Resolution… And the Evils of Harry Potter
Blogs are weird. We use them to vent our frustrations, and report all the dramatic events in our lives, both good or bad. But it’s not that common, once something has been said, to hear of a resolution to, say, fights, disasters at work, family ill health. Endings are skipped over in favour of the next dramatic happening.
Paul and I had a long discussion last night about events mentioned on my blog yesterday (not that he reads my blog). I won’t go into detail but I will say we’re not a screaming-and-remote-control-throwing couple; rather we’re a crying-in-each-other’s-arms couple. Certain of the things brought up last night can’t be resolved (because they involve events too far in the future), but otherwise things seem to be back on track. Expressing your feelings and venting is good, m’kay.
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Anyway, the following makes me seriously ponder why innocent little Amish girls have to die, when trouble-making wastes of breath like this woman (a real See You Next Tuesday!) get to carry on their pathetic, desperate housewives lives, spreading destructive pestilence?
From: News24
Potter 'promotes evil'
04/10/2006 10:48 - (SA)
Giovanni Dell'Orto
Atlanta - A woman who maintains that the Harry Potter books are an attempt to indoctrinate children into witchcraft is pressing her case for the second time to have them banned from school libraries.
Laura Mallory, a mother of four from the Atlanta suburb of Loganville, told a Georgia Board of Education officer on Tuesday that the books by British author JK Rowling, sought to indoctrinate children as Wiccans, or practitioners of religious witchcraft and that the books are harmful to children who are unable to differentiate between reality and fantasy.
The children, she said, try to imitate Harry Potter and cast spells on classmates.
"They're not educationally suitable and have been shown to be harmful to some kids," Mallory said. She argued that teachers do not assign other religious books like the Bible as student reading.
It was Mallory's second public campaign against the popular fiction series, after trying to get her son's elementary school to ban the books in August 2005.
Victoria Sweeny, an attorney representing the Gwinnett County Board of Education in Atlanta's eastern suburbs, which had ruled against her in May, said that if schools were to remove all books containing reference to witches, they would have to ban mainstays like Macbeth and Cinderella.
"There's a mountain of evidence for keeping Harry Potter," she said, adding that the books don't support any particular religion but present instead universal themes of friendship and overcoming adversity.
Sweeny said parents, teachers and scholars have found them a good tool to stimulate children's imagination and encourage them to read.
Referring to the recent rash of deadly assaults at schools, Mallory said books that promote evil - as she claims the Potter ones do - help foster the kind of culture where school shootings happen. That would not happen if students instead read the Bible, Mallory said.
The hearing officer presiding over the appeal will make a recommendation to the state board, which will then decide the case at its meeting in December.
Mallory is appealing after the Gwinnett County school board ruled in favour of the books.
For anyone who is interested, News24 also has a poll up at the moment on their homepage, and, ha ha, check out your voting options...
The Question:
Do you think the Harry Potter books promote evil?
The Voting Options:
Yes - and so do video games
No - it's all make-believe anyway
I do so love how video games are brought into the issue out of nowhere…
Paul and I had a long discussion last night about events mentioned on my blog yesterday (not that he reads my blog). I won’t go into detail but I will say we’re not a screaming-and-remote-control-throwing couple; rather we’re a crying-in-each-other’s-arms couple. Certain of the things brought up last night can’t be resolved (because they involve events too far in the future), but otherwise things seem to be back on track. Expressing your feelings and venting is good, m’kay.
---
Anyway, the following makes me seriously ponder why innocent little Amish girls have to die, when trouble-making wastes of breath like this woman (a real See You Next Tuesday!) get to carry on their pathetic, desperate housewives lives, spreading destructive pestilence?
From: News24
Potter 'promotes evil'
04/10/2006 10:48 - (SA)
Giovanni Dell'Orto
Atlanta - A woman who maintains that the Harry Potter books are an attempt to indoctrinate children into witchcraft is pressing her case for the second time to have them banned from school libraries.
Laura Mallory, a mother of four from the Atlanta suburb of Loganville, told a Georgia Board of Education officer on Tuesday that the books by British author JK Rowling, sought to indoctrinate children as Wiccans, or practitioners of religious witchcraft and that the books are harmful to children who are unable to differentiate between reality and fantasy.
The children, she said, try to imitate Harry Potter and cast spells on classmates.
"They're not educationally suitable and have been shown to be harmful to some kids," Mallory said. She argued that teachers do not assign other religious books like the Bible as student reading.
It was Mallory's second public campaign against the popular fiction series, after trying to get her son's elementary school to ban the books in August 2005.
Victoria Sweeny, an attorney representing the Gwinnett County Board of Education in Atlanta's eastern suburbs, which had ruled against her in May, said that if schools were to remove all books containing reference to witches, they would have to ban mainstays like Macbeth and Cinderella.
"There's a mountain of evidence for keeping Harry Potter," she said, adding that the books don't support any particular religion but present instead universal themes of friendship and overcoming adversity.
Sweeny said parents, teachers and scholars have found them a good tool to stimulate children's imagination and encourage them to read.
Referring to the recent rash of deadly assaults at schools, Mallory said books that promote evil - as she claims the Potter ones do - help foster the kind of culture where school shootings happen. That would not happen if students instead read the Bible, Mallory said.
The hearing officer presiding over the appeal will make a recommendation to the state board, which will then decide the case at its meeting in December.
Mallory is appealing after the Gwinnett County school board ruled in favour of the books.
For anyone who is interested, News24 also has a poll up at the moment on their homepage, and, ha ha, check out your voting options...
The Question:
Do you think the Harry Potter books promote evil?
The Voting Options:
Yes - and so do video games
No - it's all make-believe anyway
I do so love how video games are brought into the issue out of nowhere…
Comments
Can you remember the whole "Pokemon is evil" fiasco a few years back. Or how about the whole "He-Man / Smurf is evil" thing ? I reckon there is nothing more evil than an over-religious zealot to proclaims that everything is "evil".
I've grown up playing videos games and watching those wonderful 80s cartoons (www.retrojunk.com) such as He-Man and Smurfs and believe me, I'm not evil.
The bullshit line about kids of certain ages not being able to differentiate between reality and fantasy is borne of someone who apparently holds little value in the imagination of a child. Or adult for that matter. I wonder if that hag ever told her kids about Santa Claus or the the Tooth Fairy? How did they cope?
And if she wants to ban HP on the basis that it has Wiccan or Pagan influences, then she needs to ban Easter and Christmas too.
Her kids must be damn miserable.
This woman, and anyone who supports her astoundingly retarded beliefs, needs to reprioritise. In a country where children are regularly shot in schools, there are far more important things to lobby for. How fucked up are they that they cannot see that? She and her cronies seem to be the symptom of one very sick nation.
Ironically, if the HP series really was the Evil of Great Doom, it is people like her that become the catalyst for the book's insane popularity.
If she can't recognise the difference between reality and fiction, then she shouldn't be reading anything at all, and she especially shouldn't have children.
Crazy git.
PS: I'm glad you and your man sorted out most of your differences. Email isn't a good way to sort out differences, especially within a relationship.
Rather say it with blowjobs.
For peope who have been enjoying the craziness of the anti-Potter activists, check out these links:
http://www.greaterthings.com/Lexicon/H/HarryPotter/index.html
http://www.cuttingedge.org/news/hpmain.html
My personal favourite quote:
'HARRY POTTER BOOKS -- ANOTHER SUPERB REASON TO PULL YOUR PRECIOUS CHILDREN OUT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS'
And like moo said. Rather have my kid shout abra kadabra and see nothing happens than blowing his brains out just to see that he respawns in hell and not back on earth.
And yeah games are always under fire. What bullshit.
I'm really surprised that parents still try this. Um, yeah, congratulations for banning a book in a school library. This lady's son or daughter is probably already having sex behind her back. I'm sure her kids can figure out how to score a copy of a Harry Potter book.