The Columbus Dispatch reported on 2/8/2006 that Governor Taft was sent a letter signed by members of an advisory committee that had reviewed the school science standards in 2001. The letter asked the Governor to step in and force the Board to remove the controversial lesson plan adopted in 2004 that would allow the teaching of Intelligent Design.
Category: Politics
HCCO sent letters to the mayors of several Central Ohio cities and asked for a proclamation recognizing February 12th as Darwin Day in their city. Mayors issue proclamations as way to give special recognition to various groups and ideas. It is common practice for a mayor to issue one in recognition of the National Day of Prayer.
One of the responses was a surprise.
Mayor Robert L. McPherson of Reynoldsburg, OH was the first mayor to declare Darwin Day.
If anyone wants to see what the US would look like if we don’t stop with the entanglement of religion and government need only look at what happened in Damascus, Syria on Saturday.
For the last week or so, Muslims around the world have been protesting the publishing of some cartoons depicting their prophet Muhammad. Some the images looked silly and some expressed a view of Muslims as terrorists by having Muhammad’s turban look like a bomb.
What does the violence in Syria over cartoons relate to the US. There have been times when the religious right in this country have gone past mere protest when their religious beliefs were offended.
Lame duck Ohio Governor Bob Taft, obviously knowing he has nothing to protect, reversed course and called for a legal review of Ohio’s 10th-grade biology teaching standards in light of the recent Dover, PA ID court decision. He also plans to ask future state board appointees about their views on the issue of Intelligent Design.
From the pages of “Duh!” magazine (really an AP article) comes a report where Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who happens to be a medical doctor, admits that the American people thought he was wrong when he called for more examination of Terri Schiavo, the woman who died in March after a long court case. Congress’ involvement in what was a state case was unprecedented and stemmed from the influence of religious conservatives. In the Christian religion, ending ones life is considered a sin and religious conservatives went insane when the Schiavo case came up. Religious conservatives do that a lot. They want to maintain a life at all costs, ignoring reality, and this case ignoring medical professionals. Schiavo wasn’t alive when she died. She was just a breathing bag of goo assisted with a feeding tube.
Democracy is great.
Our government and its agencies are required to have open meetings where one can observe the process and give input. If you have an issue you are passionate about you can use that forum to express your views and the body you are addressing may listen and consider your views.
That’s how its suppose to work, unless your issue is real science and those who support fake science like Intelligent Design (ID) try to censor you.
That’s what happened at the January 10th meeting of the Ohio Board of Education when the topic of removing a lesson plan favoring fake science came up.