Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Help! Help! I'm being oppressed!

Woman claims she's being oppressed because she's being treated the same as everyone else.

Shirley Chaplin doesn't look like a religious nutjob. She's a nurse who worked at a hospital that banned all necklaces for safety reasons. The elderly patients she cared for have a tendency to grab things when being moved or treated and a necklace is a nice shiny object that poses the exact kind of safety hazard the hospital wants to minimize.

Ms. Chaplin however, disagrees. You see, her necklace has a gold cross. Even though someone wearing an Islamic Crescent, a Star of David, a Wicca Pentagram or a Flying Spaghetti Monster would all be asked to remove their necklaces in the workplace, Shirley Chaplin's cross is special. She considers it persecution that she's being held to the exact same standards as everyone else.

The hospital makes concessions for religious clothing, like head scarves, but not for jewelry. Being the whiny, self centered twit that she is, Ms Chaplin has gotten her clergy involved. The clergy in turn has decided to claim that this safety rule is an example of religious persecution.

Who is it asking for special rights again?