By Barry Rubin
These are tales of contemporary America.
It began when I visited a family with children in Maryland in my son's old school and the cute kid showed his school assignment. My friend took a photograph of it and wrote to me:
“PLEASE, if you want to publicize it do so, BUT please white out the handwritten answers, because in this age of totalitarianism, they could easily go after/persecute the child and his family. [handwritten answers not provided.] The school might be able to identify the child from his handwriting.”
Such is the fear now.
The fifth grade was learning vocabulary, supposed to choose the appropriate word from a list to replace the phrases in one of the words on the list. The subtle indoctrination is horrifying.
The speaker called on us to take part in the organized refusal to attend performances of theatres that use non-union actors.
Greenpeace is taking part in a series of actions to stop the killing of whales.
The king of Norway presents the Nobel Peace Prize in a formal event in honor of the occasion held in Oslo.
The separate companies were brought together and formed into one large corporation.
The people in the courtroom eagerly awaited the decision at the end of the trial.
Conditions in the jail take away the self-respect of the prisoners housed there.
The immigrants were kept from going on their way by inspectors who demanded to see their papers.
Students felt that their privacy was being treated in a disrespectful and improper way when their lockers were being searched in a rude manner.
The separation of the different races in public schools was outlawed in 1954.
During the fire drill, students moved out of the school in an orderly way.
The children will remain in the state’s care and control until their parents can be located.
Just to make the point clear, I did not cherry-pick these examples. These are the first 11 which constitute the first page.
I don’t know if it is necessary to say this, but it is an extraordinary degree of politicization and it is all toward the left side.
If you need a list of why, I say this:
Union activism (the teachers all belong to one; Right to Work states? Corruption, the union I was a member of betrayed the workers.
Environmentalist cause.
Undeserved prize won by their leader
Monopoly; evil corporations.
Possibly neutral but law and order; no justice
Prisoner rights
Poor treatment of immigrants
Poor treatment of students; the radical Weatherman of the 1960s called their school policy,
“Jailbreak."
Racism! Injustice of America.
But you have to obey our authority. We are only justifying rebellion when we tell you to.
Remember we own you if we decide to do so.
Just to show some potential different questions:
5. Potentially dangerous problems in the jail, where violent criminals were kept, required strict conditions.
7. The inspectors did their job and protected the public by keeping immigrants from going on their way by demanding to see their papers.
8. Unfortunately, the amount of drugs and weapons in school required violating the privacy of some students because of a disrespectful and improperly behaving minority.
9. It was a proud day for America when school discrimination was ended in 1954.
Bonus story: One friend, who is a lecturer of sociology, said that the far right controls the media in America! She also teaches her students that the corporations are doing better than ever, making record profits, because they've downsized and are overworking everyone. [Obamacare makes it tempting to make workers part-timers so greedy companies get blamed!]
The pro-Obama people seem to think there's an economic recovery, but then are telling me that they haven't seen so many empty storefronts of business that have closed!
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Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest book, Israel: An Introduction, has just been published by Yale University Press. Other recent books include The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan). The website of the GLORIA Center and of his blog, Rubin Reports. His original articles are published at PJMedia.
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