..if you were glued to a toilet seat (or forced to believe that Thanksgiving didn’t have religous roots)?
BOULDER, Colorado – A hardware retailer Home Depot has found itself in a sticky situation, defending a lawsuit filed by a man who claims the chain’s Louisville store ignored his cries for help after he fell victim to a prank and was glued to a toilet seat.
Bob Dougherty, 57, of Nederland, said he became stuck to a bathroom toilet seat on which somebody had smeared glue on Oct. 30, 2003, and felt “tremendous panic” when he realized he was stuck.
“They left me there, going through all that stress,” Dougherty told The (Boulder) Daily Camera. “They just let me rot.”
His lawsuit, filed Friday said Dougherty was recovering from heart bypass surgery at the time and thought he was having a heart attack. A store employee who heard him calling for help informed the head clerk via radio, but the head clerk “believed it to be a hoax,” the lawsuit said.
Home Depot spokeswoman Kathryn Gallagher said she could not comment on pending litigation.
The lawsuit said after about 15 minutes, store officials called for an ambulance. Paramedics unbolted the toilet seat, and while wheeling a “frightened and humiliated” Dougherty out of the store, he passed out.
The lawsuit said the toilet seat separated from his skin, leaving abrasions.
“This is not Home Depot’s fault,” he said. “But I am blaming them for letting me hang in there and just ignoring me.”
Perhaps that’s funny…but does the guy really need to sue? Contrast that with last years story on Fox entitled “Students Free To Thank Anybody, Except God.” That’s not funny. I think I’d rather be glued to a toilet seat then heading to my district school today after hearing this:
Maryland public school students are free to thank anyone they want while learning about the 17th century celebration of Thanksgiving — as long as it’s not God.
And that is how it should be, administrators say.
It figures that my home state would be doing something like this…
But what teachers don’t mention when they describe the feast is that the Pilgrims not only thanked the Native Americans for their peaceful three-day indulgence, but repeatedly thanked God.
“We teach about Thanksgiving from a purely historical perspective, not from a religious perspective,” said Charles Ridgell, St. Mary’s County Public Schools curriculum and instruction director.
What?!?!
“Schools don’t want to do anything that would influence or act against the religious preferences of their students,” said Lissa Brown, Maryland State Teacher’s Association assistant executive director. “But the whole subject of religious toleration is a part of our history and needs to be taught.”
It’s offending my religious preferences! Why in the world is every single person in that school tolerated except those who believe in God? So much for tolerance.
Teaching about a secular Thanksgiving counters the holiday’s original premise as stated by George Washington in his Thanksgiving Day proclamation: “It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor.”
Such omissions also deny the Pilgrims’ religious fervor in the celebration of Thanksgiving, as related by Harry Hornblower, an archaeologist who spent years researching the history of the holiday.
According to the Web site Plimoth.org, dedicated to Hornblower’s research, the Pilgrims “fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean.”
You cannot just throw history aside. When religion is part of our heritage, you don’t censor it from the curriculum. The people running this system are, in reality, left-wing nutcases.
Some, like me here in Maryland, are opposing this lunacy.
Opponents of censorship worry that by omitting such religious material from lesson plans, educators are compromising their students’ education.
“School administrators need to get a backbone,” said Joel Whitehead, president and lawyer at the Rutherford Institute, a constitutional rights defense organization. “We are in real danger of throwing out cultural heritage in our country if we don’t know what Thanksgiving is really about.”
Amen to that. Get a life too. When you really take a look at the whole logic behind tolerance, it really fails the test, as seen in my column on tolerance.
“We mention they were Puritan but students usually just understand that they had a belief system and not much more than that,” said Carol Williamson, Queen Anne’s County Schools’ associate superintendent.
{snip}
“The Pilgrim Story is read in Spanish and English,” said Alfreda Adams, principal at Mills-Parole Elementary School in Anne Arundel County where 70 Hispanic students attend. “We make sure that we celebrate all cultures.”
Heh.
Whitehead sums things up well:
“Education is inevitably going to offend someone,” said Whitehead. “We need to get beyond being politically correct, or everything will be glossed over.”
You said it. We’ll see what happens this year…
Blogger Reax from last year:Virtue Blog,Steve Wilcox,Blog In the Fog, Happy Homeschooler, American Calling Card, JollyBlogger,In the Agora,Classical Child,Strong and Right, and of course, Michelle Malkin
November 3rd, 2005 at 9:02 am
That’s so DUMB that God would be considered a forgettable or expendable part of Thanksgiving, when it was so clearly the Pilgrim’s intent to thank God for His providence.
November 3rd, 2005 at 9:32 am
Oh brother, the schools might as well just forget Thanksgiving, I mean who are you thankful to? Who were the Pilgrims thankful to? Absolutely ridiculous.
As for the guy who got glued to the toilet seat, I imagine it must have been highly embarrasing but that is why you have to look before you sit!
It’s not Home Depot’s fault, they didn’t put the glue down, and come on, they’re a busy store they probably couldn’t tend to this guy right away. But it is a very funny story… 
November 3rd, 2005 at 11:00 am
My family just read a story (I forget where from) about a parent that called up the school board because her son came home and told her that Thanksgiving was when the Pilgrim’s thanked the Indians. I couldn’t believe it! This is our nations heritage, and we shouldn’t be ashamed of teaching it! What else to they teach in public schools that parents have to re-teach to their children?!?!
~Nella
November 3rd, 2005 at 12:01 pm
That’s really bad. I mean, how much of our history are they going to try to gloss over for politcal correctness? Sheesh! But anyway, the toilet seat story is funny…
November 3rd, 2005 at 2:02 pm
Well, I live in Colorado. Ya know, somehow I wasn’t surprised that the toilet incident happened in the 90%+ Democratic city of Boulder (you wouldn’t believe all the stupid things Boulder does, it’s funny in a sad kind of way).
November 3rd, 2005 at 2:33 pm
I think you would all love my Latin teacher. She throws political correctness right out of the window and says what needs to be said the way that the Bible says it. I’m surprised that no one has complained about her yet, but I really hope they don’t because she is too cool. Tim, now neither of the email addresses work. Your post didn’t get sent to either of them.
November 3rd, 2005 at 2:39 pm
Okay, I did get one at one of the email addresses but it wasn’t today’s post. And I don’t know how to unsubscribe. Maybe then I could try it all of again.
November 3rd, 2005 at 3:48 pm
Why should school age kids have to learn about the pilgrim’s Christian God if they are not themselves Christian?
November 4th, 2005 at 12:57 am
Interesting question…Can I answer with a question? :: wink::
I do not believe that the earth is flat, nor do I believe in global warming. Does that mean that there is no merit in me studying the history of astronomy (before they figured out that the earth was round), or in me understanding the arguments for global warming? My other question is this, if they are so sure that Christianity is wrong, where is the harm in them understanding the roots of the country that they live in? Whether they agree with the philosophy or not, those roots are there.
November 4th, 2005 at 2:05 pm
If people are to learn about America’s roots and what the people who started the country believe, then they should learn about Native Americans and their animism.
November 4th, 2005 at 2:49 pm
The people who started this country weren’t native Americans. Shoot, I’ve learned about their animism. But we’re talking about one-sided teaching here. We’re talking about teachers ONLY TEACHING about animism, and leaving the Christian roots out so they don’t offend the students. Now, what kind of logic is that?
November 4th, 2005 at 9:07 pm
Good point Tim. I have learned a lot about animism in school but haven’t been offended. ( Of course I copmpletely disagree) But the real point is, if a school is going to tell the story of Thanksgiving, they should tell it correctly. Who did the thanking? The Pilgrims. Who did they thank? God. This should be taught in schools and there is NO reason it should offend anyone.
November 4th, 2005 at 10:07 pm
What’s animism? You guys would really love my Latin teacher!!
November 4th, 2005 at 11:04 pm
Just cuz u weren’t offended by the teaching about the pilgrims dosn’t mean other people wouldn’t be. You have to look at the broader spectram.
Kaitlin: Animism is beliving in spirits and stuff. Pretty intersting.
November 5th, 2005 at 8:06 am
Who would want to believe in spirits and stuff? Anyway, the broader spectrum means that I have to learn about animism and why would I want to do that? It offends me…
November 5th, 2005 at 10:05 am
See? You do not want to learn about animism, and some students may not want to lern about christanity. It goes both ways.
November 5th, 2005 at 2:51 pm
Yes but people don’t teach both. It’s one or the other and we are fighting to have Christianity taught.