It is sad that this is a big deal

[Jackson]

Hooray for Roy Costner IV!

Valedictorian Rips Up Preapproved Speech, Recites Prayer Instead


That's not the case with a valedictorian's speech at Liberty High School in Liberty, South Carolina. When Roy Costner IV approached the podium, he ripped up his preapproved speech. The crowd seemed a bit stunned, not knowing what to expect next. That's when Costner began reciting a prayer, the Lord's Prayer, word for word. Many students in the audience began applauding. The teachers and faculty members seated on the stage behind Costner did not visibly react.

So why did Costner choose this time to say a prayer? The stunt was apparently in protest of the new decision made by the Pickens County School District to no longer include prayer at graduation ceremonies. As you can hear from the students' applause, many of them agreed with Costner pulling the switcheroo and standing up for what he believed was right.


Yahoo.com

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trendin...ch-recites-prayer-instead-172941933.html?vp=1

 

[theDoctorisIn]

Good for him.

Is there a larger point that you're trying to make?

 

[Quantum Windbag]

A high school valedictorian tears up his "approved" speech and talks about his parents, his faith, and recites the Lord's Prayer. I think it is a sad comment on our society that this even begins to merit attention.

It is even sadder that someone actually asked if he would be punished for it.

 

[jon_berzerk]

A high school valedictorian tears up his "approved" speech and talks about his parents, his faith, and recites the Lord's Prayer. I think it is a sad comment on our society that this even begins to merit attention.

It is even sadder that someone actually asked if he would be punished for it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJjUMMirrAs

it sounded well received by the applause

 

[JOSweetHeart]

To me, if people did not like what he had to say, they should have just gotten up and left.

God bless you and the kid always!!!

Holly

P.S. Would them people want to be punished for whatever was on their own minds? No.

 

[Oldguy]

It only merits attention because the right wing blogosphere and "press" styled it as a reaction to the school' having "banned prayer." You can Google the kids name and find about 15 PAGES of emotional outrage, nearly all of it posted within a 24 hour period and most repeating the original "story" verbatim. Once again, somebody is feeding lies to the right and they're running with it in a predictable Pavlovian response.

The only problem is that the school did NOT ban prayer at all. But, who cares about that and who would bother printing or posting a retraction? Nobody. This is a classic example of how Christian's and right leaning voters are manipulated by the right wing press.

Here's the facts:

Yes, he did do that. But, no, the school did NOT ban prayer and the revised policy does NOT apply to students, but only to the school board. Here is the policy as revised in April of this year:

Public Invocation

The board is a deliberative public body and will open its regular public meetings with a public invocation complying with Section 6-1-160 of the Code of Laws of South Carolina. The board will not begin meetings for student matters with a public invocation.

The public invocation will be non-sectarian and will not proselytize for or advance any one, or disparage any other, faith or belief. The public invocation is for the benefit of the board but no member of the board, or any other person attending the meeting, will be required to participate in the public invocation. The purposes of the public invocation are to express thankfulness for the right of self-government, solemnize the board's legislative tasks, dignify and confirm the seriousness of board meetings, encourage respect and appreciation for all board members, seek to unite and not divide the board, and contribute to the wisdom and soundness of decisions by the board.

The public invocation will be offered on a voluntary basis by a member of the board, rotating from meeting to meeting, in alphabetical order, or other objective method of rotation, among all members of the board. A board member may offer a moment of silence for silent prayer or reflection in addition to or in lieu of the public invocation.

The board member offering the public invocation will be guided by the invocations offered by the chaplains of the South Carolina Senate and House of Representatives, conformed to the board. Six public invocations by the Chaplain of the South Carolina Senate are attached as guidance for implementation of this policy.

PL_frm


That policy revision is a word for word repeating of the state law governing such things (referenced as Section 6-1-160) which was passed by the solidly Republican legislature and signed into law by Mark Sanford (R) in 2007, before he ran off to Argentina with his mistress. The new policy is not a "ban" of prayer, nor is it an assault on God or Christianity or anything else. It's just a new policy in line with state law and the US Constitution.


What gives this kind of crap such circulation? That's easy...most people don't read the whole article. In fact, most simply see the headline and take off. Even this sentence of mine will only be seen by roughly 10% of you who started reading this post. The rest have long since dropped out.

 

[Oldguy]

See? Here's the lie repeated again right here on these boards:

http://www.usmessageboard.com/current-events/297410-hooray-for-roy-costner-iv.html

 

[Oldguy]

If you're really interested in the facts, see my post #4 in this thread:

http://www.usmessageboard.com/curre...-sad-that-this-is-a-big-deal.html#post7344201

 

[PratchettFan]

It only merits attention because the right wing blogosphere and "press" styled it as a reaction to the school' having "banned prayer." You can Google the kids name and find about 15 PAGES of emotional outrage, nearly all of it posted within a 24 hour period and most repeating the original "story" verbatim. Once again, somebody is feeding lies to the right and they're running with it in a predictable Pavlovian response.

The only problem is that the school did NOT ban prayer at all. But, who cares about that and who would bother printing or posting a retraction? Nobody. This is a classic example of how Christian's and right leaning voters are manipulated by the right wing press.

Here's the facts:

Yes, he did do that. But, no, the school did NOT ban prayer and the revised policy does NOT apply to students, but only to the school board. Here is the policy as revised in April of this year:

Public Invocation

The board is a deliberative public body and will open its regular public meetings with a public invocation complying with Section 6-1-160 of the Code of Laws of South Carolina. The board will not begin meetings for student matters with a public invocation.

The public invocation will be non-sectarian and will not proselytize for or advance any one, or disparage any other, faith or belief. The public invocation is for the benefit of the board but no member of the board, or any other person attending the meeting, will be required to participate in the public invocation. The purposes of the public invocation are to express thankfulness for the right of self-government, solemnize the board's legislative tasks, dignify and confirm the seriousness of board meetings, encourage respect and appreciation for all board members, seek to unite and not divide the board, and contribute to the wisdom and soundness of decisions by the board.

The public invocation will be offered on a voluntary basis by a member of the board, rotating from meeting to meeting, in alphabetical order, or other objective method of rotation, among all members of the board. A board member may offer a moment of silence for silent prayer or reflection in addition to or in lieu of the public invocation.

The board member offering the public invocation will be guided by the invocations offered by the chaplains of the South Carolina Senate and House of Representatives, conformed to the board. Six public invocations by the Chaplain of the South Carolina Senate are attached as guidance for implementation of this policy.

PL_frm


That policy revision is a word for word repeating of the state law governing such things (referenced as Section 6-1-160) which was passed by the solidly Republican legislature and signed into law by Mark Sanford (R) in 2007, before he ran off to Argentina with his mistress. The new policy is not a "ban" of prayer, nor is it an assault on God or Christianity or anything else. It's just a new policy in line with state law and the US Constitution.


What gives this kind of crap such circulation? That's easy...most people don't read the whole article. In fact, most simply see the headline and take off. Even this sentence of mine will only be seen by roughly 10% of you who started reading this post. The rest have long since dropped out.

"This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

 

[Oldguy]

"This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

Yep. And, that seems to be the state of right wing politics these days. Worse, the targets of such a campaign of lies and distortions are WILLING participants in their own brainwashing. As evidence of that, I point to the huge number of threads which continue right on even AFTER the facts have been revealed. They simply don't care about the truth so long as the lie applies to Obama or "libtards."

 

[blastoff]

Good for him.

And sort of surprised some PC jughead administrator didn't try to silence him, causing a small man-caused graduation disaster.

 

[whitehall]

The kid did a courageous thing but the teachers except for one woman seemed embarrassed. Too bad we are living with the legacy of the former KKK member that FDR appointed to the supreme court who rewrote the 1st Amendment because he hated Catholics.

 

[Mad Scientist]

I want to thank all the Vets for Americas current state. We couldn't have done it without you.

 

[KevinWestern]

I want to thank all the Vets for Americas current state. We couldn't have done it without you.

Not only is this comment disrespectful, it also doesn't make any sense. You should revise, Mr. commie.

.

 

[Connery]

It was the student's right and he exercised that right.

I congratulate him for his commitment to scholarly endeavors and graduating.

 

[KevinWestern]

"This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

Yep. And, that seems to be the state of right wing politics these days. Worse, the targets of such a campaign of lies and distortions are WILLING participants in their own brainwashing. As evidence of that, I point to the huge number of threads which continue right on even AFTER the facts have been revealed. They simply don't care about the truth so long as the lie applies to Obama or "libtards."

Eh, in 2009 you might have had a point there, but nowadays I think there’s plenty of legitimate factual information the conservative camp has to criticize Obama with. In fact, I think everyone should be criticizing Obama at this point.

I was upset at Fast and Furious and Benghazi, but sort of moved on. Obama’s drone usage also made me dislike him (especially given that he won a Peace Prize for ?). But when the IRS scandal hit, and the spying on AP reporters, and Fox reporters, and the collecting of millions of phone records, and now internet records (breaking as of today), I have to say that the picture the right has been painting Obama as (for the past 5 years) is shaping up to be pretty darn accurate.

Sorry for the elementary choice of words, but he sucks, lol. He has been worse than Bush thus far.

When an extremely left wing paper like the NY Times is stating that “Obama has lost all credibility at this point”, I think it’s pretty obvious that there’s no fact spinning going on anymore.

.

 

[Oldguy]

"This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

Yep. And, that seems to be the state of right wing politics these days. Worse, the targets of such a campaign of lies and distortions are WILLING participants in their own brainwashing. As evidence of that, I point to the huge number of threads which continue right on even AFTER the facts have been revealed. They simply don't care about the truth so long as the lie applies to Obama or "libtards."

Eh, in 2009 you might have had a point there, but nowadays I think there’s plenty of legitimate factual information the conservative camp has to criticize Obama with. In fact, I think everyone should be criticizing Obama at this point.

I was upset at Fast and Furious and Benghazi, but sort of moved on. Obama’s drone usage also made me dislike him (especially given that he won a Peace Prize for ?). But when the IRS scandal hit, and the spying on AP reporters, and Fox reporters, and the collecting of millions of phone records, and now internet records (breaking as of today), I have to say that the picture the right has been painting Obama as (for the past 5 years) is shaping up to be pretty darn accurate.

Sorry for the elementary choice of words, but he sucks, lol. He has been worse than Bush thus far.

When a very left wing paper like the NY Times is stating that “Obama has lost all credibility at this point”, I think it’s pretty obvious that there’s no fact spinning going on anymore.

.

Do some research of the facts behind those very stories you mentioned and you'll see the propaganda machine still operating at full speed. There's a lot there, but not nearly so much as the right wing spin machine would have you believe.

Don't be a chump. Check out the facts.

 

[KevinWestern]

Yep. And, that seems to be the state of right wing politics these days. Worse, the targets of such a campaign of lies and distortions are WILLING participants in their own brainwashing. As evidence of that, I point to the huge number of threads which continue right on even AFTER the facts have been revealed. They simply don't care about the truth so long as the lie applies to Obama or "libtards."

Eh, in 2009 you might have had a point there, but nowadays I think there’s plenty of legitimate factual information the conservative camp has to criticize Obama with. In fact, I think everyone should be criticizing Obama at this point.

I was upset at Fast and Furious and Benghazi, but sort of moved on. Obama’s drone usage also made me dislike him (especially given that he won a Peace Prize for ?). But when the IRS scandal hit, and the spying on AP reporters, and Fox reporters, and the collecting of millions of phone records, and now internet records (breaking as of today), I have to say that the picture the right has been painting Obama as (for the past 5 years) is shaping up to be pretty darn accurate.

Sorry for the elementary choice of words, but he sucks, lol. He has been worse than Bush thus far.

When a very left wing paper like the NY Times is stating that “Obama has lost all credibility at this point”, I think it’s pretty obvious that there’s no fact spinning going on anymore.

.

Do some research of the facts behind those very stories you mentioned and you'll see the propaganda machine still operating at full speed. There's a lot there, but not nearly so much as the right wing spin machine would have you believe.

Don't be a chump. Check out the facts.

I've done plenty of research.

Would you care to cite some specific examples?

Of course, there will be an exaggeration of the facts by right wing outlets (this happens everyday on both sides), but the fact is there's just too much actual wrongdoing at this point to attribute Obama's poor Presidency to "spin". You said it best yourself - "there is a lot there".

And I agree, there is (quite) a lot there.


.

 

[TruthSeeker56]

Yep. And, that seems to be the state of right wing politics these days. Worse, the targets of such a campaign of lies and distortions are WILLING participants in their own brainwashing. As evidence of that, I point to the huge number of threads which continue right on even AFTER the facts have been revealed. They simply don't care about the truth so long as the lie applies to Obama or "libtards."

Eh, in 2009 you might have had a point there, but nowadays I think there’s plenty of legitimate factual information the conservative camp has to criticize Obama with. In fact, I think everyone should be criticizing Obama at this point.

I was upset at Fast and Furious and Benghazi, but sort of moved on. Obama’s drone usage also made me dislike him (especially given that he won a Peace Prize for ?). But when the IRS scandal hit, and the spying on AP reporters, and Fox reporters, and the collecting of millions of phone records, and now internet records (breaking as of today), I have to say that the picture the right has been painting Obama as (for the past 5 years) is shaping up to be pretty darn accurate.

Sorry for the elementary choice of words, but he sucks, lol. He has been worse than Bush thus far.

When a very left wing paper like the NY Times is stating that “Obama has lost all credibility at this point”, I think it’s pretty obvious that there’s no fact spinning going on anymore.

.

Do some research of the facts behind those very stories you mentioned and you'll see the propaganda machine still operating at full speed. There's a lot there, but not nearly so much as the right wing spin machine would have you believe.

Don't be a chump. Check out the facts.

Chump? You're the chump.......a waterboy for the Obamanistas.

If Obama were Bush, you would be in here screaming for his impeachment or resignation.

Hypocrite Obama chimp. PERFECT moniker for you.

 

[Katzndogz]

I want to thank all the Vets for Americas current state. We couldn't have done it without you.

Not only is this comment disrespectful, it also doesn't make any sense. You should revise, Mr. commie.

.

Why is it disrespectful? Do you think that Vets didn't fight for obamamerica and its unfair to blame them? That's the only way it makes sense.