Posted on 11/18/2008 2:01:20 PM PST by pissant
When second- and third-graders chanted Assassinate Obama on a Madison School District bus recently, district spokeswoman Janet Goodliffe explained that most of the children didnt understand what the words mean. According to The Associated Press, she attributed the chant to the communitys being highly conservative and overwhelmingly for John McCain.
I admire Janet Goodliffe as a preschool education leader. But as a teacher, she offered tortured excuses instead of capitalizing on a great teaching opportunity.
This is not an isolated incident. As a former teacher and Idaho Falls school volunteer, Luella Hendrickson, wrote on this page Thursday, after the election, children in her daughters elementary class condemned Obama for being a Muslim, not being a U.S. citizen, selling out to the Arabs, taking away our guns, etc.
Anyone with ears to hear know these children were parroting their parents. Children get the drift from home: The new president is radical, dangerous and not to be trusted.
How terribly sad.
Elsewhere, Obamas election loosened a joy and celebration unknown for decades, including unprecedented acclaim from abroad. It was the greatest imaginable affirmation of Americas capacity to renew itself. It could only have happened in the U.S.A. Whether you voted for him or not, you could be proud of your country in this hour.
Predisposed by their parents, many Idaho children will miss the marvelous message that, with character and ability, anyone can succeed here. They may go on muttering, complaining and passing on adult myths instead of joining in the renewal we so badly need.
Goodliffe did say School Superintendent Geoffrey Thomas, another admirable educator, had reminded district employees that words like assassinate are taken seriously by law enforcement and stressed tolerance of different political viewpoints.
All well and good but he, too, misses whats been going on.
Rumors about Obamas religion and loyaltywhich have persisted for a year in the face of contrary evidenceare not political views to be tolerated. They are lies. They should be denounced explicitly. They should be used to teach not mere tolerance but the difference between truth and falsehood.
Chanting Assassinate Obama is not some kids cutup but signals a serious underlying malady.
Lies, innuendos and slurs have become commonplace in close Idaho elections in the form of ugly last minute robo calls and leaflets. Yet the next day theyre dismissed by most Idahoans with a wink and a sigh, as if politics is a realm divorced from honesty and accountability. Alls fair if its done by my side.
Thats what kids are learning and from this comes the chant.
But forget politics and consider their education alone.
We live in a world so interconnected our food is harvested mostly by black and brown hands, without which wed starve. When todays elementary children reach 40, the majority of Americans will be people of color. Will our children understand this new world?
Ignorance and prejudice cripple education, stunt economies and corrode culture. Success comes not just to the nimble of mind but to the open of heart.
People who professed to be Christian have been maligning an honorable man continually. Were Christ to return, how would he judge liars and rumormongers? Are we not one people of God, striving for justice, mercy and truth?
A principled, intelligent, and deserving man is our new president. John McCain said it best: In a time of terrible challenge, let us unite and move forward together.
Adults may wallow in resentment and delusion if they wish but not, I pray, the children. From altars and pulpits, from classrooms and dinner tables, let children learn that the days of racial hatred are passing and that truth is sacrosanct. Grab those words from the school bus and teach our children well: Never again.
Jerry Brady is president of the Post Co. and co-chairman of Idaho for Obama. This column appeared first on Nov. 16. Reprinted with permission from the Post Co.
I agree - a bunch of nonsense.
As much as I agree with the whole Muslim, not-to-be-trusted, taking away guns thing, I don’t know one person who would even speak of assassintation.
Unless their parents are neo-nazi skinheads, they are not parroting them.
Jerry Brady is ....co-chairman of Idaho for Obama.
So many talking points...
Obama is at least as much a muslim as he is a Christian. He doesn't find Jesus to be the only way to salvation. He believes that if there is a God, that He would not damn a Hindu kid to hell for following a false god. The interview is there from 2004. He was raised at least briefly as a muslim, enrolled as such at the school and took koran class. He can still recite the Islamic call to prayer in arabic (according to the NY Times).
Is he not a US citizen? By birth or when he came back from Indonesia where he moved with his mom when she remarried to start a new life? What nation's passport did he travel to Pakistan under?
Selling out to the arabs? His staff has communicated with Hamas even though he denies it from time to time. And even Momar Qaddafi thinks that Obama is a muslim. For what it's worth, GW Bush has also sold us out to the Saudis.
Taking away our guns... again, look at the rhetoric. It is not an ungrounded charge. He's even investigating his own staff for any gun ownership infractions.
The new president is radical, dangerous and not to be trusted.
Certainly is better than calling him a "thief" who "stole" the election, committed war crimes, terrorism, and "knew" that thousands of people were going to die on the morning of 9-11-2001.
Barack Obama partnered with members of the Weather Underground and no denial is ever going to change that fact. Saying that he was a kid (who wasn't even living in the United States at the time, BTW) isn't going to change that. Bill Ayers is an unrepentent terrorist. I wouldn't trust him to tell my children anything about this nation's history or role in this world.
I think it's pretty sad too, believe me.
“after the election, children in her daughters elementary class condemned Obama for being a Muslim, not being a U.S. citizen, selling out to the Arabs, taking away our guns, etc.”
Those are well informed kids, their parents have done a good job!
Show me the evidence. I'll show you the quotes from his own books and "church".
[Whether you voted for him or not, you could be proud of your country in this hour.]
Well - I didn’t vote for him and no- I am not proud that 52% of voters did vote for him - but I wouldn’t call them the COUNTRY - just the majority of mislead kool-aid drinkers...
I recall where I saw it, 7 years ago...
Our enemies cheer when we stumble. Anything that makes Communist Party USA happy is NOT in our best interest.
Yeah, the stories about Bush were not just 3rd graders. And no one in MSM said 'how terribly sad' or 'A principled, intelligent, and deserving man is our president.'
Made up story by a fake reporter.
Oh Horse sh#t.......kids chanting on a bus from something they heard from their parents.....this is manufactured malarky....
Along with $800,000,000 ($220,000,000 of it illegally obtained from foreign donors), street vandalism brownshirts, and the dominant entertainment and "news" media cheerleading for your campaign.
I'll believe we've turned a corner in this country when a black conservative can be elected president. Meanwhile seeing the horrible racism on display whenever a black conservative is appointed and must be approved to a post, I don't expect too many to put up with the racist showtrials. VP Joe Biden lied about Clarence Thomas' view on an activist court by the way. Took a quote out of context and omitted the subsequent lines that absolutely refuted any notion of an activist role for the court.
Obama-Biden lied. Democracy died.
Oh yes...I am soooo sure a third grader would be knowledgeable about these things. NOT!
I agree that this chant should not be tolerated. Be it by school children or rappers or talk radio hosts on Air America. Where was the outrage from the Left when grown adults were using their chairs and stages in the media to say such things about President Bush? Want names? Randi Rhodes did it twice on mike. And remember Greg Kilbourne's "Snipers Wanted"?
THESE statements should be tolerated as they ARE open to debate. If you are going to explicitly denounce them you are going to have to pony up things like a baptisim certificate and make up more excuses about doing away with flag pins and partnering with a guy who posed trampling on an American flag.
Fake but accurate. Jerry Brady at the link.
But things picked up with Jesse Jackson, Jr., the thoughtful and convincing praise of Obama by former 30-year Congressman Jim Leach and Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri. In between was the big band with big voice singers blazing away at stage right. Folks sure can dance when theyre on camera. So were Rickie and I up in the rafters. And then came Teddy and Michelle. It is hard to imagine how tonight or tomorrow could top that
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