the California Department of Education will undoubtedly use SB 1437 to erase all traditional distinctions or gender standards. He says the bill is designed to penetrate the academic purpose of schools with sexual, social engineering targeting children as young as kindergarten by requiring every aspect of the public education system in California to accept, embrace, teach, and promote homosexuality and other harmful sexual lifestyles.The CCF spokesman fears the bill is likely to pass the Senate. For that reason, he is urging Californians to contact their governor and ask him to pledge to veto SB 1437, as his response to the measure is not something conservative and pro-family citizens dare take for granted."We need to understand that Democrat politicians all across California and more so across the country are in favor of all of the transsexual, bisexual, and homosexual agenda," Thomasson asserts. "We also need to understand that liberal Republicans like Arnold Schwarzenegger are going to go back and forth on whether to sign or veto."SB 1437 is "frightening for parents who want trustworthy schools," the pro-family advocate adds. He hopes those parents and other Californians will join him in calling on Governor Schwarzenegger to veto a bill that requires schools to teach students favorably regarding deviant and unhealthy sexual lifestyles.Thomasson believes Christians in particular should be speaking out against SB 1437. He says the church is a problem when it is uninvolved and a solution when it is involved in fighting such proposals.

Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.

Representation Without Taxation

...A critic of George W. Bush's immigration...: "...A critic of George W. Bush's immigration policy ideas doubts administration officials will be very vocal about what the president's proposed reforms are going to cost because the numbers are staggering. Jim Boulet of the group English First says the immigration reform bill now being debated in the Senate will have an enormous price tag. 'Once amnesty is granted,' Boulet asserts, 'every one of these 12 million illegal aliens could go on the dole immediately. This would mean an increase of at least 65 billion -- with a 'b' -- dollars in Medicaid spending alone.' Meanwhile, he notes, Clinton Executive Order 13166 will require local hospitals to advertise in Spanish to illegal aliens, informing them of their new free healthcare. Boulet feels this is unfair. After all, he contends, 'There are hard-working, tax-paying American citizens doing without all the healthcare they might desire. Frankly, charity should begin at home.' [Bill Fancher]

One way to pay for all of this would be for the churches and other non-profits who advocate amnesty for criminals to agree to the revocation of their own tax-exempt status. Then, at least, when they call for the tremendous increase of the burden in the national budget they've shown their sincerity and pure-heartedness by putting our money where their mouths are.

Oxymoron: Peaceful Islam

...An authority on Islam believes President Bush...: "

...An authority on Islam believes President Bush and his administration have blinders on when it comes to the true nature of Islam. Randall Terry, who has been involved in in-depth studies of Islam over the past several years, says the idea that Islam is "peaceful" denies the history of the religion. He insists that tolerance of other faiths and religious freedom do not exist in the Muslim faith. "The historic facts are clear. The words of Muhammad are clear," says Terry. Any Muslim who leaves Islam for another faith is to be executed -- and that is a fact Terry says cannot be sugar-coated. "We hear the phrase that Muhammad was a man of peace -- and yet we see historically that he decapitated people and called for the execution of those who left Islam." Terry says historical fact demands that people recognize Islam is not a religion of peace, but a religion of the sword. [Bill Fancher]

"

The Logic of Islam in A Democratic Society

HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE - Conservative News, Views & Books --

After reading the article attached to the above link, I was reminded of the thought that propelled me to begin this blog in the first place: "If the flames are killing you and you can't or shouldn't run away, then for God's sake, put them out!"

"...his view of the Koran is not eccentric among Muslims ... Such an effort should not be seen as optional or incidental; without it, the very commitment of these self-proclaimed moderates to the United States and its Constitution can and should be called into question....The real problem here is that anyone anywhere at any time can read the Koran and come to the same conclusion that he did. If American officials were really serious about preventing a future attack, they would address that. If American Muslim advocacy groups were really serious about being loyal, patriotic Americans, they would address that." [Emphasis by TIMe]

The Perfect Gift

I'm sure almost everyone can think of dozens of people who might benefit from this brilliantly innovative device. What a wonderful way to say "I care!" The only problem that I can forsee might be that some people would get more than they could use in a lifetime.

Hey, why are you looking at me that way?

New Scientist Technology - Device warns you if you're boring or irritating

German Death Camps Were As Legal As America's Abortion Clinics.

Apparently, Americans -or at least Christian Americans - would have made no more difference then, had they been living during WWII in Nazi Germany, to end the death camps there than they have made here in America today, to stop the limitless killing of America's children. Those camps were as legal then as our abortion clinics are here today and the same legal protections were in place then to guard the German solution as are in place, here in America, to protect the American solution. So even if we had all been there with all of our moral outrage to stop the horror of it all, nothing really would have been any different, since we have proven ourselves ineffective to end the same horror here on American soil.

Or so it would appear.

Honestly, I can't recall the last time I heard from any clergy at any service on any Sunday a recollection, let alone a condemnation, of the ongoing wholesale murder in our midst. If our collective relative silence on the matter is any indication, we are as accepting of the Death Camps here as the German people were of their own little nightmare, despite the lip service.

I guess I'm left asking myself, what would we have done differently then and there that we're not doing here and now? Would we have made a difference then if we can't seem to have ended this by now?

God forgive us for, though we do know what we do, we lack what it takes, whatever that may be, to stop it.


...Participants in a Washington conference have been warned that America deserves God's judgment for abortion and the decline of marriage. On the final day of the conference titled "The War on Christians and the Values Voter in 2006," Rev. Laurence White condemned decades of abortion, calling it an American "Holocaust" that the church has done too little to stop. White, who heads the Greater Houston Area Pastors Roundtable, also said marriage is under assault -- as much from Christians who divorce as from activists demanding same-sex "marriage." Unless Christians act to stop what he calls America's "unrighteousness, evil, corruption, perversion and death," White says "God will -- and God should -- judge America." [AP]