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SCHOOLS
040695Parents don't need morality censors
by JOHN C. O'BRIDEN
(The following was sent to Schools Superintendent Bruce L. Dennis.)
I have just received a copy of your memorandum ordering a moratorium on "Magic" game activities in Bedford Central schools.
I am disappointed in your inability or unwillingness to stand up to a very small group that wishes to screen the "morality" of a game that my children participate in before and after school. My wife and I are quite capable of determining the appropriateness of our children's activities without the assistance of self-appointed censors.
You express in your memorandum the hope that your handling of this matter will provide itan important opportunity for our children to observe how adults process difficult issues in a democratic society." I hope not.
What you have demonstrated is that a little tail can wag a big dog. This is not democracy. Apparently, all it took was four or five parents conjuring up absurd images of demonic cults and children trembling in fear and vomiting as a result of seeing "Magic" cards. Did their heads spin around too?
Where is the common sense here? If the image of a demon provokes such a visceral response in a child, you would think that the professional educator or the psychologist present might point out that it is the child's perception, not the cardboard and ink, that causes the reaction.
Perhaps the children have picked up at home that these cards are inherently evil and have real and dangerous powers. Without further speculation as to why some children react the way they do, I can only say that since my children have not believed in supernatural creatures since they were four years old - when I chased the last of them out from under their bed - I cannot conceive of my kids interpreting the cards for more than what they are: fictional characters and symbols with make-believe powers and abilities.
Unfortunately, you were quickly outflanked and outwitted into imposing a 30-day moratorinin while several psychologists investigate a few "questionable" cards. What can possibly be the outcome of such an investigation?
Vortex of demon worship
Might you find that my nine-year-old girt is indeed getting sucked into a vortex of demon worship without our knowledge? Thanks, but "no thanks " for the" help. Again, I think we are capabable of making the call on that one.
To lift the moratorium, you have put yourself in the unfortunate and absurd position of requiring scientific proof that these playing cards are certifiably harmless to every conceivable imagination.
will be difficult for a psychologist to say with absolute certainty somehow, somewhere some impressionable youth not be bothered by a playing card in a game he never plays.
What measures can we take to insure that those "vulnerable" to witches and their symbols are properly insulated from them? A district-wide ban on Halloween? I guess The Wizard of Oz is out for this year's school play.
What is the point of picking out a few cards out of the hundreds that the lads play with and investigating their "questionable" properties? Is there any difference between that and finding an objectionable word or phrase or concept in a great work of literature and calling for its banishment?
I don't think so. That's why we have the First Amendment and we live in a society based on separation of church and state. This issue should not rise or fall on the merits of a card game and I resent that you have been backed into such a contest.
The issue is freedom of expression and freedom to pursue an educational opportunity without interference fr6m religious groups and their moral agenda.
You have done a disservice to your students by rashly imposing this moratorium without giving them the benefit of the doubt. Let the censors prove that the Magic players are doing something harmful to themselves or to others before any punishment is imposed upon them.
Your speech to club members today that they were not really being punished by the moratorium did not fly. Without reading Orwell's 1984, my middle schooler has a remarkable ability to sense doublespeak when he bears it. Your disclaimer notwithstanding, if it feels like a punishment and it smells like a punishment, it is a punishment.
Non-participants
Interestingly, the so-called negative impact discussed on Wednesday was only on non-participants who do not play the game. Thus far, no such incidents or anything like them have been reported amongst club members.
Perhaps the most puzzling and bizarre aspect of your memorandum is your request that we convey to our children the importance of behaving tolerantly to their peers and their peers' parents who may hold differing views.
Should I instruct my children to be tolerant to the intolerant? Sounds to me like some misguided advice given to German Jews in the '30s as their books were being burned. It didn't work then, and it didn't work in the Spanish Inquisition, nor did it work at the Salem witch trials.
In fact, Dr. Dennis, one of the most tragic recurring themes in history is tolerance of the intolerable. As a Jewish Holocaust survivor speaking at my Catholic high school in the '70s told us: when dealing with intolerance, fight like your life depended on it. Some day, it might.
John C. O'Brien lives on Austin Hill Road in Pound Ridge.