Emotions have been high in the past week at work. I think it’s because of Reagans’ death, the new release of the latest HP movie, and the pledge case. We all (usually 8 of us) share one medium sized work area in which we share work spaces and computers, and we cycle in and out of the area as need dictates.
I usually don’t get too involved in the discussions at work, but I do listen in, if not partake. I’ve heard such gems as “I think she’s an atheist because her mother was mean to her as a child”, and the deep thought that “4 million abortions have been performed in the US. That is the root cause of our moral decay. Just look at England. The Muslims are breeding like rabbits there!” Believe it or not, but I am usually able to let comments like these slide, do my job, and go home.
This one really annoyed me though. The new HP movie was mentioned and Girl Genius, Gigi for short, piped up “We don’t do Harry Potter. I heard the author (Gigi doesn’t know the author’s name) on a radio interview where she said whe was a Wiccan and she was using her books to introduce children to the Wiccan religion.”
I guess I’ve been at the SDMB too long because I said loudly “I’m calling bullshit on that!”
Gigi starts babbling something along the lines of “Well, that what I heard.”
I asked her “Where did you hear that- what station?”
and “When did you hear that?”
and “Who was the interviewer?”
and “If she really said that, don’t you thing that would have been pretty much a TOP news story on say, CNN, for a couple of days with some pretty intense discussion and interviews to follow for a few weeks?”
Of course, her answers were all various permutations of “Ummm, I don’t know.”
I told her I was going to pull up some interviews with J.K. Rowling addressing the issue, and if she refused to read the salient points I would read them out loud to her.
I pulled an interview with Larry King and one on BBC (oh look them up yourself), and some third one from somewhereorother and had to read them out loud because she refused to look at the computer screen. At least the six other poeple who are afraid of the printed word (except for the big book, of course) got to hear what Rowling had to say including a little gem where someone at a book signing told Rowling that they had practised the spells and Rowling said (paraphrasing) “Don’t bother, I made them up and they don’t work”.
The end of this exercise had some folks saying “Well, I believe in God and the bible and heaven and hell!” I said that was fine but it didn’t have crap-all to do with Rowling, Harry Potter and Wiccanism.
Gigi still insists she heard what she heard. I asked her if she was certain it was Rowling on the radio or someone on the Christian Braodcasting network repeating some information as Rowling clearly denies the charge. When I last saw her she was trying to integrate the conflicting information somehow. I told her she can believe what she wants to believe about the HP books and movies, but she should reconsider spreading the rumor that Rowling is a Wiccan who is actively trying to convert innocent children, because it is simply not true.
