Flags of Our Fathers

Last night Dave and I went to see Flags of Our Fathers. I usually don't go see war movies but this was a special occasion because it was filmed on the beaches of Iceland while we were there. They used a bunch of the military guys as extras and we wanted to see if we could catch a glimpse of any of our friends. Well, most of the war scenes had a lot of action with lots of sand flying. We saw a quick glimpse of a pilot friend and heard the voice of one of Jake's friend's dad but best of all our friend Jeremy had such a large part the he made the credits!!! Pretty cool. I think he should win an Oscar for best extra.

Zion

Thanks to everyone who made the retreat this past weekend a success! Click here to view some of the pictures from this wonderful time together.

Do you know your rights?

I was reading an article today that I think most people will find interesting. It seems as if the (federal) courts have ruled that once your child crosses the threshold of a public school you have no control over what they learn or the things they are exposed to. I had no idea! I can't believe that if I choose to use the public education system that I, being the public, have no control over what my kids are learning. This is huge! Here are a couple of quotes from the article. To read the complete article click here.

The Ninth Circuit held:

"Although the parents are legitimately concerned with the subject of sexuality, there is no constitutional reason to distinguish that concern from any of the countless moral, religious, or philosophical objections that parents might have to other decisions of the School District—whether those objections regard information concerning guns, violence, the military, gay marriage, racial equality, slavery, the dissection of animals, or the teaching of scientifically-validated theories of the origins of life. Schools cannot be expected to accommodate the personal, moral or religious concerns of every parent. Such an obligation would not only contravene the educational mission of the public schools, but also would be impossible to satisfy.

The court went on to make it entirely explicit that once children are left at the public school’s front door, all parental control over the child’s education ceases."


"The First Circuit Court of Appeals made a similar outlandish ruling in Brown v. Hot, Sexy and Safer Productions, Inc. (1995). This case involved a mandatory, school-wide assembly that contained offensive and suggestive sexual material. The First Circuit said that while parents have the right to choose alternative forms of schooling, they have no constitutional right to direct their child’s education inside the public school."

This is crazy! When you send your kids to public school do you have to sign a waiver giving all rights over to the government? Seriously? Is there a sign that says, "Once your children walk through these doors they are no longer yours for the next 7 hours, don't ask questions it's the law?" Why aren't there people protesting in the streets? I just don't get it.