Would it be OK if Tiny Tim said "Allah bless us, every one"?


What a bunch of BS for people to get in a hissy fit about.

People should ask themselves WWJD or say about this emotional non-event.

Exactly.
My Facebook friends are people all over the spectrum.
Righties and lefties are liberally drinking in the versions of the story that they like.

Post # 1 on this thread

Goose wrote:

Fox News, Breitbart Falsely Suggest Jewish Family Is to Blame for Cancellation of Christmas Play


Update, Dec. 22, 2016, 8:40 p.m.: The Anti-Defamation League has spoken with the parents in question and asserted that the original report in Lancaster Online overstated their fear. The parents told the ADL that they left on vacation and did not “flee.” I asked ADL regional director Nancy Baron-Baer whether she believed the Lancaster Online report was inaccurate. She told me that “the actual story content” in the report was not necessarily incorrect, but that “the issues related to the word ‘fled,’ ” which “conjures up a very scary scenario.”


Mark Joseph Stern is a writer for Slate. He covers the law and LGBTQ issues.

Original post: A Jewish family whose child attends an elementary school in Lancaster, Pennsylvania has been subject to false reports on Fox News and Breitbart implying that the family forced the school to cancel a Christmas play.*

Centerville Elementary School has put on a production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol for years, but educators have grown concerned that the play requires 20 hours of classroom time to produce. Changing state educational standards no longer allow for that luxury, Principal Tom Kramer noted in a post explaining why the school had cancelled the play. Educators also called off the production because they wished “to be respectful of the many cultural and religious backgrounds represented by the students.” (A Christmas Carol is unmistakably Christian.)

By coincidence, a Jewish family had requested that their child be excused from performing in the play back in September. They did not complain or ask that the play be cancelled, and the school insists that their request had nothing to do with the decision to cancel the production. But as Breitbart and Fox News’ Todd Starnes reported the story, “unnamed parents” complained about the line “God bless us, every one” and essentially forced the school to scrap the play.

These untrue claims fit neatly into both outlets’ “War on Christmas” narrative—and, as intended, sparked outrage among readers. “It would be nice if we had the addresses of those concerned citizens and, I bet, this info is known to people living in the area,” one commenter wrote in response to the Breitbart story. Several commenters posted the address of the school, and a self-professed white nationalist urged others to “take action.”

Lancaster Online reports that the Jewish parents who asked to excuse their child from the play were unnerved by these reactions.* “There’s no way we’re going to take a chance after the pizza incident,” one parent said, referring to the man who fired his assault rifle in a pizza restaurant after reading fake news stories alleging that the pizzeria housed a child sex ring run by Hillary Clinton. The parents say their child was also harassed by classmates after the school canceled the play in November.

A wave of hate crimes and harassment, some of it anti-Semitic, followed Donald Trump’s electoral victory in November. The FBI recently reported that anti-Semitic hate crimes are the most common religion-focused hate crimes and that bias-motivated violence against Jews is on the rise following an extensive period of decline. Last Friday, a neo-Nazi website issued a call to “take action” against Jews living in Whitefish, Montana, the hometown of white nationalist leader Richard Spencer. The site posted names, pictures, contact information, and addresses of purportedly Jewish Whitefish residents. Several have received death threats.

*Correction, Dec. 22, 2016, 8:40 p.m.: The original post and headline reported that the family fled the county, citing a Lancaster Online article. That story misstated the parents’ reaction. They have now told the ADL that they left the county on vacation and did not flee.


http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/12/22/jewish_family_flees_county_following_fox_news_breitbart_stories.html

Sometimes, common, I wish you'd read more of my posts than just the headline!
We might have a lot fewer flame wars.
Just sayin'. 

Last edited by Goose (12/23/2016 12:33 pm)

Just Fred wrote:

Ok, here we go again ............... the War on Christmas.  Comes around every year like clockwork.  Geez.

Let's grasp the concept of the story.  Forget about God for a moment.  It's a beautiful story of a person's realization, reflection on his life, then a re-evalution, and finally redemption.  I consider it to be Dickens' masterpiece and it's message is important.  If I were king, it would be required reading in every school.

And BTW, this is coming from the Exchange's resident agnostic, me.

I agree, Fred. It s a beautiful story of the redemption of a deeply flawed man, and our obligations to our fellow man.

“But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,' faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.

Business!' cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The deals of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!” 

Good post, Tenny.  And, good reminder of your previous post in another topic.