On Wednesday, I posted a diary about an angry group of parents in Arizona who didn't want a local high school to allow students to observe the National Day of Silence on Friday. The school expected picketers, and all kinds of mean, nasty, ugly things, maybe even a visit from Bill O'Reilly, but something else happened instead.
The Day of Silence is a passive protest in the great traditions of Gandhi and MLK Jr. that draws attention to the harassment of the GLBT community. The angry parents, calling themselves DRHS Parents for Truth, somehow interpreted this to mean that the GLBT community wanted to turn all of their kids gay. They hammered the principal with phone calls for days before the event. Then they said they would boycott the Day of Silence and keep their kids home from school, which would somehow thwart the radical gay liberal agenda. The local newspaper wrote stories and an editorial about it. The local news stations did a few segments on it. And then the day arrived, everyone expecting a throwdown of some kind, and....nothing happened.
A bunch of kids stayed home: about 250 out of 2,300 students, whereas average absenteeism on Fridays is about 100. 275 participated in the Day of Silence. And everyone at school, participating or not, really enjoyed the day, because all the mean people didn't show up. It was really awesome.
Here's the final article on what happened, and it has links to all the previous articles if you'd like to check 'em out.
It was fairly disappointing that some kids supporting GLBT rights decided to sink to the level of the haters and give them some in return. The article mentions that the ringleader received a death threat. It does not say that a group of GLBT supporters went to the fellow's house and taunted the truants for being bigots, etc. The father of said bigot called the school to complain that these students were harassing his kid, completely unaware of the irony. He had 45 truants in his back yard chowing down on pizza and probably making gay jokes, but once his kid became the target of bullying, it wasn't so cool anymore. Then he executed the mother of all double standards: completely ignoring the fact that his son and 44 friends were ditching school because they couldn't handle a silent protest, he complains about the loud protesters on his front lawn and said, "Shouldn't these kids be in school?"
So I have mixed feelings there: I wish the GLBT kids/supporters hadn't done that, but I also relish the fact that this man got his comeuppance. He tried to bully the school into abridging the rights of students not to speak, and it backfired on him in a big way.
Still, I doubt it will change him or his son for the better. They will not be better, wiser, people for it; they will just hate more. Sigh.
But for those who read my diary Wednesday and were curious about how it all turned out, I hope this brings a smile to your face. Except for the abuse heaped on the instigator of the whole imbroglio, it was a peaceful day and some teenagers managed to become better people. Those 275 kids learned that when you stand up (and in this case, don't speak) for what you believe in, people notice, and they can make change happen, even if it's only within themselves and a few other people. They're being the change they want to see in the world. It made me proud of them, and filled me with hope.
All you need is love, folks.
Peace and hot tea with milk and honey.