No, Cook county has Chicago and a ton of suburbs in it, too.
I’ve seen surveys showing atheists are less trusted than Muslims- in fact I started a GD thread about one such survey in 2006. “Most hated,” I couldn’t say.
Is the the school prayer the same as the moment of silence law?
Correct as usual QTM. All of the city falls within Cook county, but then no small amount of towns and people (and revenue) also fall within Cook county. One of the reasons that when I moved last year it was to where I did is because we didn’t want to shoulder that insane sales tax of 11% (not to mention the food and beverage tax, and gas tax, and cigarette tax and…) to keep sending that money into the city.
No, Cook County includes a whole bunch of suburbs, including my own, unfortunatly.
I’m not a big fan of Rob Sherman, but it’s ridiculous for her to say such things to him. Many of the politicians in Chicago seem to have little respect or concern for the political process, and it looks like she is one of them. Makes me sick.
So I guess that silly notion of school being a place for children to learn about many things, to challenge their own thinking and broaden their outlook on life is no longer accepted?
Hasn’t been for a while, if ever. School is for indoctrination. Only the lucky ones come out able to form their own opinions.
Muslims and gays.
I find something really fearful, even panicky about that kind of thinking. She doesn’t appear to have much faith in her own faith.
To be fair, Christianity is pretty wacky. I am sure it is tough to have much faith in it.
Answer truthfully-if she had said the same thing in the same forum about Muslims instead of atheists, what kind and level of reportage would there have been, and what would the public reaction be?
Illinois Compiled Statutes Annotated
Chapter 105. Schools
Common Schools
Act 20. Silent Reflection Act
20/0.01. Short title
§ 0.01. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act.
20/1. Period of silence
§ 1. In each public school classroom the teacher in charge shall observe a brief period of silence with the participation of all the pupils therein assembled at the opening of every school day. This period shall not be conducted as a religious exercise but shall be an opportunity for silent prayer or for silent reflection on the anticipated activities of the day.
Considerably more – not because Muslims are hated, not because they are loved, not because they are tolerated, but because they are feared.
Nobody’s really much afraid of atheists.
Gotta do somethin’ about that . . .
I did not know that is what they called it. Thanks.
What is the a problem with this law?
Anecdotally, I had a conversation with a fairly conservative friend recently who said that all other things being equal, she’d never vote for an atheist, but would vote for a Muslim or a Satanist, because she puts more trust in people who “at least believe in something”.
It’s required time out of learning to pray.
Search Pew Research Group
These are the numbers I was given. I searched the Pew site and found PDF documents corroborating them:
First, the most unpopular religious or ethnic group.
Here’s a list of minority groups and the percentage of respondents who
had either a “mostly” or a “very unfavorable opinion” of said group.
From the bottom up:
Blacks 8%;
Jews 10%;
Asians 12%;
Hispanics 13%;
Catholics 14%;
Evangelical Christians 17%;
Muslims 31%;
and at the top of the list—Atheists 50%.
Second, the percentage polled “unwilling” to vote for “well-qualified”
candidate of their party who belongs to a certain minority group.
Again from the bottom of the list up:
Catholic 5%;
Black 6 %;
Jewish 10%;
Woman 12 %;
Evangelical Christian 15%;
Homosexual 37%;
Muslim 38%;
Atheist 50%.
Did you let her know that Satanists are atheists?
Suggested answer for future reference:
“But I do believe in something. I believe you’re wrong.”
So are morning announcements, afternoon announcements, pep rallies, and assemblies. Edit - These are not time to pray, but time out of learning.
I have been substituting in three districts in Illinois. The moment of silence is 10 seconds long. In all these schools there was already time set aside for the announcements and this just takes up a small part of that of that time. One of the schools wastes even more time by playing a song of the students’ choice over the credits of the morning announcements.
Also, it does not have to be used to pray. The students can use it for any silent activity. I have yet to see any student that appeared to be praying during the moment of silence. Most of the students use the time to get their books and notes ready for class since the moment of silence is the first thing that happens.