In Honor of National Prayer Day...

I'm not sure why it took me so long to find this article, but still, I found it extremely interesting.

There was a lengthy argument in the comment section saying that the girl in question lost her right to constitutionally express herself because when she witnessed about Jesus she witnessed to a captive audience. The debater said that had she said only that Jesus had helped her through school, she would be within her rights to sue, but since she witnessed to a crowd that had no choice but to listen, she was violating their rights.

If that is the case, I have had my rights violated in several boring classes during the school year. My rights were violated during an unusually long week devoted to Ralph Waldo Emerson. My rights were violated while I listened in a state of captivity to people in the back of the room bad-mouth Martin Luther King in my Psychology/Sociology class. My rights have been violated during several lengthy, droning speeches given out at various award ceremonies.

Free speech is free speech. Period. Senator Daniel Patrick was quoted saying "you are entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts." Unless someone is saying in public that humans don't need oxygen, or that the ground is made of cheese, or some other ludicrous statement that can not be logically debunked, then they are entitled to say it. God's existence can not be scientifically proven or disproven, and until either event occurs, the young lady in question was entitled to say whatever she felt.

I applaud her. I would like to say that in her situation, I would go a step further and not send out the apology email. But with-holding a high school diploma...that's heavy. That's four years of hard work, four years of top grades, thrown out the door. But at least she sued. And as soon as I can find a followup story, I'll tell you if she won.

Oh. And I'd like reparation for twelve years of violated rights, please.