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I was a kid when all that was going on. I lived in a very conservative community and people hated her. I was too young to really understand it. I heard a lot of "You can't pray in schools." so I thought something would happen if I did. I remember silently praying before a particularly big test and, when I wasn't sent to the principal's office, realizing neither the SCOTUS nor MMO had power over me. Probably my first public foray into civil disobedience and push-back against authority.
Last edited by DewDropInn; 04-01-2015 at 01:48 PM..
I remember her from when I was a kid. I was a member of the baptist church at the time, which had more than enough hateful people, and here was this woman who openly espoused atheism, and spewed hatred like no one else. Because I as isolated from associating with known atheists, as though anyone else in Texas would have admitted atheism, I came to assume that all atheists were brash, loud and hateful, like her. She certainly gave atheism a bad name.
However, her challenge to the supreme court to keep school endorsed prayers out of the school was a necessity. Public School and church must be separate. If a person wishes to pay to go to a catholic school, or a chartered religious school, that is different. I remember when we had this one substitute teacher, an old lady in the public schools who said "Let's have a word of prayer kids before we start our day." That activity needs to be in check.
As for her demise, her rudeness and brashness led a disgruntled former employee to murder her. She "went missing" and yet no one in the police force, or public in general seemed to care. It was the work of two reporters who investigated everything from phone records to pawn tickets and storage locker receipts who determined that a former employee, who had been terminated from the O'hair foundation, acted alone. He claimed that he had gotten tired of her abuse , he abducted her, her son and daughter, extorted some $600 000 before finally strangling her and her family, then burying their bodies in a field.
Probably a corruption. More likely she was secretly buried (or cremated) to keep people from vandalizing her grave.
A secret burial wouldn't prevent anyone from praying for her.
Her ultimate burial was kept quiet and low-key, in part because of vandalism concerns. Her son saw to that - he was present, and a very few other people.
Because I as isolated from associating with known atheists, as though anyone else in Texas would have admitted atheism, I came to assume that all atheists were brash, loud and hateful, like her. She certainly gave atheism a bad name.
That was my experience as well. I had a stereotype, negative image of atheists because of her. That stopped when someone I was good friends with in high school told me she was an atheist. Really? Wow. (Jaw drops at the thought of knowing an actual atheist.) You sure? (Yes.) OK. Wanna go get some taquitos?
I don't believe she deserved it, either. She wasn't murdered for her beliefs.
A theory surfaced after her disappearance that she had died and her family secretly buried her to keep people from praying for her.
A theory surfaced after Darwin's death that he recanted and regretted that he'd ever perpetrated the theory of evolution. That was a pure invention, to.
I could have wished that she, as the founder of A/A, had been nicer, but, like the founder of the British Navy and its part on a not insignificant history, and the founder of Parliament and its not inconsiderable influence, you have to take them, warts and all.
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