Freedoms

So I just read an opinions article in the LA Times that was discussing a recent(ish) issue. The article discusses a San Diego public school student who chose to wear a T-shirt that read ""Be Ashamed, Our School Embraced What God Has Condemned" on the front and ""Homosexuality Is Shameful" on the back in response to the schools decision to have a "Day of Silence" in an effort to teach tolerance of homosexuals and lesbians. To keep this moving, the court said the student should not be allowed to wear the shirt, the writer of the editiorial disagreed. The court felt that the wearing of the shirt impinged on the gay and lesbian students' rights to an education, and that the shirt was inciteful.
Though I disagree greatly with what the shirt says I'm not that sure if the shirt should not have been allowed to be worn. I understand the ruling of the court and I understand what their intentions are. But the school is a public school. Therefore, is it not a public forum? I know that at a public university, this issue would not have existed.
So here we have a student, though ignorant, close-minded and probably best kicked swiftly in the balls, who disagrees with a statement that the school is making. The school as a public forum is making a politcal statement by forcing the "Day of Silence." In response, the student wears the shirt. I see no issue here. I think the problem is not the shirt, or that the child is making the statement, it is that the child believes what is on his shirt. This is the issue that we as americans, fuck, as people should really think about addressing. How much undeniable ignorance there is in this world. How close-minded we all are. How much we tend to fear and hate all things different. We are seated at a very scary time on this rollercoaster of time. I think that we are sitting atop the high point, half of us over the edge, the rest getting pulled over the edge by the weight of those already over. We are in a conservative swing in this country. We have the re-introduction of segregation in Omaha, the threatening of Roe v Wade, the loss of personal rights to the government, shit, the loss of personal freedoms in general. How is it that in todays world two people who love each other are incapable of getting married, just because those two people are of the same sex. Do we not as an 'intelligent' race not see the stupidity of this? I can understand why a conservative church would not allow a wedding to be performed between two people of the same sex, but if those same two people can find a church that will marry them, why not give them that right. What reason does the federal government, or state government since that's where the responsibility of deciding was placed, have to not allow this junction? It's change. it's fear. It's that scary beast that we all hide from late at night in our beds, safely tucked into our warm beds, that monster called Different. The things in our life that are 'different' are the things that frighten us most greatly. At one point, and in many places still, it was that fear of the multi-racial relationship. Shit, I remember in high school I was doing yard work for this old man, and his neighbor's daughter was in a relationship with a black man. His response was disgust, hatred. i think his wording was very close to 'dirty nigger lover." It seems scary enough that people like him exist, but that he is closer to the majority than the minority scares the shit out of me. The reason behind much of this political climate shift that is vastly shifting the direction of this country, is...The Bible. I know, it's weird, I know. I know you're saying but hey, what about separation of church and state. Aren't we supposed to not govern based on religious beliefs. I know, I would say back, it's crazy but true.
The Bible, though said to be a book meant to teach love and acceptance, seems to be used most regularly as a reason for condemnation, for hatred, for war, for genocide. All these things I would think a God, if there is one, would look at us as if we were all fools. What happened to Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself. Do unto others as you'd want done to you, or whatever. I mean, isn't that the Golden rule. The thing by which in the very least, all decisions should be based on. Do you think that that same shirt wearing student would want an atheist to wear a shirt to school that read "Jesus is as real as the Easter Bunny." Or a shirt that has Jesus, the Easter Bunny, Santa and the tooth fairy sitting around drinking and playing cards. I'm sure he would be incited by this shirt.(if you read this and make one of these two shirts, I ask only that you send me a copy) I'm sure he would throw a fuss about the shirt being acceptable. But why? Well, because it's Different. It upholds views that are not shared by him, or many other people in the country, and he, like most of those people, would be outraged by a shirt like that.
So what do we do? Where do we go from here? It'd be nice to think that things will change for the better, and at some point, they might, but history repeats itself but it is a downward spiral. That whole tendency for chaos thing kinda blows, huh. But for now do we sit back and watch as our world is destroyed? Do we rise up and overthrow the government, recreate our democracy? Do we write blogs responding passively rather than actively? I don't know, but for me, this sucks.