Dawn Sherman got God
banned from homecoming
News, today, that
three teens got ejected from a minor league baseball
game in New Jersey for refusing to stand up for God
Bless America reminds me that this is the second
anniversary of the week when my daughter, Dawn, got God
banned from homecoming at
Buffalo Grove High
School in 2007.
It shows you the difference
that can happen when you have a Sherman or two in the
community.
Dawn and Daddy. Photo by Celeste.
Click on picture for larger image.
Two years ago,
Buffalo Grove High School officials had proposed, to the
Student Council, the inclusion of the
prayer, God Bless America, in the group of songs
that would be played over the sound system in the
hallways, between periods, during Homecoming week. The
school administrator who spoke to the Student Council
then asked if there were any objections or concerns
regarding any of the songs.
Dawn, a newly enrolled Freshman (the school year had
just begun) and member of the Student Council, objected
to GBA on the grounds that the song was not secular.
One of the other members of
the Student Council responded by asking, "What does secular
mean?"
Once Dawn explained that it meant, "Not religious," the
student who asked and the other students agreed that
this song was not appropriate to be played by the
government to a captive audience.
School officials,
knowing which family they were dealing with, backed off
of that one, immediately.
Two days later, I was
quoted on the front page, above the fold, of the
Daily
Herald, in this story
(click on image to magnify so you can read it) as
saying, "I'm so proud of my daughter. She just got God
banned from Homecoming!" The Daily Herald
subsequently softened the internet version of the
story by publishing with this
revision of the story.
That led to numerous
Letters to the Editor of the Herald, such as
this one, this
other one and yet
another one, complaining about their coverage of the
success that Dawn and I have had in fighting for the
civil rights of atheists.
Eric Zorn of the
Chicago Tribune
also wrote a nice story about the incident. Here's an
image of the
newsprint edition of that story.
The war continues, to force government to stop
spending tax dollars to advance religion. Watch this
space, as the battle continues.
