MountainMornings

In this hectic, sometimes happy time of year, think back to when you were little. Did you dread getting another slip for Christmas from a great aunt in the state of Washington? Maybe that was just me. But ladies, remember slips, and garter hose, and dare I say girdles? Now they call them Spanx and women pay good money to  have their internal organs shoved up into their chest!

I’m only asking because I just read a great, local newspaper gem in the Daily Progress from 1915: “Yesteryears: Community Christmas tree, Part 1: A 1915 plan to bring everyone together.” People on the Planning Board of TJ’s little piece of Virginia felt the community needed a city Christmas tree. They wanted their citizens, poor and rich, white and black to come together for a show of solidarity : “The goal was to instill the Christmas spirit in young and old, and give them something to sing as they marched to the community Christmas tree.” http://www.dailyprogress.com/jobs/yesteryears-community-christmas-tree-part-a-plan-to-bring-everyone/article_cc67486c-a517-11e5-a496-4f0079d8e773.html

I must have covered a lot of Town Christmas Tree Lightings over the years as a reporter. My kids marched, our neighbors sang. I’ll always remember 2001 in the Borough of Rumson, NJ, because I had given up my column as we were preparing to move South. And all I could think about was standing there in the cold, thankful I didn’t have to write about it. What could I say while our community was still in shock?

But back in 1915, teachers used to teach their students the lyrics to all the Christmas Carols for their procession to the Tree. Nobody complained. Nobody sued the School Board. Last week however, in a neighboring county, some parents and students were up in arms about a World Geography lesson. In fact, the schools were closed a day early for Christmas/Winter/Holiday break!

Children were asked to copy some Arabic script as they were learning about different cultures and religions, including Hinduism and Buddhism, and one girl didn’t want to do the assignment. The purpose was to see how  difficult it is to write the characters, and maybe how beautiful it can be too. It wasn’t a really well thought out lesson, as the teacher in this case said that it came directly from a teacher workbook. The phrase these Augusta County students were given, ostensibly as a little lesson in calligraphy, translated to:

“There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the prophet of God”

What an uproar this caused. Our little School Board shouting match went viral and national news networks chimed in – how dare this teacher have our children write this; she should be fired; another instance of the vast liberal agenda! Well, the Board moved quickly and to their credit did not fire the teacher, but they did issue a statement saying that in the future, any example of Arabic writing will not have any religious meaning. OK.

The Augusta County assignment was more vulnerable to outcry because of the unwise step of including the shahada. But there’s little question this is about fear of Islam, and not about objections to religion in the public schools. After all, Augusta County schools also offer students the chance to leave school once a week to attend Bible study. http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/12/augusta-county-virginia-schools-arabic/421194/

So today Christian student athletes can pray around a flagpole on school grounds, Christian children can miss class for Bible study, and let’s not forget all the secular reindeer and snowflakes we have kids cutting out in the days before Christmas. Let’s remember our country was founded on the principal that we NOT favor one religion over another. In fact, President Thomas Jefferson had this carved on his tombstone when he died. Meanwhile, Merry Christmas everyone who is celebrating, and Happy Festivus otherwise!