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Writing about what I have been reading and encountering in the media. |
WELCOME TO MY BLOG! I comment on things I am reading, thinking about, encountering in media, and spiritual issues. I hope you will find something interesting. PS. I love feedback... |
A notice on the Google tabloid indicates that a school administrator in Wisconsin has forbidden first graders from singing "Rainbowland" recorded by Dolly Parton and her goddaughter, Mily Cyrus.* It is a song about inclusion of people who are different using the rainbow as a symbol. I find this administrative decision offensive for two main reasons: children love rainbows and have loved rainbows for decades at least. Children who have been abused are more likely to draw rainbows than those who have not. Unless they have been told a rainbow is specifically about people with different sexual orientations, they don't know this. Even if they have been told, only those who are born with some sort of different sexuality that they are experiencing have any basis in experience to understand what it is about. Rainbows are about hope. Anyone who has been exposed to the Old Testament of the Christian Bible knows the story of God sending a rainbow to show Noah that he intends to never wipe out all people again. It is presented as a covenant between God and man that the vengefulness of God will not be released upon mankind ever again. Why in the world would a school want to take this away from children? I suspect they never thought about God's promise to Noah and to all of humanity. There are children's books about rainbows representing hope for humanity to get along with each other that long predate any national dialogue about sexual identity or orientation. This literature is suddenly anathema to people who claim to be Christain. I wish they would read the story of Noah and re-think this decision. * LGBTQ Wisconsin School Bans Miley, Dolly Duet From Class Concert Parents say the decision was made because the song encourages LGBTQ acceptance and references rainbows. By Harm Venhuizen • Published March 27, 2023 • Updated 5 hours ago Matt Sayles/Invision/AP, File FILE – Dolly Parton, left, and Miley Cyrus at the 61st annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on Feb. 10, 2019. Administrators at a Wisconsin elementary school stopped a first-grade class from performing a Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton duet promoting LGBTQ acceptance because the song "could be perceived as controversial." Students at Heyer Elementary School in Waukesha had prepared a rendition of “Rainbowland" for their spring concert, but school officials struck the song from the lineup last week. Parents in the district say the decision was made because the song encourages LGBTQ acceptance and references rainbows. Superintendent James Sebert, who did not immediately return a call on Monday, confirmed to Fox6 that administrators had removed “Rainbowland” from the first-grade concert because it might not be “appropriate for the age and maturity level of the students." He also cited a school board policy against raising controversial issues in classrooms. Sebert has previously prohibited rainbows and pride flags from being displayed in Waukesha classrooms and suspended the school district’s equity and diversity work in 2021. “Let's all dig down deep inside, brush the judgment and fear aside,” the song from Cyrus' 2017 album “Younger Now” goes. "Living in a Rainbowland, where you and I go hand in hand. Oh, I’d be lying if I said this was fine, all the hurt and the hate going on here.” First-grade teacher Melissa Tempel said she chose the song because its message seemed universal and sweet. The class concert's theme was “The World” and included other songs such as “Here Comes the Sun," by The Beatles and “What a Wonderful World,” by Louis Armstrong. "My students were just devastated. They really liked this song and we had already begun singing it,” Tempel said Monday |