I am not backing any of what was done.

But hold the phone. Wasn't it just a little while ago the whole country was condemning educators for missing the signals that led to Columbine? Would you like to be an educator in the atmosphere that was generated after that event? Would you like to be the one in the hotseat evaluating what goes on in YOUR school?

ARE you involved in your local schools? Or do you limit your involvement to judging them at a remove, too?

I see this as very similar to what happened on many playgrounds after sexual harrassment consciousness was raised... hysteria over innocent children's play got lumped in with zeal to protect real victims from real harm. It was, when in doubt, jump on a situation. Any time the society experiences a consciousness-raising event, there are pendulum swings as we try to incorporate the real lessons, over time. The fact that we do the best we can is balanced against what also exists, which is oppression of all sorts.

I think when the pendulum swings we need to try to be smart enough to see all of the things that are going on. It doesn't make sense to evaluate any one single thing in isolation from what is going on contextually, around it... things are always in process, tied to everything else that is in process. Freeze any moment in time and you cut yourself off from the great river of life as it is actually lived.

And let me forestall the question I expect in response to this-- how would I feel if it were a Christian being persecuted. Sorry, folks, that happens every day too, and I don't like to see a reactionist response to that, either.

I'm against prejudices of all sorts. But I am against button-pushed reactionism as much, if not more. Our reactionism is one of the factors that causes institutions to over-react!!

Keep thinking. Things are usually a lot more complex than our reactions can encompass. And get involved in building up something in your area that could use your passion. Find a Brandi Blackbear in your own back yard and see what she needs, instead of presuming to judge what others are caught up in in their own back yard. It will have a lot more impact than the outrage you express here.

~Susan