Posted 5:49 PM by steve

We're not being consistent, folks... Part XIX

Michelle Malkin and company are wrong in screaming for the head of the Colorado high school teacher who got himself suspended for his anti-Bush rants.

So what that the guy was only pushing one line of thought in his classroom, that he wasn't presenting both sides of the issue? Has the right so easily forgotten how much they objected when the likes of Noam Chomsky and Ward Churchill argued to their classes that America deserved to be attacked on 9/11? Have they forgotten their objections when teachers started presenting 'both' sides (i.e., American Indian as victim of barbaric white man) of the American westward expansion? Have they forgotten how much they scream when teachers present the 'other' view of the Middle East (that suicide bombings are justified to end Israeli occupation and oppression)?

Make no mistake, the right isn't interested in having both sides of issues covered, they're only interested in having 'our' view of the world presented in class.

And so what that he was 'injecting' politics into the classroom? Aren't we the ones who object when conservative-leaning teachers are pummeled into submission by liberal faculties?

And so what if the teacher was on an anti-Bush rant and was critical of American foreign policy? What happened to all those on the right who supposedly value freedom of expression? Are only those who agree with us allowed to have a voice? Are we the ones insisting on political litmus tests for teachers? Has the right ever gone after teachers for including 'pro'-American materials in their lesson plans? Since the answer to this last question is NO, I think it's clear this teacher is being attacked for the specifics of what he said.

And so what that the guy, to cite just one example, objected to our fumigating of coca fields in Columbia, claiming that we would never stand for some country trying to do the same to tobacco fields in North Carolina? Aside from this being true, aren't conservatives the ones who are big on pushing Christian values, one of which is 'do unto others...'?

Granted, what the right is doing is no different from what the left does on a daily basis. The left harasses conservatives, they shout down 'patriotic' messages, they bludgeon those who don't follow the party line. But since when do we want to be defined by the low standards of our opponents?

LAST THOUGHT: I don't think what the teacher did belonged in a geography class, at least not as I understand geography... but his critics aren't complaining about which class he said those things in, they're complaining that he said them in school, period.

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