Pacific Coast Section Circuits for 2006-2007

[seak]

Originally Posted by midi

Some GREs are pencil and paper tests and you cannot take them anytime. If you have to take 2 subject tests, you have 2 dates.

Forgot about those two of them eek! Thankfully I only have to take the normal GRE's though

[counterattack]

Originally Posted by DHCJr

Midi, that does help. But there are some dates that are missing and should be added.

Krishna Junmashtami (Hindu) Sept 4
Diwali (Hindu) Nov 9
Birthday of Guru Nanak Dev Sahib (Sikh)
Eid al Adha (Islam)

These are all major religious Holidays for their respective religions.

You also might put down the SAT dates for the 2 and 3 day tournaments.

Seriously, though. This is either a small attempt at reductio ad absurdum or way overzealous. Earlier in the thread there seemed to be a little bit of latent frustration here from someone saying "what, 2% of the population?" and now this, implying that Hindu and Sikh holidays have the same national impact as the Jewish holy days. No one is claiming that the Jewish holidays are observed by as large a group as Christian holidays, but come on. This has nothing to do with determining which religion is more important than which other religion other than how it impacts fencing. Look at the roster of names of nationally ranked fencers. As far as it impacts the ability of fencers to fence in fencing tourneys the Jewish holidays are pretty important. And unless there is a bunch of Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh converts out there who didn't bother to change their names, there aren't enough of those groups involved in U.S. fencing.

Of course, maybe in Detroit (Muslim) or San Jose (Hindu or Sikh) it might sense to take a different large local group into account (though in San Jose's case, the large populations don't seem to fence much), on the coasts of the U.S., where fencing is most prominent, Jews are much greater than 2% of the fencers.

[DHCJr]

Originally Posted by counterattack

Seriously, though. This is either a small attempt at reductio ad absurdum or way overzealous. Earlier in the thread there seemed to be a little bit of latent frustration here from someone saying "what, 2% of the population?" and now this, implying that Hindu and Sikh holidays have the same national impact as the Jewish holy days. No one is claiming that the Jewish holidays are observed by as large a group as Christian holidays, but come on. This has nothing to do with determining which religion is more important than which other religion other than how it impacts fencing. Look at the roster of names of nationally ranked fencers. As far as it impacts the ability of fencers to fence in fencing tourneys the Jewish holidays are pretty important. And unless there is a bunch of Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh converts out there who didn't bother to change their names, there aren't enough of those groups involved in U.S. fencing.

Of course, maybe in Detroit (Muslim) or San Jose (Hindu or Sikh) it might sense to take a different large local group into account (though in San Jose's case, the large populations don't seem to fence much), on the coasts of the U.S., where fencing is most prominent, Jews are much greater than 2% of the fencers.

Thank you, I was hopeing someone would take the bait. The USFA has never said what is a major religious holiday. If they had, then this protest would have a valid point, even though the requirements are only for qualifications.

When I was in High School, my father was stationed in a town with 1, count them 1, Jewish family. Their daughter who happened to be in my grade, was the most Christian person in school. If you took off your shoes, you could count the number of families who were not Baptist, Church of Christ or Methodist. Should they consider a non-Christian holiday.

What I am trying to say, the USFA hasn't even said which religions to consider. Here in Southern California we have a large Islam population as well as Hindu. I don't know if many are fencers, but what religion someone is does not come up to often in conversations with fencers.

Instead of doing this, talk to the USFA and get them to define what is considered a major religious holiday.

As an aside, where did you get the 2% and how do you know that there are not that many Hindu and Islam? I don't think the USFA has ever asked that of fencers.

[Poulet]

Originally Posted by DHCJr

As an aside, where did you get the 2% and how do you know that there are not that many Hindu and Islam?

He was talking about the US population on a whole, not specifically in fencing when he referenced the 2% statistic. Since there are roughly 3 million Americans, and 5.5 million Jewish Americans, 2% is about right.

[KD5MDK]

Originally Posted by Poulet

He was talking about the US population on a whole, not specifically in fencing when he referenced the 2% statistic. Since there are roughly 3 million Americans, and 5.5 million Jewish Americans, 2% is about right.

Jews make up 183% of the US population?

[Poulet]

Haha, good point. I meant 300 million (obviously).

[counterattack]

Originally Posted by Poulet

He was talking about the US population on a whole, not specifically in fencing when he referenced the 2% statistic. Since there are roughly 3 million Americans, and 5.5 million Jewish Americans, 2% is about right.

Yes, and as DHC pointed out, they are not evenly spread. In South Florida or New York or Boston the number is way higher than 2%. In Nebraska and North Dakota it is way lower. As it pertains to fencing, the areas with the highest densities of jews also happen to be the areas with the highest densities of fencers.

But really it isn't about any sort of obligation in the rules to look at Jewish holidays. I don't read the rules as saying there is any, at any rate. But what I do see is that many top fencers are Jewish, and if we want to foster the best competition for the sake of Jewish and non-Jewish competitors, it makes sense to take it into account. Personally I am atheist (but ethnically Jewish), and I wish y'all would just get over religion. But I am not holding my breath.