How has the ‘system’ been working out for you and your family? No wonder voters demand change.
By Donald J. Trump
(The Wall Street Journal) On Saturday, April 9, Colorado had an “election” without voters. Delegates were chosen on behalf of a presidential nominee, yet the people of Colorado were not able to cast their ballots to say which nominee they preferred.
A planned vote had been canceled. And one million Republicans in Colorado were sidelined.
In recent days, something all too predictable has happened: Politicians furiously defended the system.
“These are the rules,” we were told over and over again. If the “rules” can be used to block Coloradans from voting on whether they want better trade deals, or stronger borders, or an end to special-interest vote-buying in Congress—well, that’s just the system and we should embrace it.
Let me ask America a question: How has the “system” been working out for you and your family?
I, for one, am not interested in defending a system that for decades has served the interest of political parties at the expense of the people. Members of the club—the consultants, the pollsters, the politicians, the pundits and the special interests—grow rich and powerful while the American people grow poorer and more isolated.
No one forced anyone to cancel the vote in Colorado. Political insiders made a choice to cancel it. And it was the wrong choice.
Responsible leaders should be shocked by the idea that party officials can simply cancel elections in America if they don’t like what the voters may decide.
The only antidote to decades of ruinous rule by a small handful of elites is a bold infusion of popular will. On every major issue affecting this country, the people are right and the governing elite are wrong. The elites are wrong on taxes, on the size of government, on trade, on immigration, on foreign policy.
Why should we trust the people who have made every wrong decision to substitute their will for America’s will in this presidential election?
Here, I part ways with Sen. Ted Cruz.
Mr. Cruz has toured the country bragging about his voterless victory in Colorado. For a man who styles himself as a warrior against the establishment (you wouldn’t know it from his list of donors and endorsers), you’d think he would be demanding a vote for Coloradans. Instead, Mr. Cruz is celebrating their disenfranchisement.
Likewise, Mr. Cruz loudly boasts every time party insiders disenfranchise voters in a congressional district by appointing delegates who will vote the opposite of the expressed will of the people who live in that district.
That’s because Mr. Cruz has no democratic path to the nomination. He has been mathematically eliminated by the voters.
While I am self-funding, Mr. Cruz rakes in millions from special interests. Yet despite his financial advantage, Mr. Cruz has won only three primaries outside his home state and trails me by two million votes—a gap that will soon explode even wider. Mr. Cruz loses when people actually get to cast ballots. Voter disenfranchisement is not merely part of the Cruz strategy—it is the Cruz strategy.
The great irony of this campaign is that the “Washington cartel” that Mr. Cruz rails against is the very group he is relying upon in his voter-nullification scheme.
My campaign strategy is to win with the voters. Ted Cruz’s campaign strategy is to win despite them.
What we are seeing now is not a proper use of the rules, but a flagrant abuse of the rules. Delegates are supposed to reflect the decisions of voters, but the system is being rigged by party operatives with “double-agent” delegates who reject the decision of voters.
The American people can have no faith in such a system. It must be reformed.
Just as I have said that I will reform our unfair trade, immigration and economic policies that have also been rigged against Americans, so too will I work closely with the chairman of the Republican National Committee and top GOP officials to reform our election policies. Together, we will restore the faith—and the franchise—of the American people.
We must leave no doubt that voters, not donors, choose the nominee.
How have we gotten to the point where politicians defend a rigged delegate-selection process with more passion than they have ever defended America’s borders?
Perhaps it is because politicians care more about securing their private club than about securing their country.
My campaign will, of course, battle for every last delegate. We will work within the system that exists now, while fighting to have it reformed in the future. But we will do it the right way. My campaign will seek maximum transparency, maximum representation and maximum voter participation.
We will run a campaign based on empowering voters, not sidelining them.
Let us take inspiration from patriotic Colorado citizens who have banded together in protest. Let us make Colorado a rallying cry on behalf of all the forgotten people whose desperate pleas have for decades fallen on the deaf ears and closed eyes of our rulers in Washington, D.C.
The political insiders have had their way for a long time. Let 2016 be remembered as the year the American people finally got theirs.
Link:
Showing posts with label Colorado. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Colorado. Show all posts
Friday, April 15, 2016
Saturday, November 17, 2012
News station confirms that UFO sighting is neither bird nor plane
Link:
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Obama Thought He Won the Debate!
From Rush Limbaugh:
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: This is Toby Harnden from the UK Daily Mail. This is
unbelievable, but I believe it. "Obama 'Believed he had BEATEN Romney'
in Denver Debate." He walked off that stage thinking he had won that
debate. I think the guy lives in an alternate universe. He is a
narcissist. He's incapable of losing these things, in his mind. He's a
legend in his own mind. I have no problem believing this at all.
However, there are people on the Democrat side who are shocked at this, including Axelrod. David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist and the quasi-president while Obama's out on the campaign trail, "was stunned that the president left the stage feeling that he had won the debate. ... Obama believed he'd got the better of Romney as he walked off stage to the dismay of his aides, according to a Democrat close to the campaign. The president failed to prepare properly, opting instead to visit the Hoover Dam the day before ..."
He complained about being kept inside. He complained about having to read. He complained about having to prepare. He said that it was "a drag." The Democrat that is the source here for Toby Harnden, the writer of the story, said that Obama "was so disdainful of Romney that he didn't think he needed to even engage with him." The story says that he "had one-liners on 47% prepared but chose not to use them."
So this story in the UK Daily Mail would ask us to believe (and I do) that Obama thought he cleaned Romney's clock when that thing was over. He walked off the stage thinking he won. And the reason? He hates Romney. He has such disdain for Romney that he thought all he had to do was just stand there. He thinks everybody else sees Romney the way he does: A rich, distant, insensitive boor.
There have been stories in the past six weeks, maybe two months that have gotten into a little detail on how much Obama really dislikes Romney personally. He dislikes Romney personally, and he dislikes what Romney stands for. Romney, to him -- and I believe this, too. Romney to Barack Obama personifies what's wrong with this country. In Obama's view, Romney is an example of the wrong kind of people winning.
And the reason why people need to get a fair shot is because when dull, boring, dryballs like Romney do well, there's something wrong. I believe all of this. I believe that Obama is so cocky and so arrogant and so condescending, he thought he won. He is such a narcissist. Can you imagine, he walks off that stage and he has to hear how he got shellacked? Can you imagine being the guy that had to tell him that?
Can you imagine him walking off the stage and actually thinking he won? You see, I can, because I know these people. I hate to keep saying it that way. I'm not bragging. I'm trying to tell you: It's easy to know these people. All you have to do is understand liberalism. I'm sorry for saying that so much, too, but it's all you have to do. If you just understand liberalism, if you're willing to admit what it is and who liberals are, the rest is easy -- and it always works.
It never fails.
Because liberals are what they are.
From liberal to liberal, person to person, that's who they are.
It's amazing for some people to hear, I'm sure, that Obama thinks he won that thing.
But don't doubt the story that he does.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: This is from The Daily Caller. "The president’s top campaign staffers changed his re-election strategy while he was still on the debate-podium during his losing debate against Gov. Mitt Romney, according to an article in The New York Times. 'On the conference call convened by aides in Denver and Chicago even as the candidates were still on stage … they reversed a longstanding strategic decision,' without the president’s involvement, according to the Oct. 8 article. 'At the start of the campaign they had decided to attack Mr. Romney as a committed conservative rather than a flip-flopper, but now they decided to use his debate statements to argue that he was reinventing himself,' the article said."
They really believe that -- folks, this is breathtaking to me. I don't know how to say this any more emphatically than I have, and I'm sorry to be repetitive on it. They really believe that the Romney who showed up was a fraud. They believe that the Romney in the ads that they've created is who he really is.
Now, every time I say this, Snerdley gets on the IFB here, "Come on, they don't really believe that, they're just --" they do believe it! Obama doesn't like Romney. He has a personal dislike for Romney and a generic dislike for what Romney is and how Romney became what he is. Romney's everything about America Obama despises or resents. But they think Romney's the biggest fraud on earth. And by the way, listen to Obama. Grab sound bite number nine. Last night San Francisco at a fundraiser, here's Obama telling his audience about Romney.
OBAMA: After the debate, I had a bunch of folks come to me, "Don't be so polite, don’t be so nice." But I want everybody to understand something. What was being presented wasn’t leadership; that's salesmanship.
RUSH: Okay, I think we've got a talking point preview, I think maybe an indication here of what Obama's going to do in the next debate. Just accuse Romney of being disingenuous, accuse him of being a fake.
(imitating Obama) "You're not the Mitt Romney everybody knows. It's just salesmanship. Everything you're saying, there's nothing genuine about what you're doing. You're not engaged in leadership." All of this simply buttresses my point. They don't have the courage to admit that Romney is who he is, because they're living in this bubble, they're living in this alternate universe. If it weren't Romney, it would be whoever the nominee is. No Republican, no conservative, is genuine. We're all mean-spirited, extreme, racist, bigot, sexist, homophobe, whatever.
But to me, folks, it's astounding that they are able to do this. I couldn't do it. I couldn't live lies like this. I mean, Obama, I know exactly who he is. I don't make it up. I don't pretend he's something he's not in order to make myself feel better. And I'm gonna tell you, if this keeps up, if they continue to behave, campaign, and act as though the real Romney is a fraud, they're gonna lose this thing bigger than anybody imagines. Mark my words. Now, to her credit, Soledad O'Brien isn't buying it, either. This is this morning on Starting Point on CNN, and she had as her guest Dick "Turban," the senator from Illinois. She said, "The headline is 'Did Obama Just Throw the Entire Election Away?' And it gets worse from there. Tell me a little bit about if you think, in fact, that this falling that you're seeing in the polling is literally due to what happened that night in the debate."
DURBAN: Disappointed with the debate, but believe the president understands, uh, his challenge now. He was shocked and surprised. Many of us were. Mitt Romney came on that, uh, set at the first debate and said things which completely contradicted what he'd said in the campaign before. I think it caught the president a little bit b-by surprise. He won't be surprised again.
RUSH: See? See?
Romney didn't say anything different.
What Romney did was say some things for the first time.
What did Romney do for the first time? He took it to Obama! He said (summarized), "You and your policies have killed X-number of jobs. What you've done has resulted in this. No, Mr. President, that's not true. The truth of the matter is X." What Romney did was challenge Obama for the first time. Well, I guess they're believing this idea that Romney said, "Obama's a nice guy, but he's just in over his head."
Romney threw away the nice guy business and he just said, "Look, not only are you in over your head, you're unqualified and you're wrong!" So they might be seeing that in Romney for the first time, but we know he's right. We know that's who he is. We know that's what Republicans and conservatives believe in a generic sense. But even Dick Durbin here is saying, "We didn't know this guy who showed up! I mean, that's a fraud. Romney was a fraud," and Soledad O'Brien is not buying it.
O'BRIEN: You cannot tell me that his poor debate performance was he was sitting there stunned in front of the American public as opposed to presenting at least his side of the argument. People have talked a little bit about the air pressure.
DURBAN: (nervous snickering)
O'BRIEN: People have talked about a lack of practice. It certainly can't be, "I was just stunned standing there listening."
DURBAN: I'll just tell you, uhh, that the president understands the challenge of the debates.
RUSH: Really? So she said (paraphrased), "Look, Senator Durban, I know I'm a member of the liberal media and I'm not that bright. But I'm smart enough to know that your excuse is full of it. Are you trying to tell me that the president of the United States, the guy that we're telling everybody is the smartest guy that's ever lived, was so stupefied by the Romney he saw that he had a brain freeze and he didn't know what to do?"
Not even Soledad O'Brien is buying it! That's how absurd it is.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here's Tommy in Springdale, Arkansas. I'm glad you waited, Tommy. It's great to have you on the program. Hello.
CALLER: Hello, Rush. Thanks for taking my call.
RUSH: You bet.
CALLER: I've been a lifelong Democrat. Since I've been listening to you, you've kind of shown me the light.
I'd like to thank you for it.
RUSH: When did that start happening, Tommy?
CALLER: About two years ago.
RUSH: Two years ago. What was it? Do you remember anything particular or was it a slow, evolving kind of process?
CALLER: It was just slow and evolving, just basically opening my eyes to look in different directions to see what was really the truth and what wasn't.
RUSH: Truth.
That's the key.
Okay. That's cool. So it was the truth. The truth is a powerful thing, and that's what Obama can't deal with. That's what the Obama campaign can't deal with is the truth of who Romney is and who we are, and that means they are ripe for the picking.
END TRANSCRIPT
Link:
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
However, there are people on the Democrat side who are shocked at this, including Axelrod. David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist and the quasi-president while Obama's out on the campaign trail, "was stunned that the president left the stage feeling that he had won the debate. ... Obama believed he'd got the better of Romney as he walked off stage to the dismay of his aides, according to a Democrat close to the campaign. The president failed to prepare properly, opting instead to visit the Hoover Dam the day before ..."
He complained about being kept inside. He complained about having to read. He complained about having to prepare. He said that it was "a drag." The Democrat that is the source here for Toby Harnden, the writer of the story, said that Obama "was so disdainful of Romney that he didn't think he needed to even engage with him." The story says that he "had one-liners on 47% prepared but chose not to use them."
So this story in the UK Daily Mail would ask us to believe (and I do) that Obama thought he cleaned Romney's clock when that thing was over. He walked off the stage thinking he won. And the reason? He hates Romney. He has such disdain for Romney that he thought all he had to do was just stand there. He thinks everybody else sees Romney the way he does: A rich, distant, insensitive boor.
There have been stories in the past six weeks, maybe two months that have gotten into a little detail on how much Obama really dislikes Romney personally. He dislikes Romney personally, and he dislikes what Romney stands for. Romney, to him -- and I believe this, too. Romney to Barack Obama personifies what's wrong with this country. In Obama's view, Romney is an example of the wrong kind of people winning.
And the reason why people need to get a fair shot is because when dull, boring, dryballs like Romney do well, there's something wrong. I believe all of this. I believe that Obama is so cocky and so arrogant and so condescending, he thought he won. He is such a narcissist. Can you imagine, he walks off that stage and he has to hear how he got shellacked? Can you imagine being the guy that had to tell him that?
Can you imagine him walking off the stage and actually thinking he won? You see, I can, because I know these people. I hate to keep saying it that way. I'm not bragging. I'm trying to tell you: It's easy to know these people. All you have to do is understand liberalism. I'm sorry for saying that so much, too, but it's all you have to do. If you just understand liberalism, if you're willing to admit what it is and who liberals are, the rest is easy -- and it always works.
It never fails.
Because liberals are what they are.
From liberal to liberal, person to person, that's who they are.
It's amazing for some people to hear, I'm sure, that Obama thinks he won that thing.
But don't doubt the story that he does.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: This is from The Daily Caller. "The president’s top campaign staffers changed his re-election strategy while he was still on the debate-podium during his losing debate against Gov. Mitt Romney, according to an article in The New York Times. 'On the conference call convened by aides in Denver and Chicago even as the candidates were still on stage … they reversed a longstanding strategic decision,' without the president’s involvement, according to the Oct. 8 article. 'At the start of the campaign they had decided to attack Mr. Romney as a committed conservative rather than a flip-flopper, but now they decided to use his debate statements to argue that he was reinventing himself,' the article said."
They really believe that -- folks, this is breathtaking to me. I don't know how to say this any more emphatically than I have, and I'm sorry to be repetitive on it. They really believe that the Romney who showed up was a fraud. They believe that the Romney in the ads that they've created is who he really is.
Now, every time I say this, Snerdley gets on the IFB here, "Come on, they don't really believe that, they're just --" they do believe it! Obama doesn't like Romney. He has a personal dislike for Romney and a generic dislike for what Romney is and how Romney became what he is. Romney's everything about America Obama despises or resents. But they think Romney's the biggest fraud on earth. And by the way, listen to Obama. Grab sound bite number nine. Last night San Francisco at a fundraiser, here's Obama telling his audience about Romney.
OBAMA: After the debate, I had a bunch of folks come to me, "Don't be so polite, don’t be so nice." But I want everybody to understand something. What was being presented wasn’t leadership; that's salesmanship.
RUSH: Okay, I think we've got a talking point preview, I think maybe an indication here of what Obama's going to do in the next debate. Just accuse Romney of being disingenuous, accuse him of being a fake.
(imitating Obama) "You're not the Mitt Romney everybody knows. It's just salesmanship. Everything you're saying, there's nothing genuine about what you're doing. You're not engaged in leadership." All of this simply buttresses my point. They don't have the courage to admit that Romney is who he is, because they're living in this bubble, they're living in this alternate universe. If it weren't Romney, it would be whoever the nominee is. No Republican, no conservative, is genuine. We're all mean-spirited, extreme, racist, bigot, sexist, homophobe, whatever.
But to me, folks, it's astounding that they are able to do this. I couldn't do it. I couldn't live lies like this. I mean, Obama, I know exactly who he is. I don't make it up. I don't pretend he's something he's not in order to make myself feel better. And I'm gonna tell you, if this keeps up, if they continue to behave, campaign, and act as though the real Romney is a fraud, they're gonna lose this thing bigger than anybody imagines. Mark my words. Now, to her credit, Soledad O'Brien isn't buying it, either. This is this morning on Starting Point on CNN, and she had as her guest Dick "Turban," the senator from Illinois. She said, "The headline is 'Did Obama Just Throw the Entire Election Away?' And it gets worse from there. Tell me a little bit about if you think, in fact, that this falling that you're seeing in the polling is literally due to what happened that night in the debate."
DURBAN: Disappointed with the debate, but believe the president understands, uh, his challenge now. He was shocked and surprised. Many of us were. Mitt Romney came on that, uh, set at the first debate and said things which completely contradicted what he'd said in the campaign before. I think it caught the president a little bit b-by surprise. He won't be surprised again.
RUSH: See? See?
Romney didn't say anything different.
What Romney did was say some things for the first time.
What did Romney do for the first time? He took it to Obama! He said (summarized), "You and your policies have killed X-number of jobs. What you've done has resulted in this. No, Mr. President, that's not true. The truth of the matter is X." What Romney did was challenge Obama for the first time. Well, I guess they're believing this idea that Romney said, "Obama's a nice guy, but he's just in over his head."
Romney threw away the nice guy business and he just said, "Look, not only are you in over your head, you're unqualified and you're wrong!" So they might be seeing that in Romney for the first time, but we know he's right. We know that's who he is. We know that's what Republicans and conservatives believe in a generic sense. But even Dick Durbin here is saying, "We didn't know this guy who showed up! I mean, that's a fraud. Romney was a fraud," and Soledad O'Brien is not buying it.
O'BRIEN: You cannot tell me that his poor debate performance was he was sitting there stunned in front of the American public as opposed to presenting at least his side of the argument. People have talked a little bit about the air pressure.
DURBAN: (nervous snickering)
O'BRIEN: People have talked about a lack of practice. It certainly can't be, "I was just stunned standing there listening."
DURBAN: I'll just tell you, uhh, that the president understands the challenge of the debates.
RUSH: Really? So she said (paraphrased), "Look, Senator Durban, I know I'm a member of the liberal media and I'm not that bright. But I'm smart enough to know that your excuse is full of it. Are you trying to tell me that the president of the United States, the guy that we're telling everybody is the smartest guy that's ever lived, was so stupefied by the Romney he saw that he had a brain freeze and he didn't know what to do?"
Not even Soledad O'Brien is buying it! That's how absurd it is.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here's Tommy in Springdale, Arkansas. I'm glad you waited, Tommy. It's great to have you on the program. Hello.
CALLER: Hello, Rush. Thanks for taking my call.
RUSH: You bet.
CALLER: I've been a lifelong Democrat. Since I've been listening to you, you've kind of shown me the light.
I'd like to thank you for it.
RUSH: When did that start happening, Tommy?
CALLER: About two years ago.
RUSH: Two years ago. What was it? Do you remember anything particular or was it a slow, evolving kind of process?
CALLER: It was just slow and evolving, just basically opening my eyes to look in different directions to see what was really the truth and what wasn't.
RUSH: Truth.
That's the key.
Okay. That's cool. So it was the truth. The truth is a powerful thing, and that's what Obama can't deal with. That's what the Obama campaign can't deal with is the truth of who Romney is and who we are, and that means they are ripe for the picking.
Link:
Friday, September 14, 2012
Thompson Valley High School student's rosary beads taken away
Manuel Vigil has had two sets confiscated in three weeks by the school, which says they're gang-related
By Jessica Maher
(Loveland Reporter-Herald) In an attempt to keep gang activity out of the school, Thompson
Valley High School officials say they take any number of measures,
including barring rosary beads when their use is deemed inappropriate.
And in the three weeks since school has been in session, Thompson Valley High junior Manuel Vigil has had two sets of rosary beads he wore around his neck confiscated.
Vigil, who is Catholic, has worn the rosary beads around his neck all summer. His mother, Antoinette Ramirez, said they've become especially important in helping him deal with the recent murder of an uncle in California.
"Having the rosary taken away was kind of like a huge hit for him," she said. "He wears it as a form of protection for himself."
But officials say that rosary beads themselves are not prohibited.
"It wasn't consistent with what would normally be a rosary, and because of that we felt like it could be gang-related," principal Mark Johnson said. "There was no punishment; we just removed it."
According to the Thompson School District dress code, unacceptable items include any clothing, grooming, jewelry, accessories or body adornments that "by virtue of color, arrangement, trademark, or other attribute denote membership in gangs which advocate drug use, violence, or disruptive behavior."
The school enforces its policy based on information from the Loveland Police Department.
"We meet with the gang unit on a regular basis, and they do tell us what to look for," Johnson said. "We want to make sure we keep on top of what is the latest gang stuff."
The latest in gang trends, and what the school may choose to ban, varies from year to year. At Thompson Valley High, bandanas and clothing with gang names or symbols are never allowed. At times, certain colors are prohibited if it appears a student is wearing a color to signal gang affiliation.
"It depends on what's going on in the world," Johnson said. "You have to pay attention to colors and what they're doing."
In Greeley-Evans School District 6, some numbers are banned based on street number gangs, which caused a recent firestorm when a third-grader had a Denver Broncos No. 18 Peyton Manning jersey barred.
Across the country, rosary beads around the neck have been barred in schools because some gangs, including the Sureños and the Latin Kings, wear them that way. If a student wears a rosary around his neck at Thompson Valley High, Johnson said it's the school's policy to ask the student why he's wearing it.
It's often a case-by-case situation, said Johnson, who said Vigil's response was simply that he had the right to wear the rosary beads.
"If we determine that something is gang-related, then we have the right to say they can't wear it, so some of that is subjective," he said.
While the purpose of the rosary is to aid in prayer and not as a means of fashion, the Rev. Sam Morehead of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Loveland said the church allows wearing rosary beads as a necklace. Particularly in Hispanic culture, Morehead said wearing a rosary around the neck has become an important part of Catholic identity in the past 20 or 30 years.
"It's actually quite distressing for me personally to hear that something that represents one's Catholic faith is being seemingly persecuted in the school setting when it is certainly not a symbol of gang membership," he said.
According to Loveland Police Sgt. David Murphy, who leads the school resource officers in the Thompson School District, Vigil's rosary had a red-flagging 13 beads in a row instead of a traditional rosary with 10 beads. The number 13 is sometimes associated with the Sureños gang, Murphy said.
According to Ramirez, her son purchased the rosaries at teen retailer rue21 and had not noticed the number of beads.
"For him, he feels safe when he has it on," she said.
While a rosary with 13 beads in a row might be considered suspicious, Morehead said he would be hesitant to rush to any conclusions.
"For all the lack of knowledge that there is and perhaps any naivete, there is still a lot of good will for people who want to have this symbol of faith," he said.
Jessica Maher can be reached at 669-5050 ext. 516 or maherj@reporter-herald.com. Follow her on Twitter: @JessicaMaherRH.
Link:
By Jessica Maher
And in the three weeks since school has been in session, Thompson Valley High junior Manuel Vigil has had two sets of rosary beads he wore around his neck confiscated.
Vigil, who is Catholic, has worn the rosary beads around his neck all summer. His mother, Antoinette Ramirez, said they've become especially important in helping him deal with the recent murder of an uncle in California.
"Having the rosary taken away was kind of like a huge hit for him," she said. "He wears it as a form of protection for himself."
But officials say that rosary beads themselves are not prohibited.
"It wasn't consistent with what would normally be a rosary, and because of that we felt like it could be gang-related," principal Mark Johnson said. "There was no punishment; we just removed it."
According to the Thompson School District dress code, unacceptable items include any clothing, grooming, jewelry, accessories or body adornments that "by virtue of color, arrangement, trademark, or other attribute denote membership in gangs which advocate drug use, violence, or disruptive behavior."
The school enforces its policy based on information from the Loveland Police Department.
"We meet with the gang unit on a regular basis, and they do tell us what to look for," Johnson said. "We want to make sure we keep on top of what is the latest gang stuff."
The latest in gang trends, and what the school may choose to ban, varies from year to year. At Thompson Valley High, bandanas and clothing with gang names or symbols are never allowed. At times, certain colors are prohibited if it appears a student is wearing a color to signal gang affiliation.
"It depends on what's going on in the world," Johnson said. "You have to pay attention to colors and what they're doing."
In Greeley-Evans School District 6, some numbers are banned based on street number gangs, which caused a recent firestorm when a third-grader had a Denver Broncos No. 18 Peyton Manning jersey barred.
Across the country, rosary beads around the neck have been barred in schools because some gangs, including the Sureños and the Latin Kings, wear them that way. If a student wears a rosary around his neck at Thompson Valley High, Johnson said it's the school's policy to ask the student why he's wearing it.
It's often a case-by-case situation, said Johnson, who said Vigil's response was simply that he had the right to wear the rosary beads.
"If we determine that something is gang-related, then we have the right to say they can't wear it, so some of that is subjective," he said.
While the purpose of the rosary is to aid in prayer and not as a means of fashion, the Rev. Sam Morehead of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Loveland said the church allows wearing rosary beads as a necklace. Particularly in Hispanic culture, Morehead said wearing a rosary around the neck has become an important part of Catholic identity in the past 20 or 30 years.
"It's actually quite distressing for me personally to hear that something that represents one's Catholic faith is being seemingly persecuted in the school setting when it is certainly not a symbol of gang membership," he said.
According to Loveland Police Sgt. David Murphy, who leads the school resource officers in the Thompson School District, Vigil's rosary had a red-flagging 13 beads in a row instead of a traditional rosary with 10 beads. The number 13 is sometimes associated with the Sureños gang, Murphy said.
According to Ramirez, her son purchased the rosaries at teen retailer rue21 and had not noticed the number of beads.
"For him, he feels safe when he has it on," she said.
While a rosary with 13 beads in a row might be considered suspicious, Morehead said he would be hesitant to rush to any conclusions.
"For all the lack of knowledge that there is and perhaps any naivete, there is still a lot of good will for people who want to have this symbol of faith," he said.
Jessica Maher can be reached at 669-5050 ext. 516 or maherj@reporter-herald.com. Follow her on Twitter: @JessicaMaherRH.
Link:
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Colorado shooting victim on James Holmes: ‘I forgive him with all my heart’
By Dylan Stableford, Yahoo! News | The Lookout
It would be understandable for the victims of the Colorado theater shooting and their families to want retribution.
But Pierce O'Farrill, a 28-year-old who was shot three times in the Aurora massacre, says he has forgiven James Holmes, the suspected shooter in last week's Aurora, Colo., massacre.
"Of course, I forgive him with all my heart," O'Farrill told reporters shortly before his release from the Univ. of Colorado Hospital on Wednesday. "When I saw him in his hearing, I felt nothing but sorrow for him--he's just a lost soul right now."
O'Farrill--a staffer at the Denver Rescue Mission, a Christian charity organization that helps "people at their physical and spiritual points of need, with the goal of returning them to society as productive, self-sufficient citizens"--told the Denver Post he would eventually like to meet Holmes.
"I want to see him sometime," O'Farrill, one of 58 people wounded in the shooting, said. "The first thing I want to say to him is 'I forgive you,' and the next is, 'Can I pray for you?'" (continued)
It would be understandable for the victims of the Colorado theater shooting and their families to want retribution.
But Pierce O'Farrill, a 28-year-old who was shot three times in the Aurora massacre, says he has forgiven James Holmes, the suspected shooter in last week's Aurora, Colo., massacre.
"Of course, I forgive him with all my heart," O'Farrill told reporters shortly before his release from the Univ. of Colorado Hospital on Wednesday. "When I saw him in his hearing, I felt nothing but sorrow for him--he's just a lost soul right now."
O'Farrill--a staffer at the Denver Rescue Mission, a Christian charity organization that helps "people at their physical and spiritual points of need, with the goal of returning them to society as productive, self-sufficient citizens"--told the Denver Post he would eventually like to meet Holmes.
"I want to see him sometime," O'Farrill, one of 58 people wounded in the shooting, said. "The first thing I want to say to him is 'I forgive you,' and the next is, 'Can I pray for you?'" (continued)
Friday, January 13, 2012
Witches in Massachusetts Hold Seance to End Tim Tebow's Season
Dec. 11, 2011: Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow (15) prays in the end zone before the start of an NFL football game against the Chicago Bears, Sunday - AP Photo/Julie Jacobson
(Fox News) New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady may not need the help, but some witches are planning to cast a spell to put an end to Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow’s miraculous season.
Witches Lorelei and Lori Bruno were scheduled to hold a seance at noon today – Friday the 13th – at Haven Crow Corner in Salem, Mass. to fix a win for the Pats.
“I’m going to raise the energy of the universe and send out all the good mojo,” Lorelei told the Boston Herald. “Lori will call in the Angels.”
The good witches won’t hex Tebow, as it’s “not their way,” but plan on setting up an altar with a hand-sewn Brady puppet and mojo bags filled with herbs and stones for every Patriots team member.
At the altar, the witches will chant, “Tom Brady will see what he needs to see, be where he needs to be and will take the Patriots to another victory.”
Hunky QB Brady, married to supermodel Gisele Bundchen, is a bigger draw for the witches of Salem than another recent marquee recipient of their spells, Charlie Sheen.
“You know, when we had our spiritual intervention for Charlie Sheen last year, we had a hard time getting all the girls to come,” laughed Lorelei. “But when we told them this Circle was for Tom Brady, oh, everybody will be there!”
“We want the true champion to come out on Saturday night,” Bruno added. “But since we live in Patriot Land, it’s red, white and blue and make the dream come true!”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)