When worlds collide

NEW YORK - The teachers' union for the nation's largest public school system accused the city on Friday of banning political campaign buttons and sued to reverse the policy, declaring that free speech rights were violated.

Last week, some University of Illinois faculty and students held an Obama rally on campus, claiming their right to support political candidates was under assault. Before the rally, the school released a statement saying state workers were prohibited by law from participating in political activities on university property. The school later said it never intended to enforce the law.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education recently sent a letter of protest after the University of Oklahoma instructed students and faculty and staff members not to use university e-mail to endorse or oppose a candidate. The group said it also had received complaints about bans on campaign activities at Iowa Western Community College and Fresno Pacific University in California.

Those of us who work for a living have two personalities. We have the personality we were born with and the one that we have developed by working every day. When we take the born-with one and bring it into workplace, we usually end up with a stern reprimand. Workplaces are different (just like us), but mine is very conservative and doesn't put up with anything that strays beyond the general completion of your job. Their opinion is; if you don't like it, there's the door. The trouble is, it's a grey area.

Today in Philadelphia, so-called hockey mom Sarah Palin will drop the first puck at the Flyers' home opener at the Wachovia Center. There has been much debate over the issue, and yesterday two letters appeared in the Inquirer from season ticket holders saying they were not going to any more games. Around here we call that cutting your nose off to spite your face. An online poll conducted by the paper showed it 64% were against the idea. I wonder how the Electoral College vote came out?

Expect to see a news story showing booing fans at the game tonight. That will be followed by them telling us what barbarians we are and how horribly we treated dear old Sarah.

But the Flyers (owned by Republican Ed Snider) have brought this on themselves and us. Snider donated $25,000 to the Republicans, so I guess he wants to get his money's worth. Hey Ed, we use sports as a respite from the everyday world. An escape. We go to games to cheer and yell for people doing things we wish we were doing. It's strange, but it's fun. There isn't anything we do at a sporting event that requires thinking about the real world.

Until today.

"She's dropped the ball on so many issues, it's little wonder they're trying to put her on ice," Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat, said in a statement to the New York Daily News.