The Eagle and the Arrow

An eagle was soaring through the air when suddenly…it heard the whiz of an arrow.  Slowly it fell to the earth–with its lifeblood flowing out of it.  Looking up on the arrow with which it was pierced it found that the shaft of the arrow had been feathered with one of its own plumes.  “Alas!,” it cried as it died, “we often give our enemies the means of our own destruction.”    –Aesop

March 25th is coming soon.  Our local school board will vote on the proposed Amendment One policy.  While some good changes were made to the new proposed policy (coaches can bow their heads when players pray, school officials can attend baccalaureate and be referred to as school officials, outside benevolent groups can distribute materials to students), one haunting question remains:  what about the final section that addresses faculty and staff?

In the first meeting at Marion Elementary, Mr. Brown, the school board attorney, warned that teachers would feel restricted by this section.  Why are we proposing a policy that is incomplete?  What is going to be included in the final section?  Why not include it now?

If school board officials vote to approve the proposed policy, I fear a slow death of our own making.  I fear that we will pull the arrow out of our school system only to discover that we put it there.  It may not happen now.  We may even soar for a few weeks, or months, even years.  But the inevitable arrow of a restrictive, oppressive, unnecessary policy will fly.

We don’t have to be the means of our own destruction.