When a second-grade teacher in Massachusetts instructed her
students to bring a Christmas book to share with the class last
year, Laura Greska selected a Little Golden Book titled The
Christmas Story.
When a second-grade teacher in Massachusetts instructed her students to bring a Christmas book to share with the class last year, Laura Greska selected a Little Golden Book titled The Christmas Story. As soon as she started reading it, however, the teacher stopped her. Frosty, Santa and Rudolph were OK, but baby Jesus was not.
One New York school superintendent this month ordered teachers to take down all student art depicting Christmas trees, Hanukkah menorahs and, of course, the dreaded Nativity scene. … There could be nothing related to any specific holiday. …
This is politically correct foolishness at its worst.
Christmas means different things to different people … and nothing to some. Regardless, it began as a celebration of a birth in a Bethlehem stable some 2,000 years ago. Christians believe Jesus was the ultimate gift – given by a heavenly father to his children on Earth. Everyone is free to believe or disbelieve that. Even if one disbelieves, it doesn’t alter the fact that the holiday began as an act by Christians to honor their God for that gift. The first Christmas story is not subversive or in any way dangerous. It has inspired people to acts of charity and kindness. That is not something to be feared.
~ The Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville
In a surprising but welcome change of heart, President Bush said earlier this month that he wants Congress to extend federal unemployment benefits for some 750,000 jobless workers whose checks are due to expire this month. … If the president really wants to play Santa this season, he must spell out his intentions in greater detail so that lawmakers actually do the job properly.
Before Congress adjourned in the fall, both houses agreed to extend compensation for one group of workers: Those who have exhausted the normal 26 weeks of jobless benefits and are collecting checks under a special program that expires on Dec. 28. That group numbers about 750,000. But the House refused to go along with a bipartisan Senate plan reaching two additional groups: workers who exhausted their benefits last fall and those who will exhaust their benefits in the weeks starting after Dec. 28. The first group numbers more than 1 million, and the second group will number almost half a million before January ends.
To extend benefits for only one of the three groups would be arbitrary and cruel and a weak form of stimulus to the limping economy. Unemployment insurance is one of those government programs that really works, and now is the time for Congress to put it to work.
~ Star Tribune, Minneapolis, Minn.
