School officials claimed they “violated the dress code”
(USA Today) – More than 20 students at a Virginia high school were
suspended Thursday after wearing clothes emblazoned with Confederate
flags, according to multiple media reports.
Montgomery County Public Schools spokeswoman Brenda Drake
told WSLS-TV in Roanoke that 22 or 23 students at Christiansburg High
violated the dress code and refused to comply when given the
opportunity. All were issued one-day, in-school suspensions, Drake said.
- See more at: http://www.teaparty.org/20-high-schoolers-suspended-wearing-confederate-flags-119742/#sthash.kQnq00zP.dpuf
School officials claimed they “violated the dress code”
(USA Today) – More than 20 students at a Virginia high school were
suspended Thursday after wearing clothes emblazoned with Confederate
flags, according to multiple media reports.
Montgomery County Public Schools spokeswoman Brenda Drake
told WSLS-TV in Roanoke that 22 or 23 students at Christiansburg High
violated the dress code and refused to comply when given the
opportunity. All were issued one-day, in-school suspensions, Drake said.
- See more at: http://www.teaparty.org/20-high-schoolers-suspended-wearing-confederate-flags-119742/#sthash.kQnq00zP.dpuf
How to reach those who believe
Israel is the big bad wolf?
From: http://elsasblog.com/pro-palestinian.html
This week I had an experience that was amazing for me. I spoke
to a couple of college classes, on Human Rights vs Multiculturalism.
Perhaps surprisingly, the overwhelming majority was on the side of human
rights. In other words, if a culture was not in favor of human rights
such as male-female equality, racial equality, sexual orientation
equality, freedom of religion, most of the students considered human
rights more important than valuing the culture.
That sounds great. At least they weren't on the "multiculturalism above all else" bandwagon.
On the other hand, in both classes, Israel and Gaza
came up - and both classes were overwhelmingly on the side of the people
in Gaza, supposedly horribly oppressed by Israel. Over and over, the students mentioned the 2000 dead in Gaza vs the less than 100 dead in Israel.
It didn't matter that the difference was because the Israelis
had invested in bomb shelters, rather than tunnels to murder civilians.
It didn't matter that a terror attack had been planned by Hamas
against Israel, aiming for 10,000 dead Israeli civilians, including
kindergarten children. (Why didn't it matter? Because it had failed, and
so the people were alive.)
It didn't matter that Israel sent out warnings - leaflets, phones calls, text messages - before bombing.
It didn't matter that in Gaza, people - women and children
especially - were used as human shields, while Israel did all it could
to protect everyone in Israel.
It didn't matter that Israel was the only democracy surrounded
by a whole pile of Muslim countries - there are 56 Muslim countries in
the world, I believe, and a whole lot right around Israel.
It didn't matter that 99.9% of the Middle East was
Muslim-controlled, and only one-tenth of one percent was under Jewish
control.
What mattered was that there were Palestinians with
keys to homes that were in Israeli territory. Therefore any violent
attack on Israel was justified.
I said to the students, that if Israel didn't have a right to
exist (according to them), then any country set up in a similar way or
through worse means - through violence, for instance - must also not
have the right to exist. So all those Muslim countries - which had been
Zoroastrian, Buddhist, Christian, Jewish and so on before violent
attacks by Muslims - must also have no right to exist.
No, no, no, they countered, that happened too long ago to count.
One response could be: In that case, how long does Israel have to exist before it also has the right to continue existing?
But my biggest question was: how could I get through to the students?
was there any way to get through?
{ No - not if they will not even consider the truth!}
One thought (a thought I've had since the classes):
priorities. Human rights are a priority, or so they said when they put human rights above valuing different cultures.
Hamas-controlled Gaza denies human rights - like to freedom of
religion, freedom of political allegiance (just think of the murder of
anyone suspected of being a collaborator with Israel), male-female
equality, gay rights. Another human right may be to education that does
not teach hatred - an education definitely not available in Gaza.
If Gaza - and the rest of Muslim-controlled areas in the Middle
East - had marvelous human rights, then maybe one could talk about the
lack of need for Israel.
But if the priority is human rights …
In that case, right now, Israel has human rights. The other countries don't.
So right now, the destruction of Israel would not only
mean mass murder of Jews - and most likely other non-Muslims - who could
not get out, but it also would mean the end of any place with human
rights in the Middle East.
Of course, by Islamic standards, hanging gays, murdering anyone who leaves Islam, lack of religious freedom - that's all great.
But the students claimed to be for "Western" human rights.
I'm sure they haven't considered what would happen to the human
rights of those in Israel - including the 20% of the population that is
Muslim - if Israel ever became Muslim-controlled.
And one other thought has just crossed me mind. It's about
Holocaust survivors. Families murdered. Near starvation. 6,000,000 (6 million) murdered Jews. And then lives rebuilt, as well as possible. (I
know there has remained much inner damage.) But almost 70 years later,
they have - so many, anyway - lived rich, full, creative lives. I think
of my neighbor, who became the head of a university department though
she spent years as a teenager in a concentration camp - and who married
and had a child - and is such a caring and considerate person.
Quite some contrast to the rage and hatred of many of those in Gaza.
A couple of days later, out on a walk, I came to yet another
response: Get real, all of you who pick on Israel! I mean, you talk
about Israel's disproportionate response in the bombing of Gaza, after
thousands of bombs had been sent from Gaza into Israel. How about
looking at how your response is truly disproportionate! How much outrage
are you expressing about Islamic State?
How much are you calling for
government intervention to take in those fleeing?
Where is your outrage
about a group displacing and murdering and raping and taking over areas
much bigger than Gaza?
They attack and invade - and no one has rained
bombs on them for years! Where is your concern, your horror, your
attention?
And how much are you speaking out against, for instance, Boko
Haram - that kidnaps, rapes, kills and sells Christian girls?
That is probably my strongest response: Get real, all of you
picking on Israel, as if it were the biggest human rights violator in
the universe. Target the big abusers - if you dare!
Two things stand out for me in my experience with the two classes.
One: feeling the wall of anti-Israel feeling. Second: trying to figure
out what might work to get through the wall, or bypass the wall, or
vault over it. I feel like Houdini, trying to get out of yet another
seemingly impossible situation.
Suggestions welcome. What's worked for you? Or … what's been most frustratingly difficult for you?
And all the best for all those who care and dare,
Elsa
School officials claimed they “violated the dress code”
(USA Today) – More than 20 students at a Virginia high school were
suspended Thursday after wearing clothes emblazoned with Confederate
flags, according to multiple media reports.
Montgomery County Public Schools spokeswoman Brenda Drake
told WSLS-TV in Roanoke that 22 or 23 students at Christiansburg High
violated the dress code and refused to comply when given the
opportunity. All were issued one-day, in-school suspensions, Drake said.
- See more at: http://www.teaparty.org/20-high-schoolers-suspended-wearing-confederate-flags-119742/#sthash.kQnq00zP.dpuf
School officials claimed they “violated the dress code”
(USA Today) – More than 20 students at a Virginia high school were
suspended Thursday after wearing clothes emblazoned with Confederate
flags, according to multiple media reports.
Montgomery County Public Schools spokeswoman Brenda Drake
told WSLS-TV in Roanoke that 22 or 23 students at Christiansburg High
violated the dress code and refused to comply when given the
opportunity. All were issued one-day, in-school suspensions, Drake said.
- See more at: http://www.teaparty.org/20-high-schoolers-suspended-wearing-confederate-flags-119742/#sthash.kQnq00zP.dpuf
School officials claimed they “violated the dress code”
(USA Today) – More than 20 students at a Virginia high school were
suspended Thursday after wearing clothes emblazoned with Confederate
flags, according to multiple media reports.
Montgomery County Public Schools spokeswoman Brenda Drake
told WSLS-TV in Roanoke that 22 or 23 students at Christiansburg High
violated the dress code and refused to comply when given the
opportunity. All were issued one-day, in-school suspensions, Drake said.
- See more at: http://www.teaparty.org/20-high-schoolers-suspended-wearing-confederate-flags-119742/#sthash.kQnq00zP.dpuf
School officials claimed they “violated the dress code”
(USA Today) – More than 20 students at a Virginia high school were
suspended Thursday after wearing clothes emblazoned with Confederate
flags, according to multiple media reports.
Montgomery County Public Schools spokeswoman Brenda Drake
told WSLS-TV in Roanoke that 22 or 23 students at Christiansburg High
violated the dress code and refused to comply when given the
opportunity. All were issued one-day, in-school suspensions, Drake said.
- See more at: http://www.teaparty.org/20-high-schoolers-suspended-wearing-confederate-flags-119742/#sthash.kQnq00zP.dpuf
School officials claimed they “violated the dress code”
(USA Today) – More than 20 students at a Virginia high school were
suspended Thursday after wearing clothes emblazoned with Confederate
flags, according to multiple media reports.
Montgomery County Public Schools spokeswoman Brenda Drake
told WSLS-TV in Roanoke that 22 or 23 students at Christiansburg High
violated the dress code and refused to comply when given the
opportunity. All were issued one-day, in-school suspensions, Drake said.
- See more at: http://www.teaparty.org/20-high-schoolers-suspended-wearing-confederate-flags-119742/#sthash.kQnq00zP.dpuf