My Dragon's Lair Sharing is the reason for my being...: Don't repeat history. I see a pattern here.

Oct 22, 2007

Michael Gambon as Professor Dumbledore in 'Harry Potter and the
Goblet of Fire'

Now that J.K. Rowling has revealed Dumbledore is gay, the books are under scrutiny. Debating the text, More on 'Potter' gay revelation, Find out more about Dumbledore

... "Jo Rowling calling any Harry Potter character gay would make wonderful strides in tolerance toward homosexuality," Melissa Anelli, webmaster of the fan site , told The Associated Press. "By dubbing someone so respected, so talented and so kind, as someone who just happens to be also homosexual, she's reinforcing the idea that a person's gayness is not something of which they should be ashamed."...

... "Falling in love can blind us to an extent," Rowling said Friday of Dumbledore's feelings about Grindelwald, adding that Dumbledore was "horribly, terribly let down."... More sfcronicle

Do you remember this? People who object to our being free to express ourselves to others can do powerful things in the real world, not make believe and not a joking matter.

Unexplained Mysteries :: Strong reaction to Harry Potter ban proposal
Strong reaction to Harry Potter ban proposal. Posted on Thursday, 5 October, 2006 6:23 Comments: 57. www.unexplained-mysteries.com/viewnews.php?id=79846

A Gwinnett County mother’s push to get Harry Potter books banned from elementary school bookshelves has made it to the state board of education. Laura Mallory is the mother of three who's fighting against those books. Tuesday morning she pleaded her case to a hearing officer who will make a recommendation to the state board. 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. At Inner Space and the Hoot Owl Attic bookstore in Sandy Springs you can find anything you want to know about the mystical world. “We have books on Wicca, Paganism, mystical Christianity,” the clerk said. And in back they put many of these words into action. They teach and they practice. People like Marcia Gaither. She used to practice Wiccanism, or witchcraft, now she's teaching a class on it. “Do what you will but harm none in the process -- I guess you could say the Wiccan equivalent of the golden rule,” said Gaither. She 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. She says the real magic the books worked in her life is with her children and teaching them to love to read. “My daughter doesn't hate reading, but my son did -- and this is one thing that helped us get over the hump,” Gaither said. “And he doesn't follow the same path I follow. It didn't draw him into witchcraft or anything. ”In the classes, they teach about witchcraft and wizardry. They even teach spells, but the spells they talk about don't turn anyone into a frog. It's more like spells for a good job, a raise, or inner peace. They compare them to a type of prayer.

View: Full Article Source: 11 Alive

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.
Gwinnett County Schools attorney Victoria Sweeny says that under Mallory’s reasoning school bookshelves could become virtually empty.
“Obviously there are witches in ‘Macbeth,’ sprites in ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream,’ witches in ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ ‘Sleeping Beauty’ - the list goes on and on,” she said.
Sweeny says she believes Harry Potter promotes reading and good values.
“The major themes are good versus evil, overcoming adversity, loyalty, friendship and courage,” she said.
The hearing was attended mostly by Harry Potter fans, including Scott Bremer, a student at Grady High School in Atlanta.
“I think its a really excellent series,” Bremer said. “I started reading them in second grade. It really did introduce me to reading in a positive way, and I think these books have only a positive influence.”
Like the Harry Potter series, this story doesn't yet have an ending. The hearing officer will make a recommendation to the state school board. The board is expected to make a decision in December. Source 11alive

Official Harry Potter Web Site For the Order of the Phoenix.

If people start scrutinizing books we could repeat history. And remember the burning times ... of books? No more! Leave well enough alone including the make believe world that makes so many of us happy. There are more things to worry about and obsess over than what a woman writes or talks that is meant to give us pleasure and diversion. Unless you are one of those "Dungeons & Dragon" people who go out and commit real acts outside of the game? Who is your leader. Gosh guys. Let her say what she likes and I will continue to buy the books and movies that come from her work! Remember our 1st Amendment. See here. Modern Details. Freedom of Speech & Religion. And now it is we are fighting for Freedom to love and do with our bodies as we like as our hearts dictate. Not as some politician or moral code committee desires us to be. I think we see the results of that are not positive. It will fuel hostility toward other cultures and people. Of that I cannot agree! Be nice. Love all things real and imagined. For Hate is a terrible thing. A mind is a terrible thing to waste if it has to worry about restrictions of what is accepted or not.

Found this site. If schools are not teaching our children to read, and books outside of these institutions can do the job, this is a good thing. As I put that J.K. Rowling's books had increased the statistics for children who read. Site News With Views. by Joel Turtel.

On a personal note I was over 75% deaf till I was 30. I was not educated in our Public schools. When I did go into a 1st grade with Mrs. Qunz (sp?) For all the things I don't remember I remember her name even if not how to spell it. I didn't hear her and I was dragged out of the classroom by the ear and beaten on the knuckles with a ruler. Another time I went I was given the floor to sit on without books to use and they said I would not be there long enough to give me a chair or books. I am self educated. By sheer will I will learn something! And our children are not being served any better though I thought there were more resources and advocacy for them half a century later. Maybe these children need to do what I do! Go to the library. Go online and be curious for knowledge as they want to be! If they crave to be more than what they will be relogated to not having an education, they can take their own destiny into their own hands. Who says I have to struggle to make life I want by a below poverty salary? Read and all things are possible! Understanding what we read is important too!