Religious expression of any kind is not appropriate in a public school setting. If people want their children to be able to pray in school, they should send their kids to a faith-affiliated school.

That being said, when I was a child in the UK, I attended schools in which we attended chapel every morning before classes began and every late afternoon before we went home for the day. Bear in mind that separation of Church and State is not a British concept, and the 'state religion' is Christianity as it is practiced in the Church of England. However, students who belonged to other faith traditions than Christian were excused from chapel, and went to the library to study, but students who were Christian, whether they were Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Methodists, etc., went to chapel! We had courses on religion but they were overviews of all world religions, not just Christianity.

Mar 2, 2012 -- 10:38AM, CharikIeia wrote:

Mar 2, 2012 -- 9:25AM, Bodean wrote:

With each Government Intrusion into the normal compartments of life, such as retirement, healthcare, social contructs, etc, we lose our freedom and liberty, and the "dictatorship" grows stronger, and more oppressive.

Only if you don't retain control over your government,

How do you maintain control of a government that is buying it's way into total control??

The people who want to maintain control of the Government are labelled as right wingers, right wingnuts, lesser beings, unenlightened, blah blah blah.  I know you take a stab at the Rebulican Party, but the Democrats are far greater offenders.

While our left leaning crowd here wants to wade out into the weeds of religion, the fact of the matter remains, the Government is slowly taking away our freedoms and liberties by taking over responsibilities that belong to the individual, not the collective, and .. taking upon itself the duty of DICTATING to the people.  When a Government begins DICTATING to the people, it no longer qualifies as "government for the people, by the people".  In Fact, it no longer qualifies as "for the people" ... or ... "by the people".  It becomes a government "For Itself, by Itself".

I don't care what reason a person gives for opposing the slow establishment of the Dictatorship, be it political, religious, philosophical, whatever ... .opposition to such is in accordance with the original ideals of the United States of America.  The US was not created to be a Top Heavy, Powerful Central Government union.  It has reached the point that the Federal Government has made itself indispensable to the people through multiple dependence programs.  The States themselves cannot even survive without their Federal Grants.

This crap is INSANE.

But like I said ... the Leftists here are all hunky dory for now, as the broad spectrum dependence programs are consistent with their Leftists Doctrine of "social justice".  OH yeah ... we need Universal Healthcare .. everyone has a "right" to healthcare.  Oh yeah ... employers should be forced to provide B.C. pills to all women who want them .. free of charge.  Oh yeah ... we need to raise the taxes on the rich, to "spread the wealth around" [ref B. Obama].  Yep .. they are all for it .... for now.  But just wait until the elites put the peasants [sheep] in their place!  And by that time, there will be no turning back until a major revolution.

Some flippant teacher spouting out about religion, or some kid saying a prayer over the intercome will be the farthests thing from their minds when that time comes.

Mar 2, 2012 -- 9:25AM, Bodean wrote:

 

I know you guys want to wade out in the weeds of the irrelevant ... but it does not erase the point.  With each Government Intrusion into the normal compartments of life, such as retirement, healthcare, social contructs, etc, we lose our freedom and liberty, and the "dictatorship" grows stronger, and more oppressive.

Granted, you leftists rejoice now, because the emerging dictatorship is along your leftists doctrinaire positions, grounded in Social Justice and equal poverty for all [except the ruling elite] ... but what will happen when it crosses that line?  You will not be able to complain, because you were one of the ones supporting its formation.

So your answer, as a conservative, is to hand that power over to the corporations and to religious minorities with political agendas.

At least we have (in theory, anyway) some control over what the government does.  You want to strip even theoretical control over power away from ordinary citizens.

What I want to know is what you think you're going to get from it that you are willing to sell out to them so completely.

Mar 2, 2012 -- 11:17AM, Bodean wrote:

How do you maintain control of a government that is buying it's way into total control??

The people who want to maintain control of the Government are labelled as right wingers, right wingnuts, lesser beings, unenlightened, blah blah blah.  I know you take a stab at the Rebulican Party, but the Democrats are far greater offenders.

In all likelihood, there is no talent for "government for the people, by the people" in either political camp in the USA, yes.

While our left leaning crowd here wants to wade out into the weeds of religion, the fact of the matter remains, the Government is slowly taking away our freedoms and liberties by taking over responsibilities that belong to the individual, not the collective, and .. taking upon itself the duty of DICTATING to the people.  When a Government begins DICTATING to the people, it no longer qualifies as "government for the people, by the people".  In Fact, it no longer qualifies as "for the people" ... or ... "by the people".  It becomes a government "For Itself, by Itself".

I guess you speak of the disturbing new tendencies of government acting against the people's intrest, like the new internet censorship laws passed on behalf of the entertainment industry? Or, government acting against the interests of the people when passing laws on behalf of banks, hedge funds, and other investors / owners of virtual stock bubble money?

I don't care what reason a person gives for opposing the slow establishment of the Dictatorship, be it political, religious, philosophical, whatever ... .opposition to such is in accordance with the original ideals of the United States of America.  The US was not created to be a Top Heavy, Powerful Central Government union.  It has reached the point that the Federal Government has made itself indispensable to the people through multiple dependence programs.  The States themselves cannot even survive without their Federal Grants.

This crap is INSANE.

I agree. But I doubt "strong states" are a solution to anything. They are weak for a reason: they aren't of sufficient body to shoulder anything. It s an illusion to think that smaller governance units will help - they will just lead to a lot of parallel bureaucracies jamming each other.

But like I said ... the Leftists here are all hunky dory for now, as the broad spectrum dependence programs are consistent with their Leftists Doctrine of "social justice".  OH yeah ... we need Universal Healthcare .. everyone has a "right" to healthcare.  Oh yeah ... employers should be forced to provide B.C. pills to all women who want them .. free of charge.  Oh yeah ... we need to raise the taxes on the rich, to "spread the wealth around" [ref B. Obama].  Yep .. they are all for it .... for now. 

Universal health care is at least indeed in the interests of the larger public. Unlike the other topics I mentioned above...

We are about here:   Self-confessed conservatives, independents, TEA partiers  are self-servers. They do not know or will not accept the fact that government and politics are about the masses.  

Politics (from Greek πολιτικός, politikos "of, for, or relating to citizens")

is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions

he word politics comes from the Greek word Πολιτικά (politika),

modeled on Aristotle's "affairs of the city", the name of his book on

governing and governments, which was rendered in English mid-15

 century as Latinized "Polettiques".^[4] Thus it became "politics" in

Middle English c. 1520

Because government is about the community, the city, state, nation – the Constitution built in rights to protect the individual. Government is about the Common, the general.  Every individual cannot get their exact desires, they must compromise some aspects of life for the community good.   This is not only applicable to government but  is also applied to families, businesses, and  any other group association.   

We as a nation rise or fall as a nation not individuals