After-Christmas tale: Dodgeville stands up to Religious Right bullies.Christmas was three months ago, but we're still seeing fallout from a phony Religious Right campaign to convince Americans that the holiday was under attack by advocates of church-state separation. The latest footnote is worthy of attention: Public school officials in Dodgeville, Wisc., are standing up to the Religious Right bullies who lied about their district and demanding an apology and financial remuneration. Dodgeville was zeroed in on by attorney Mat Stayer stayer a horse that can gallop at racing speed for at least 1.5 miles (2.4 km). , a crony of TV preacher Jerry Falwell This article is about Jerry Falwell, Sr. For the article about his son, see Jerry Falwell, Jr. Jerry Lamon Falwell, Sr. (August 11 1933 – May 15, 2007)[1] was an American fundamentalist Christian pastor and televangelist. . Staver's inaptly named Liberty Counsel accused the school of rewriting the song "Silent Night" to remove religious references. Right-wing spinmeisters at the Fox News Channel played up Dodgeville big time, but it turns out their story was full of holes. The school had merely presented a play titled "The Little Tree's Christmas Gift." The play, as The Washington Post explained, was copyrighted in 1988 by a church choir director. It's about a scrawny Christmas tree Christmas tree Evergreen tree, usually decorated with lights and ornaments, to celebrate the Christmas season. The use of evergreen trees, wreaths, and garlands as symbols of eternal life was common among the ancient Egyptians, Chinese, and Hebrews. that wants a home for the holidays. The play uses several familiar Christmas carols A Christmas carol is a carol whose lyrics center on the theme of Christmas or that has become associated with the Christmas season even though its lyrics may not specifically refer to Christmas. Both types of Christmas carols are included in this list. with different lyrics to fit its theme of homelessness. Dodgeville had to spend time and money correcting the record--and deal with hate mail. Now the school system is seeking amends. Its attorney, Eileen A. Brownlee, wrote to Staver and requested $23,899.48 in compensation for costs that the district incurred in refuting Liberty Counsel's lies. "Your dissemination of false and misleading information and your threats of specious spe·cious adj. 1. Having the ring of truth or plausibility but actually fallacious: a specious argument. 2. Deceptively attractive. and frivolous litigation Frivolous litigation is a legal claim or defense presented even though the party and the party's legal counsel had reason to know that the claim or defense had no merit. A claim or defense may be frivolous because it had no underlying justification in fact, or because it was not resulted in enormous cost to the district," wrote Brownlee. "You have yet to present the facts either through a press release, one of your 'alerts" or through any other means. You used this red herring Red Herring A preliminary registration statement that must be filed with the SEC describing a new issue of stock (IPO) and the prospects of the issuing company. Notes: to attempt to collect money through the form of donations." The school will never see as much as a plug nickel from the Liberty Counsel, of course. Falwell's crew specializes in fraud, not facts. Still, it's good to see a school district, especially in a small town, stand up to Staver. After all, giving in to a schoolyard bully only guarantees more abuse. Sometimes, the best way to deal with a bully is to stand up tall and give him a big (metaphorical) punch in the nose. |
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