by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
Ahmed Mohamed, a fourteen-year-old Muslim lad in a Dallas, Texas, suburb, stirred things up this week when he brought a homemade clock of his own design to school. As any knuckle-dragging Texas school administrator knows, a Muslim with a ticking device is a terrorist, so the cops were called and the boy was promptly arrested.
Public outrage over the racist incident was swift and certain.
The University of Texas at Austin, perhaps hoping to demonstrate that there are a few hidey-holes in the Lone Star State where education is valued, quickly invited Ahmed to tour its campus - as did the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Facebook. President Obama also lauded young Ahmed by inviting him to bring his amazing clock and stop by the White House for a visit.
It was that last invitation, the one from our President, that set the lunatics baying. The tea-baggers quickly launched an all-out attack on President Obama for what they saw as his overt attempt to stir racial tensions. To spearhead their offensive, the baggers rolled out the most vicious of their many attack dogs (and America's poster girl for Unplanned Parenthood), Bristol Palin. The fired-up Ms. Palin immediately set to blogging and opined that the leader of the free world needed keep his nose out of this business because he was clearly encouraging racism.
Clearly Bristol Palin is a political force to be reckoned with and a cornerstone of American morality - at least in her own mind. But Bristol is just a temporary apparition on the national landscape. It is the smart and inventive young people like Ahmed Mohamed who are leading us forward. They are our future.
Thank you, Mr. President, for recognizing and applauding that fact - and thank you, Ahmed, for inspiring us all with your amazing clock!
Citizen Journalist
Ahmed Mohamed, a fourteen-year-old Muslim lad in a Dallas, Texas, suburb, stirred things up this week when he brought a homemade clock of his own design to school. As any knuckle-dragging Texas school administrator knows, a Muslim with a ticking device is a terrorist, so the cops were called and the boy was promptly arrested.
Public outrage over the racist incident was swift and certain.
The University of Texas at Austin, perhaps hoping to demonstrate that there are a few hidey-holes in the Lone Star State where education is valued, quickly invited Ahmed to tour its campus - as did the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Facebook. President Obama also lauded young Ahmed by inviting him to bring his amazing clock and stop by the White House for a visit.
It was that last invitation, the one from our President, that set the lunatics baying. The tea-baggers quickly launched an all-out attack on President Obama for what they saw as his overt attempt to stir racial tensions. To spearhead their offensive, the baggers rolled out the most vicious of their many attack dogs (and America's poster girl for Unplanned Parenthood), Bristol Palin. The fired-up Ms. Palin immediately set to blogging and opined that the leader of the free world needed keep his nose out of this business because he was clearly encouraging racism.
"This is the kind of stuff Obama needs to STAY out of. This encourages more racial strife that is already going on with the “Black Lives Matter” crowd and encourages victimhood."The unemployed former reality TV personality has also criticized President Obama in the past for his having the audacity to rename Alaska's Mt. McKinley to its native name of "Denali," and for his positive attitude toward gay marriage.
Clearly Bristol Palin is a political force to be reckoned with and a cornerstone of American morality - at least in her own mind. But Bristol is just a temporary apparition on the national landscape. It is the smart and inventive young people like Ahmed Mohamed who are leading us forward. They are our future.
Thank you, Mr. President, for recognizing and applauding that fact - and thank you, Ahmed, for inspiring us all with your amazing clock!
1 comment:
We pay too much attention to Alaskan hillbillies and too little on addressing institutionalized racism. And yes the institutions harboring racism include the family, not just those from Alaska but from across the nation.
Ahmed and his clock also draws attention to the post-Columbine knee jerk zero tolerance reaction of educators to anything that may on a wild LSD trip appear to be weaponry. If educators took the blinders off and distinguished between play things, creative things, and actual harmful things then they could do that for which they are paid, educate. Ahmed brought a clock to show his teacher. The teacher did not teach. The teacher, together with other teachers, freaked out. This is not the mind set of an educator. Unfortunately this is the mind set taught to police officers who shoot first and ask questions, or manufacture evidence, afterwards.
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