As a Maine teacher myself, I know as soon as I post this I am going to get on a bus and head for Washington where I will wait at the mall for my ignominious end. But first I must apologize to all those children whose lives I have ruined. I know that all during my career as soon as I was able to point out the political and moral shortcomings of my students' parents, I jumped right on it. And if ever I got a chance to completely trash a child's memory of their parent, or better yet, their poor dead grandmother, I attacked with all the vehemence of Ted Kennedy chowing down at an all-you-can-eat buffet. I always know that there is at least a couple of minutes available among the hours I spend teaching and preparing for class to twist their minds and inflict a little emotional pain.
While I'm sure there are more than a few socialists among the teachers of America, I have yet to see one named in any story written on these alleged offenses. I have yet to see one sued, as O'Reilly suggested, or for that matter interviewed by him, and I have yet to see one punched out by a ticked off tank driver who has just been told he must ship out to Iraq. I'm also quite sure that some teachers are quite capable of doing just what the Maine Army National Guard says they have. They are presumably just as human as you and I. I ask only that those of us who claim to be the thinking, reasoning, conservatives we profess to be demonstrate that thinking and reasoning in their posts.
This is from a Feb. 27 Washington Times article by Robert Stacy McCain: "Mr. Albanese (commissioner of education) told the Bangor Daily News that only one complaint involved classroom remarks, after the child of a Guard member became upset during a discussion of Iraq when a teaching assistant "took up the anti-war" argument.
Other incidents, according to Mr. Albanese, involved a child who had requested to leave school early for a military-related activity and a student who was teased on a school bus because he has a parent in the military."
The evidence is underwhelming.