"Kenneth" <kdw### [at] earthlinknet> wrote:

> A happy ending to a sad story. (It always seems to take some unfortunate
> person or persons, who have been denied rights and freedoms, or worse, to
> bring such things to a head and force a change. It's a shame that in most
> cases, change can't be effected otherwise.)
>
> Ken W.

I guess I didn't pick up on the 'religious' overtones in the school story,
thinking it was more of a capricious school policy, instituting an illogical
ban. I'm definitely not one to accept purely religious views influencing the
intrinsic 'right or wrong' of a situation. (I guess that comes from growing up
in the Southern part of the US, where fundamentalist religion all-too-often
influences laws and such, often to the detriment of non-believers.)

I zero-ed in on the more fundamental aspects of the story; the actions of the
school *did* seem heavy-handed. Which made me think about the great positive
changes that only a personal sacrifice by someone can bring about--Martin
Luther King, Ghandi, etc. Both of *them* were quite religious people; but their
fight was for secular change. Of course, I'm not comparing the school situation
to such far greater battles; but most battles for change do start at the small
end of the scale, as very personal ones.

Sad to say, here in Virginia practically no one protests about *anything.* Such
'fear of change' or whatever seems to be part of the culture here. So I'm
always interested to see someone standing up for himself, in the face of a
stupid situation that needs changing.

KW

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