The little school district that roared: Dodgeville takes on Falwell’s lying lawyers

February 4, 2006

[Editor’s Note: Yes, Morbo sort of retired a few weeks ago, but he suggested he might come back on occasion, when he has something to contribute. Thankfully, today is one of those days. Enjoy. -CB]

Guest Post by Morbo

I admire the folks at the Dodgeville School District in Wisconsin. They’ve got moxie.

Dodgeville was one of the districts attacked by the religious right’s deceit brigade during the recent “war on Christmas” fandango. Attorney Mat Staver, a stooge of the Rev. Jerry Falwell, accused the school of altering the words to “Silent Night” to remove religious references. Allegedly, this was done because the school feared endorsing religion.

Fox News Channel practically provided team coverage of the supposed assault on the yuletide, with resident gasbags Bill O’Reilly and John Gibson leading the charge.

It was all lies. Here’s what really happened: The school presented a play titled “The Little Tree’s Christmas Gift.” The play, copyrighted in 1988 by a church choir director of all people, is about a puny Christmas tree that pines for a home. It uses several familiar Christmas carols with different lyrics to fit the play’s theme of homelessness.

Thanks to Staver’s campaign, the district was bombarded with hate mail and had to spend time answering queries from the media and the public. The school also posted a statement on its website in an effort to set the record straight. That statement bluntly called the Liberty Counsel’s claims “a fraud.”

Now officials at the school have demanded that Liberty Counsel issue a public apology. They also seek $23,899.48 in compensation for costs that the district incurred in refuting Liberty Counsel’s lies.

“Your dissemination of false and misleading information and your threats of specious and frivolous litigation resulted in enormous cost the district,” wrote school attorney Eileen A. Brownlee, in a letter to Liberty Counsel. “You have yet to present the facts either through a press release, one of your ‘alerts’ or through any other means. You used this red herring to attempt to collect money through the form of donations.”

You go, girl!

I doubt this gutsy district will ever see a dime from the Liberty Counsel. That sleaze operation isn’t in the truth business, after all. But it’s good to see someone take on these creeps and call them to account for their lies.

As the Capital Times in Madison put it:

Dodgeville officials have decided to hold groups such as the Liberty Counsel to account. And that is an appropriate act. Hopefully, by pressing for a very public apology and a retraction, Dodgeville will force the “war on Christmas” crowd to be a little more responsible next year. But, at the very least, the Dodgeville School District is serving its mission as an educational institution.

By challenging the Liberty Counsel, it is teaching students to stand up to bullies.

Dodgeville is the second district to challenge Fox’s lies. Officials in Plano, Texas, requested an apology from Bill O’Blowhard after he spread wild tales about their school supposedly banning red and green holiday decorations.

According to my trusty Rand-McNally atlas, Dodgeville has a population of 3,458. If this little town can stand up to the Liberty Counsel, others can too. The public school districts and communities unfairly smeared in the bogus “war on Christmas” need to sit up and take notice.

I used to drive through Dodgeville on the way to my Grandmother’s — now I wish I’d stopped in. Way to go!

  • And don’t forget O’Reilly’s lies about the Saginaw Township, Michigan, school district that opposed the wearing of red and green colors and the singing of Christmas songs. See http://www.au.org/site/PageServer?pagename=resources_xmas_tales

    Just more lies, and these about public schools are two-fers for the American Taliban crowd: they get to play the “victim” role in the phoney “War on Christmas” AND they get to slam public education as evil incarnate.

    WWJD? I suspect that He would cast them all out of the Temple as blasphemers, hypocrites, and Pharasees. One can only hope that more schools pursue the Lying.Fucking.Bastards as is this one small district in Wisconsin. Bravo and hoorah for them!!

  • … stand up to bullies

    That simple message is the key to righting many of the wrongs in this counry. Our Founding Fathers had it in a slogan (coming out of the mouth of snake): “Don’t tread on me!”

    The Democrats, once they get the nerve to try it, will find that is actually fun to stand up to bullies. When they’ve gotten that through their overfed and besotted heads, they’ll deserve to govern again.

    Ours is supposed to be a two-party system: bullies and those who stand up to bullies.

  • Most people are peaceful and would rather ignore a bully than fight back. However, there comes a time when enough is enough. It seems that a line has now been crossed and I hope that others will begin to fight back also.

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