Posted on 01/09/2003 3:11:09 PM PST by Shermy
Join the discussion in Hot Issues
For nearly three weeks, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray has been assailed for her remarks at Columbia River High School about terrorist Osama bin Laden and the level of U.S. foreign aid to Arab countries.
Monday, back at school after Christmas vacation, the students got a chance to react. As it turns out, they're pretty upset, too.
But the object of their scorn isn't Murray but everybody who has suggested that they are impressionable, naive children easily swayed by a politician making a quick visit to their school.
One boy who heard Murray speak Dec. 18 said they have been likened in e-mails, letters to the editor and radio call-in shows to "a bunch of MTV-watching, brain-dead students."
A girl said, "People think just because we heard (Murray's comments) that we believe them."
Another girl said, Murray "was trying to make a point. ... We're not dumb."
Said another girl: "She was challenging us. She tried to put a bug in our ear."
The Columbian sat in Monday as Principal Mike Stromme and Associate Principal Gerry Stavney joined Gary Lorentzen's International Baccalaureate world history class to discuss Murray's appearance and the reaction to it.
Principal called 'traitor'
Stromme said fielding calls and e-mail from the public and media "has consumed a tremendous amount of my time.
"Never ever did I think I would be called a traitor," Stromme said as he discussed e-mail from one citizen angry that Murray had spoken at a public school.
But, he told the students, "What bothers me most is when they say you are not capable of understanding the issues."
Murray's closing remarks that morning received national press exposure and drew outrage from conservatives across the country. But they created barely a ripple of concern among the students.
"I don't see the problem," one boy said Monday. "I expect a politician to project her views. What else do people think would happen? None of us had any objections."
"Obviously we didn't take it literally that Osama bin Laden is a good person," added a girl.
Nor had Murray said he was a good person. What she did say was that bin Laden is "very, very effective" and "so popular around the world. ... He's been in these countries for decades, building schools, building infrastructure, building day care facilities, building health care facilities, and the people are extremely grateful ... we have not done that."
No Mother Teresa
"She was challenging students to think outside the box about how we spend our foreign aid," Lorentzen said in an interview earlier Monday.
"Unfortunately, she used Osama bin Laden as an analogy, and that opened up a whole Pandora's box of craziness.
"But no one in the class was thinking Osama bin Laden is running around the Mideast like an Islamic Mother Teresa."
Lorentzen said he was upset that Murray had suggested during the questions and answers the possibility of the United States reinstituting the military draft.
"She flat out tried to scare the boys," Lorentzen said.
"The male students saw through her on that right away. They knew where her politics were. They had done background on her."
Part of that background was Murray's opposition last fall to President Bush's Iraq war resolution.
"She tried to spin that as giving Bush total control," Lorentzen said. "The kids know about the War Powers Act. They know this resolution isn't binding. She made it sound as if it somehow took away the rights of Americans. They saw through that."
Lorentzen said, "The most engaging piece of the whole hour was her final remarks, about where our foreign aid goes."
But, he added, "the kids know it's wrong that the United States has given none, and they know this was a political event. She was there to promote her agenda."
'We know propaganda'
"We discuss all sides in our class," said one girl. "This wasn't our only exposure" to the issues raised by Murray.
The students recognize "propaganda when we hear it," said one girl, whether from a senator "or an Army recruiter."
Then the kids know a lie. We were providing more $$s in support of the people of Afghanistan than Bin Blowedup ever did. And we did it while it was under the talibums. Some freeper had the numbers for that on another thread.
/john
POLITICAL NOTEBOOK: BITTEN BY THE SOUND BITE: MURRAY TAKES CHANCE THEN GOOFS TWICE
I read people criticize the kids as if they were guilty or something.
Read the story I linked above. The reporter attended the school appearance, and notes that she left her opinions until after the Q&A session. He says Patty should have stated them from the outset, then let the students question her. I'm sure he would have enjoyed watching that!
One of the reports I heard stated that Laden provided hospitals for his fighters, not the general public. He provided schools to train his military. What a generous soul. Murray should keep her pie-hole shut.
The students don't know why people are so upset. At the same time they state they are very savy and weren't fooled. Yep, sure seems like it.
Interesting that all these kids can do is "construe". What she said is so outrageous that even young children cannot believe she said what she really did say.
Her comments were stated as facts. That is the problem.
OBL building day care centers?? He won't let the women out of the house.
Right.....
There IS hope for our youth after all!
"Unfortunately, she used Osama bin Laden as an analogy, and that opened up a whole Pandora's box of craziness. "But no one in the class was thinking Osama bin Laden is running around the Mideast like an Islamic Mother Teresa."
Unfortunately, Trent Lott used Strom Thurmond's presedential campaign as an analogy, and that opened up a whole Pandora's box of craziness. But no one was thinking Lott is running around the back roads of the south like a KKK Kleagle calling for resurgance of segregation.
The kids should have understood that Murray's comments and treatment by the media and political opponents were being juxtaposed to Lott's comments and treatment by the media and political opponents.
Maybe the kids should watch less of MTV and VH1 and more of FNC and CNN.
-PJ
Young one, perhaps you may not know but the United States, that means you, your family, us the taxpayers have given Afghanistan over $320M plus the lives of some of our country's finest men in the United States Armed Forces, and that you can never put a price tag on. That is the cost of freedom.
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