something fishy goin on

Oh My Cod! The Congressman from Aridzona who just happens 2B my own rep here in this little old Congressional district where we've settled down, Rep. Matt Salmon has been scarin the little kids in elementary school.

Now you must understand that believing in democracy as I do leads me to conclude that Rep. Salmon's Mormonism and Republicanism are OK, because East Mesa here is largeley Mormon and Republican, so that's cool.  BUT he's an old fart like me, and I happen to know most OAFS are totally clueless people.
             
The problem with OAFS is they think things are as they were 50 or 60 yrs ago. What I mean by that is Salmon, being probably in his 70's, clearly remembers the "duck and cover" drills of the early 50's, and very clearly understood what a nuclear bomb was and what it would do, as all public-school first graders did at that time.

A parent who heard the Congressman speak to the little ones was horrified by his question, "Do you know what nuclear weapons are?" to a group of 2d- and 3d-graders. He was talking about Iran when he asked it, as well as mentioning that in countries where they hate Americans, the schools train "kids your age to be suicide bombers."

Mr. Campbell (4 such was the witnessing parent's name) was horrified by this statement as well, and said the next day that was the information  which most frightened his daughter, as she didn't know what suicide is. We're talkin 8- & 9-yr-olds who have no information on the basics of life and death.

I'm sure Mr. Campbell's telling the truth in all of this, but I can't help but think the parent in this case is as clueless as the Congressman. As an educator he'd make a very sour dean. He appears 2 think  kids like we were, who knew what the atom bomb was, what it was capable of doing, and also read a newspaper every day, and so figured out early in my life the precise meanings of all the common death-associated words -- murder, suicide, homicide, mortal, etc. -- that such children are now extinct, & no longer walk the earth.

It's a big flap over nuthin, really. and a tempest in a teapot, but Rep Salmon really needs a style makeover. I wonder how may of these little kids, unlike Mr. indignant dad, felt like something smelt  in Salmon's presentation. I also wonder how many of em know a lot more than Mr. Campbell thinks they do. 

#30#