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Shrider column: Poster plan a fair compromise
| Friday, Nov 9 2007 9:15 PM
Last Updated: Friday, Nov 9 2007 10:03 PM
It's over. After months of controversy and a level of media coverage generally reserved for celebrity wife-murderers, the great poster debate of 2007 is finally over.
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Kern High School District trustees this week brought an end to the argument by voting to display posters that include our national motto, "In God We Trust," in every district classroom.
The locally designed poster, though quite different from the one originally proposed by trustee Chad Vegas, features the national motto along with the U.S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and America's original motto, "E Pluribus Unum."
The approved poster is an elegant and fair compromise to Vegas' earlier proposal that the poster feature the national motto only. The compromise poster hits the target its supporters were shooting for -- civic education and patriotism -- and is sure to leave many students wondering what all the fuss was about.
Still, the compromise failed to appease some, including board President Bob Hampton, who was the only trustee to vote against the poster and, according to news reports, said "the spiritual side of a student belongs in the home and in the church -- not the school."
Fine. No official prayers, no hymns in school. We get it.
But, really, how does the placement of our national motto in public schools qualify as news? What is it that makes the motto more "spiritual" than some of the other historical documents already in place?
Our national motto is surely no more spiritual than the assertion in the Declaration of Independence that "We are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights," yet naysayers in this debate inexplicably give that document and others with similar phrases a free pass.
Perhaps the term "Creator," even with a capital "C," is just vague enough to suit delicate sensibilities. More likely the suggestion to hang the original posters would have been more readily accepted had it been made by anyone other than a pastor.
Media speculation as to Vegas' real intentions and how the trustees might ultimately vote was rampant in the weeks leading up to Monday night's meeting. In the end, though, there was no good reason not to approve the poster.
"I knew we weren't going to lose this because it's an eminently reasonable proposal," Vegas said. "Students will be reminded of the historical foundations of their government -- that's it."
The motto debate had some folks so fired up, they didn't even seem to notice when, at the Oct. 1 meeting where Vegas first made his poster proposal, the board also granted a temporary waiver of the no-practice-on-Sundays policy to the Stockdale High School mock trial team. The exception gives the team an extra six practice hours per month that may be used on Saturdays or Sundays, said trustee Bryan Batey, who wrote the waiver.
"A parent requested and was granted a limited exception to the rule in order to accommodate their volunteer coaches," Batey said. "What can I say, I'm a pushover for kids who want to study and do a good thing."
It was the exception the team was hoping for last year, after the trustees voted to keep Sunday as a day of rest, a decision that caused a flap similar to the poster controversy. Vegas, who supported the no-practice-on-Sunday policy last year, voted last month to approve the waiver.
Critics of Vegas dismiss the board's decision to display the posters as part of Vegas's ultimate plan to shove Christianity down the throats of our unsuspecting students. If that's true, it's not obvious in his recent waiver vote or in the content of the patriotic poster he approved. It's a hysterical accusation that just doesn't hold up.
The poster serves as a symbolic glimpse of our country's precious documents and high ideals. It's a symbol that will hang in every classroom in the Kern High School District.
It's a done deal, done right.
Marylee Shrider's column appears Saturdays. Reach her at 395-7474 or mshrider@bakersfield.com.