Posted on 02/26/2003 5:18:46 PM PST by cricket
Public-school teachers in Maine – at least 12 of them – have told children of recently called-up National Guard members that any attack on Iraq would be illegal and immoral, thus insinuating that the students' parents are equally immoral, according to reports by local Guard personnel.
WABI-TV in Bangor, Maine, first reported Friday that family members of two National Guard units recently deployed reported to the Guard's Family Assistance Program that teachers were making harassing comments to their children. The assistance program is designed to help families of Guard members who are called to active duty with information about various programs that can help them during deployments.
WABI reporter Alan Grover told WND that reports of the harassment had come in from 12 different schools across the state. Personnel from the Family Assistance Program collected the 12 reports after interviewing 80 Guard families. Since there are 600 such families affected, the number of actual incidents likely is higher.
State Education Commissioner Duke Albanese downplayed the matter, saying there were only "three anecdotal incidents," according to the Bangor Daily News.
Adjutant Gen. Joseph Tinkham of the Guard, however, confirmed that there were specific instances of harassment and that the names of the teachers, locations and dates have been recorded. The Guard has decided not to release those names for fear of repercussions for the students involved and instead will allow individual parents to decide if they want to confront the teachers publicly.
WABI also reported that Albanese has sent a letter to the state's teachers, encouraging them to be mindful of the children of military personnel and to be balanced in discussing various views about a potential war.
According to the TV station, principals and guidance counselors also have made disparaging remarks to students about their parents' participation in war preparations.
In a related matter, WABI reports that the National Guard instructed soldiers to meet with school personnel prior to deploying to inform them of the deployment and let them know that the children of soldiers may have some special emotional issues to deal with as a result. In response, according to the report, school personnel were less than cooperative, telling the soldiers, in effect, "That's your problem."
Maybe the Feds should stop subsidizing the school districts across the country for every child of a Federal or Military (employed) family whose children attend schools in the district. When they cry about lost revenue and are forced to reduce their staffing through layoffs...the response can be: That's your problem."
...and (establishment) educators wonder why more and more people are home-schooling.
Brit Hume also covered this abomination on the "Grapevine" segment on Fox News tonight.
. . .well, more coverage starts here, I guess; since this was posted a few minutes earlier. . .did check folks; but our titles are slightly different; so 'search' did not pick it up. . .or it may have been that phone call I got just before hitting 'post'. . .or both.
ITMT. . .what do we do; ban LL Bean?
The Feds have never had the authority, under the Constitution, to fund education anyway. It is the responsibility, or should be, of the parents.
Original thread goes back a few days from a Maine TV station broadcast and grew from there.
Original thread is here .
This story could very easily have died a quiet death at the Maine TV station. Thank God, and FR e-mailers, it didn't.
Y'know, I don't live the People's Republic of Maine, so I won't claim to totally understand, but if I were the Guard and I had proof and I were in Ohio, I would have named names and DARED them to even look cross-eyed at the soliders' kids again.
Sick, sick, sick of stupid, mindless Liberals, who think that their rights to express themselves; their pursuit of happiness, did not come at someone elses expense.
Wherever do these fools get the notion that Freedom is 'free'. . .that it is literally a 'free ride'???
Yes, they do not want our children to feel bad competing, excelling in academics. . .but by God, if you are Military you deserve to suffer.
Treason is the reason - to abandon all Liberals. . . .
make them all human shieilds. . .
Liberals are like bullies; because like bullies, their power comes from a place of weakness. . .their strength begins with an inferior idiology.
They make me sick as well; and I think they should be made to be accountable.
So if you can humor a fellow FReeper for a moment...
You're a Teacher in Maine, right?
Probably one of those Maverick Educators who still thinks that educating our Children should be, and is, priority number one. Whatever diety or ideological paradigm you subscribe to, you keep it to yourself - at least in the classroom - and challenge your Students to rationally and critically analyze the information available to them and select their World-view and attitudes accordingly.
How am I doing so far? You may not be terribly popular with some of your Peers who consider their vocation as an opportunity to advance, via those same, or similar Children, a popular acceptance and loyal adherance to the socio-political theory or institution around which their own lives orbit.
What better way to influence the hearts and minds of a whole generation of future Citizens and Voters than to usurp, by force of Law, significant if not primary control over the intellectual and moral developmental input these impressionable and malleable young minds are exposed to during the critical years of their development?
By the Second Generation, many Parents of these young mental sponges will themselves be products of previous indoctrinational guidance, and passively accept if not whole-heartedly support the continuation of the proccess with their own offspring.
And where do the Children of Immigrants arriving in America first go to learn what "being American" is all about?
Bingo!
So that after a year or two, they understand all there is to know about Americanism; You have RIGHTS! Primary among these rights, and the one around which all others revolve and have their meaning is...
ABORTION!
Nearly as important is an American's right to WELFARE. Especially if the American in Question happens to be of a certain racial or Ethnic "Minority". We all know, in that case, that you are too stupid to make appropriate choices for yourself, so the Government will kindly make the really important ones for you.
What a Country!
On top of that your generous providors will see to it that you get prefferential treatment in admission to College or in getting a job, in the event that you feel like working for a living or advancing beyond the squalid conditions of poverty. Of course if you don't feel like straining yourself that way and don't mind somewhat squallid conditions in Government subsidised housing, Massah in Washington will see to it that you are kept in fodder, beverages, and just enough drugs to keep you addicted and dependant for life, as you are entitled to it by just being an "American".
And whenever Massah needs you to "VOTE", all you have to do is get on the bus when it comes around and do what the nice people tell you to. Who knows; there might even be a pack of cigarettes in it for you.
Now ain't Massah kind? What a Country!
If it feels good and other Americans are doing it; enjoy! It's your RIGHT, after all.
The worst enemies of the Human Race are the American Corporation, the Stock Market, the Republican Party, and America's Military. The overthrow and destruction of these evil institutions is one of the most important goals all nice people must strive for.
It would be cause for celebration if the Golf Course just opened up and swallowed Rush Limbaugh whole, and who needs Israel anyway?
Anybody anywhere in the World can come and be an American, too. American Taxpayers will support them and their offspring for their entire life, if need be, and sue anyone who is reluctant to learn their language in order to serve them. It doesn't matter it they hate America and want to kill us all... as long as they get on the bus when it comes around and vote.
For Mas'sah.
So there appears, for some "Educators", much like "Journalists", a sacred mission above and beyond all others; a quest which drives and inspires all of their endeavors.
And it is, quite simply I think, to "Change the World". At least in their minds, perhaps for the better - but always according to the Master blueprint they have been issued.
At School.
Providencially, there are still a few of us Retards and Reprobates out here who recalcitrantly refuse to believe it, and we represent an impediment to their mission... but not without risk.
They are known to have rather limited tolerance for anybody or anything that gets between them and power.
Now as to that "phone call"; they caught you just in the nick of time, didn't they?
Had you pushed that "Post" button a little too soon before the phone rang and you got the orders, you might have posted it before extensively editing it as I am sure you had to, and there would have been hell to pay.
Why, by this time next year - or next Week - you could be bagging groceries down at the Shaw's Market in stead of Teaching; I doubt that any Public Schrool in the State of Maine would even accept you as a Substitute for some mysterious reason. For years.
Close one, eh? No doubt whoever made that call knows who "Cricket" on the free Republic is a whole lot better than I do, and now you know that they know, and I would not be surprised if we will not be hearing from you again any time soon. Were they able to tell you exactly what you were keystroking just before you attempted to post it? The timing of that call may not have been a coincedence at all. (There are sophisticated and very stealthy "Trojans" that will do that, giving the Hacker complete access to and control over your computer. If they don't like what you are doing or where you are going on the internet, they can take you down hard, and you won't be using that computer for a while.)
Pity; I rather think there may have been something you wished to share with us that we would be very interested in learning. But we must only learn that which we are supposed to learn, isn't that the way?
But until they manage to take the Free Republic, Rush, and a few other outposts of Liberty down and out (as I have no doubt they would like to if they only could), 'Tain't neccessarily so.
I think that if any FReepers still question the formidable power of some of the parties and institutions in play, please check out what just happened here.
Pretty scarey, isn't it?
By attacking the minds and emotions of Children entrusted to it's care in an attempt to turn them against their own Parents who did not, for whatever reason, submit to the directives of the Mother Goddess, the Dragon (a certain "Teachers'" organization, we suspect) got the attention of the wild Bull-Moose (The Maine National Guard, Military Parents, WABI and FReepers) who was duly indignant over the way the Dragon was treating it's Calves when the Moose wasn't watching.
The Moose snorted, shook his antlers, and pawed defiantly at the ground while the Dragon exhaled fire and sulferous fumes, quickly silencing any of the ducklings or other subordinate creatures who had so impetuously cried out without permission.
Both antagonists roar out to call their Allies throughout the Maine woods and beyond, as ominous clouds begin to gather. The tall Maine pines begin to tremble...
This could get interesting, Sports Fans; Stay tuned!
And be careful out there, "Cricket"; I have little doubt that you are being watched.
But you know that now, don't you?
Well, from the couple of Teacher aquaintences I gave a "heads-up" to when it looked like things were about to get out of hand and things might get physical, plenty.
I was sufficiently incensed so as to let them know what I thought of anyone who would committ such an atrocity on the Children entrusted to their care, but I was just as ripped that they would pull this with such arrogance as to enrage large numbers of Soldiers, as they should have known they would, many of whom are very proficient at killing people and destroying things. Not to mention a few fringe-dwelling lurkers who may not need all that much of a nudge to go active on them. Thus they were placing not only their own well-being in jeapordy, but that of their colleagues and - god forbid - Students, as well.
I really don't think that anyone I know would do what has been alledged, but they do work at places which could have been the scene of some rather ugly confrontations. And I do NOT want to see anyone rolled out of a classroom or office on a gurney in a zip-up rubber bag, folks!
So despite my interest in reaching anyone they might be aware of who was considering this tactic towards a Military Dependant and get them to desist ASAP, and while doing so watch their backs for a few days 'till things cooled down a bit, they were offended, outraged, dismayed and a few other things which has probably cooled whatever relationship we might have had for awhile.
Their denial was vehiment and anguished, in that I had the gall to even consider that anyone in Maine Public Schools could be capable of such a thing.
Oh well; I tried.
It seems that as War clouds gather, there will be somewhat of a sorting out, and shaking down; religion, politics, national identity... a lot of us who have been sitting on fences to watch the show are going to have to jump the heck down and duck for cover as soon at the Artillery opens up on us.
On one side or the other.
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