Kat...you are very right. The reason I brought up that her sexual preference is deabted is (I guess) o prove a point to those that have a problem with it. Unless we could go back in time and ask her personally...no one knows for sure. It really shouldn't matter but as winx said...to some it does. People will always find something to complain about though

This is off topic, but what would be wrong with kids being educated in the various religions, from an academic not religious perspective. Just to understand what various religions are all about. For instance, Christians, Jews and Muslims all pray to the same God. But how many know this? Ignorance breeds much of the hatred and violence among religious factions. We could go a long way toward eliminating it at a young age.

this does remind me of the movie "The Birdcage". they were discussing the military and Alexander the Great. "Talk about gays in the military" was one of the lines.

a person's gender, race, belief or sexual preference has nothing to do with their intelligence or ability. if someone has a problem with one of these things....that's fine but it doesn't mean that person is anything less or their deeds are anything less for it IMO

they tried that when my son was little. around the holidays...they asked for parents to come in and share how the celebrate a holiday etc. that still didn't go over well. some people don't want their kids to learn about others. I have encouraged my son to learn as much as he can before making a choice. he has done this and made his choice, but like me, still likes to learn about others

My child goes to a Christian elementary school. They have studied all of the different religions in religion class. I've also taught my child about different religions.

I looked up Katherine Bates. She also popularized Mrs. Claus in her poem, "Goody Santa Claus on a Sleigh Ride", in 1889.

Wow, I didn' know that, was curious and found this. Not suprised there would be a debate, after all one can 'keep' the song with out stigma if they can dismiss the connection. Does crack me up a bit though....

Katharine Lee Bates
(August 12, 1859 - March 28, 1929)

Probably best known as the author of the words to "America the Beautiful," Katharine Lee Bates was a prolific poet and a professor of English and head of the English department at Wellesley, where she had been a student in its earliest years.

Her father, a Congregational minister, died when Katharine was less than a month old. Her brothers had to go to work to help support the family, but Katharine was given an education. She received her B.A. from Wellesley College in 1880. She wrote to supplement her income. "Sleep" was published by The Atlantic Monthly during her undergraduate years at Wellesley.

A trip to Colorado in 1893 and the view from Pikes Peak inspired Katharine Lee Bates to write the poem, "America the Beautiful," which was published in The Congregationalist two years after she wrote it. The Boston Evening Transcript published a revised version in 1904, and the public adopted the idealistic poem quickly.

Katharine Lee Bates helped found the New England Poetry Club in 1915 and served for a time as its president, and she was involved in a few social reform activities, working for labor reform and planning the College Settlements Association with Vida Scudder. She was raised in the Congregational faith of her ancestors; as an adult, she was deeply religious but could not find a church in whose faith she could be certain.

Katharine Lee Bates lived for twenty-five years with Katharine Coman in a committed partnership that has sometimes been described as a "romantic friendship." Bates wrote, after Coman died, "So much of me died with Katharine Coman that I'm sometimes not quite sure whether I'm alive or not."

Bates' teaching career was the central interest of her adult life. She believed that through literature, human values could be revealed and developed.

"Bates' teaching career was the central interest of her adult life. She believed that through literature, human values could be revealed and developed."
And boy does that song move me.

Kat

Thanks, Boo. That was interesting.

Our national anthem was written to a bar song too so we are a bunch of rough necks here too....lol