Editorial
High Life Thursday, November 29, 2001
Thou Shalt not intermingle church and state
New law violates Consti
tution by allowing class
rooms to display the Ten
Commandments
By Regina Sechter and Efiia Obeng
Staff Writer and Reporter
Imagine walking into your first pe
riod class on August 21® and the first
thing that catdies your qc is a large
display ofthe Tai Commandmaits.
On July26,2001 the Nath Carolina
Senate passed a law allowing the Ten
Commandments to be posted in pub
lic schools. This law is a direct viola
tion of our first amendmait rights re
garding freedan of religion and sepa
ration of church and state.
Consider Grimsley- a diverse cam
pus and a melting pot fa- multiple cul
tures and religions. Our campus em
bodies Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hin
dus, Atheists, Jdiovah’s Witnesses,
and others. Sane believe in moiothe-
ian and othos woship multiple gods.
It is unfeir fa our govanment to place
oie ideology over anotha. By pass
ing this law, our government places
Christianity and Judaism above other
religiois and belittles other faiths.
Our govemmoit recognizes the fkf
that posting this religious document
would cause disconfort, coitroversy,
and could also be considaed disre-
qjectfiil. Because of this conflict the
govanment is allowing the posting of
the Ten Commandments oily aloig
with rther specified historical docu
ments, thus making each document
partofa larga-exhibitkxi in every dass-
roon.
The govanment’s sole purpose fa
inccrpaating these otha documents
is strictly to make this a politically ca-
rectdisplay. Thistacticiscnlyaloop-
hole designed to avoid the matta of
separation of diurdi and state. The
cnly reason the government is doing
this is to get around the logistics of
the matta and to hqjefiilly appease
those who find the Judeo-Christian
doctrine offoisive.
These otha histaical documents
to be di^layed along side the com
mandments include the Justinian
Codes, the Mecklenburg Declaratioi
of Independence, and the Magna
Carta, all of which have no religious
orientation. As a matta of fact, the
MecJdenbin^ Declaraticm may be a
hoax. The oiginal copy of this docu
ment has yet to be discovaed
Howeva, having such a display is
totally c^cnal and is being left up to
the schcxjls’ administrators. Mrs.
Teague has decided to leave the deci-
sicn n) to Grimsley’s leadership team,
althcxjgh the majority of people af
fected by sudi a display are stixlents.
Th^ have no voice in such a crucial
and controversial decisicxi.
Why should we be faced to con-
ffait our religious beliefs at school?
Though schools wae originally reli-
gicxjsly based th^ now serve as in
stitutes to learn scioice, math, and his
tory- education on which faith is su-
peria. Religious classes are cptioial
in most school systems. If a student
wants to fixms on religion he or she
should take a religious class a do it
privately, as not to offend others.
Since school ^stons offer such
cations, thae is no point in hanging
the Ten Commandments. Thae is ab
solutely nothing to be gained by such
a display. This action would furtha
segregate our school. During the
1960s, many pecple struggled to inte
grate our schools. Howeva, such an
action would maely undo all of their
wak fy once again bringing personal
beliefs into the school systan. The
cnly diffaoice between now and thoi
is that in the 1960s it was beliefs about
race. Now, it ccncems the beliefs of
various religions.
Think about the student who is
Hindu a Muslim and feels ashamed
that he a she does not believe in some-
fliing that, ty hanging the ccmmand-
ments, is deemed ccrrecL
We fought to protect our basic
rights in the past. Wediouldnot
have to do so again.
Nationalistic media produces prejudiced news coverage
The media overlooks the
“other side” ofthe story in
an effort to instill patrio
tism.
By Ciani Smith
Staff Writer
When you only get one side of
the story and risk being labeled
unpatriotic and ungrateful if you
want to examine a different point
of view, it is extremely difficult to
take an informed stand on an is
sue.
The question now is where
does the mainstream media (CNN,
MSNBC, Fox News, etc.) fit in to
all of this? They are the reporters
and interpreters of world events
for the public. Biased and ratings-
hungry, these are the places
where, like it or not, many people
get their news.
Before Sqjtember 11their bias
was not so obvious because most
Americans simply did not care
about real news events.
Just last summa, we clung to
every meaningless word of Gary
Condit’s intaview with Connie
Chung. But why didn’t we get an
in depth report about other things
that were happening in the world?
What could make a story abdut a
philandaing politician and a miss
ing woman more important than
everything else that was happen
ing? The answa: A greedy media
and a supaficial populace.
But now, we are learning our
lesson and paying mae collective
attention to world affairs. For the
first time, most Amaicans are edu
cated and becoming intaested in
politics and are realizing that they
are actually in a position to do
something for someone else.
Amaicans of this generation are
finally, painfully aware of the fact
that what happens “ova thae” af
fects them, too.
1 think that this budding intel-
lectualism and involvement needs
to be encouraged and further de
veloped. This is how the media
should play its role, as an unbi
ased, non-corporate source for in
formation and analysis of what is
happening in our world today.
Perhaps I am just an idealist, but it
is possible. Look at National Pub
lic Radio.
NPR’s programming is aeative,
objective, and, most importantly,
informative. They have the ability
to work outside of the box be
cause they do not rely solely on
corporations for financial support.
This is the only way for a truly
neutral news organization to exist.
Because they do not have to an
swer to the corporations or the
government, they have the free
dom, without fear of losing the all-
important money, to report the
facts. The facts are precisely what
we need right now as we fight a
war against something as intan
gible as terrorism, in a country that
we don’t understand, far removed
from our daily lives.
Sadly, NPR’s model of even re
porting and avoidance of sensa
tionalism is definitely the excep
tion, not the rule.
Starting with Bush’s address to
a Joint Session of Congress, the
mainstream media has jumped on
the pro-Bush, pro-war bandwagon
and has not let go. This has led
the government to take additional
liberties such as the repression of
the infamous Osama bin Laden
propaganda videos. Maybe they
do have seaet messages in them,
but I find it hard to believe that a
group with the technology and or
ganization to hijack four planes
would use those videos as a maja
method of communication. Yes, I
do agree that national security
must be protected, but it is also
the media’s job to inform the
people of what the govamnent is
doing ovaseas, because we can
not see for ourselves.
Personally, I want to know what
our government is doing in Af
ghanistan and elsewhere. If 1 wake
Peeples graphic
up a decade or two from now, and
discover that there has been a
huge wrong done to some people,
1 don’t want to have been one of
the ones who ignaed it. 1 don’t
want to have their blood on my
conscience.
Perhaps it is because growing
up in the information age has
spoiled me, but I believe that I
have a right to be informed.