A Good Day to be an American

I read an interesting article on MSNBC today. It reminded me how good it truly is to be an American.

Sudan Arrests Teacher Over 'Mohammed' Bear
Briton Allows Her Class of 7-Year-Olds to Choose Teddy Bear's Name

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21973378/?GT1=10547

So a teacher, Gillian Gibbons, who works at Unity School in Khartoum, Sudan, was arrested and "accused of insulting Islam's Prophet by letting her class of 7-year-olds name a teddy bear Muhammed..." She's been "charged with 'blasphemy', an offense... punishable with up to three months in prison and a fine." Apparently, she's being charged "under article 125 of the criminal law, which covers insults against faith and religion."

The course plan for the second graders was to learn about the habitat of the bear. A teddy bear was brought into class by one of the students as part of the project. "The bear itself was not marked or labeled with the name in any way." The students in Gibbons' class voted on the name for the teddy bear. (Voting - how strangely democratic.)

While reading this article, I recalled that my ex husband's uncle once had a dog - a black lab - that he named Nigger. Whether or not the man is racist is irrelevant, I suppose. The dog was black and so he felt the name was appropriate. He certainly wasn't arrested for offending anyone (and I'm sure he offended many).

Yep, it's definitely a good day to be an American...