Political-correctness outed!!

[Not_Punny]

Two weeks ago, a California school district (Los Altos) banned Halloween costumes and activities in schools because some parents felt that the "holiday" had religious-satanic connotations.

I was devastated to think that a handful of sniveling parents could RUIN a much-loved activity for that many children. And I was worried that their particular brand of PC-ness might prove infectious and kill Halloween fun everywhere in California.

But... hundreds of parents stood up for their children... and the ban was lifted.

HALLOWEEN LIVES ON!!

NOT EVERYONE IS POLITICALLY CORRECT AFTER ALL!!

There's hope for us all! :wink:

 

[SpeedoGuy]

Wanting to stifle Halloween parties and ghoulish costumes is an example of Political Correctness from the right. Some religious right wingers say dressing up as skeletons, demons or witches encourages satanic worship and should be supressed because its evil and unhealthy.

But they don't seem to get upset if kids dress up as soldiers.

 

[B_ScaredLittleBoy]

You could go as the Grey Tea Lady. With a teapot hat or something.

There's a ghost story from around here about a Grey Lady, I think its quite common around the world?

Must...think...harder.

Its good that Halloween was saved!

 

[snoozan]

YAY!!!!!!!!!

I had neighbors who would take their kids out of the neighborhood all day on Halloween and go to a harvest festival at their church. I thought it was lame. Halloween rocks! For most kids, it's one of their favorite, if not the favorite of the holidays.

 

[avg_joe]

Well, Halloween is actually a Mexican festival. I don't understand why Americans adopted it as their own.

 

[Gitana Rose]

Actually,I believe "All Hallow's Eve" is a Pagan custom I believe it dates back to the 300's...European,I'm not sure?But it is celebrated on Oct 31,but Mexicans have what they call Dios los Muertos which is on Nov 1 and/or 2...Or some call it Hallowtide.

Here is a great link :firedevil:

All Hallows' Eve

 

[No_Strings]

What would happen if Satanists protested against Christmas or Easter? :tongue:

 

[Gitana Rose]

Not my bag o'tricks...

 

[9inchcanadian]

Yeah European festival,
WIKI ARTICLE
Funniest thing is most of the UK hates it and tries to ignore it as much as possible

 

[Not_Punny]

Thanks for chiming in, guys (and gals).

Actually, SpeedoGuy -- I don't know if Halloween bashing is from the left or the right, but I'm glad that it didn't work. ;-)

SLB -- AhhhH! It took me a minute or two, but I got it! I did! (Now could you explain it to me...) (just kidding -- I did get it... now KEEP THINKING!) (Your new avatar... is that you in his clothes?!)

snoozan: ha! what losers! Their kids are going to grow up and bite heads off chickens!

Average Joe -- many different countries and religions had something similar. Just goes to show what a great holiday it is!

Gitana Rose -- great link! Very interesting data... but they did have to tie it up all religious at the end. Oh well... great otherwise.

No_Strings: LOL -- I think it already happened though it may been the atheists -- over here, schools only have "Spring vacation" and it's all about bunnies. "Easter" is practically dead outside of Christian/Catholic churches.

9inchCanadian: Great article... has given me a few ideas for this year. Hmmmm. When I lived in England, years ago, it wasn't ignored -- trick or treating (the American way) wasn't done, but there were always lots of parties to choose from. Maybe it's a regional thing.

- - - - - -
Anyway, I'm just happy about this whole thing. PC'ness has been creeping up all over the place, and it's soooo heartening to see an instance of it overturned.

 

[DonkeyPants]

Holloween bashing is from the religious right which seems to have merged with the political right awhile ago. I think it happend when the Christian Colalition allied with Newt Gingrich's "contract with America" Republicans (and it's certainly going strong with w's reign) but I'm not sure...

 

[Principessa]

Wanting to stifle Halloween parties and ghoulish costumes is an example of Political Correctness from the right. Some religious right wingers say dressing up as skeletons, demons or witches encourages satanic worship and should be supressed because its evil and unhealthy.

But they don't seem to get upset if kids dress up as soldiers.

Of course not, soldiers = good; demons & witches = bad :tongue:

What would happen if Satanists protested against Christmas or Easter? :tongue:

We would kill them.:biggrin1:

Holloween bashing is from the religious right which seems to have merged with the political right awhile ago. I think it happend when the Christian Colalition allied with Newt Gingrich's "contract with America" Republicans (and it's certainly going strong with w's reign) but I'm not sure...

Thank you, for that explanation DP, I wondered when they merged together. I have only the vaguest of memories of them being separate entities. It almost seems I have always thought of them as being one and the same.

 

[SpoiledPrincess]

We don't hate Halloween in the uk 9inchcanadian, we just don't make a big thing of it. Christmas is our big holiday and that can go on for three months

 

[DC_DEEP]

Holloween bashing is from the religious right which seems to have merged with the political right awhile ago. I think it happend when the Christian Colalition allied with Newt Gingrich's "contract with America" Republicans (and it's certainly going strong with w's reign) but I'm not sure...

Actually, I think it really started with Anita Bryant and her anti-gay campaigns in Florida, then was picked up and given momentum with Jerry Falwell's "Moral Majority." The deal was sealed with the Christian Coalition & Newt.

The irony of it is, that the agenda of the religious right (before the aggressive religio-political movements started) was pretty much diametrically opposed to the politically conservative ideals. True political conservatives favor smaller, less intrusive government and favored individual rights. The fundies have perverted that ideal to an apalling degree.

 

[Freddie53]

People on the right, left, in the middle are from the moon just don't get it. Schools are supposed to be neutral. All festivities that the kids want to participate in are allowed or none are.

All religious customs are celebrated if someone wants to celebrate it or none are.

It is that simple.

If the Christian Right doesn't want the school to celebrate an Islamic holiday for their Muslim students, the school can forbid it. When the school does though, so is any religious mention of Christmas or Easter.

I am against censorship. I would allow all. Exception would be those that are extremely satanic in the sense that they expouse values that go against the overwhelming majority and go against values that are reconized by our government as in murder, child molestation, etc. A group wanting to honor those activities would be denied.

If only people would use common sense instead of pushing their personal or group agenda.

 

[frizzle]

Another capitalist holiday. It has no meaning anymore, except to make more money for huge companies.

And to eat sweets and get drunk. God I love Halloween.

 

[B_Italian1]

I can't stand political correctness. When I was growing up I went to public schools. Every morning we'd pledge allegiance to the flag and then pray. We had Christmas parties and Easter parties, and there were Jewish students in the class who participated. Nobody thought anything of it. When I think of it now we should have celebrated some Jewish holidays too, but we just didn't do things like that back then. We put up a Christmas tree and made our own decorations. We even had pictures of Santa Claus in the classroom. Halloween parties were a blast. We'd wear our costumes on the bus to school and everyone would bring in treats to share. There was nothing evil or wicked about it. It was all about having fun and very innocent. Innocence lost. :frown1:

 

[SpeedoGuy]

People on the right, left, in the middle are from the moon just don't get it. Schools are supposed to be neutral. All festivities that the kids want to participate in are allowed or none are.

All religious customs are celebrated if someone wants to celebrate it or none are.

It is that simple.

Well said. I agree.

And, believe it or not, I think frizzle has something of a point as well.

Truth be known, I actually don't think public schools should be in the habit of celebrating religious holidays or gag psuedo-holidays like Halloween. Such celebrations really shouldn't occur during official school time or at school facilities because they could be construed as state endorsement of religion. And, lets face it, they also create distractions that eat up time better used for legitimate academics.

Leave the parties and constumes and such for voluntarily attended parties after school.