Holy cow! Can you believe this?
Straight from today‘s Focus on the Family website:
The government will triple spending for patriotic education to almost 50 million dollars for the next five years.
The program, which is a continuation of an initiative started in 2001, will aim to encourage and increase patriotism among all generations and categories of citizens, says the document signed by the Secretary of Education.
“However, the priority target of the program is children and youth,” it says.
The program also will encourage media organizations to carry patriotic reports and shows. In return, the government will provide financial or other support to television companies, newspapers and cultural figures willing to include patriotic themes in their work.
The document notes that there should be a “counteraction to attempts to discredit and devalue the patriotic idea in the media, literature and arts.”
Part of the program’s funding will go toward setting up regional offices to coordinate patriotic education across the country, the document says.
The government earmarked $6.4 million for the 2001-05 patriotic program, which among other things financed war games for young people, celebrations of military victories and the manufacture of patriotic souvenirs. The program also encouraged schools and colleges to arrange meetings between students and World War II veterans.
Separately, the government launched its own television channel in May as a way to nurture patriotism.
Truth is stranger than fiction…
Pax