The right not to be offended

An Italian mother has just won a case at The European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg to ban crucifixes in Italian public school classrooms. The 37 highly respected (and highly paid) lawyers at the court have spent a considerable amount of time and money to invent or discover "the right not to be offended" by the presence of religious symbols. Not very surprisingly, the Italian authorities have not yet accepted the court's decision.

So, why do I care?

If the decision of the court becomes valid one way or the other, it will have a whole bunch of strange effects all over Europe. One of them is that Norway, along with 19 other European countries, will have to change their official national flags. Imagine the process of selecting new national symbols in the 20 countries. Imagine the costs connected to carrying out whatever the decision might be in the 20 individual countries. Imagine what other corrective actions that would have to be implemented.

I'm a freethinker myself, but for once the Italian government has my support!