Tolkiens Arda – Sveriges stora Tolkienforum

ARE TEACHERS TERRORISTS?

I had to read this story twice to be sure it wasn't a joke.

Yesterday, at a private meeting with U.S. governors in the White House,
George Bush's Secretary of Education, Rod Paige, called the National
Education Association -- one of America's two national teachers' unions,
with 2.7 million members -- a "terrorist organization".

The union has responded by saying that "it is morally repugnant to
equate those who teach America's children with terrorists". Obviously.
But the really frightening part of the NEA response reads:

"This is the kind of rhetoric we have come to expect from this
Administration whenever one challenges its worldview."

Remember that in the USA of 2004, when a cabinet member calls a group a
"terrorist organization," that's a highly explosive term. As they used
to say in the Wild West, "them's fightin' words".

Meanwhile, the spokesman for John Kerry, who recently won the unanimous
support of the AFL-CIO in his bid for the presidency, said:

"Secretary Paige should apologize for his remarks calling the National
Education Association a terrorist organization. These remarks are
inappropriate, particularly at a time when our nation has experienced
the devastation caused by terrorism."

Inappropriate? Is that the strongest word one can think of?

The American Federation of Teachers emphasized -- as Kerry's spokesman
did not -- that "Paige's remarks are more than an 'inappropriate choice
of words'."

Today, Paige issued a brief apology, which began:

"It was an inappropriate choice of words to describe the obstructionist
scare tactics the NEA's Washington lobbyists have employed against No
Child Left Behind's historic education reforms . . ."

Maybe it's just me, but I think we cannot accept that a cabinet member
in the U.S. government can call a trade union a "terrorist
organization". And a simple apology is hardly the appropriate response.
The apology should come from President Bush, following an announcement
that he has fired his Education Secretary.