Comment Re:yay! (Score 2) 648
In my previous employment, I was asked to edit the graduation speech of a young women, who in the middle of the speech thanked God and Jesus for her success. Rambled about couldn't have made it through the neighborhood without her faith, etc. Then went on to thank teachers, parents, etc... I was asked to remove ALL the religious comments because it was "FEARED" that it would offend someone of another faith. A specific faith was mentioned, but I'll let you jump to your own conclusions so people don't call ME the hatemonger.
I asked to refuse based on MY faith and my disbelief in the "separation of church and state" crap. My argument was that if the speech was that inspiring that the school wanted to play it in front of incoming class, that it should be played in the entirety and we had no right to edit the speech without her permission. It was my first REAL exposure to a "progressive" agenda. Usually I gave the benefit of the doubt, when I heard about stuff like this happening. But here I was, being told to remove these comments from her speech. I was abhorred to the idea of doing such an edit. I was practically in tears while I explained WHY I could not do this.
I told the boss he can use my computer because that is where the editing software was, but I refused to do it myself. He told me to leave and complete other work while he did it. I left to putz around, but couldn't keep a clear head after all of this. The rest of the day was shot.
Later I was told in an "unofficial" meeting of just me and the boss (no witnesses, He just came in to the office the next morning and sat down) that I was being insubordinate. That it was in my contract I had to do the job appointed to me and if I had problems to bring up a complaint about it later. I was then told that would be the expected results if it ever happened again that I had no other choice. I then told my boss that I DID have another choice, that was to NOT do it, and QUIT my job. He said that wasn't a choice and besides; was I ready, with two toddlers at home, to take that action based on the current economic conditions that I might not find a replacement job.
What he didn't know was that since my kid had started Kindergarten in our school district that I lived in (not the the one I worked for) and we were already contemplating one of the parents quitting a job to deal with the school issues and the two kids. I was drawing the short end of the straw because of my pay being less than the wife's.
So I quit my job later that week because of "the kids" but for me it was the this last straw that lead me to do it. Do I regret it... Nope. The only thing I regret is that I should of raised more of a ruckus about it. I should of brought it up in public and made them contact the girl who made the speech. But I was just happy to leave and not have anything added to my "file". Oh, He quit a few months after I did because I was carrying his butt and without me around to run stuff, he was slowly being exposed... But that is little consolation to the fact that they still have the video that was edited to take out Jesus. Yep, for some reason GOD was "ok" as it was a general acknowledgment to a supreme deity that is common in most faiths, but the JESUS part had to go. I'm actually glad I'm not in that boat anymore.
So, Yes, it is out there... There are people who are in a minority that have majority power to effect the rights of others. Simply because they are in a position of power and they abuse it.