You have to teach small children big words like “assassinate” because they don’t learn them on their own:
Madison County, Idaho was once dubbed “the reddest place in America” by Salon, but that didn’t make it any less shocking when elementary school children started chanting “assassinate Obama” on the school bus.
Matthew Whoolery told KIKD News he found out about the chanting from his second and third graders, who had no idea what the word “assassinate” meant.
“They just hadn’t heard anything like this before,” Whoolery stated. “I think the thing that struck us was just like, ‘Where did they get the word and why would they put that word and that person together?'”
Well, we know where they got it. Assassinate wasn’t on these kids spelling lists, I can assure you of that. One or more of their parents taught one or more of these kids that chant and they passed it along to their friends on the bus. I’m sure it must have seemed hilarious to those right wing adults to hear such ugly, murderous invective come out of the mouths of little children. Because, of course, the rationale, as it always is, when conservatives use eliminationist language toward liberals or minorities is that “it’s just a joke.” As if calling for the political assassination of the President of the United States is funny. Well, I guess Ann Coulter got away with it in a best selling book, so why not a bunch of kids on a school bus in Idaho?
Thank you Man of Honor, John McCain, and you too, Sarah Palin, Camille Paglia’s favoritest jazz riffing Hockey Mom, for stirring up the racist stew o’ hatred and bigotry. This is on your heads. I don’t recall in my lifetime any story of small children on a bus chanting anything nearly so heinous. Adults yes, but children . . . ? This is beyond sickening.
I’m grateful that the majority of McCain’s supporters don’t feel this way, but all it takes is a small dedicated minority to threaten anarchy and mayhem in a society. Just ask Timothy McVeigh.
It’s only bad if left-leaning people do it. Snark, yes it is, but the sad thing is that these kinds of things are not shocking anymore. It’s almost expected that wingnuts engage in the most disgusting kinds of behavior. I’ve seen several co-workers here in Redville, USA engage in equally disturbing actions. Sadly, no consequences need occur.
What’s shocking about it?
They believe it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.
rogers and hammerstein- South Pacific-
“You’ve got to be Carefully Taught”
Hm, makes me think of CSNY’s “Teach Your Children (well).” I’ve got a third grader and preschooler and it would be so easy for me to turn get them to chant that on a bus. Mother effing sick.
And the person/persons who taught those kids to say that is snickering at his cleverness. Sick asshole.
Racism is taught, racism is learned. The fact that someone deliberately used his own twisted hate to infect children is disgusting. I belong to a usually friendly chat board and just today one of the members whom I don’t know well decided to post one of those ridiculous email rants about racism and how we are experiencing “reverse racism” by having Martin Luther King Day, affirmative action, etc. Everyone else on the board was all over this guy instantly. This is a grown man, spewing that crap.
I don’t know how you fight it. Continuing to squelch it wherever and whenver it rears its ugly head is all I can do. But I’m saddened that even now people are still so freakin’ stupid.
Maybe I’m playing a bit of a word game but “squelch” ain’t gonna work. it has to be confronted and if possible, the confrontation should be in a public setting. Sure, each one of us has the responsibility to teach the anti-hate message but bringing it up in a PTA meeting or a church setting will get the talking started and that is where the greater impact will take place.
It aint easy but that is what gets folks thinking and talking.
Red Foxx used the following gag in his routine. He would say, “if you see an ugly kid leaving school, and you follow him home; when he rings the doorbell of his house who do you think answers the door? A great big ugly parent!” Funny true, but underlying this joke is an age old truth; children bring out into the streets what they learn at home. The parents of the kid that started the “assassinate” chant on the school bus taught this chant to their kid expressly for the purpose of getting him/her to teach the chant to other kids on the school bus. Why would the parents do this??
The parents know that it is a federal crime for an adult to make such threats against the President of the United States, but what about a child or children voicing such threats? And the second question raised by this incident is this; “Does bodily threats against the President-Elect of the United States made by a child constitute a federal crime?”.
These parents know that their child will never be thrown in jail if caught, but they are concerned that they could be prosecuted if the identity of their child as the ringleader is discovered. Because of the severity of what the children were chanting, I would treat this as a very serious situation and it should be fully investigated until the guilty adults are discovered. Such quick and timely action by law enforcement will certainly answer the questions posed above for those seeking change through hate and violence.
First of all, a lot of kids that age have older siblings who teach them big words — especially big words that have the word “ass” in them, twice. I remember that word being very popular amongst kids when I grew up. So I wouldn’t freak out over that use.
The dark current in our politics that allows such talk to exist even on the periphery of social acceptance is another thing altogether. By all means stay freaked out about that.
I don’t remember “assassinate Bush” chants after he won, do you?
I wasn’t a kid when Bush was selected, but I remember jokes about assassinating Nixon, which would quickly be ended when an adult came within earshot.
I should apologize to you for nitpicking, though. I agree with your gist — I just don’t share your alarm over kids knowing that word. It’s a fun word for kids, who truly don’t know what they’re saying.
Sara Palin in the new Lee Atwater.
Did anyone see the recent Frontline about him?