Seeing Black and White

In a world full of shades of grey

In the course of writing this blog, I rarely get reader comments. It’s discouraging because I really want to hear from my readers and I usually take the time to respond to those who do comment and thank them for reading. If the commenter happens to disagree with my opinions, rather than berate or name call I simply take the writer’s opinion in stride or respond with more facts and details if possible.

Which brings me to this recent comment referencing my earlier posting entitled Minds Full of Mush:

“Did you read the article closely, or just see an opportunity for your own mushy mind to start ranting?

the article says that most of the letters were supportive of the soldier. i guess the majority of the kids just decided to ignore all of the evil indoctrination, right?

you're a fool to believe the post so blindly.

those kids get their opinions from their parents. you basically admitted that you didn't listen to your teachers. why would these kids be so different?

btw, from a teacher's pov, why would you be proud to have tortured your teachers? that's pretty lame. if you support the usa, then you'd realize that people died for your right to a public education.

think through things before you start blabbing. what's a blog anyway except just another way for mminds full of mush to find a place to voice their opinions?”

Since the commenter chose to do so anonymously, I am taking the liberty to publicly respond since I can’t send them a personal private rebuttal. So here goes…

First things first. I must have struck a nerve with this individual, whom I would assume is a school teacher, because they open their comment by quoting my own “minds full of mush” back to me in reference to my own mental capabilities.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion so I will accept their assessment of my intellectual faculties although I believe that holding different political and social views does not automatically define someone’s intelligence.

Next they quote The New York Post article saying that “(m)ost of the 21 letters Jacobs provided to The Post mentioned some support for the armed forces, if not the Iraq war, and thanked him for his service. But nine of the students made clear their distaste for the president or the war.”

Doing a little math (and I didn’t have to use a calculator), nine of twenty one is 42.8%. Nearly half of the letters expressed distaste for President Bush or the war in Iraq. If you are a liberal I guess that you would say that more than half of the letters were positive. The commenter asserted that somehow my assumption that the teacher (or other teachers) had been spouting anti-war and anti-Bush propaganda in the classroom was refuted by 57.2% of the letters not containing similar references.

I would somewhat agree with the argument that the kids get their opinions from their parents. However, with all of the single parent homes in today’s society and in light of the fact that by the age of 12 most kids from such households have spent at least 1/3 of their lives in the hands of strangers at daycare and in government schools, and assuming that the average kid spends 1/3 of their time (8 hours) sleeping, the parents at best have equal time with the children as the other individuals entrusted with their care and education. Therefore, my assumption that the teacher(s) was the source of the mis-information written in the children’s letters is not entirely unfounded.

Next my commenter challenges my intelligence for blindly believing The New York Post. I guess as an option they are suggesting that I should believe everything written in the New York Times or the LA Times? This story has been widely covered in the Main Stream Media and Fox News has an even more damning set of excerpts. One kid stated that because Bush was re-elected “that only 50 or 100 (solders) will survive.”

Give me a break here plueasssss. It’s one thing to disagree on politicts, but it’s another thing entirely to basically tell a young solder that he is going to die and possibly that you hope that he dies because of his politicts.

Next my commenter says “think through things before you start blabbing. what's a blog anyway except just another way for mminds full of mush to find a place to voice their opinions?”

Let me tell you, I spend a great deal of time thinking things through when writing my blog. I sometimes do research for days if not weeks before I address some subjects like the The Fair Tax Plan Is Really Fair. I spend two to four hours each day reading news and commentary from both sides of the political spectrum. I cringed my way through four hours of National Public Radio yesterday at the behest of my fellow craftsmen on our theater set project for the Island Players.

The rant in question here did come off the cuff, however. And by the way, Mr./Miss. Commenter, this is MY BLOG and I can say whatever I want to say in it and you are welcome to stop back by and read my writing and make further comments. You are also welcome to never come back as, just like a TV has a channel button, your mouse has a couple of buttons and by correctly using them you never have to read anything from my “mind full of mush” in the future if you don’t want to.

And finally, there is this issue: “if you support the usa, then you'd realize that people died for your right to a public education.” Excuse me, but the Constitution of the United States does not contain wording saying that I have the right to “life, liberty, and to waste twelves years of my life in the watered down liberal propaganda machines that we call public education.”

Public education is not free. Property owners like myself pay dearly for other peoples kids to go to government schools. I don’t have children, but the tens of thousands of dollars I have paid in property taxes since 1985 when I bought my first house entitle me to comment on and worry about what is happening in our government schools.

And many times, your beloved “free public education” is not quality education. Yes there are some excellent teachers in public schools. Yes I had a few myself in my day. Unfortunately I can count the number on two hands. The rest were angry, mindless robots that couldn’t teach their way out of a wet paper bag. Between their ineptitude, the federal and State Government’s meddling with the curriculum, and inane rules and policies, I wasted two or three years of my life screwing around in my free public education because the program was set up to teach to the middle one third of the students and the gifted kids were left to waste time and become discipline problems. By discipline problem I don’t mean bringing guns and drugs to school either. I was a straight A student that was graded down to a B sometimes in retaliation for my behavior.

Here is my final point about the news story that I did not make in my first posting. The purpose of sending letters to solders overseas is ostemsibly to offer encouragement and support. The word censorship brings a grimmace and knee jerk reaction from most people, but the teacher should have "screened" the content of the letters and suggested at least toning the rhetoric of the 12 year old's down a little.

I say that if the teacher was not the source of the mis-information, he should have taken the time to address with the children their concerns about things like massive civilian casualties, destroying mosques, etc. After spending a few weeks reviewing the facts, perhaps the children would have been less inclined to make the acusations contained in the first round of letters. I wonder if my commenter believes that "Bush's armies" are actually targeting civilians and journalists and blowing up Mosques just for shits and grins?

There is a time and a place for political advocacy, but delivering the type of garbage that this teacher allowed to be mailed to a young solder (who happened to not even be serving in Iraq) is completely unacceptable and Democrats and Republicans and school teachers of all subjects should be equally outraged.

And by the way Mr./Miss. commenter...Y’all come back now…ya hear?