Oregon Public Teacher: 4th of July "a propaganda campaign that hurts children"...
We have said it time and time again and even though there are mountains of evidence most parents still do not understand; public education has been so radicalized that it has become subversive. Textbooks, many classes and teachers actively push a radical far left indoctrination on the kids and this teacher from Portland is no different. Would anyone like to bet that is is not an Obama voter?
Joe Newby at The Examiner:
According to Portland area teacher Bill Bigelow, July 4th fireworks shows need to be reconsidered, the Education Action Group reported Tuesday.
According to Bigelow, Independence Day “…provides cover for people to blow off fireworks that terrify young children and animals, and that turn the air thick with smoke and errant projectiles. Last year, the fire department here [Portland, OR] reported 172 fires sparked by toy missiles, defective firecrackers, and other items of explosive revelry.”
Bigelow was just getting warmed up.
"Apart from the noise pollution, air pollution, and flying debris pollution, there is something profoundly inappropriate about blowing off fireworks at a time when the United States is waging war with real fireworks around the world. To cite just one example, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London found recently that U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan alone have killed more than 200 people, including at least 60 children. And, of course, the U.S. war in Afghanistan drags on and on. The pretend war of celebratory fireworks thus becomes part of a propaganda campaign that inures us—especially the children among us—to the real wars half a world away,” he added.
"Yes, to this ingenious teacher, fireworks promote war. In fact, he says fireworks are 'pretend war,'" Kyle Olsen wrote.
Olsen reminded readers that the tradition of celebratory fireworks dates back to July 3, 1776, when John Adams suggested in a letter to his wife that the day "ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.”
"Is there any vestige of original Americana that Marxist educators won’t seek to erase from our culture?" Olsen asked.
Bigelow, for example, cites a July 1852 speech by Frederick Douglass that decried Independence Day celebrations in a country that had the institution of slavery.
The Oregon teacher said Douglass gave his speech "four years after the United States finished its war against Mexico to steal land and spread slavery, five years before the vicious Supreme Court Dred Scott decision, and nine years before the country would explode into civil war."
"His words call out through the generations to abandon the empty 'shout of liberty and equality' on July 4, and to put away the fireworks and flags," Bigelow added.
Unfortunately, Bigelow failed to mention that slavery ended in the United States as a result of the conflict.
Olsen says that teachers like Bigelow "would rather make students feel guilty about being Americans than encourage them to appreciate the great things about their nation."
"If they manage to win their internal war on America by brainwashing too many young minds, we will all be sorry in the very near future," he concluded.
A Marist poll conducted last year showed that over a quarter of Americans do not know that the original colonies separated from Great Britain. According to the poll, some of the countries mentioned were China, France, Japan, Mexico and Spain.