Makes me ashamed to be from Johnston County

:lol:

You kill me!

 

I will be waiting and will be proud. We need more people to run for these offices instead of complaining all the time. More of a selection means better representation. Hopefully people will get out to vote!

Grace

 

You got my vote squirrelly :mrgreen:

 

I can't believe I waited this long to read this Thread....too funny

 

Quoting your original post, SS, would have placed that, objectionable (to me and my fellow veterans who think as I do) , stereotype of a picture on this page.

I'll stack my PH's and Bronze Star, my continual support of all troops, your father's service against that picture. I have, and will always believe that we were "LIED" into this war by your President. I served. Where was he? Champagne Guard unit, my fanny.

One will never understand the true cost of our troops lives until one has actually been there.

 

Just heard from a reliable source that good old Rush has jumped aboard this wagon train. For those who listen to him...you might hear him praise the censorship of books from schools in Johnston County, North Carolina.

I do believe the battle lines are being drawn and I only hope that the discussion between all of those will be as civil as ours has. I worry for our each child and want them to see us as examples. Several Posters' on both sides of the issue have gone into great pain to understand the other Posters' point of view without name calling or resentment, I believe, and I hope that our School Board/Dr. Parker, the ACLU and Rush's group can handle this in a civil but logical way.

Grace

 

You are absolutely correct! This is a vital public service job and each person gets criticized so much. They are noble in their quest but must maintain standards that are governed both by our Constitution and by the citizens they represent.

Grace

 

Yeah...now the kids in school read poems by Tupak that talk hateful about white people.

 

That's fine. It'll give my kids a wonderful opportunity to learn about race baiting, intellectual dishonesty, leftist propaganda, and mostly ...human stupidity.

 

Not to mention Ebonics. Can't negate the value of that, you know. :roll:

 

You mean he is against making "Kama Sutra" available to elementary schools too? What an evil man!

It's only censorship because you disagree with it. You're OK with the schools "banning" "Kama Sutra" from elementary schools, does that mean you favour censorship?

 

I'm right here. What can I do for you my flatulent friend? :lol:

 

Please pass me the air freshener, I did it again :mrgreen:

 

Actually I prefer *puff* ! :lol:

Thanks for the entertainment Clifford.

Some Interesting Thoughts on the original topic From the News and Observer:

Link to N&O Comment Page

Link to even more Comments

FWIW, the majority appear to against banning the book.

This week, we started running some of the comments that were posted on the forum about the decision by the Johnston County school district to remove "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents" from the classrooms and school libraries. Here are several others. To see all the posts, go to share.triangle.com/schoolbooks.

"It is amazing in this day and age that there are people who are banning books because of the real life aspect in them. And to be spending taxpayers' money that should be spent on educating children is instead being spent to go through the library of schools is ridiculous! Are we now going to see groups of people burning books?

Be careful, the Bible contains a lot more about sex, drugs, abuse, etc. than most any book out there!"

Karen Pulse

Raleigh

"How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents" is not pornography ... intolerance is pornography; hate is pornography; war is pornography.

Rob Hamilton

Chapel Hill

"I'm a former public librarian, and currently a church librarian -- yes, a church librarian -- and I am passionately committed to the freedom to read. I am also committed to the freedom of teachers to form a curriculum that best meets their goals and the goals of their students, within the framework set by school administrators. I am also a mother, and I totally support parents' right to monitor their child's reading. We all want the best for our children. Personally, I wanted my children exposed to a variety of viewpoints, ideas and experiences in their reading as they grew, and I hope they always felt free to discuss their reading with me. I understand that some parents have a different view, based on their personal beliefs. But to force censorship on other children, parents, and teachers is simply wrong, and reminiscent of totalitarian societies.

We live in a pluralistic nation. I admire public educators for the delicate tightrope they often have to walk to meet the needs of diverse students. Parents who disagree with the goals of public school education do have other options: private, parochial or homeschools."

Terri Ring

Cary

"As a former high school teacher, I think it's appalling to ban almost any book at the teenage level, especially ones that have been recommended by numerous library associations. Just because a teenager reads about the actions of a character doesn't mean that teenager will perform those actions. In fact, if I had been subject to such a ban as a teenager, I would have been insulted. Parenting isn't about insulating kids from real life, it's about giving them the skills to make wise independent choices on their own. Let's get out of the dark ages, people, and give teenagers more credit than that."

Dan Pastula

Durham

"As a former public school teacher, the idea that a school board is on the hunt for possibly offensive books greatly disturbs me. Who gets to set the standard? It seems the focus is on sex, but what about violence, racism, sexism,and other possibly offensive themes? Many parents are opposed to exposing their children to violent books, which if they were made into a film would be rated R for violence. Are we going to ban The Red Badge of Courage because of the explicit descriptions of war scenes? Or maybe we should once again discuss banning Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn because of the racist language? Of course we wouldn't. We understand that these books are a learning opportunity for our children to appreciate and learn from important periods of our history. A coming of age book does the same. Books that present sexual situations, drug use, gang violence, abuse, diversity, and much more are realistic, whether or not parents like to accept the fact. Isn't it better that teens are exposed to these ideas in book form, before they face them themselves?Maybe if teens were told the truth and realities about sexuality, drug use, and the like they wouldn't be so curious about it. You may not want your child to read certain books and you are of course welcome to keep knowledge out of the hands of your own child, but many of us want these books and the important life lessons offered in them available to our children and taught by a competent professional. When a school district begins to ban books based on the opinions of a certain group of parents, it is doing a disservice to its students. I sincerely hope that Wake County does not follow suit."

Rebecca Funk

Cary

 

let's see: raleigh, chapel hill, cary, durham, cary. nope, none of those are in johnston county, nor do they have votes for the local school board which executes community standards. maybe you should take up residence in one of those communities whose standards you agree with.

and, do you seriously expect the local liberal rag of the democratic party to print any opinions in support of a conservative position? consider the source...

 

Those comments are the opinions of individuals in the Triangle. I don't think they claim to be representing the standards of any one community.

And considering the many posts on this thread from individuals who actually do live in Johnston County it appears there are several JC county residents who do share similar sentiments as those expressed by the people quoted on the N&O website. So, I don't really think Johnston County has the market cornered when it comes to conservative points of view in the Triangle.

I also don't think it is necessary to move to any one area in the Triangle to find community wide "standards" people agree with. Clearly there are people all over the place on both sides of this issue so statements that one needs to move somewhere else just because they disagree with a decision by the local government are ill conceived and pointless in my opinion.

 

they are comments of individuals not affected by the decision, and are therefore not relevant to this conversation.

and while there may be mixed opinions in each different community, there are certainly some communities which are overwhelmingly leaning to one side or the other. chapel hill, for example, may actually have some conservatives somewhere, but the general community standard is left of center. hell, it's their town slogan. but i wouldn't presume to tell them what they should be doing in their community, and i don't expect other people to tell me what to do in mine. their opinions mean nothing in this case

 

That is a narrow-minded viewpoint in my opinion. Like I said before, there are several posts on this thread from actual Johnston County residents who share the same views against the ban as those expressed in the comments cited in the N&O. Clearly this is not an issue with lines drawn based on where you live. The fact that the comments listed in the N&O article come from people outside of JC does not make them irrelevant. You may not care what they have to say becasue they don't live in JC, but that doesn't make the points they make any less valid.

 

it's only narrow because you don't agree with it. clearly, this absolutely is an issue with lines drawn based on where you live. this particular case is about JOHNSTON COUNTY< NOT WAKE< NOT DURHAM< NOT ORANGE. they are certainly entitled to their opinions, and they are valid as it applies to THEIR LOCAL COMMUNITIES.

no matter how loud they get, or how much you try to promote them, their opinions mean NOTHING as it relates to this case. they don't have kids in johnston county, they don't pay taxes in johnston county, they don't vote in johnston county. they are perfectly free to express their opinions, but they have no affect on johnston county, and are therefore not relevant to this discussion.

 

and, therefore, you (puff) using them to say "look, all these people agree with me so i'm right" is not applicable. those people might as well be from california