What about the children?
This morning I read and commented on Shiplord Kirel’s recent page about lynchings, and it got me to thinking about the racism and bigotry that has been so shamelessly displayed by national figures lately.
I want to ask them: What about the children? Do you care what this does to them?
We see children overseas being indoctrinated with suicidal jihadist ideas, or conscripted to serve as genocidal machine-gun toting soldiers in wars not of their making, and we rightly recoil with fear & disgust, wondering how anyone could do that to a child.
But what about our own children? Sometimes we forget how keenly aware children are of what’s going on the adult world. What goes through the innocent young minds of ethnic or religious minority children when they witness all this ugliness?
Sure, decent people will make every effort to talk to their children about these things and teach them that blind hatred, racism and bigotry are wrong, but what about the children of the haters? Who will protect them? And how long until your children come into contact with them? What does it mean for all their futures and the future of our country?
Which brings me to Sarah Palin, since she’s been in the news recently and is seen by many as the quintessential mom. She carries on about wholesome “soccer moms” and formidable “grizzly moms” who would fiercely protect the children they supposedly cherish, yet she uses phrases like “a stab in the heart” when speaking about what she disingenuously refers to as “peace-seeking Muslims”.
She’s not just saying that she thinks building Cordoba House is insensitive, she’s drawing a mental picture of murderous Muslims violently driving a the blade of a knife through the hearts of innocent Americans. She’s not referring to foreign terrorists or to the evil perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks, she’s referring to law-abiding American Muslims, naturalized and native-born. What peace-seeking person, Muslim or otherwise, would stab someone in the heart? What is a Muslim child to think if he or she hears this? What are his or her classmates in school to think?
Oh, but she’s just speaking figuratively her defenders will say. Really? Because when I read those words the image that came to mind, however fleeting & illusory, was pretty damned bloody and disturbing. Sarah may not be eloquent in most matters, but she’s quite adept at using this kind of insidiously evocative language.
I’ll never forget the first time I heard her dripping sarcasm regarding Obama having been a community organizer. I have detested her from that moment on because I clearly heard not only the dog whistle, but also the utter disdain present in her tone. And she smirked as she said it, so I can only assume she enjoyed it. She has only gotten worse—or perhaps I should say better (at what she does).
The terms she uses to describe herself and other Real Americans™ are unfailingly positive. Her thin skin causes her to whine loudly & incessantly whenever she is criticized, yet she’s quick to grab hold of the knife she accuses others of wielding and use it on any person or group she perceives as an opponent.
Soccer mom? Mama grizzly? I think not. Unlike the Shrieking Harpy, Pamela Geller, Sarah may have a have a veneer of respectability, but she’s every bit as loathsome. Foul stinking garbage vomited into the national public discourse is foul stinking garbage, regardless of who spews it. And that garbage makes its way into the consciousness of our children. When I hear Palin, Geller, Breitbart, Gingrich and their ilk speak, I’m not reminded of the patriots who founded and fought for this country, I’m reminded of nature documentaries showing slinking packs of vicious, opportunistic hyenas.
So, I have to look at them and ask once again: What about the children? Not just your children—ALL of them, regardless of their race, creed or national origin. When will you begin to behave responsibly and show that you truly do cherish those innocents?
*crickets…*