My kids do have a white crayon each (in addition to about 20 other colours) because sometimes they are doing things on coloured paper.

kohinoor

Just read this in some german forum. Its followed by a discussion how strange Americans must be if this is true and where things like this will lead some day.

-------------------------

June 17, 2005
Gay Coloring Assignment Has Parents of Nursery Schoolers Seeing Red

Parents of toddlers attending a Geneva, NY nursery school responded in outrage after their children were instructed to draw and color a known symbol of the homosexual agenda: the rainbow. The school has since apologized for the episode and is taking measures to prevent future incidents, including limiting the number of crayons and markers which children can use to color.


A move to limit coloring tots to three shades: red, white and blue

By Cole Walters, education correspondent

GENEVA, NY—When four-year-old Amanda Parker arrived home from nursery school at East Street Elementary last week, she was eager to show her parents the picture she'd drawn that day. But when the tot removed the crayon-on-manila-paper creation from her bulging backpack, her parents were shocked at what they saw. Amanda had drawn and colored a rainbow, the official symbol of the homosexual agenda in this country.


"To say we were taken aback would be a serious understatement," says Amanda's father Dan, a facilities technician. "As soon as we saw what she had in her hand our jaws just dropped." Then came the hard part: Dan and his wife Margie had to explain to their daughter what was wrong with the picture she'd drawn and the colors she'd used.

"She got it," he notes. "We tore it up as a family." That night, with Amanda tucked in and in the arms of the Sandman, Dan and Margie began to discuss filing a lawsuit against the school.

For school, not pot of gold
Administrators at East Street Elementary declined to talk to the press, but sources close to the school say that they've acted quickly to curtail any damage stemming from the incident. Katie Chernowitz, the teacher who encouraged her students to both draw and color rainbows, has been placed on indefinite administrative leave. The school has also moved to limit the colors of markers, crayons and paints that its K-4 students can use in an effort to prevent future rainbow incidents from occurring and further tarring the school's reputation.



Color me angry
That's good news, says peeved parent Connie Martineau, who called the school principal after her son Scout expressed some discomfort about the rainbow coloring assignment. "We've taught him well," says Mrs. Martineau. "He knows that a rainbow, especially one that includes colors like pink and purple, isn't just something you see in the sky after it rains. It's a symbol of the homosexual agenda."

Now, several of the parents have formed a committee to approve in-class assignments—from coloring to spelling exercises—to ensure that they meet strict family values standards. "If we had learned that the teacher expected them to color rainbows, you can guarantee that it wouldn't have happened," says Mrs. Martineau.

Searching for symbols
The rainbow incident is just the latest skirmish in an increasingly hard-fought culture war, in which parents like Martineau must be hyper vigilant in the event that their children are exposed to gay-friendly images and language in the classroom. Parents across the country are now on the look out for rainbows and the colors used to create them, as well as other known symbols of the homosexual agenda including dancing flags, kites, bubble gum, tambourines, whistles and green lasers.



Three colors: red, white and blue
Back at the Parker's house, Dan and Margie are helping Amanda prepare for another day at nursery school. Into the VeggieTales book bag goes a snack pack, a child's cardigan and a small box of crayons. This last item is new—just a week ago, Amanda routinely took a 64-count box of crayons to school, including a set of multicultural crayons to help her draw and color different skin tones. But today Amanda is taking just three crayons to school: one each in red, white and blue.

"That may not be every color in the rainbow but that's really the point," says Dan Parker. "If she has to give up a few colors to fight the homosexual agenda, it's worth it."

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Comments from the other side of the ocean?

kohinoor

Hi,

I just wanted to say that I am not here very often. I am even a bit ashamed because I must admit that mostly I just look in here when I need help with some translation. But I have to say that whenever I posted I always got kind answers.

Mrs Bean,  its up to all users to make a forum live. So its up to you as well as the others. If everybody is just waiting for somebody else to start a discussion nothing will happen. And you can start this just as well as anybody else ( as you can see in the response in this thread.

kohinoor

Well how is:

wooden spoon
steel sauce pan
non stick frying pan
sponge
bedsheets
pillow
batteries for remote control air condition
pay TV (s.. channel)

some examples of reimbursement requests  i got here from some consultants

Kohinoor

Well it is to late for this letter, but I am sure there are more to come.

But I think I will have difficulty to remember and use the word facility in this context  because somehow (I don't know why) in my mind it links with the word toilet.

Kohinoor

Thank you, I will. Whenever I get the chance to take  a look in here. Which is not as often as I would like to.

Kohinoor

It is not a software. It is a new video conference system. And our plants / factories / sales offices are all over the world, Europe (including UK), North- and South America, Asia, Africa, Australia. So I am not sure which to choose plant or factory. And this letter is going to the "big bosses" of each plant / factory, that's why I would like to have it in "good english" not just my attempts of  a translation .

Thank you so much. This was really fast and sounds so much nicer than what I wrote.  Seems I need a lot more exercise to improve my english.

Kohinoor

Can you please help me to put this in more elegant phrases:

Attached you receive the approved application including all its attachments. You can now proceed to install the new system keeping to the budget planned for your plant. The details about the planned budgets you will find in the attachements to the application.


Thank you - Kohinoor

We use a HP 4600 and I prefer it very much to the old Deskjet we had. It is faster and everything seens clearer than with our old deskjet.  It takes quite a lot of space though. Printing quality is good but you have to get used to it that the colours seem darker on overhead presentations.

Here is something I just read in the german Forum. I hope my translation is o.k.





You know you are overweight if you are relaxing at the beach and somebody from Greenpeace comes along and roll you back into the sea.

Don't know if you had this one here before:





The European Union commissioners have announced that agreement

has been reached to adopt English as the preferred language for

European communications, rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's Government conceded that

English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five-year

phased plan for what will be known as EuroEnglish (Euro for short).



In the first year, 's' will be used instead of the soft 'c'.

Sertainly, sivil servants will resieve this news with joy.

Also, the hard 'c' will be replaced with 'k.'

Not only will this klear up konfusion, but typewriters kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when

the troublesome 'ph' will be replaced by 'f'.

This will make words like 'fotograf' 20 per sent shorter.

In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to

reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will

enkourage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to

akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of silent 'e's in the

languag is disgrasful, and they would go.

By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as

replasing 'th' by 'z' and 'w' by 'v'.

During ze fifz year, ze unesesary 'o' kan be dropd from vords

kontaining 'ou', and similar changes vud of kors; be aplid to

ozer kombinations of leters.

After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil b

no mor trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu

understand ech ozer. Ze drem vil finali kum tru.

 

I am glad that you are just the people you are. I like this attitude of reaching out giving and at the same time receiving strength. This will help you to overcome this difficult time.



I wish we could do more for you from over here except donating some money for the victims and their families.  But at least we want to tell you and show to you that we all feel with you and I hope that this will give you even more strength.



Yes venim and Elleny - build those towers again - show them that they will never be able to subdue the american spirit.





The following part is "stolen" from RadarOs post but it expresses so well my thoughts, that I hope RadarO will forgive me for "stealing" it:



Do not give in to terrorism! To the extent that you can, aid the victims and grieve but go on with your life as normally as possible. The evil forces that perpetrated those cowardly acts will not be victorious as long as you limit the effect those events have on your lives. So, to the extent possible, you need things to get back to normal quickly and have all activities resume as soon as can be.



With these words I will leave the office for today, but I will not leave you. My heart stays with you und you stay in my thoughts.



Birgitta Thalhofer  / Grevenbroich - Germany



 

My heart goes out to all of you in America.



When I heard about this tragedy yesterday afternoon in the office I tried to check in with you but could not get into the net. I wanted to tell you how much we all here in Germany feel with you. I wish we could help you in some way in this hour of need.



We watched tv last night till midnight, tears in the eyes, not able to believe what we saw. And when they showed those Palestinians dancing in the streets I wanted to hit them right into their laughing faces. No cause in this world, politically or religious or whatever is good enough to have thousands of innocent people die for it.



I pray for the victims of this act of terror and I hope that those responsible for this will soon be found an punished.



Don't remain in this state of shock. Thats what those terrorist want. Stand up an fight. Show the world what you are: a proud and strong nation with strong people ready to defend themselves and the world and freedom you believe in.



We all are with you.



Kohinoor

Here in Germany there are many people who are afraid to be involved in a war. Espeically elder people (my parents generation) who lived through WW II don't want to see war coming to our country again and most people (of all ages) are afraid that siding with the US will elicit (or is "instigate " the right word?)  the terrorists to attack Germany as well. But even though they are afraid most people think it was right to pledge our alliance to the US because in the opinion of most people the attack was on the whole free world. It was just the first strike that hit in America but it was meant for us all. We often talk about these things over here and most people I know think it is important to do something against terrorism now and to do it together.  It won't stop if we don't stop it and chances are better to do something the more people / countries stand together. With things like these terrorist attacks you cannot say "that happened in America - it's far away". These attacks are not against a certain country (or continent) they are against our freedom and our ideals. And we have to fight for our freedom and our ideals. Not only for the US but for ourselves as well.



This is my opinion and also the opinion of most people I know.



Birgitta

from Germany