Thu 5 Oct 2006
Laura Mallory is not a Harry Potter fan, and she isn’t giving up the fight to have the popular character taken out of elementary school. She says the series may encourage reading, but it also encourages witchcraft and evil.
She made her argument before a state school board hearing examiner on Tuesday. “Witchcraft is being mainstreamed to our kids today but people are not aware of it. They think these books are fantasies but Wicca is a real recognized religion,” Mallory said.
She finds the series so disturbing she says she’s never completely read one of the books by popular author J.K. Rowling. And she told the hearing officer she doesn’t want her three children exposed to Harry Potter at the school library.
“They are my most precious thing in the whole wide world to me and I don’t want them indoctrinated into a religion whose practices are evil,” said Mallory.
Lady, far as I’m concerned you should consider yourself lucky your kids CAN read, considering how dumb Georgians are on average. I can count the native-born GAers I’ve met that seemed like they could read above a 3rd grade level & speak proper english if they had to on one hand. By her logic, I should be stockpiling weapons in anticipation of doling out vigilante justice since my favorite comic book character growing up was The Punisher…
As for wicca, maybe we should ask some real-life wiccans about it:
Among her arguments is a central theme that the books promote witchcraft and evil, but people who know about real life witchcraft, or Wiccanism, say the witches in the Potter books have nothing to do with reality and a lot more to do with getting children to enjoy reading. […]
[Wiccanism practitioner Marcia Gaither] says the controversy about Harry Potter is absurd. “No one tried to take ‘The Wizard of Oz’ away, you didn’t see them taking ‘Bewitched’ off the air when it was on; ‘Sabrina the Teenage Witch.’ All of these things are fantasy and nothing in any of these are even remotely close to what Wiccans practice,” Gaither said. (emphasis mine)
So, if Harry Potter has nothing to do with Wicca in actuality, it can’t be said that the books promote it. This woman doesn’t care though, she’s just another jesus-freak who thinks any book other than the bible is “evil”.
October 5th, 2006 at 9:14 am
I take umbrage at your characterizations of Georgians. I have lived in GA, AL, VA, MD, DC, WA, WV and NY. I have regular contact with folks from CT, NJ and PA. The denizens of these various states are just as imbecilic as Georgians. I’m not denying that Georgians are stupid; I’m just saying that we’re not particularly so.
October 5th, 2006 at 12:30 pm
Key words being “GAers I’ve MET”. In my experiences, the further you get from the 285 perimeter the lower the average intelligence (except for the areas w/ idiots that end up on the news for criminal reasons…).
It’s something about the blend of people, I find that where people are more likely to have met folks from various backgrounds they have more sense in general. Northern GA is the worst.
October 6th, 2006 at 9:29 am
I’m from Dalton. We mountain folk ain’t much for book learnin’.