By the way, if you feel that my recent comparison of today's fundie Christians to those who burned the Library of Alexandria (and murdered the philosopher Hypatia) was inappropriate, consider this story which comes to us from Dover, PA.  You know Dover?  Where the Intelligent Design wackos are being challenged in court?  One of the many disturbing things coming out in this case is a story of a Dover Area High School janitor who burned a student mural depicting the evolution of man…

From Mural at issue: Two members applauded the burning of a depiction of evolution, Casey Brown testified. (York Daily Record):

…For his graduation requirement at Dover Area High School, the then-senior [Zach Strausbaugh] spent almost a semester working on the detailed 4-foot-by-16-foot painting of man evolving from his apelike ancestors. In 1998, he donated the work to his science department.

…when the now 25-year-old design engineer learned that Larry Reeser, the high school janitor at the time, burned his artwork two years ago because it offended him, well, he was a little disappointed.

“I think it's kind of ignorant,” said Strausbaugh, who lives in Dover. “Even if he didn't believe in it, it wasn't nice to destroy someone else's work.”

But in testimony Thursday in the fourth day of the Dover school district's federal trial over intelligent design, board members Bill Buckingham and Alan Bonsell were said to have defended the burning of Strausbaugh's painting. The testimony came in U.S. Middle District Court as the plaintiffs' attorneys were trying to show that board members had religious motivation when they approved intelligent design as a “balance” to the theory of evolution in the biology curriculum.

Former school board member Carol “Casey” Brown said Reeser destroyed the work because he thought it was full of lies, it offended his faith and he didn't want his granddaughter exposed to the graphic nature of the painting, something he considered to be “an obscenity.”

Brown said Buckingham later told her that what Reeser did was right and the district should not be accepting such donations of artwork.

Brown's husband, Jeff, also a former board member, recalled that in 2003, Bonsell also said he was offended by the mural.

“I remember him snorting through his nostrils,” Jeff Brown testified Thursday. “And saying something about kids shouldn't be exposed to this sort of thing.”

Reeser said Thursday night he agreed with Casey Brown's characterization of why he burned the mural.

“Did you see the monkey's genitals hanging out?” Reeser asked. “How would you like your granddaughter to sit next to that?”

Casey Brown said she had been told Reeser had been reprimanded “and subsequently retired,” but the 67-year-old said he had not been punished in any way…

Janitor by day, self appointed savior of children from monkey balls by night.  ARRRGH!  ::tearing hair out::

I have two answers to Reeser's question, “How would you like your granddaughter to sit next to that?”

1. I'll never know, now, because when you took it upon yourself to destroy a piece of artwork that didn't belong to you, you made that decision for me.  Unless I'm mistaken, my granddaughter will likely be in possession of her own genitals, and I really wouldn't want her going through life thinking she was abnormal or that genitals were “bad”.  It is through our genitals that we commit the wondrous act of creating babies.  Is that a bad thing?  Either way, it certainly was not your place to act in this manner, and says much about why you ended up employed as a high school janitor.
    
2. If there's anything I don't want my granddaughter sitting next to, it's you.  Monkey genitals are far preferrable.  You on the other hand, disgust me.  Shame on you, sir.

And shame on all in the Dover School Board who applauded such an appalling act.  Allowing for a moment that someone might be backward enough to be offended by a painting of a monkey with visible genitals in a high school, there are dozens of ways to deal with the issue that don't involve burning the painting.  How about lodging a complaint?  Selling the painting at auction?  Temporarily taking the painting down until its final disposition can be settled?  Or if it is really only about monkey balls, lobbying the school board to have the painting retouched, so that it can be about the evolution of Ken instead of the evolution of Man?

Sneaking into a classroom, taking down a painting, and burning it is an act of thievery and vandalism, even if it's a painting that personally offends you.  Nobody should be lauding such behavior, and certainly not somebody on the effing school board!!!  What message does this send to kids?