Posted by Dan Ewert : 8/21/2002 09:26:00 PM (Archive Link)
Just read this article on CNN.com concerning the suggestions educators have made about how to properly teach about the events of 9-11. Not surprisingly, some of the suggested methods have a liberal bent about them. To quote the piece, “Among the materials offered as the anniversary of the attacks approaches is a guide by Brian Lippincott of John F. Kennedy University's Graduate School of Professional Psychology. Lippincott suggests that adults avoid stereotyping people of countries that might be home to terrorists. ‘We must not repeat terrible mistakes such as our treatment of Japanese Americans and Arab Americans during times of war,’ he says.” After some looking, I was able to track down a few of the sites… NEA.org, a listing of the lesson plans, and what I think is the aforementioned tolerance plan. It seems to me that some liberals have just been tripping all over themselves in order to preserve blind tolerance to everything. Ever since 9-11, they’ve just about wet themselves in the fear that Americans are going to start locking up Arab-Americans in camps or that we’re going to go Nazi. This is absurd. American culture has been worshiping at the altar of tolerance for so long that it would take quite a bit more to erase the abundance we have.

Now I think tolerance is a fine thing (although, if you’ve read previous posts, you know I hate the usage of the word). However, I think some degree of intolerance is required where our enemies are concerned. Like or not, the fact remains that Middle-Eastern Islamic extremists have committed grievous acts of violence against our country (Iran hostages, Beirut barracks bombing, Pan Am 103, African embassy bombings, 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Saudi Arabian barracks bombing, USS Cole attack, 9-11 World Trade Center attack, Pentagon attack, and countless isolated incidents) and we need to realize that they have it in for us. And as much as we’d like to not stereotype, the people who are against us are, with few exceptions, the aforementioned Middle-Eastern Islamic extremists. Additionally, many of the Middle-Eastern countries are far more supportive of terrorism in either a de facto or de jure sense than they are supportive of our efforts to eradicate it. So if we continue to preach blind tolerance to all, we will fail to recognize the enemy for what he is. When you teach people that they should hug wolves, then it’s your fault when they start getting mauled by the wolves. I remember how right after the attacks, many people proclaimed that the sleeping giant of America was being awakened or how we had finally woken up to the threat of terrorism towards us that we had been ignoring. Some people, it seems, are determined to put us back to sleep.