A Major Victory for Traditional America

A major victory for traditional America. That is the subject of this evening's "Talking Points Memo."

Last night, the Hillsborough County School Board near Tampa, Florida reversed its decision to remove religious holidays from school calendars. We reported the story last week. The folks in Florida rose up and the school board backed down. Good.

"Talking Points" was clear in stating that public school students need to be taught about America's Judeo-Christian traditions. And eliminating religious observance and what they're all about is anti-education, in our opinion.

The controversy began when a Muslim group asked the school board to ad a holiday for Ramadan. Rather than deal with that request, the board eliminated all religious holidays.

Predictably, The St. Petersburg-Times, a radical left newspaper is all for the religious holiday ban and framed the issue as anti-Muslim. Reporter Melanie Obb wrote, "The FOX News Channel's Bill O'Reilly has focused on the involvement of Muslims... Bishop Chuck Leigh, pastor of the Apostolic Catholic Church in Tampa, said he was invited to speak on O'Reilly's show but was turned away after he refused to say the secular calendar was an affront to Christians."

Ms. Obb is simply lying. If you watched our coverage last week, the only Muslim angle was explaining how the controversy began and my comment that the request was like asking Pakistan to declare All Saints Day a holiday. That was it.

As for Pastor Lee, he was one of many potential guests interviewed by "Factor" producer Kim Harvey. He was not selected. At no time was the pastor ever told what to say.

Ms. Obb did not even call us for a comment, a major sin in journalism, but I'm not surprised. Again, The St. Petersburg-Times is a dishonest, far left publication that does not deserve reader or advertiser support, period.

Now the school board's decision and its reversal is not due to me. It happened because the folks have simply had enough.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You forgot a creator that created you. And this day, you stand here tell us we can't have, but you aren't the voice. We are. We voted you in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why does it become necessary to be ashamed of our religious heritage?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If any of you all here tonight claim to be a Christian, I pray that you reevaluate what your beliefs are.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't want Christmas to ever be a winter holiday. Christmas is an American tradition. I'm 70-years-old and it has always been so.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If 86 percent of Americans believe in God, that means you are taking away a traditional holiday from those children.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Now American students must understand how their country was formed, and why most Americans call themselves Christian, and what the difference is between Christianity, Judaism, and other major theologies of the world. To suppress the education of religion is an affront to the First Amendment.

So a big win in Florida for traditional Americans. And a big loss for the secular progressives and the media who support them. Again, good.

And that's "The Memo."

The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day

Four every day folks from Jacksonville, Oregon, hit the lottery to the tune of — ready — $340 million. Nice.

Robert and Frances Chaney, their daughter Carolyn, her husband Steve West will split $110 million after taxes, because they're taking their winnings in a lump sum.

The quartet has hired financial advisors and are taking things very slowly, which is very smart. Handling that kind of money impulsively would be ridiculous. Congratulations to Robert, Frances, Carolyn and Steve. And I do not believe we will be seeing them in any clubs.

—You can catch Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" and "Most Ridiculous Item" weeknights at 8 and 11 p.m. ET on the FOX News Channel. Send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com