Wednesday, August 5, 2009

For Shame!

I don't have a way to tie this in with technology, but maybe with librarianship and certainly with education and educators in general. It troubles me that people are disrupting town hall meetings in our country by shouting and heckling to the point that the meetings really cannot proceed. This bothers me on many levels, and yes, I am in favor of health care and insurance reform, but I think I would oppose the shouting regardless of which side was acting out. Right now I am thinking about how this reflects behavior upon these people's educations and their respect for intelligent discourse. And more than that, I am concerned about the terrible example it sets for boys and girls. Political conservatives often are proponents of such "value based" educational movements as zero tolerance for misbehavior, strict adherence to school rules, school uniforms, etc. They love to talk about "back to basics" and teaching respect and strong moral values at school. Do these people feel that they are setting positive examples for their children and grandchildren when they shout and scream at speakers at political gatherings? I worked in public schools for 25 years--10 in the classroom and 15 in school libraries. One thing I tried to teach was proper audience behavior when students were given the opportunity to hear guest authors and other speakers. How would we react if students thought they could shout down an author?

When I was growing up, I was a high school debater. I even went to the state meet, where we were soundly and fairly defeated in the first round. This shows my age, but my senior year the debate topic was medicare. I was for it. My partner and best friend was against. But we learned to debate both sides. We also learned not to make any kind of statement or argument unless we could back it up with references. I did more research as a debater than I did for any other school experience. My friend and I did not get angry with one another because we disagreed on the topic. Our parents were friends, and their personal views mirrored ours. Susan's dad was a dentist and a Republican, and my dad was Chairman of the Democratic Party in our Texas county. These differences did not in any way mean we could not all be very close. If I were to call Susan today, I suspect she would be against health care reform, or at least the versions advanced by Democrats. But we could still have a friendly conversation. Where has that spirit gone? How can these disruptive people feel good about themselves when they think about the terrible example they are displaying for boys and girls? It makes me sad to see this rudeness be glorified as "free speech" or "patriotism." Alas and for shame.

4 comments:

  1. Thank you for putting into a blog post the exact conversation I have been having with my husband. Patriotism,respect, free speech and polite audience behavior are not qualities that these people exhibit. Unfortunately, they come across as informationally illiterate and subsequently they are unable to comprehend and evaluate information. It is also sad that this screaming hoard is broadcast to the world as representing "us." They are an embarrassment.

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  2. I completely agree with you about the whole respect issue. I refuse to watch certain programming on news channels because the "hosts" are outrageously rude to their guests. They interrupt and talk over the guests on their shows. Then the guests do the same to each other. Whatever happened to manners? We don't have to agree on everything, but at least be courteous. There are proper forums for voicing your opinions. Use them!

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  3. I hope you can publish this post where Obama will read it! This is one of those stories that need to be heard. Thank you for your activism.

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  4. Thanks so much for your comments! I am off this afternoon to a Republican Tea Party that is being held just one block from my house at the field where I jog every night. I will not shout. I will hope that everyone there is courteous. No matter what, it will be interesting.

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