(Cal Catholic) Appeals court says school can force California teacher to remove patriotic classroom banners mentioning God.
SAN DIEGO, California - A Poway high school math teacher who displayed patriotic banners in his classroom that mentioned God has lost his appeal in federal court and been ordered to pay substantial court costs.
Brad Johnson, a teacher at Westview High School in Poway, a suburb of San Diego, was ordered by school officials in 2007 to take down classroom banners [after 25 years on display] that contained historical slogans such as "In God We Trust, One Nation under God, " as well as the preamble to the U.S. Constitution, because, school officials said, "they may offend a Muslim student."
...According to the Thomas More Law Center, which represented Johnson, the school district allowed religious classroom displays by other teachers, including one of a 35- to 40-foot string of Tibetan prayer flags with images of Buddha; a poster with the lyrics from John Lennon's anti-religion song "Imagine;" a poster with Hindu [political] leader Mahatma Gandhi's "7 Social Sins;" a poster of Muslim leader Malcolm X; and a poster of [Tibetan political "pope" and] Buddhist leader, the 14th Dalai Lama.
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Dieter Glogowski is a contemporary Tibet and Nepal photographer. His photos are excellent, and the quotes he chooses to accompany them are short and thought-provoking (mountainsoftravelphotos.com).
The root teachings of Buddhism are the Four Noble Truths, which state that there is disappointment and we can rise above it by a path of practice that reduces our attachment and clinging to things, people, and states. There are Buddhist resources to assist in increasing joy.
At war with China? Ever notice how much the most famous Buddhist, the 14th Dalai Lama, laughs? He laughs in spite of all difficulties. If we can learn to do that, it will serve the world well. Smile, and the whole world smiles.
Wisdom (the 14th Dalai Lama): It is important to know that there are three kinds of wisdom: / Wisdom resulting from listening, / wisdom resulting from reflection, and / wisdom resulting from meditation.
Consciousness (Dhammapada): We are what we think / All we are arises from our thoughts / With our thoughts we create the world.
Compassion (Mother Teresa): Always try to act in a way that people are happy to have met you.
Equanimity (Sutta Nipata): We exchange the breath of air with the rain forests. We drink the very water that flows into the ocean. Water and air are integral parts of our lives. And we are part of the whole world. We realize that we depend on each other, that we are related to each other. Then we will deal with all of nature carefully, we are part of it.
Love (Phil Bosmans): A flower needs sun to become a flower. / A human being needs love to become a human being.
Impermanence (14th Dalai Lama): It is my firm conviction that the power of the gun barrel is of limited time. / But the power of truth will increase more and more with time.
Mindfulness (Thich Nhat Hanh): Real life is experienced here and now. The past has already gone; the future has not yet come. Only in the present moment can we truly live life.
Meditation (Sogyal Rinpoche): The gift of learning to meditate is the greatest gift you can give yourself in this life. For it is only through meditation that you can undertake the journey to discover your true nature, and so find the stability and confidence you will need to live, and die, well; meditation is the road to enlightenment.
by Jerome Ryan
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Our blessings to Mr. Wackerly, Mr. Sayakhoummane, and the guards who by approving, killing, and delighting in killing have committed grave offenses and demeaned life.
Oklahoma Executes Now-Buddhist Killer
McALESTER, Oklahoma (Oct. 15) - A Buddhist chant of ultimate compassion echoed through the death chamber at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary as the state executed its 176th inmate.
Donald Ray Wackerly, 41, who converted to Buddhism while in prison, along with his spiritual advisers and attorneys, repeated the six-syllable mantra - "Om mani padme hum" - as Wackerly received a lethal injection Thursday for the 1996 shooting death of a fisherman in eastern Oklahoma. He was pronounced dead at 6:12 pm.
"As I understand Buddhist tradition, the good feeling and good spirit in the heart and mind at the time of death is related to their belief of a good reincarnation," said Micheal Salem, one of Wackerly's attorneys.
WHEN THE "STATE" KILLS, WE KILL(And there's no taking it back). Exactly why we think killing is so bad as to deserve a terrible penalty is why we are wise not to kill or have the state kill for us.
"Hate begets hate and is "never" appeased by hate. By the opposite of hate [kindness, compassion, sympathy, and impartiality] is it immediately appeased" (Dhammapada I:5).
Because anger, temper, and fear are not reasonable, no would-be killer is deterred by the prospect of a revenge killing on him if caught. Yet, people are drawn to compassion by the compassion they expect at least from society if not from individuals.
During a clemency hearing last month, Wackerly said his ex-wife gave him...items taken from the victim and claimed they came from her brother, who hoped to settle a debt with Wackerly.
He said she gave authorities a statement implicating him after he became abusive with her. Wackerly has maintained his innocence.
"I did not kill him....I did not shoot Mr. Sayakhoummane," Wackerly told board members during the hearing.
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basic artwork by Elunadudina
"Because most competition compel to learn in life is how to love competition and use notes fairly of using competition and compassionate notes"
"- Lao Tzu"
Jovial Appointment and Emotive Dawn :)))) Brightest Blessings to you and yours for a magickal day today. These days is Friday, April 13, 2012. Fridays are ruled by Venus, a den whose properties tolerate, love, beauty, take pleasure in and calm. It's a captivating day to purpose on interaction, love, romance sexual matters, friendships and partnerships. It's a supplement day for new opportunities to come about. If you are working with stones today wish for to wear jade or cat's eye for protection. Use rubies in amulets.
Tonight's Moon is Degeneration, third quarter in Capricorn. The Degeneration Moon is a time for study, meditation, and muffled magickal work but for magick designed to bannish hurtful messages. The Degeneration Moon represents the Idol in her Crone aspect. It's a time to accomplice the wisdom gained as a result of life. The Moon in Capricorn develops strong influence. Interior on traditions, everyday jobs and obligations. It's a good time to set boundaries and cipher. The Moon moves here Aquarius at 5:48 p.m. The Moon in Aquarius is a disobedient energy. It's time to break customs and make definite changes. Unusual liberty and one is the purpose. The magickal color of the day is Red, and the incense of the day is Orchid :)))) Conduct an astoundingly magickal day! :)))
The "Saffron Revolution" that happened in Burma in 2007 was the precursor to the protests we see around the world today. We will not remain quiet in the face of tyranny
We found a magnificent Buddha still standing after the government crackdown in Burma. The dictatorship could not stomp the spirit of freedom and liberation represented by the Buddha.
We changed buses in Pegu and took a short trip around the city avoiding government fees. We saw the need for helping Burma (which the government renamed Myanmar). This police state is ruled by a military junta after a coup in 1990 that imprisoned Aung San Suu Kyi, the country's only legitimate, democratically-elected leader.
In 2010, an election was rigged to keep the country's reviled military dictators in their current positions. People are starving and engaged in forced labor. MY PICTURES may seem one sided. It is prohibited to take pictures of the military and the police. I do not simply take pictures of the many poor on the streets instead.
The Burmese people are the kindest people I have ever met. Their loving-kindness filled me with a sense of compassion to support or find a way to free them from tyranny, even if I do not know how. The country needs our support in America: I have posted some links to international organizations helping Burma.
Burma is NOT a usual travel destination, except for adventurous spiritual travelers. Even if one avoids all governmental fees, for example using public transportation, it is difficult to say that traveling the country helps the people. Perhaps all travel should be boycotted and help given less directly.
The government with its embezzled profits has moved the country's capital to a make believe, reinforced never land called Naypyidaw. Seeing it from the bus, tears came to my eyes. I understood how the "generals" had extracted the money from starving people to create a world-class capital for themselves and their relatives. It was so shocking that I neglected to photograph it.
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The Republican race for the Presidency has effectively been winnowed down to John McCain and Mitt Romney.
The former's record on immigration is firmly established. He led the Republican charge against Proposition 200 in 2004, which was ultimately approved of and passed by 56%-44% of Arizonans. He put forward the McCain-Kennedy amnesty bill. Americans for Better Immigration (run by NumbersUSA), which grades all members of Congress based on their immigration-related voting records, gives him a 'D'.
Mitt Romney is more of a question mark. His past Congressional donations do not reveal a pattern regarding their respective stances on immigration, although on net they've gone to those who are slightly more restrictive than Congress as a whole. He did little one way or another regarding illegal immigration while Governor of Massachusetts. On the campaign trail, Romney's gone after Giuliani for NYC's status as a sanctuary city under his mayorship, and he's criticized McCain for the aforementioned amnesty bill.
It's evident, at least in the blogosphere, many of those who plan to vote on the Republican side during the primaries are not particularly impressed by either candidate.
What about our elected leaders? With apologies to Machiavelli, perhaps the first method for measuring a man on the sincerity of his positions on immigration is to look at the legislative men he has behind him. Thus far, Romney has received 42 Congressional endorsements. There have been 36 for McCain.
Using AfBI's gradecard scoring system, I tracked the performance of those 78 congress critters. Regarding the way AfBI makes the grade calculations, in an attempt to remain as objective as possible, they are based on immigration reduction rather than looking at the nuances in legislation dealing with illegal immigration. They treat H-2A and H-1B visas in an equally negative light. If you see unskilled immigration from Latin America as disastrous but favor some sort of limited merit immigration system for the cream of the world's crop, it may not be optimal. But as the most comprehensive measure available, it is useful.
ROMNEY'S BACKERS HAVE A RESTRICTIONIST GPA OF 3.4 TO THE MCCAIN CROWD'S 2.4. That's substantial. Of course, these endorsements are influenced by a whole host of considerations, of which Romney's perceived alignment with their legislative agenda on immigration is just one. But Romney does better than the GOP as a whole, while McCain performs even worse than the slate of Republicans who were thrown out in the '06 midterms--and that was a group of relatively open-borders Republicans--not to mention the party as a whole.
John Savage suggests that Mormonism tends to encourage a universalist one-worlder view. The implication is that Romney might, like McCain and Huckabee (only Ron Paul has been consistent in his opposition to things like the Visa Lottery system and the anchor-baby interpretation of the 14th Amendment), want to keep the flood gates open even though he's said otherwise during the campaign.
It's possible, but I don't see much indication that it is probable. Romney doesn't appear to wear his religion on his sleeve (although he does not smoke or drink), and it's hard to determine much about an individual based on the average tendencies of the demographic group he belongs to. In his 2004 book, Mormonism is apparently not a focal point (in making this assumption I'm going off of Amazon reader reviews--I've not read the book myself).
While Mormonism, like the gamut of Protestant denominations and Catholicism, is ecumenical by nature, Judaism is not. Yet Jews are consistently less restrictionist than Protestants or Catholics. A comprehensive Zogby survey found self-described 'born again' Christians to be the most strongly in favor of reducing immigration levels among the major religious classifications considered.
The circumstantial evidence points to Romney as a better choice than McCain for Republican primary voters concerned about immigration into the US.
