Del. Bell is warping the minds of our children!

Delegate Rob Bell is speaking to elementary school students in Albemarle County! Indoctrination! Evil government lecture kids unsuspecting no parental approval badness!!!1111!!!!ELEVEN!!!!

Or, y’know, whatever it was that Republicans said when President Obama had the temerity to address school kids a few weeks ago. That.

Published by Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith (JAKE-with) is an open government technologist who lives near Char­lottes­­ville, VA, USA. more »

10 replies on “Del. Bell is warping the minds of our children!”

  1. Obama has gone into numerous schools, one at a time. The problem arises when he addresses all schools at the same time and gives out guidelines to discuss his wise words and make posters and discuss the three most important words he said.

    Just too reminiscent and symbolic of despised leaders from history.

    People are touchy about their kids.

    Now, if Rob Bell addresses all Virginia schools, comes up with exercises and suggests the kids mull over the significance of his 3 most important words,
    OK, I got a problem with that.

    But I think if it were someone we all love and trust, like Glenn Beck, it would be just fine. I would respect that.

  2. Mr. Young: distintions like this?

    “The problem arises when he addresses all schools at the same time”

    Indoctrinate ’em one school at a time! one class at a time, actually.

    “and gives out guidelines to discuss his wise words”

    Either sell the guidelines so they are not being given out, or do not write down anything

    “and make posters”

    Billboards, baby, billboards. Or no signage, which could be creepier, depending on how you play it.

    “and discuss the three most important words he said.”

    Either 2 words or 4 words. (Five is far too many).

    I’m just giving you a difficult time, Young. I recognize the distinction (and also see Waldo’s point). I just couldn’t resist messing with both you and Tom at the same time. I’m secretly evil (and efficient!) like that.

  3. What Genevieve said—these are not meaningful distinctions. The really meaningful one here is that Bell is a Republican, while Obama is a Democrat. At least Obama had the good sense to have a lesson plan put together to provide an educational basis for his talk. Y’know, if I’m still pretending to be a jerk.

  4. When GHW Bush spoke to the kiddies, he had a lesson plan also. In fact, the Obama first draft of a speech-related lesson plan was cribbed largely from the Bush lesson plan. Even the Obama question that drew derisive comments — “What can I do to help the President” — had some counterpart in the Bush lesson plan that was similar. Something like, “What does the President want me to be doing to help our country.”

  5. “United, there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do–for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder.”

    Socialism! Communism! Nazism!

    Oh, wait, that was JFK, who fought against the Axis and nearly started a nuke-tossing contest with Moscow.

    (Apropos of nothing here, I suppose…I just felt like riffing off Kennedy’s inaugural this morning. I’m sure it was heard in some schools.)

  6. Meri,

    Sorry about not living up to the strawman, but as a certified liberal, I can tell you that that’s preposterous and anyone who thinks that is wrong.

    No, certain Republicans (and non-Republicans on the right) have been working to dredge up support from the disgusting racists on the far, far right, but I think the group of people for whom race trumps party affiliation is still mercifully tiny.

    The unfortunate bit is that there appears to be a larger portion (though still far from all conservatives), that, given that Obama is a Democrat, will happily start with the race baiting*. However, notice that the “main distinction” is still party, not race. If a popular black Republican politician was elected president, I don’t think we’d be hearing anything about how “In [Michael Steele]’s America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering,” or how Condoleeza Rice has a “deep-seated hatred for white people.”

    (Sorry if Limbaugh’s already excommunicated Steele and/or Rice. I can’t really keep up with the number of people the GOP has been jettisoning recently.)

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