News excerpt from Ithaca, New York:
"In a letter sent to parents this week, Ithaca High School administrators have banned the display of Confederate flag insignias on any clothing, bags or other items students previously brought to school. "We have found that the display of the flag in such forms has caused and continues to cause feelings of ill will," reads the letter, dated April 3 and signed by Principal Joseph Wilson. "Such feelings in turn have led to disruptions to our operations and educational process." Starting Monday, students who refuse to remove or cover up images of the flag will be disciplined, probably for insubordination, according to Superintendent Judith Pastel."
Source
Previous Supreme Court decisions have upheld the right to display Confederate insignia as being protected free speech -- so this prohibition is being done in the name of "preventing disruption". It seems that some white students have been wearing Confederate belt-buckles etc. to claim a group-identity similar to what is automatically allowed to blacks, Hispanics etc.
Not much Respect for Free Speech in Connecticut
How do you shut down a Christian rally in Connecticut? Easy. Any excuse will do. Just tell the police that Nazis will be present, for instance. You will be believed. And instead of questioning the source or turning up to control any "Nazi" excesses the police will just ban the whole rally. The police are not there to protect free speech. Oh no! They are there to restrict it at the drop of a hat. Think I'm exaggerating? It happened recently in Danbury, Connecticut. See here. (Hat tip to Newsbusters)
Sunday Meditation
Regrettably, I do not get the time to read all comments on all posts on this blog but a recent comment describing my posts as "a steady diet of items dealing with the evil of homosexuality" quite amused me. In fact only 1 out of 10 of the posts prior to this one referred to homosexuality and only a Leftist would see even that one as claiming "evil" in homosexuality. It was just a news excerpt with no comment from me about homosexuality at all.
So how do we explain such spectacular wrongheadedness? If my guess is correct and the author of the comment is himself homosexual, I think it is an instance of something constantly noted on this blog -- oversensitivity among once-persecuted minorities. Oversensitivity among such people is of course to be expected and reflects no discredit on them but, like everything else, it can be carried to absurd extremes. And I think it is often carried to such an extreme that every mention by outsiders of the group concerned is seen as suspect until proven otherwise.
And in the case of homosexuality that is even more than usually absurd. Someone once very aptly said that "homosexuality has been transformed from the love that dare not speak its name into the love that won't shut up". So large numbers of homosexuals never tire of speaking about themselves and preaching for their way of life but others can only talk about them if they make clear that they are praising homosexuality. I myself will certainly not be tongue-tied in that way.
For the record, I have a homosexual sister and the lady in my life has a homosexual son. And I get on perfectly well with both the son and his partner. So I most certainly do not speak from a "homophobic" viewpoint. If I were a Leftist, I guess I would in fact take any accusation that I am homophobic as "hate speech" and prosecute accordingly.
