Why are people offended by the idea of allowing a minute of silence for students in public schools to pray or meditate in their own way? How is that a threat to the belief system of another individual if it is done in silence? Sometimes things happen and students want to seek comfort from some other source.
jocef_2_0_06
Favorite Answer
I totally agree with you. But people think that the moment of silence in school systems is a religious thing. Yes I know it is crazy but this is just another example of people taking advantage of their amendments. But the silence is not a religious thing. You can pray or just stand there or just think about how your day is going to be. People shouldn't be offended by it, but people will do anything to start something.
Anonymous
It may be helpful here to know exactly what went on in the case of Wallace v. Jeffries, the case which the Supreme Dictators decided in 1985, wherein they "banned" "moments of silence."
The state legislature of Alabama had passed a law requiring that public school teachers in the state observe a moment of silence every school day "for the purpose of prayer and meditation." Those words were exactly what appeared in the legislation.
That was why the Supreme Dictators struck down the law. Because the lawmakers in Alabama had the audacity to be honest and to explicitly state why they wanted the moment of silence. The lawmakers blatantly acknowledged that the moment of silence was for the purpose of prayer. The Supreme Dictators decreed from their high and mighty bench that since the legislation's purpose was to promote prayer, the law was unconstitutional.
So. Is there a lesson to be learned? Yes, the lesson is that if you want to observe a moment of silence in the public schools and "get away with it," then don't tell the truth about WHY you are having a moment of silence. A little bitty LIE will get you off the hook. Have a moment of silence and make up some other excuse for why you are having it. I had a choral director at my state-run-University who had the "right idea" for how to observe the moment of silence. He said, "Let's observe a moment of silence in order to clear our heads and prepare ourselves for the concert." Everyone -- EVERYONE -- knew what the point was. But no one complained.
c_sense_101
Mark D touched on the right answer ... but then completely missed the point of the court decision.
If it is "telling the truth" that the reason for the moment of silence is for prayer ... then you have just walked headlong into the 1st Amendment my friend. If you would stop looking for some way to sneak prayer into the classrom, then the court would stop treating it as such.
It is revealing that any law that enacted a "moment of silence" sounds silly if it is not about prayer. The courts are not stupid.
ddnguyen9
I totally know where you are coming from. It's sad how some people want to complain about everything. Things such as removing the word "god" from the Pledge of Allegiance, and lawsuits against McDonalds for making them fat. It's absolutely ridiculous. The whole idea of a moment of silence is to pay your respects, pray, mediate, etc. It's sad how society can always find something negative about something positive. And they will exploit the negatives no matter how twisted their explanations are.
Anonymous
I don't know anyone who is against that. I'm against teacher or school led prayer in public schools, but this? There's nothing wrong at all with it. It's the answer to the argument in my opinion. If it isn't good enough for Christians that their child can pray to themselves, they need to send them to a Christian school. If atheists or people of religions other than Christianity object to it I don't really understand what they expect. I think that's as good as it gets. The child isn't required to pray after all, that minute can be used to think about anything, religion minded or not.