This is not education, this is hate

Education is learning, debating, exploring, discussing, (occasionally) memorizing, experimenting, and a number of other "*ings". But what happened in this story is wrong.

Some complained that "When I dissented, I got a called a traitor. Bush/Ashcroft/Repubs are crushing dissent." This story cannot be framed as free speech unless my ability to call you wrong or even, yes, a traitor is also free speech. Either they are both hate speech or they are both free speech. And given the hysteria over the loss of our rights over the last 3 years, we should err on the side of calling it free speech.

Which leaves me free to say that the principals and teachers involved in this should be asked some very tough questions by the school board. And the students involved should attend some anti-hate classes to learn how to have rational conversations about topics that reasonable people can disagree.


Captain's Quarters