RIP Vashti McCollum

This is the hero who died last week at 93. Back in 1948, she went to the Supreme Court to force her children's school district to stop forcing its students to take classes on their particular religion. The vote was 8-1 in her favor. What would the vote be today? Don't ask. These classes were, of course, strictly(cough) neutral (cough). Of course, the Protestants got to take their classes on school property, while Jews and Catholics had to go to buildings off campus. (Society has gotten more complex since then, I shudder to think where they would ship the Muslims off to today.) The Champaign Illinois School District justified this on the grounds that since they were promoting all religions (cough) it was acceptible. Mc'Collum had the gall to say that athiests and agnostics were, under the law, equal in dignity to Christians, Jews, and the rest. Therefore, since the country was founded on freedom of, and yes, even freedom from, religion, it was better not to say anything about religion in schools at all.

There are amusing moments in the NYT obituary. During the first trial, Mrs. Mc'Collum's father elicited gasps from the entire courtroom when he said he didn't believe in God. As a lapse Diest, I have no idea what it feels like to be shocked, shocked!, by someones nonbelief. Maybe I hang out with the beautiful people too much.

There are also outrages. Mc'Collums house was vandalized. Her children were bullied. They all received death threats. Courtesy of Good Christian types, who realize that God is very sensitive and feels really bad unless everybody is praying to him in a precisely correct manner. While he's desparing over being stood up by an uppity mortal, he's totally incapible of taking care of himself. He won't be okay again until we give him a few days with some scented candles, six pints of ice cream, and his trusty Carol King cd's. That leaves it up to the true believers to defend his honor, by any means neccessary.

These are the mental ancestors of today's right wing. Those who claim to be unaffected by political correctness. Those who claim to understand better than us filthy libs how much more enlightened Western society is than the Middle East. Since we are so much more enlightened and free than the Muslims, we must force all Americans to believe in the same things so that we may have the strength to crush the infidel.

Come back Vashti. We need you.