Originally posted by protege
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Originally posted by Flyndaran
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Flyndaran, while I agree with you that protege is wrong in calling it a right to put up decorations, it most certainly is a privilege and one that I would argue isn't interfering with your rights. Having decorations up is not forcing religion upon you. My boss is a devout Muslim... he still puts up Christmas decorations and enjoys going downtown to see all the Christmas decorations. These decorations have absolutely no religious meaning to him, he just enjoys the beauty of the decorations. He can even enjoy the beauty of the Nativity scene. Those people, atheist, jewish, muslim, whatever the case may be who do not celebrate and see no beauty in the decorations can do the exact same thing they do with anything else they do not celebrate or see beauty in... ignore it.
I will agree that it is wrong for the school to be putting up the decorations, tax dollars shouldn't be wasted on decorations... but I see nothing wrong with allowing students to put up their own decorations. I also wouldn't object to a group of Jewish students wishing to put up Hanukkah (sp?) decorations, or even pagan students wanting to put up Yule decorations. After all, our schools are supposed to be a place where a forum of discussions and ideas can take place, and like it or not, religion and religious holidays are something worthy of discussion. As long as it is the students discussion amongst each other (maybe with some guidance from the teachers) then I'd call that something extremely healthy... though I would join you in rightful outrage if a teacher started teaching about religious doctrine rather than allowing open discussion about it.
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