Indoctrination in schools?

Fox “News” and other conservatives are STILL obsessing over this. By now, you have likely heard the whole story. Teachers at a Burlington Township New Jersey public school requested parental permission to have preschool students sing a song that praised President Obama during February’s Black History Month. A teacher recorded the children and, without the school’s permission, posted the video on YouTube.

Conservatives unearthed the YouTube clip and went insane, screaming about “indoctrination.” Tucker “Bowtie” Carlson, a Fox “News” commentator, said it was like “the Khmer Rouge.” Another Fox commentator read a letter allegedly from a viewer suggesting it was like “Hitler Youth” efforts at indoctrination. An MSNBC commentator said it was like something you’d see in “North Korea.” The principal of the school is said to have received death threats over the incident. Yet another conservative, whose name escapes me, And yet another “Hitler Youth” reference from someone who obviously has firsthand knowledge of that time period:

“It’s just like the Hitler Youth all over again,” said Concannon, an unemployed 26-year-old former National Guardsman. “They should be learning history, but instead they’re being taught to worship the president.”

There are some problems with this line of reasoning. First, the President’s office had nothing to do with the event. They did not require or ask anyone to have the children sing the song; they did not even know the song had been sung. In these other countries that actively practiced indoctrination, the orders to have children praise the leader came from the top down. So, what were these outrageous lyrics, that bring to mind some of world history’s most notorious figures?

The first song begins, “Mmm, mmm, mmm, Barack Hussein Obama/He said that all must lend a hand/To make this country strong again.” The second one was set to “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and included the refrain, “Hooray, Mr. President.”

“He said we must be fair today! Equal work means equal pay! Barack Hussein Obama! He said, red yellow, black or white, all are equal in his sight! Barack Hussein Obama!”

The republicans have wasted no time shamelessly using the incident as another fundraising opportunity:

RNC Chair Michael Steele writes that the video shows “the indoctrination of our nation’s greatest treasure — our children…Friend, this is the type of propaganda you would see in Stalin’s Russia or Kim Jong Il’s North Korea…I never thought the day would come when I’d see it here in America.”

Since the conservatives first displayed their manufactured outrage, video has emerged of other kids singing a president’s praises–President George Bush:

The Obama song video controversy is reminiscent of an incident involving school age children and Laura Bush during the White House Easter Egg Roll in 2006. Hurricane Katrina had come and gone, and criticism of the Bush administration’s inadequate response was both plentiful and incessant. The Bush White House invited children from the areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina to come sing for the First Lady.

What did they sing? To the tune of “Hey Look Me Over,” children from states devastated by the hurricane sang:

… Congress, Bush and FEMA
People across our land
Together have come to rebuild us
and we join them hand-in-hand!

And those children sang the song praising President Bush in the White House at a national event at the instance of the First Lady, not in a lonely public school auditorium at the instance of an unknown teacher.

When President Obama was elected, even republicans who opposed him made a great show of saying what a historic moment it was for our country to elect its first African American president and how proud they were of the country for doing this. Yet when young kids are encouraged to celebrate that achievement during Black History Month–an achievement that is one of the most monumental achievements for African Americans in this country–the conservatives gin up outrage.

These kids are so young they do not even care about political policies. The song did not encourage them to support abortion rights or gay marriage or even a public health care option. To them, the president is not a republican or a democrat–he is the president, a position that children are typically raised to regard with some amount of awe and admiration. This is the leader of our entire country! It is likely that song will have no effect on their future voting decisions.

This is simply another in a long line of efforts by conservatives in power to whip up and maintain a frenzy of hate against the president that they hope will culminate with his downfall in 2012–or sooner, by the most unpleasant means. There is something insane about taking an innocent song and comparing it to people who mass murdered millions or have been indicted for crimes against humanity.

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