Georgia woman continues her fight to rid school libraries of "witchcraft-promoting" Harry Potter

[marmar]

:crazy:


from the Altanta Journal-Constitution:


Next installment of mom vs. Potter set for Gwinnett court

By BEN SMITH
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 05/29/07

Laura Mallory and Harry Potter are to meet in court on Tuesday.

Mallory, whose children attend school in Gwinnett, wants the popular series of books about the fictional boy wizard exorcised from Gwinnett County's public school libraries.

Mallory is scheduled to appear in Gwinnett Superior Court Tuesday morning to argue the "Potter" stories are harmful and promote witchcraft and the occult to young people. Supporters of the "Potter" books say they encourage children to read and should be available to all students.

Since she launched her anti-Potter crusade in 2005, Mallory has taken her case to administrators at the Loganville elementary school her children attend; to a school appeals committee; to the Gwinnett County Board of Education; and to the Georgia Board of Education. She's lost at each level.

Along the way, she's been derided by columnists and in letters to the editor in publications as far away as Canada. In a Dec. 15 editorial, the Augusta Chronicle called Mallory's campaign "ludicrous" and said, "Ms. Mallory and her ilk are tilting at the wrong windmill."

Still, Mallory insists her campaign to kick Harry Potter out of public school libraries has been worth it.

"Some parents who've heard about the controversy in the media, now, instead of taking Harry Potter at face value, they've started looking into the effects of it," Mallory said.

Mallory bases her claim, in part, on testimonials and Internet articles by conservative Christian authors that she's posted on her Web site.

Mallory acknowledges she hasn't read any of the six books in the "Harry Potter" series. The seventh — and final one — is scheduled for release this summer.

Regardless of the outcome of today's hearing, Mallory said she'll go "as far as necessary to get the truth out." .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.ajc.com/search/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2007/05/28/0529metPOTTER.html

[Manifestor_of_Light]

1. The biggest jerks in court are the people who represent themselves.

I know. I've seen people do it and have juries laugh at them.

She needs to get a life. How about feeding the hungry, like Jesus suggested? Huh?

[spoony]

17. That's because they just want the soapbox

a courtroom provides. Smart people let lawyers do their thing, ideologues see the spotlight and clear their throat for a long speech.

[Bitwit1234]

2. Maybe we should try to ban right wing books...

after all they promote, fraud, sex perversion, lying, war monglering, stealing tax payer money. Can you think of anything else. Oh yes...presidency stealing.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

40. Like the Bible.

[Az]

3. She's gonna have a caniption fit when the Golden Compass hits the theaters

The first of the His Dark Materials triology it was create as the anti-Narnia series by its author.

[rwenos]

4. It's a F*cking Children's Story

I got into this with a fundie when one of the previous volumes was published. Arguments that C.S. Lewis, one of the most literate Christians of the 20th Century, used to write stories with Merlin in them were comletely unavailing.

These people have a fetish (I use the term deliberately) for finding *****s under the rug.

I'm reminded of Ernest Hemingway's take on college classes studying "The Old Man and the Sea." He said, "The fish is a fish. The boy is a boy. The boat is a boat. The old man is an old man."

[barb162]

5. What an IDIOT!

[Spinzonner]

6. How about ridding the courts of Harry Potter demoting witches /

[MorningGlow]

23. She's no witch

We witches have brains. And compassion. And we heartily believe in "live and let live" and try not to judge people--even ones like this...

[Spinzonner]

31. Please forgive me

I was having Wizard of Oz flashbacks

[MorningGlow]

32. No worries!

We've endured thousands of years of bad PR. I guess we're the original liberals!
:hi:

[heart of darkness]

7. Maybe we need a campaign

to donate more Harry Potter books to the Gwinnett library. Also maybe a subscription to National Geographic, because you know that only fornicators get that magazine.

[marmar]

8. Sounds like a plan.....

Welcome to DU! Bienvenidos! Bienvenue! Wilkommen!

[heart of darkness]

20. thanks!

just adding my $0.02..

[Norrin Radd]

9. Someone needs to inform her that you really can't fly around on a broomstick.

Really, you can't.

[Marrah_G]

29. holy shit... you can't?

All this time I just thought I kept buying duds.......

[uppityperson]

10. Wait 'til Golden Compass movie comes out.

Phillip Pullman was the author. Harry Potter-phobics will look like amateurs.

[melody]

11. We need to declare war on these bullies with no lives and chase them back into their houses

The more emboldened these monsters become, the more they try to do.

[TygrBright]

12. Somebody please send her a copy of "His Dark Materials" trilogy...

...I'm lissenin' for the sound of exploding head from Augusta...

interestedly,
Bright

[China_cat]

13. She lost. Again.

[Swamp Rat]

14. Mallory wins the Stupid Award!

:dunce:

The Gwinnett Superior Court should fine her for frivolous lawsuits in the future... make her PAY each time she does this and I bet it would stop. ;)

[marmar]

19. Agreed....

:dunce: :dunce: :dunce:

[badgerpup]

15. And any 'magic' or 'witchcraft' that kids attempt using Harry Potter...

...is not going to work.

It differs greatly from much of the legitimate literature on the craft...but she employs enough accuracy to get people asking questions: "Why'd she call it that? Is that for REAL? Did they really believe/think/do that?" and maybe engage little brains in things like word origin, or folklore, or REAL botany, or CRITICAL THINKING. :eyes::banghead:

F'rinstance...
Didja know there really IS such a thing as a boomslang?
It's a very poisonous little dude...name means 'tree snake'.

[Az]

16. Its not the magic that scares them

It is the critical thinking. Most of what Harry does is about thinking. And the most scary thinking he does in the books is about what is right and what is wrong. The problem with the Potter series is that it is a moral relativist tale. Good and Evil are not defined by some dogmatic authority.

[badgerpup]

33. I never thought of it THAT way, but now that you mention it...

I see what you mean.
Harry and friends are forced to make their choices about what is Good or Evil solely by what they themselves have evolved as a moral code and take their lumps like adults.

No use fobbing it off on a Higher Authority...the only Higher Authorities here are the grownups- and while many of them ARE kindly and supportive, they are often unavailable and always cryptic and enigmatic.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

42. She's too stupid to realize that.

Those so called "spells" are actually Latin phrases for the action.

But she has no idea what Latin is, let alone would study it.

[AtomicKitten]

18. does 'rid' by chance mean burn?

Birdie Godsen

Age 42. Devout Christian. Married to Bob, a tobacco industry executive, they live on Dan Quail Drive within a graceful, gated, guarded community with their seven home-schooled children.

[PA Democrat]

21. Sounds like someone needs to get a REAL problem.

[gravity]

22. Ya'll just need to chill out for a second

and realize that this shit is hilarious :rofl:

[distantearlywarning]

24. I've got an idea for her.

It will take a lot less energy and money on her part than fighting this battle. And it will probably work well for keeping her children away from the evil force that is J.K. Rowling.

Here's the idea: she can tell her own kids that they're not allowed to check out Harry Potter books from the library.

Brilliant, huh? :evilgrin:

[sakabatou]

25. She's already getting burned at fstdt

Man, she's a bitch.

[jgraz]

26. Please, God, someone find this woman a hobby

I'm thinking she could probably handle a hot-glue gun. Seashells and lampshades, anyone?

[gollygee]

27. This is great publicity for the next book

good timing.

[HughBeaumont]

28. This is the sort of thing fundies worry about.

That and whether strippers grind their asses on one's lap.

Where do I live again?

[Lorien]

30. The concept of fiction is lost on her. Rowling deserves a Knighthood

for getting millions of children worldwide interested in reading. My twelve year old cousin first read Harry Potter at age seven, all by herself. She now devours a book a day and has become a very well spoken and well informed little girl who has excellent grades!

[Ilsa]

34. I may have to get her with the Cruciatus Curse, and unforgivable

curse from book four. It inflicts pain and torture to the point of insanity. She's already there if she thinks this is real or that I could do it.

[emdee]

35. In 2009, Universal in FL will have a HP Theme Park....

Knowing the Rabid-Right-Wing mindframe, I'd guess that this lady will take her kids to the theme park!!
emdee

[walldude]

36. Mallory acknowledges she hasn't read any of the six books

Case... Fucking... Closed...

[and-justice-for-all]

37. damn evil, evil FICTION...

..She better see to it that ALL religious text are pulled from the library too.

[napi21]

38. Why is it that all the loony tunes I hear about are either in Fl or Ga?

DAMN! I live in Ga, and in the county neighboring Gwinnett. I have no problem with Harry Potter books, in fact, I think that series has done a lot of good in promoting childhood reading. Is there something in the damn water here? I know Lake Lanier (five minutes from my house) supplies water to Atlanta, much of south Ga. and Fl too! Maybe we should have the damn water tested!!!!!!!!!!!!

[flying_monkeys]

39. So the dollars she spent forcing Gwinnet to defend

COULD have been used to help teach kids how to read.... but nooooo, she made the county spend those dollars fighting a CHILDREN'S FANTASY SERIES.


Did anybody tell her the spells in the book were MADE UP?


I hate to say it, but it kills me that her vote at the polls can cancel out my own..... I know, that is democracy at work - - but oh it pains me some days....

[cynatnite]

41. Geez, I wonder what she says about Bewitched n/t

[greenbriar]

43. what an fing nutjob

she hasnt' even read it so what would she know