Kerry has conceded

[Maverick]

In my junior year of High school ( a long , long time ago, public school system) i had a great literary arts teacher..he was a protestant minister (or the equivelant of a preist for that religion, excuse my ignorance of the title, and my memory lapse) ...extremely intelligent, and a great teacher...he, ofcourse was a very religious man, however he never attempted to force his views on his students. instead, he varied his lesson plans, including great works from many different faiths. I once asked him if it was frustrating for him to teach so many different view points (including athiest perceptions) considering his position in his church..he responded to me with something to effect of "I am an educator, and a student of the worlds great works, of which many are religiously based texts. God gave us the gift of choice, and no choice can be made in honest with out exposure to different viewpoints.the moral fiber, or lack of it, in the texts are far more important than the beliefs behind them. It is up you to make your decisions on faith, its up to me to make sure you have the tools to make your decision, and have a wide exposure to the history of right and wrong. I enjoy that challenge very much, even it it means you might choose to believe there is no god at all. "

those words have stuck with me my entire life. I signed up for all the elective classes i could with him after that, because i knew id learn something and enjoy them, not be subjugated by his religious ferver. to this day i feel very fortunate to have had him for a teacher. He taught that accepting religion wasnt necessary to be "moral" but it was a great tool to teach morality with.
the point? many seem to feel that the subject of religion in the US is a tangible, win or loose situation, i submit that it is not, it has never been, and will never be so, it has been and always will be a gray area, and should be addressed with tolarance, respect and equality..might i also remind those people that this country was formed by people fleeing religious persecution and intolarance. Our base structure was formed to prevent such a thing from happening here, yet today, we face intolarance as never before.. my teacher wasnt teaching religion, he was teaching history, diversity, morals, choice and even consequence...that message will be lost forever if we let the far right, or far left for that matter, elliminate opposing view points, and we will cease to be the country our founders envisioned..and our greatest strength will be lost....if it already hasnt...