Guest Opinion: Children Chant
Children’s Chant Against Obama: Never Again
Ignorance and prejudice cripple education, stunt economies and corrode culture.
By Jerry Brady, Unfiltered 11-18-08
 |
|
 | |
|
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 didn’t understand what the words mean. According to The Associated Press, she attributed the chant to the community’s 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 daughter’s 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, Obama’s election loosened a joy and celebration unknown for decades, including unprecedented acclaim from abroad. It was the greatest imaginable affirmation of America’s 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 what’s been going on.
Rumors about Obama’s religion and loyalty—which have persisted for a year in the face of contrary evidence—are 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 they’re dismissed by most Idahoans with a wink and a sigh, as if politics is a realm divorced from honesty and accountability. All’s fair if it’s done by my side.
That’s 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 we’d starve. When today’s 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.
Like this story? Get more! Sign up for our free newsletters.
Comments
----------------------------------------------------------------
I am saddened by the notoriety that has recently come to our community because of a reported school bus incident which has received national press coverage, where children repeated hateful remarks concerning President-Elect Barack Obama. Since this incident occurred, I have received numerous e-mails from individuals around the country associating our community with hate and intolerance. I am extremely sorry that this incident occurred, and I do not believe that it reflects the values which make our community a great place to live and raise a family. Having said this, I also recognize that Madison County has had a reputation as Idaho’s and even America’s “reddest” county. This reputation and the conservative nature of our community should in no unequivocal terms be an excuse for hate and vile comments. Parents must realize that things said in anger or even in jest can have lasting repercussions not only damaging young hearts and minds, but a city’s reputation.
One letter that I received from a gentleman in British Columbia had a quote by Jacqueline Kennedy which states, "If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do well matters very much." This reminds me also of a quote from the ninth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints David O. McKay which states “No other success can compensate for failure in the home.” If we have in our community one home, one school, or one school bus where hate and intolerance is allowed to be spewed without a responsible adult correcting the behavior we are failing in our responsibilities.
About three years ago, I had the opportunity to attend a meeting where the keynote speaker was Senator Barack Obama. I was inspired as I sat and listened to Senator Obama. He talked about his faith and how his upbringing had influenced his policies and his priorities. I left the meeting with a conviction to do what I could at a local level to make government work for the people that I serve and to strive to be a better public servant. He will now be sworn in as the President of the United States of America and though we face tremendous challenges as a nation, I feel hope and optimism for America and in particular, the masses of individuals that participated in the election for the first time in their lives. It may sound trite, but I share President-Elect Obama’s view that we are not made up of red states and blue states, or for that matter red and blue counties or cities, we are the United States of America.
Mayor Shawn Larsen
12 North Center Street
Rexburg, Idaho 83440
208.359.3020 ext. 328
208.359.3022 FAX
http://www.rexburg.org
James- The misinformation on both sides is disparaging. The media can be blamed for the most part. Here is an interesting link to a poll about Obama voters. http://www.howobamagotelected.com/
I'll bet this man has no problem with corroding culture if it means our culture's definition of marriage is changed so that one man can "marry" another man. I'll bet this man has no problems with corroding culture if it means that our culture's embrace of firearms ownership is attacked.
I'll bet this man's idea of what culture is may be vastly different from the children's parents he attacks in his article.
Read Joan Mccarter's "article", then come back and fain righteous indignation about how terrible it is to "go on muttering and passing on adult myths".
Is it only offensive and racist when we criticize liberals?
Should we forget the attacks on Tony Snow, Charlton Heston and the Reagans? But then I guess you didn't consider them hateful or offensive.
stop being bitter, and give yerself a hug...
For those less who want to make the news elsewhere in the fashion I just described, I have one request: Please move!
Oh, nooooo, it becomes yet another talking points against those revanchist Idahoans who think Obama is "radical, dangerous and not to be trusted."
Well, I think he IS all of those three. His voting record and his cronies don't impress me a whole bunch. Yes, Obama won the election fair and square, and I hope he makes it to the next one so he can lose fair and square. But I hope he does as little damage as possible to the idea of America.
Maybe if he knows a lot of people aren't in love with him, as this little tiff certainly indicates, he'll show some restraint.
That is appropriately descriptive of Dave Skinner...
But when I feel someone is Right I can't ignore it just because we don't hardly EVER agree.
I am disappointed that Gov. Butch Otter has apparently not spoken out against this.
Electing a president we know nothing about has put our freedom at risk, but no matter what we think of Obama, seven year old kids shouldn't be taught such things. It's kids like this who tend to grow up with no moral compass and elect people like Clinton and Obama.
Khrushchev told Kennedy "we'll take over your country without firing a shot." They've changed America one child at a time and we never saw it coming.
And Tom, you've got it backwards. A moral compass is exactly what this country needs right now, and we've finally elected a man who has one. His record bears that out, even if he's not a jaded, duplicitous curmudgeon from the Washington establishment.
The story is not about Palin. It's not about McCain. They lost. Let's move on. It's about racism, fear and hate, and how it's being passed on from the ignorant, intolerant parents to their children who ride that bus. Let go of your sour grapes and you'd be able to see the point of the outrage. "Assassinate Obama"? Really, how can you sluff that off? Have you forgotten King? The Kennedys? I don't give a rat's ass whether you agree with their politics, a bus full of kids chanting for the first African-American president's assassination is abominable and shocking.
Here's an idea: instead of digging in your heels and being an anchor and a drag and part of the problem, how about joining the rest of us and working to solve the enormous challenges of this country instead of increasing the hate and divisiveness? Obama is your president too.
Did you miss that part of my post?
Anyway, when you get right to the point, this isn't about Obama, it's about teaching our kids respect. If I had sat on a school bus and chanted assisinate Ike or impeach Kennedy, my old man would have knocked me acroos the room for being so disrespectful.
You also seem to have missed what Dave said about what the driver should have done. I agree, it is abominable and shocking.
This is not about Obama, it's about where this country is headed, and it seems we've about reach the bottom of the barrel. Forget about what we think of Obama and concentrate on the issue at hand....the attitudes of seven and eight year old kids.
As for reaching the bottom of the barrel, you got that right. But your aim is off. "Putting our freedom at risk"? "No moral compass"? People like Sean Hannity and others of his ilk are scraping the moldy sludge, trying to shriek even louder with their fearmongering, their promises of failure and doom and death. Well, shriek away, quivering Chicken Little soreheads, the rest of us know that the fringe element will never willfully assimilate, and have little effect on those capable of rational thought.
Oh, and here's a news flash, Tom: the bus driver is not raising those kids. Nor is the school system. The parents are directly accountable, whether they got it from TV, a video, or wherever. My finger points squarely at the parents. Also, third- and fourth-graders are more sophisticated now than when you and I were kids. No amount of nostalgia can change that.
As hopeful as I am about this country's direction, it still dismays me to see how many voters seemingly refuse to read a newspaper or perform simple mathematics. The problems we now face were caused largely by the greed, corruption and malfeasance of a federal administration so craven and foul that they make Boss Tweed look like Willie Wonka.
To deny this and to actually ask for more, via McCain/Palin, is to deny the truth.
"Maybe if he [Obama] knows a lot of people aren't in love with him, as this little tiff certainly indicates, he'll show some restraint."
You mean the kind of restraint shown by the guy who was elected by Antonin Scalia instead of the majority of Americans? "Restraint" like starting a trillion dollar war on the basis of spin-doctored intel? That kind of restraint?
I tell you what, though, if I had been driving that bus, I would have duct-taped those brats to the swinging stop sign and let 'em twist in the wind. Then I would interrogate them.
My kids are all good knee-jerk liberals just like their old man...
I guess maybe Obama WILL go on a spree of reprehensible excess after all, just for different reasons. And, as with his predecessor, all of America will get hosed, no matter your right-or-lefthandedness.
There's a difference.
(Ann, just a suggestion: see if you can try to make a point without name-calling.)
There are NO politicians that haven't lied. Obama is in the top ten. Nuff said!
But all the flag-waving and chest pounding and rah-rah boot-in-their-ass horseshit in the world doesn't change the big picture: this war is an oil grab. Nothing more, nothing less. Obama is going to actually serve the will of the people for whom he works, and will begin a timetable that will get us out of Iraq.
All the sore losers who continue to badmouth Obama, even though he ran—by all accounts—the most successful presidential campaign in history (with no last-second, Rove-style smears), need to try and look outside their own personal tub of sour grapes. John McCain himself had enough class and enough maturity to tell his own supporters on election night that we ALL need to pull together as Americans and work on changing the disastrous direction of this nation.
That's the message we should be teaching our kids. If McCain/Palin had won, sure I would have been pissed off and disappointed. But I like to think I would have gotten over it enough to 1) be relieved that Bush is finally on his way out, and 2) hope that McCain could somehow find his way back from the Christian Right co-opting to be the effective moderate he was before the campaign.
Why don't we let Obama have a chance before we crush him under our boot heels and declare his presidency a failure before it even begins. Sheesh. And as for the original point of this thread (whew!), why is everyone missing the point of RACISM in what these kids were chanting?
Bush is either blameworthy and corrupt, or too stupid to be Commander-in-Chief. Take your pick.
What's really important right now, though, is not so much how we got into this mess. It's how we're going to get out. You can be unhappy about Obama if you want, but let's not spread lies (such as about where he was born, what his religion is, or whether he hates America) about him.
Harmful lies (I have corrected several people lately who claim Obama was born "somewhere in the Middle East," and therefore shouldn't have even been allowed to run for President) feed a false sense of injustice, which could lead to all sorts of undesirable outcomes.
Does anyone out there think church burnings, random beatings of black people, or assassination plots are going to help us out of the mess we're in? That's where the harmful lies about our new President will take us. If it's more important to you to tear down a Democrat than to help the US get out of the mess we're in . . . I think we're in for a long, unpleasant decline.
That is as fine an example of rightwing intellectuality asI have seen.
1) this incident is unfortunate and embarrassing,
2) it's been blown out of proportion.
Sorry, folks, but most second- and third-graders don't have the judgment to make authoritiative statements. They're just copycats, and are eager to follow the crowd. They love to chant stuff! (It's more "noise" than editorializing, I believe.)
I doubt ANY of them has heard the adults in his life say "Assassinate Obama," but I could be wrong.
Brady laments that President-elect Obama is being characterized as "radical, dangerous and not to be trusted." I've been hearing President Bush's detractors saying those exact things about him for 8 years! Did Brady and y'all speak out? Or did you join in the chorus?
The jury is still out on the Obama presidency. Check back in 4 years. I sincerely hope he's more moderate than his detractors accuse him of being. I also hope for his success, since he's president of even us "bitter people who are clinging to our guns and religion."
Have a GREAT day!
To think that Saddam or Iran, didn't have or don't have the makings of Nuclear Warheads is foolish.
Look at all the tunnels the Japanese had and the Viet Cong had. I bet they still haven't found all the tunnels. Osama bin laden hasn't been found, does that mean he doesn't exist?
Come on you can't actually believe they weren't/aren't enriching for nuclear war capabilities.
Ann, your intutive intellect is probably without parallel.
Sure Bikeboy "assassinate" and "Obama" are oft mentioned in school, children's books. Spend some quality time in the upper Snake River Valley for how this occurred.
Its not a hard connection to make from the McCain campaign asserting Obama's terrorist connections, to unsubstantiated am talk radio, to even less authoritative email to these children.
I have many friends that are in and have been, and DIED in that war. and the reports they get from a LOT of the people living there, things are BETTER now.
All the reasons in the world won't erase the war. So they are MOOT. We are there, and we ARE doing good whether you want to admit it or NOT.
I guess it's admirable to look on the bright side, and I agree we should look forward and figure out what to do next.
On the other hand: this war is costing trillions, and your friends and mine who have come back from there have a lifetime of healing ahead of them.
This war has killed so many Iraqi civilians, we don't even know how to estimate the death toll. And it's not a valid moral defense to say "Well, Saddam was killing civilians too!!" Every six-year-old knows that "Johnny did it too" is not an excuse.
This war has damaged our international reputation and has stretched our military to the breaking point. We don't have the moral authority or the military strength right now to play much of a role in containing true threats and stopping humanitarian crises worldwide, thanks to Bushco.
This war allows Al Qaeda to wage a propaganda war throughout the Muslim world, pointing to Iraq as proof that we want to harm Muslims (see "Iraqi civilian death toll, above").
The good things we may be accomplishing in Iraq could have been accomplished through international cooperation, Ann.
They could have been accomplished without all the bloodshed, without all the wasted trillions, without making America into a rogue nation. Diplomacy and special ops could have undone Saddam, in due course.
It's important to look back on how we got into this mess so we don't do it again. We evidently didn't learn enough from Vietnam, so here we go again!!