Archive for October, 2009
32 items.
Some times Yahoo showcases some rather fascinating articles. For example, yesterday I read one about a Home Depot employee getting fired for wearing a pin that said “One nation under God, indivisible.”
You can find the whole article here.
What I found to be absolutely fascinating were these sections:
“I’ve worn it for well over a year and I support my country and God,” Trevor Keezor said Tuesday. “I was just doing what I think every American should do, just love my country.”
The American flag button Keezer wore in the Florida store since March 2008 says “One nation under God, indivisible.”
Earlier this month, he began bringing a Bible to read during his lunch break at the store in the rural town of Okeechobee, about 140 miles north of Miami. That’s when he says The Home Depot management told him he would have to remove the button.
Keezer refused, and he was fired on Oct. 23, he said.
And then, at the end of the article, there was this:
Michael Masinter, a civil rights and employment law professor at NOVA Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, said any lawsuit over religious discrimination might be a tough one to win.
“Because it’s a private business, not one that’s owned and operated by the government, it doesn’t have to operate under the free speech provisions of the First Amendment,” Masinter said.
“But we’re not talking about religious displays here,” he said. “This sounds more like a political message … Wearing a button of that sort would not easily be described as a traditional form of religious expression like wearing a cross or wearing a yarmulke.”
The whole gist of the article is that this is an issue of a man just trying to be proud of his country. It’s a political issue. Well, I think that’s a load of malarkey. And whoever came up the headline apparently agrees:
Fla. man says Home Depot fired him over God button
Note that it doesn’t read: Fla. man says Home Depot fired him over USA Pride button
But, you know what? Let’s give the benefit of the doubt here. If this wasn’t a case of religious discrimination, as Mr. Masinter claims it isn’t, why did Keezor’s superiors at Home Depot let him wear the pin for over a year and only got on his case about it AFTER he started bringing his Bible into work?
Smells pretty fishy, if you ask me.
