ENID —



You can always count on Fox News to report on obscure things that have to do with religion or patriotism.

As far as I can tell, they are the only network reporting two apparently outrageous things that happened last week. One story was about a nursing home that decided residents couldn’t pray before their meals because the meals are provided by federal funding.

The other was a story about a California middle school student who was told by her teacher to stop drawing an American flag because it was “offensive.”

Both these stories are hot topics in the blogosphere world -- where they actually belong rather than being reported as major news on a major cable network.

Still, the very fact these two things occurred shows that more and more people are simply losing the concept of common sense. But, also, the fact they are being reported as major news just contributes to the polarization of our nation.

A nursing home administrator thinks that just because some of their residents’ meals are provided by a federal grant, it means the nursing home residents can’t say grace before the meals?

That’s just plain stupid. I don’t know what genius thought this up, but he or she obviously is not a thinking person. First of all, anyone, anywhere can say a prayer anytime they want. All this nursing home official did was make himself or herself look stupid to the rest of the nation. My hope is that the nursing home residents ignore the administrators and loudly pray all they want before the meals. ( I think that is exactly what they are doing)

Too many people have gotten way off course when it comes to this issue of separation of church and state.

And, as far as the teacher in California who confronted the girl about drawing an American flag, she obviously has no business in a classroom. This is one reason so many school patrons don’t support the idea of tenure for teachers.

People can make a political issue of just about anything they want these days. Both extremists on the right and left do it. What is starting to disappear is the concept of common sense and realistic thinking.

I would bet that no matter what your religious or political beliefs, in most instances 90 percent of you would not give a thought to either of these occurrences -- senior citizens praying before a meal or a child drawing an American flag as an art project. Its when idiotic people decide to make political statements with these things they get blown out of proportion, blasted all over the media and people start drawing lines in the sand.

I know how I would personally have handled these two situations if they had occurred in my life. And, I would have won my case, and we would all have gone about our business without all the hoopla and attention.

We all just need to settle down and quit being so dramatic about every little thing.