G’day.
I’m enjoying reading your blog but today’s story is making me think that you are more sensationalist then an objective observer. The story clearly said that it was an misunderstanding. Yes, family living outside the area where the school bus is operating is a problem that should be dealt with but it’s not related in any way to what you are trying to make it into. The biggest mistake you can make in this “new phase of a very old war” is to lose credibility.
My response:
You may be right. The school certainly maintains that it was all a misunderstanding.
But the mother doesn’t feel that way, and she definitely had to go to school to get her kids after the school carried them there and then refused to take them home. That’s what triggered my sense of outrage: what kind of bureaucratic monstrosity will allow the school to take the kids to school on the bus, but not return them to their home on the bus the very same day?
It’s also clear that the bus was reserved for Hmong-speaking children. Once again, that’s bizarre. It would be illegal for the school to reserve the bus for English-speaking children only.
So I stand by my outrage: there’s something smelly about this “misunderstanding”, and something peculiar about what the school is doing.
Readers, weigh in on this issue, if you will. Read my post, read the news story, and decide whether I was sensationalizing something that didn’t deserve it.
Our credibility is important to me, so make your opinion known. I’ll defer to the distributed intelligence and collective wisdom of Gates of Vienna’s readers.
[nothing follows]
15 comments:
Baron, I don't see how the New Zealand reader could come to the conclusions s/he has ...................... I posted the link to the story on my blog, because I am outraged that AMERICAN students were kicked off a PUBLIC SCHOOL bus that transports them to THEIR PUBLIC SCHOOL - because supposed "adults" don't want the self-esteem of the Hmong kids negatively impacted ...................... obviously, the "adults" are unaware of the benefits that could accrue to the Hmong kids, just 'hanging out' with native English speaking kids .........................
what the hell is Hmong
Your credibility has been maintained by your willingness to read contrary viewpoints and respond with respect. You have done so for years now.
Sure, occasionally any of us can seem to be unhinged, but this is partly due to the brevity of the Blog format.
If this incident happened in my local school district, I'd certainly be writing a letter or 2 right now. Perhaps I'm just stupid, but I thought separate buses for kids from different racial backgrounds was dealt with in the 1960s. The Democrats were the party of slavey and Jim Crow, so we shouldn't be surprised if they continue to want to come up some high-sounding explanation for their discrimination. See how unhinged I can get? You were downright moderate compared to me.
Getting back to the purpose of the Gates of Vienna, what you provide is content that we do not hear from the MSM. Please keep it up. Do I agree with everything I read here in terms of simple content, or your perspective on it? No. But I visit the site every day.
I have to say our Kiwi friend has a valid point. The issue of a Hmong language school bus is a diversion that dilutes focus for readers here. It is a rabbit trail among many. Let it be.
In this situation you could get any number of valid opinions on the merits of helping at risk, foriegn language speaking, refugees.
If I may suggest, stay on point.
You (and Diamond Mair) are making the assumption that the Elementary School and the Hmong language academy are one institution. They may in fact be quite separate, both legally and geographically.
Neither may want to take students from other schools, for accounting and logistics reasons.
The language issue is a red herring - merely the stupidity of the bus driver.
Should we have sympathy for parents that decide to live outside the school zone, and hence the bus routes presumably supplied by the elementary school?
If you are trying to highlight the evil of race-based funding and benefits by the govt, I applaud that. However, the details do matter - in this case the explanation is most likely mundane - a clueless bus driver, school district bureaucracy, accounting and logistics - and not wilful discrimination by the state. You do yourself no credit by ignoring the details.
I don't see this as needless sensationalization. As you've stated, were the positions reversed and the bus reserved for English speaking kids all Hell would break loose. What's good for the goose....
IMHO discounting the bus driver's explanation is the easy way out. Quite often the "snuffy" at the bottom of the totem pole is more honest than his more supposedly intelligent/enlightened supervisors. The driver may be "full of it", but that shouldn't be automatically assumed just because the school administration says it's so.
Baron,
Something is smelly to me also. Here is the website for the school.
http://phalen.spps.org/About_Us.html
Two things that strike me.
1. From what I understand, the buses are shared by different schools and students. Pay your taxes, buses are provided. Get yourself to a stop, you can ride. What I don't get is why the school waited until now to remove the kids. Children are usually told which bus they are to ride at the beginning of each school year. Even if this family moved, by the way the bus system is provided, it shouldn't have mattered. The bus still goes to the school that the children attend.
2. Looking at the school website, Hmong and Spanish are the languages of choice for the accelerated program of the school. Or am I looking at it wrong and it is for Hmong and Spanish only?
Can anyone even imagine the reaction if there were schoolbuses reserved for English-speaking students only?
I posted my comment on the original post below.
It's not sensationalism.
It's the Balkanization of the next generation. When the Italians, Poles, Germans, and others came over, did they attend schools taught in their native language?
I didn't realize at how I had slipped into their "slaad ideology," until the other day, when a co-worker had his 3 yr-old with him. I was speaking Spanish to the little boy, and the father asked me to only speak to him in English. I was impressed.
It's all in the attitude to remain separate, but equal.
I'm with Stephen Renico's remark "Can anyone even imagine the reaction if there were schoolbuses reserved for English-speaking students only?". No matter what the facts in this incident are, had this happened in Denmark - a Muslim student denied a bus ride - the MSM would go ballistic instantly, especially national TV.
On a somewhat related note : How are things going in New Zealand ? - We read quite a lot from Australia (John Howard, Cronulla Beach, uncovered meat, Muslim's prime right to the land etc..) but I don't remember seeing anything from NZ ? - I would love to see some further comments from out Kiwi friend here...(OK - I must admit I have a personal interest because my 19-year old daughter left home 5 days ago in order to live as a "back-packer" in NZ for the next year or so).
kepi, I live in New Zealand and if I had a 19 year old daughter there's absolutely no way I'd encourage her to backpack around NZ.
Despite what the tourist brochures would have you believe this is a violent country.
(any country that leads the world in child-abuse statistics has something seriously rotten at its core)
email me if you want an unbiased view of the place. There'll be the usual howls of outrage from Kiwis but I've found that they're living with their heads buried in the sand.
KG - I found your blog Crusader Rabbit - like it very much), but not your email. With your permission I'll ask the Baron to mail it to me. You've made me quite nervous.....
I don't see anything wrong with your article. As everybody else you have right to analyze what you hear or read. The whole affair shows a mess, lack of organization at the school district . But also, it shows how deep we are submerged in the destructive multicultural dogma. Like some of the comments said, the melting pot was good, but multiculturalism is bad for this country. The kids should not be taught in their native language at all, definitely not for taxpayer money in the public schools. If the different nationalities want to do it, they have to create their own schools on the side of the American only schools. They can take their language courses in the evening after their normal curriculum. The past immigrants, even the Mexican, learned English and some of them don't even speak Spanish at all, because their parents made sure, that their kids would fully assimilate. The melting pot was also about mixing immigrants from many different nations, so they have had harder time to stick together. The immigration logic is completely reversed from what it used to be. The immigration from the 3rd World used to be limited and Europeans were preferred. Now , Europeans are very restricted and 3rd. World people preferred. Europeans have had really hard time to even come to visit. Mainly from former Eastern Block. They still have Visa limitation imposed on them and if they don’t have a lot of money in the bank, own a house and have a job, the INS doesn’t let them even come as tourists.
Kepi, thanks for the kind words about CR.
Of course the Baron is free to give you my email addy, or you can simply click on KG on the right sidebar which will take you to the profile and email.
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