Rarely do I identify myself in allegiance with a political party. I order, I consider myself a Christian, an American, a conservative, and finally a native Southerner.
Though I tend to vote Republican more often than not, I refuse to consider party affiliation as important as any of my preceding identifiers. I’ll vote for a “good” Democrat in a heartbeat.
Over the years, one of my favorite expressions to repeat during disagreements has been to say, “I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to my death your right to say it.”
Never again will I utter those words. There are simply too many people out there who don’t deserve such a sacrifice. I just listened to some rant and rave.
In case you missed the initial story, a group of elementary school students recently were informed by their principal Great Hawkins that they could not sing Lee Greenwood’s patriotic song “God Bless the U.S.A.” they had rehearsed for months in their graduation ceremony–but they could sing Justin Bieber’s teenybopper nonsense called “Baby.”
The New York Post article about the controversy quoted teachers repeating that Hawkins had specifically said, “We don’t want to offend other cultures” as part of her excuse.
Really?
If someone is offended by American culture, why in the hell are they living in America and sending their kids to our public schools for a free education–okay, not free, but an education paid for by actual taxpayers. The school board backed the principal, deeming the lyrics of Greenwood’s song were not “age appropriate.”
Really?
Kids can’t understand what “I’m proud to be an American” means but they can easily grasp the significance of, “I’ll buy you anything. I’ll buy you any ring…”
The move by Hawkins was stupid and the school board exacerbated the problem rather than providing a remedy, but what happened next was much, much worse.
The parents were upset the kids were not allowed to perform, so they all moved right across the street from the school to a public park where the kids could sing their song.
In a surreal turn of events, a group of militant adults tried to heckle the children and disrupt their performance, shouting things like “This is crazy!” “I’ve got a right to make noise”, and “Racist!” at a group of kids singing this patriotic song in public.I’m sure their excuse will be to say the intended target was the Republican Congressional candidate who joined the kids, surely recognizing the photo opportunity.
The protesters were not screaming from a distance, however. A very large and vocal black man stood within arm’s length of one child while he shouted “Burn in hell!” at the adults in the back row. The little girl looked understandably intimidated by his mindless rage and profanities.
To their credit, the children retaliated and drowned out the idiotic adults, chanting “U.S.A!”
The kids left me with hope. The adults who were acting like children are beyond all hope.
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