A high school geography teacher in Colorado, one Jay Bennish, is the latest target of the roving right-wing hate-mongers on "talk radio" and in the blogosphere whose whole raison d'etre is to abuse, harass, threaten, and intimidate anyone who dares challenge their parochial prejudices. A brief account of the remarks that have gotten him into trouble (as well as the students supporting him) is here. The quoted remarks are, as you shall see, so utterly banal, that they would attract no attention if uttered anywhere else in the world: e.g., suggesting "eerie similarities" between the rhetoric of Bush and Hitler (others have made the point--some at great length); and noting that the U.S. is "the single most violent nation on the planet earth" today. To be sure, the Canadians produced the most compelling rejoinder to Bush-Hitler comparisons some time ago, but that doesn't change the historical significance of the fact that Bush is the first major world leader since Hitler to defend the legitimacy of wars of aggression, and that it is official U.S. policy to dominate the world militarily and prevent any rivals from emerging. In America in the year 2006, however, if you comment on the obvious, you must be punished.
It is surely worth noting that in every media account of this incident I've seen, there is no indication that Mr. Bennish treated his students inappropriately: he has been suspended for the content of his speech, period. You can defend free speech and support Mr. Bennish by contacting his employer, the Cherry Creek Schools District at the following addresses:
Cherry Creek Schools
4700 South Yosemite Street
Greenwood Village, Colorado 80111
Phone: 303-773-1184
Fax: 303-773-9884
Dr. Monte Moses, Superintendent
Phone: 720-554-4213
Email: rmcintire@cherrycreekschools.org
I suggest referencing the ABC News story linked above as the factual context for any message, and noting that on the basis of what is being reported, this looks like unconstitutional punishment of protected speech; to restore the District's good reputation, the teacher ought to be reinstated right away.
UPDATE: As Ruchira Paul notes, according to the transcript of Mr. Bennish's remarks, he concluded by saying: "I'm not implying in any way you should agree with me. ... What I'm trying to do is to get you to ... think about these issues more in depth." Thinkin "in depth" is, of course, verboten for the talk radio and blogospheric brown shirts.
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