Letters to the Editor
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Funny
funny how no one bashing France ever mentions Napoleon...:)
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Country Boy
"Still, for the first few months, we felt uneasy. Eighty of Narrowsburg's 319 adults are military veterans and at least 10 recent school graduates are serving in Iraq or on other bases overseas right now."
It DISTURBED the author that Narrowsburg's population has a long and responsible history of serving their country? This statement says a lot about the author. Is it good? The readers can decide.
"We called the ACLU and learned this was an entirely legal way for evangelicals to proselytize to children during school hours.... After our inquiry, the ACLU formally called the principal to complain. She apologized and promised never to allow it again. While we were never identified... there was clearly no one else in the school community who would have done so -- and the principal never looked at us quite as warmly again."
That is understandable. The author violated the first principle of a trustworthy neighbor: take your problem to the individual when possible rather than going straight to litigation. Shunning the author would have been an act of wisdom once she'd proven that her idea of community was trying to get others in trouble as efficiently as possible at the highest level possible. How is it that the author never learned the first thing about being neighborly?
"Shortly afterward, another parent casually told me that she wanted to bring her daughter's religious cartoon videos in to share with the class, but couldn't because "some people" might object."
See the deadening effect of the author's actions? This parent now understood that someone in the school system wasn't honest enough to resolve issues face-to-face. Fear has been introduced into the free-speech arena. Congratulations to the author.
"When we later learned that the cheery kindergarten teacher belonged to one of the most conservative evangelical churches in the community, we were careful not to challenge anyone or to express any opinion about politics or religion, out of fear our son would be singled out."
Failing to understand how reasonable people settle differences, the author assumes that everyone engages in the same sort of stab-in-the-back behavior that she attempted with the ACLU. This is simply pitiable.
"Instead, to counteract any God-and-country indoctrination he received in
school, we began our own informal in-home instruction about Bush, Iraq and
Washington over the evening news."
This because a child wanted to bring a religious video to school? Believe it or not, Christianity is NOT about 'Bush, Iraq and Washington'...except to those laboring under incredible ignorance of Christianity. The author's actions are analogous to spraying a fire extinguisher on an earthquake: the response is totally unrelated to the stimulus.
"I wanted him to understand how privileged he was to live in a
place where bombs weren't raining from the sky."
Ironically, thanks largely to the actions of those 90 veterans whose presence made the author so uncomfortable.
"He can, it turns out -- despite the warnings of other city parents -- read at a level twice that of his new peers."
The admitted superiority of teaching at the conservative school needs no comment. The author's inability to recognize the implications is interesting, though.
"Since we returned to the city, he has learned how to ride a bike, long for an Xbox, practiced a few new swear words and, somehow, learned the meaning of "sexy." He has pretty much stopped favoring red, white and blue."
The author must be very proud. Although she might feel ambivalent about the bike.
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French Hospitals
For wanting a country that is truly about brotherhood, Ms. Burleigh is a patriot.
To the letter writer who remarked about rioting mobs on the way to the hospital in France:
The most dramatic footage sees air, but what you saw in America is a gross distortion of evens in France.
This year there were some testy demonstrations by French citizens who were campaigning to preserve their labor rights, rather noble but quixotic considering the people of most nations have abdicated theirs recklessly and volunteered themselves as mere "human resources". Before people give up any of their labor rights here, they wish to be consulted first. How radical!
As for French health care, I have been in the hospital in Paris repeatedly in the last few months. Not only have I not had to wade through any rioting mobs, I have received top notch health care, including treatment by a specialist who told me not to worry about paying. the priority is taking care of the patient first. I believe French health care has been rated the best in the world, and that mlevel of treatment is available to everyone; Damn that French equality!
And oh, that 35 hour work week and those six weeks of vacation that give people so much time to spend with their families; Damn those French family values and all that practical liberty.
Despite all that time off, the French rank high in worker productivity.
There are of course problems here, as there are in America, as there are in every country. The car-burnings in the banlieu took place ina couple of dozen isdolated pockets of France, resulting in a few tragic deaths, a lot of property damage. But even these were not rioting mobs, and it certainly wasn't the nationwide jihad depicted in the right wing American media. Many of the protesters were Catholic, and what they all wanted was to have jobs and girlfriends, not to turn France Muslim, but to be able to be more French and accepted as such, and not to be so isolated. The North Aerican coverage of these events was really appalling.
But the French have much that is enviable. And at the moment, they are not sending the sons and daughters of working people off to fight and die in ta war for oil and power that will benefit a few and hurt multitudes, a war that is more than ill-advised, it's criminal. On my scoresheet; they get major points for that.