Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Asking for trouble

Sometimes, you just have to know that your actions are going to draw attention, potentially of a negative variety. Those times, it might be good to plan ahead, and possibly avoid the actions that will bring about the unfavorable result. If you simply cannot avoid doing what you know will cause problems, then you should at least prepare yourself for the consequences.

Oh, and if you're a ten-year-old, you should probably consider looping your parents into the discussion. Not that doing so is guaranteed to help.

That's what a girl in Florida discovered after she was sent home for not following the dress code of the school. In most cases of students ignoring dress code, it's easy to at least imagine that they were rebelling against their parents, or the rules set forth by the administration. In this case, the girl definitely deserved being sent home, due to her decision to wear an offensive shirt. Even worse, the girl's father, who happens to be a pastor, was perfectly content to let his daughter walk into school with clothing proclaiming that "Islam is of the Devil".

Honestly, we're not sure what's worse, the fact that the girl wanted to wear a shirt like that, or that her father, a man supposedly chosen to teach people to love one another and to look kindly on his fellow man, allowed her to wear it (and, if we're right about the included photo, had a shirt made in his size, as well). We know that people have their prejudices, and that it's difficult to avoid them. We'd like to think that perhaps people aren't going around making t-shirts that show their hatred. Of course, we'd also like to think that those with the power to influence large groups of people would not so willingly flaunt their own prejudice and bigotry.

What's probably the most depressing thing about the entire story is that girl was "expecting that from the first day". Right, because if she'd just waited a week, nobody would have noticed the insult to a major religion. After all, while the devil is oftentimes in the details, sometimes those details are magnified and put onto articles of clothing.

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