Burnt Orange Report

Lets look to Kalifornia, a fifth-grade teacher at Stevens Creek School in Cupertino(near San Fran)can't even present important documents of American history such as our "Declaration of Independence" to her class because of its reference to God. Some other works rejected by this school district are George Washington's journal, John Adam's "The Rights of the Colonist" and William Penn's "The Frame of Government of Pennsylvania"

We don't have to travel far to see 'Who' we're at war with. Religion shouldn't color history. George Washington's original proclamation in 1794 for Thanksgiving stated ...give thanksgiving to God...

The above comment is a hoax.

From:
http://seetheforest.blogspot.com/2004_11_01_seetheforest_archive.html#110134337110716232

I don't have much time right now but I want to bring attention to this "news" story Declaration of Independence Banned at Calif School:
A California teacher has been barred by his school from giving students documents from American history that refer to God -- including the Declaration of Independence.

Steven Williams, a fifth-grade teacher at Stevens Creek School in the San Francisco Bay area suburb of Cupertino, sued for discrimination on Monday, claiming he had been singled out for censorship by principal Patricia Vidmar because he is a Christian.
Summary (inferred) - the teacher was forcing his students to listen to and read "Christian Nation" propaganda. The school asked him to stop. The teacher is suing the school with the help of a right-wing "Christian Law" organization, the Alliance Defense Fund. (Also see this.)

The school did not "ban the Declaration of Independence" -- that is just a lie. This story is like when you hear that a man was "arrested for praying" and you find out he was kneeling in the middle of a busy intersection at rush hour and refused to move.

This is the BIG STORY today, on Rush, and Drudge, and the rest of the Usual Suspects. And it is a carefully planned and carefully timed lie.

The story is timed for this afternoon so that it cannot be refuted until Monday.

It is timed to cause fights and hatred at family Thanksgiving dinners across the country.

It is part of a strategy to reinforce a "conventional wisdom" notion that "liberals" are "going too far" with their demands of separation of church and state.

People For the American Way has a web page about the Alliance Defense Fund. From PFAW:
ADF's Founders:

Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ

Larry Burkett, founder of Christian Financial Concepts

Rev. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family

Rev. D. James Kennedy, founder of Coral Ridge Ministries

Marlin Maddoux, President of International Christian Media

Don Wildmon, founder of American Family Association
(And 25+ other ministries)
President and General Counsel: Alan Sears
Date of founding: 1994
Finances: $15,411,093 (2001 budget)
And note this:
ADF defines itself by its ability to strategize and coordinate with lawyers all over the United States.
[. . .]
ADF also defends the right of Christians to 'share the gospel' in workplaces and public schools, claiming that any efforts to curb proselytizing at work and school are anti-Christian.
"Strategize and coordinate." Sounds like what's happening with this story, planted on Rush and Drudge, in time for the holiday. I hope that other bloggers can pick up on this. I suspect many of us are going to miss how important this is -- how big of an effect this is going to have on things we care about. This story is designed as ammunition for family conversations tomorrow.

As I write this, O'Reilly is on the air on FOX saying "Another ruling by an activist judge that puts us all in danger." That's an exact quote. It isn't about this story, but it reinforces it: Yet more "liberals' who are "going too far."

See the forest. See how this stuff works!

Update - I have a more few pre-holiday minutes to spend on this... To be clear about this story, the school said the teacher could not use handouts that included quotes from the Declaration and other documents. A San Mateo Times story (where I live) says,
"She then prevented Williams from giving students several handouts including:
- Excerpts from the Declaration of Independence with references to "God," "Creator," and "Supreme Judge."
And from the Alliance's press release,
Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund filed suit yesterday against the Cupertino Union School District for prohibiting a teacher from providing supplemental handouts to students about American history because the historical documents contain some references to God and religion. [emphasis added]
Supplemental handouts, huh? I wonder where he got those from?

That's all this is. The rest is strategic disinformation -- agitprop.

And for the Right's spin on the story -- how's suing for saying "Merry Christmas?"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6578096/

From MSNBC.com/Education. Lead story

Please amend my gender reference above comment to 'his' class.

The above link is support for my comment. Not Rush or somebody else. My comment was posted before Rush comes 10:49AM Central on 11/25. No afternoon timing either, the original article published on 11/24 at 5PM and put out by the mainstream media. Please note comments are factual to story, is the story a hoax? Ask MSNBC or the San Mateo Times? Does his blog story trump MSNBC or the Times? He read it in his newspaper and says its a hoax?

As far as Brian Boyko's "brief" comments, his seems to be more about disinformation. He is watching O'Reilly, I'm watching the Cowboys win 21 to 7 over Chicago. I'll bet our Illinios readers are not happy about that. And when I mentioned this story in conversation over the dinner table it surely did cause any "fights" or create any "hatred", just sadness over the depths people are turning their backs on our Founding Fathers.

There is the Establishment Clause, there is also the Free Excersize Clause too. Why is one trumping the other so often in todays society? Where is the equality? Religion shouldn't color history.

Not kneeling in the middle of the busy intersection looking at the forest.

There's also a Reuters story on this happening posted at 4:12 PM ET on the 24th. He makes the point that "there is nothing in the Establishment Clause that prohibits a teacher from showing the "Declaration of Independence" .

http://www.reuters.com/printerFriendlyPopup.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6911883