Anatomy of a diss denied--ACLU almosts snubs atheist donation

This has to do with the story of Constance McMillian, a very nice girl in the Itawamba School district in Mississippi, who managed to get the whole prom cancelled just by being herself. This problem was supposed to be remedied by two organizations that I actually have been a supporter of for a long time.

It's a nice thing that I got the updated story from Friendly Atheist or I would have been a bit disgruntled with the ACLU in Mississippi from reading this article from The New York Times that indicated that the generous $20,000 donation from Todd and Diana Stiefel via AHA might be denied for a fairly silly reason:

The gift, to sponsor one of several privately sponsored alternate events, came from the American Humanist Association, an advocacy group whose mission is to promote “good without God.”

“Although we support and understand organizations like yours, the majority of Mississippians tremble in terror at the word ‘atheist,’ ” Jennifer Carr, the fund-raiser for the A.C.L.U of Mississippi, wrote in an e-mail message to Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the humanist group.

According to Matthew Sheffield, a spokesman for the Mississippi Safe Schools Coalition, the organization arranging the event, the A.C.L.U. of Mississippi did not have authority to decline the gift.

“We asked someone at the A.C.L.U. to assist us in handling all the donations, and that person told them we were not interested and that is not true,” he said.

Mr. Sheffield said that after getting answers to a few questions, their board would decide whether to accept the gift.

(The part I emboldened is the part that made me choke on my peanuts for a moment. "Tremble in terror at"? I need to throw my atheism around a bit so I can be more tremble-worthy. I am doing this atheism thing wrong!)

Anyways, the grown-ups figured out how not to suck, and the ACLU apologized. Now they just have to accept the money, and get on with giving the kids a nice time--or something like that. You only get senior prom a couple times, if you're lucky.

(I'm not really sure where the "trembling in terror" about godless money or a prom with gay kids even comes from. Either people are raising kids to live in the real world or to be so many "bubble-children", insulated from anything different. And I'm still wishing all the Itawamba kids a nice prom.)