Oh poor Brad Pollit. You all sent him emails (pollittb@sedalia.k12.mo.us) after he made some breathtakingly ignorant comments about public schools and evolution. The email in the video was perfectly nice-- but the poor babby Pollit didnt want his face on video.
However he was happy to dig himself even further in a hole by stating that because Fundamentalist Christians are offended by EVILUTION, the band shirts artistic rendition of EVILUTION was unacceptable. Even though evolution is a basic scientific fact, we dont want to offend those poor persecuted Fundamentalist Christians, so now all T-shirt designs must be 'approved' to shield them from reality (we never had T-shirt designs approved in high school, btw). So according to Pollits logic, a Smith-Cotton science club with an identical T-shirt design to the bands would now not be 'approved'. Even though evolution is science.
This new rule favors religion over scientific fact in a public school.
I didnt send Pollit an email before. I will be now.
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I look out my office window (at a state university) to see the local coffee cart franchise, with its slogan "the creation of coffee", with a Sistine Chapel ripoff for an illustration. The cart has a permanent bible verse, and a dry-erase board where the owner, a Promise Keeper, writes another verse each week. Occasionally (holidays) another white-board appears with a longer verse. Never any other source for text, although I have been tempted.
It annoys me. If I were as thin-skinned as Brad Pollit, it would offend me, and perhaps I would ... what? This whole "don't mention offensive things" mentality is strange to me, so I don't even know what idiotic thing to do!
This time Mr. Pollit was vague. He said members wearing a group t-shirt should "feel comfortable" with it. He noted that the evolution design was "somewhat controversial." No one asked him to explain the controversy. Thus he was saved from having to utter the word "religion" in public.
Mebbe he got legal advice. But too late, I think. He's already quoted in the newspaper equating the theory of evolution with religion. There can be no basis for this point of view apart from his personal religious belief.
IANAL, but I think the parents of band members who believe their constitutional rights were violated by this particular state endorsement of religion are the only ones with legal standing. But they may not want to deal with the backlash they'd face from the local yokels.
Oh children of Sedalia, your teachers are incompetent. You are being robbed of a genuine education in science. We would like to rescue you, but can only watch in horror at your fate.
Hey anon,
Let's not confuse the right wingers. They like to scare the faithful, saying atheists want to trample upon their right to worship according to concience.
Private citizens can express their religious ideas and feelings in public. I would defend the coffee cart's right to tart up their signs with Bible verses if they like.
The problem arises when the government endorses a particular religious idea or viewpoint. Government + religion = totalitarianism, and that's not cool.
This is part of the reason I'm a little reluctant to enter the educational system..
Hey, Abbie: Get yer Teach The Controversy T-Shirts right here.
Curmudgeon,
That is quite a 'creative' collection of t-shirt designs.
A minor correction: Brad's last name is Pollitt (2 t's). He is a distant cousin of mine.
wrpd
"He is a distant cousin of mine."
Just so he understands that he is a distant cousin of all of us.
Never mind the surname. We're all cousins, as KitysBittch says.
What I want to know is has anyone sensible ever been named 'brad'?
Can we arrange some kind of prank- everybody claim to be a flat-earther and have all those controversial GLOBES removed from schools?
Abby, Abby, Abby...
...I can't believe you'd make me watch Faux News!
Of course it would be unfair to deprive other religions of these special rights. From now on, band T-shirts may not include depictions of cattle, since Hindu regard these as sacred. They may not contain images pigs, since Jews consider these to be unclean. They may not contain depictions of human faces, since these are outlawed in Islam. They may not contain any references to germ theory, since this is not accepted by members of the Church of Christ, Scientist. They may not contain any references to heliocentrism, since this is not accepted by Gerardus Bouw. Ne depictions of dance either, because this is not acceptable to some sects.
Just think of it as looking at a basilisk with a mirror.
err... since it's a fox affiliate I meant to add.
From a comment at the Sedalia Democrat newspaper who first broke the story:
smittysmith wrote:
Love me those good old fashioned bookt-shirt burnings. When do the lynchings start?
eddie: What I want to know is has anyone sensible ever been named 'brad'?
In a recent interview Pitt revealed that he doesnât believe in god:
âNo, no, no!,â he declared, when asked if he believes in a higher power, or if he was spiritual. âIâm probably 20 percent atheist and 80 percent agnostic. I donât think anyone really knows. Youâll either find out or not when you get there, until then thereâs no point thinking about it.â
Mind you, he dumped Jennifer Aniston for Angelina Jolie...
Never mind.
Macroevolution (to which the shirts were referring) is not scientific fact, it's a theory. I think whatever theory you believe in could be called your religion, so Mr. Pollitt is getting raked over the coals because of semantics? Ridiculous! Bruce McNeely, I hope you don't believe that quote by Brad Pitt, that you'll find out if there's a higher power when you get there. It's too late by then! "A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word 'darkness' on the walls of his cell." C.S. Lewis
Andrea@17 -
Short version: You're wrong.
Longer version: You're wrong, and you're an idiot.
Woof...we will see who's wrong in the end, but I would much rather believe and be wrong than not believe and be wrong.