Tulsa Zoo "creationism" exhibit cancelled, Park Board reverses itself!

[karlrschneider]

http://www.kotv.com/main/home/main.asp

A bit of sanity, at last...

[QuettaKid]

1. All I can say is

thank G-d!!

[DisassemblingHisLies]

2. Common sense prevails.

[OKNancy]

3. Yeah!!

I sent my letter in! My husband, on reading the Tulsa World this morning, said that LaFortune ( Tulsa mayor) has gone off the deep end. "He is in need of intense psychiatric care"

----------

LOL - I just read the actual story:

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- Tulsa's Park and Recreation Board voted Thursday morning to drop plans for adding a creationism exhibit at the Tulsa Zoo.

The board voted 3-to-1 to reverse last month's decision to allow the exhibit. Mayor Bill LaFortune was the only dissenting vote.

[orleans]

14. the mayor has to vote for the side of religion

he probably wants to be reelected

i can't imagine this bullshit would hold water in chicago though. (picture that--mayor daly pushing his religion on lincoln park zoo--it would be comical)

[rainbow4321]

19. It was the mayor who told the zoo employees..

to NOT attend the initial Park Board meeting about the display, per one article out of Tulsa when the story first came out. So the zoo people were kind of blind sided by it all since they never did get to give THEIR input.
IMHO, the zoo/mayor figured it would all happen under the radar and the local fundies would be kept happy, so all would be good.
Congrats to the locals <and others> who stood up and got this reversed!!

[supernova]

4. Yay! Sanity reigns!

I was so worried this claptrap would go through.

[Darwins Finch]

5. Wonderful!

Another little victory for reason. Thanks for posting this!

[Ernesto]

6. Thank God!

(just kidding!)

[goodboy]

7. good for them! Suck it FUNDIES! (nt)

[Ysolde]

8. Thank goodness!

Now I can renew my membership! I was one of those residents that threatened the zoo with cancelling (in my case, not renewing) our long time commitment to the zoo if they went ahead with this. It's just horrible the amount of dogma these fundamentalists want to shove down everyone's throat. I'm just glad that Mr. Helmerich (chair of the zoo board) came to his senses.

[Straight Shooter]

9. I listened to the artist's explanation in an interview aired on NPR

He was full of it. I don't know how big this particular exhibit would be, but he was saying that the other cultural representations in the zoo were also religious expressions, and so why not this one, too? His interpretation of pantheism was way off base.

The difference being, I thought, that the other representations, such as Ganesha near the elephants, were not overwhelmingly in people's face and were placed close to the part of the zoo with which they were culturally associated.

Thank goodness the Park Board came to its senses.

[Ysolde]

13. Yeah, I heard that idiot too.

The part that annoyed me the most was that because he is intent on shoving his religion down everyone's throats he believes that others are doing that too.

I've been a long, long time zoo member and supporter and none of those things that he so objected to ever struck me as religious displays. The Ganesha display is a beautiful statue of an elephant in front of the elephant house. The marble globe of the earth floating on a thin stream of water is a beautiful display of the earth, not of anyone's creation myth. My children love that globe and I love marveling at the water's strength. Not religious in any way.

The other displays that he objected to were completely educational. Of course, close minded idiots don't want anyone educated because educated, rational beings won't be led or duped by such as he!

[Ian David]

10. Related Articles

Park board rejects mayor, creationist diplay for zoo
Tulsa World (subscription), OK - 1 hour ago
By Staff Reports. The Tulsa park board has reversed itself on Thursday and rejected a planned creationist display for the Tulsa Zoo. ...
http://www.tulsaworld.com/BreakingNewsStory.asp?ID=0507...

Tulsa Zoo's ' Creation' Exhibit
KOTV, OK - 18 hours ago
A controversial creation exhibit for the Tulsa Zoo is up for a vote again Thursday. The plaque was initially approved by the city of Tulsa park board last month ...
http://www.kotv.com/main/home/stories.asp?whichpage=1&i...

Tulsa Zoo caught in creationism-vs.-science flap
Pioneer Press, MN - Jul 6, 2005
... places for religion and there are times and places for science," said Dale McNamara, the lone member of the zoo's governing body, the Tulsa Park and Recreation ...
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/nation/12...

Bush takes a birthday tumble off his bicycle
Newark Star Ledger, NJ - 2 hours ago
GLENEAGLES, Scotland -- President Bush, in Scotland for the Group of Eight economic summit this week, collided with a local police officer and fell during a ...
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-1/11...

[OKNancy]

11. LOL

is that last link because there are chimps in the zoo!!!
Too funny

[Roland99]

12. YES!

[damntexdem]

15. Well, there is some good news today.

I guess I won't boycott the Tulsa Zoo anymore. Of course, I'm very unlikely to go there, in any case.

[PurityOfEssence]

16. Even the monkeys were laughing

The fear of the unknown must be a bummer to those who need to think they understand the entire universe.

[yellowcanine]

17. The monkeys probably don't want it known that they are related to the

stupid humans.

[rocktivity]

18. The beginning of a Christo-fundie backlash, I hope

A group called Friends of Religion and Science...collected nearly 2,000 signatures on an online petition asking the park board to reverse its decision.

Friends Of Religion And Science? Absolute poetry--Howard Dean should hire whoever came up with it. Well, thanks for giving me a reason to be cheerful today!


rocknation

[MGKrebs]

20. Congratulations Tulsa activists!

You made a difference today.

[depakid]

21. It all started with an elephant???

"The controversy started when a Christian group noticed an elephant statue at the zoo, which they say represents the Hindu god, Ganesha."

I honestly don't know how you DU'rs who live in communities full of people like this still manage to maintain your sanity....

[ismnotwasm]

22. I'm sure Ganesha has a creation myth

Since they want to use that arguement, I would imagine there are several thousand creationist myths involving different animals that could be represented. You know--just to be fair. Get everyone of them on display at the zoo, by that logic. Taxpayer would love it. Anyway good job! Another fundie takeover struck down

[Richard Steele]

27. Does any one have photos of this allegedly "religious" elephant statue?

I'm curious to see it, because every story seems to be worded as
"the fundies CLAIM it represents Ganesha"...

The link in the OP included a fundie saying, "Whether they intended it to represent Ganesha is not the point"....

So is it Ganesha, or are these Fascist types just getting their panties in a knot over an elephant statue?

[wallwriter]

23. Maybe they could do Noah's Ark instead...

[Initech]

24. Ha ha, the fundies lost this one!

And I'll say it again, Nelson style: HA HA!

[really annoyed]

25. Wonderful

This story made my day!

[earthboundmisfit]

26. Hooray! Surprised but GLAD that good sense & reason prevailed!

I actually didn't expect reason to win out here, and agree it was the petition that did the trick! Good job, all involved!

Crazy-ass Dan Hicks has been trying to churchify the Tulsa Zoo for a LONG time - since the 90's.
Dig this: "TULSA ZOO REMOVES EVOLUTION EXHIBIT"(from 1996!)
Tulsa architect Dan Hicks, supported by a petition signed by 2000 area residents, plus a scientifically conducted poll showing that over 2/3 of the city's population believed the zoo should not promote evolution, was able recently to persuade city officials to remove exhibits depicting horse evolution and human evolution from display at the zoo... more at: www.icrcult.org/hs/icr3cult.htm

[proud2BlibKansan]

28. Do these idiot fundies even think about what they do??

"The controversy started when a Christian group noticed an elephant statue at the zoo, which they say represents the Hindu god, Ganesha."

Does this mean they want to rid Oklahoma of cows? The Hindus worship them too.