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Liberalsaved
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Ha!
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vern_humphrey
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Anti-semitism on a publicly-owned stage would be a violation of civil rights. The same with racism or anti-catholic bigotry.
Yes, the state does control how they use the funds. If it did not, the faculty could divert public funds into their private bank accounts.
The money to run the university is appropriated by the legislature. The legislature determines the controls under which appropriated and non-appropriated funds (tuition, fees, etc.) are spent. And public officials who spend public money are held accountable for how they spend it.
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Holly3278
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Disgusting. I hope they call it off.
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bekalc
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Uh. The play has a right to exist (I wouldn’t burn copies of it.) But, I’m sorry Catholics have the right to say that they don’t appreciate their faith being ripped upon by a state university. It is our tax dollars after all too.
Besides, I’m a bit angry myself as well. A couple of months ago, my cousin died of a heroin overdose… So, sorry if I’m not one hundred percent keen on the cause of drug legalization. And he was a functional addict who had a great job, but hey let’s just make his poison more available.
Besides, I’m a bit angry myself as well. A couple of months ago, my cousin died of a heroin overdose… So, sorry if I’m not one hundred percent keen on the cause of drug legalization. And he was a functional addict who had a great job, but hey let’s just make his poison more available.
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cheese_sdc
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Thanks!
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Liberalsaved
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My thoughts on drugs (that comes out wrong, but oh well):
No matter your level of addiction, it seems to me only one person was involved in the original choice to stick a needle in your arm. The drugs exist because people want them, not the other way around. I’m not weighing in on the legal issues one way or the other; but let’s not blame the makers, the dealers or the drugs themselves. Whoever is addicted went and found the needle and stuck it in themselves, or they went and rolled the joint and started puffing. It’s ultimately people who are to blame for what they do to themselves. To say otherwise is akin to blaming chocolate for getting fat.
No matter your level of addiction, it seems to me only one person was involved in the original choice to stick a needle in your arm. The drugs exist because people want them, not the other way around. I’m not weighing in on the legal issues one way or the other; but let’s not blame the makers, the dealers or the drugs themselves. Whoever is addicted went and found the needle and stuck it in themselves, or they went and rolled the joint and started puffing. It’s ultimately people who are to blame for what they do to themselves. To say otherwise is akin to blaming chocolate for getting fat.
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rlg94086
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Keep that whole personal responsibility line of reasoning up, and you’ll have to change your name to Conservativesaved. 
Of course, we still need to shut down the drug makers and the dealers…
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Cathy_of_Alex
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How does drug legalization tie into the purpose of this thread which was about a play? If you want to discuss drug legalization start a new thread please.
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Dale_M
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The major point of the play, aside from attacking the Church, is that drugs (specifically heroin) should be legalized.
The play honestly isn’t very good. I realize that Fo won the Nobel Prize, but it wasn’t for this play. It has a few chuckles in it, but it primarily a lecture piece: Church bad, druggies downtrodden and good. And in many ways it has outlived itself: there are many references to political figures circa 1990 which aren’t going to register with the audience today. And the Pope isn’t some generic pontiff, he is a thinly veilled John Paul II. Given the suffering of JPII in his final decade of life, the paces that the play puts the Pope through is tasteless at best. Many Catholics will find it offensive.
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Vanny
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Well said, Vern.
Why is it only Christians that are not allowed to be offended?
If we are offended and dare (peacefully) protest, We are accused of fomenting violence and shoving our views down other throats(i.e. supressing freedom of speech)
No- we have to put up and shut up and not offer up even a peep no matter how outrageously offensive the material is, because otherwise we’re telling them what to put on. But no one even suggest such a thing if if a different group(such as women, ect) are offended- then the liberals expect them to protest.
Schools and public institutions should respect all ethnic groups and religions and know better than to even put on a play that would offend a certain group- not government censorship but
RESPECT. If a school did put on an anit- Jewish or Muslim or anti Black play, (such as one mocking the holocaust,ect) I would expect outrage and PEACEFUL (not violent) protest, and I would agree! All religeons should be off limits- out of RESPECT!!
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JCPhoenix
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Vanny, that was very well stated, but it leads to another question;
Where is there room for humor? (By the way, I am fully against this play; it is ridicule versus humor).
I do believe we all need to be able to laugh at ourselves, but we should not be forced to swallow the @!$%^ that is being dished out by popular culture calling it “humor” and telling us we need a sense of humor.
Would they tell a jihadist that they need to have a sense of humor about the cartoons about Muhammad?
Would they tell the black population to “get over it” and go on degrading people of color while telling them it’s “humorous”?
What if the author of the racist joke happens to be a Nobel Prize winner? What a straw-man argument! A racists’s credentials mean nothing…not if he or she is in office, not if that person is a celebrity…look at Mel Gibson, for goodness’ sake! If one substituted the word “Catholic” and cast him as, say, an atheist, there would NOT have been a story!
Then we take the art of theatre…I know of a play called “The Church Basement Ladies.” My understanding of this is that it’s a bunch of Lutheran women sitting around discussing Catholics. Catholics I know who have seen it found it to be HILARIOUS, and these are solid Catholics, not marginal ones.
Is there anyone who has seen both “Pope and the Witch” and “Church Basement Ladies” who might be able to comment on the differences between them?
Where is there room for humor? (By the way, I am fully against this play; it is ridicule versus humor).
I do believe we all need to be able to laugh at ourselves, but we should not be forced to swallow the @!$%^ that is being dished out by popular culture calling it “humor” and telling us we need a sense of humor.
Would they tell a jihadist that they need to have a sense of humor about the cartoons about Muhammad?
Would they tell the black population to “get over it” and go on degrading people of color while telling them it’s “humorous”?
What if the author of the racist joke happens to be a Nobel Prize winner? What a straw-man argument! A racists’s credentials mean nothing…not if he or she is in office, not if that person is a celebrity…look at Mel Gibson, for goodness’ sake! If one substituted the word “Catholic” and cast him as, say, an atheist, there would NOT have been a story!
Then we take the art of theatre…I know of a play called “The Church Basement Ladies.” My understanding of this is that it’s a bunch of Lutheran women sitting around discussing Catholics. Catholics I know who have seen it found it to be HILARIOUS, and these are solid Catholics, not marginal ones.
Is there anyone who has seen both “Pope and the Witch” and “Church Basement Ladies” who might be able to comment on the differences between them?
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vern_humphrey
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The point here is, if the play is put on at a state university, on state-owned property with the state picking up the bill for electricity and so on, then the state is endorsing this garbage. And that is unconstitutional.
Hey, if they put up a pro-Catholic symbol – like a manger scene at Christmas, wouldn’t the ACLU sue to make them remove it?
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Vanny
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No, I’ve never seen the "Church Basement Ladies, so I can’t comment but I get what you mean about Mel Gibson!
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Vanny
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Sure they (the ACLU) would! In a heartbeat! And yes, you make a good point!! The school should not be putting on this play.
But this is all part of the double standard when it comes to freedom of speech for some liberals- I never hear a peep out of these people about anyone’s free speech being abridged when a student is prevented from thanking God or Jesus in a graduation speech or a pastor is Jailed in Sweden for speaking out against homosexuality…
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vern_humphrey
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It is, as you say, a double standard. And that means we, who are the targets of this state-sponsored bigotry, are really second-class citizens, without the same rights as other minorities. And that’s what I mean when I say it’s persecution.
The correct response is not to lie down and take it, but to stand up for our rights and denounce this for what it is – state-sponsored bigotry.
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cheese_sdc
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Two wrongs don’t make a right. Catholics should have the right to “get out” their message. But that doesn’t mean that other groups lose their right to their message.
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vern_humphrey
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But they don’t have a right to get their message out at taxpayer expense. If that were true, I’d have a right to write a book and have the government publish it for me
Using government facilities for this sort of thing is tantamount to government endorsement of the sentiments – and that is religious persecution.
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cheese_sdc
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Maybe not a book, but if you wrote a play with enough artistic merit, maybe a public university would produce it.But they don’t have a right to get their message out at taxpayer expense. If that were true, I’d have a right to write a book and have the government publish it for me
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dwc
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Well, that sentiment applies equally to Catholics expressing their opinion that this play misrepresents and slanders their faith, yes? Or no? If no, why not?
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