As the media keeps gushing on about how America has finally adopted tolerance as the great virtue, and that we're all united now, let's consider the Brave Catherine Vogt Experiment.There's more at the link.
Catherine Vogt, 14, is an Illinois 8th grader, the daughter of a liberal mom and a conservative dad. She wanted to conduct an experiment in political tolerance and diversity of opinion at her school in the liberal suburb of Oak Park.
She noticed that fellow students at Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School overwhelmingly supported Barack Obama for president. His campaign kept preaching "inclusion," and she decided to see how included she could be.
So just before the election, Catherine consulted with her history teacher, then bravely wore a unique T-shirt to school and recorded the comments of teachers and students in her journal. The T-shirt bore the simple yet quite subversive words drawn with a red marker:
"McCain Girl."
"I was just really curious how they'd react to something that different, because a lot of people at my school wore Obama shirts and they are big Obama supporters," Catherine told us. "I just really wanted to see what their reaction would be."
Immediately, Catherine learned she was stupid for wearing a shirt with Republican John McCain's name. Not merely stupid. Very stupid.
"People were upset. But they started saying things, calling me very stupid, telling me my shirt was stupid and I shouldn't be wearing it," Catherine said.
Then it got worse.
"One person told me to go die. It was a lot of dying. A lot of comments about how I should be killed," Catherine said, of the tolerance in Oak Park.
But students weren't the only ones surprised that she wore a shirt supporting McCain.
"In one class, I had one teacher say she will not judge me for my choice, but that she was surprised that I supported McCain," Catherine said.
If Catherine was shocked by such passive-aggressive threats from instructors, just wait until she goes to college.
"Later, that teacher found out about the experiment and said she was embarrassed because she knew I was writing down what she said," Catherine said.
One student suggested that she be put up on a cross for her political beliefs.
"He said, 'You should be crucifixed.' It was kind of funny because, I was like, don't you mean 'crucified?' " Catherine said.
Other entries in her notebook involved suggestions by classmates that she be "burned with her shirt on" for "being a filthy-rich Republican."
Some said that because she supported McCain, by extension she supported a plan by deranged skinheads to kill Obama before the election. And I thought such politicized logic was confined to American newsrooms. Yet Catherine refused to argue with her peers. She didn't want to jeopardize her experiment.
"I couldn't show people really what it was for. I really kind of wanted to laugh because they had no idea what I was doing," she said.
Only a few times did anyone say anything remotely positive about her McCain shirt. One girl pulled her aside in a corner, out of earshot of other students, and whispered, "I really like your shirt."
This is some of the "positive progressive change" we're going to be dealing with for the next for years, at least.
Ahhh, well, middle schoolers, what can you expect. Tropuble is, she'd probably have gotten the same reaction at UCLA.
ReplyDeleteAnd I really, really wish you'd reinstall the Haloscan commenting feature!
Great post. What a brave and enterprising young lady reporter. She did a much better job than the mainstream media!
ReplyDeleteAnd what can we conclude from her experiences? That they reflect on the intolerance of everyone who voted for Obama?
ReplyDeleteWhat about the 17 year old black kid who was attacked on Election Night in Staten Island by four men wielding baseball bats? They yelled made comments about Obama as they beat him. Does that in any way reflect on you? I don't think that it does at all...
Indeed, we should look to middle schoolers for a TRUE picture of what America is like.
ReplyDeleteI heard an interview tonight EST with her on a Philly-based radio show.
ReplyDeleteSounded like a smart kid.
We've really got to face this, I think: We live in a country in which tens of millions of people have suspended whatever morality, common sense, intelligence and decency they may hae had to support Barack Obama.some, though, may've been deficient in all these.
Actually, I think through him, and aided by him, that the hatred of his followers will never be pulled back.
Interestingly, some yahoo called the radio station and asked this young girl if she asked why the people had such passion in what disgusting things they were saying to her.
You could just hear in the caller's tone and tempo that he was an Obama supporter.
And that he really wanted to find that justification for these children behaving like horses' patoots -- well, worse; much worse -- because there must be some Obamagod motivation that makes such execrable behavior acceptable.
BTW: To the sacraastic comment that we should look to middle-schoolers to a true picture of America: If that person knew much about kids, he'd know that they're pretty good at parroting what they hear on what they watch on TV and their mothers and fathers -- or whatever adults that might be in their lives outside of that school.
There is no proof for the crime you described 'justaguy'.
ReplyDeleteremember Ashley Todd.
justaguy ... y'all hold yourselves out as morally superior to us ... so shouldn't the children who apparently hold your values in enough esteem to support Mr. Obama reflect that superiority in their own actions?
ReplyDeleteWe're not talking a few nuts in the dark here ... we are talking about many kids, in broad daylight, with their teachers looking on.
BTW, CKA is spot-on regarding where kids get their attitudes from ... so I guess it is reflective of some of your fellow-travelers in Leftism.
It's sad that you are so blinded to your own biases that you post this story as an attack on liberals, rather than what it actually is; an expose on the foolishness of treating those who don't share your political views as an enemies to be mocked & defeated, rather than as people--as fellow citizens--deserving of respect.
ReplyDeleteSome said that because she supported McCain, by extension she supported a plan by deranged skinheads to kill Obama before the election.
Stupid, of course. Blaming all McCain supporters (or any, except for the ones actually involved) for the planned attack on Obama or even being in favor of it in any way is ridiculous.
Meanwhile, any diversion from political conformity is greeted with threats of violence.
or
This is some of the "positive progressive change" we're going to be dealing with for the next for years, at least.
Blaming all liberals (or any, other than the eighth-graders actually involved) should be seen as just as ridiculous... ...but, here on this blog anyway, it isn't.
Comments attacking someone personally for having a different political opinion than you are mean-spirited & wrong, whether the people doing it are eighth-graders or associate professors of political science...
The specific insults & the intellect behind them are different (slightly, anyway...) but the behavior is pretty similar. It's really sad that you cannot see that you often are that which you so despise.
middle schoolers are jerks. most, i understand, grow out of it as they mature.
ReplyDeleteseriously, it's a brain developmental thing. a proper scientific experiment would have a control group. what would have happened if a girl in a community with a majority of McCain supporters went to middle school wearing an Obama shirt?
"There is no proof for the crime you described 'justaguy'."
ReplyDeleteSo, you're suggesting that he beat himself repeatedly in the head with a baseball bat? Interesting theory.
And this is one of several instances of anti-Obama racist graffiti, cross burnings, death threats, etc.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003890511
"justaguy ... y'all hold yourselves out as morally superior to us ... so shouldn't the children who apparently hold your values in enough esteem to support Mr. Obama reflect that superiority in their own actions?"
What are you talking about? Again, if kids taunting another kid for wearing a McCain shirt reflects on all Obama supporters, do the people who carried out a cross burning on the lawn of an Obama supporter reflect on you?
I don't think that they do, but according to the logic of this post...