Here's Hoping It's a Joke
According to Michael Warren, a former member of the Michigan board of education and a board member of the Michigan Center for Civic Education, the state department of education wants to ban a certain word from the curriculum.
Take a guess. C'mon. Is it that "Huck Finn" word? Is it something in Judy Blume novels?
They're just being sensitive, you see. Sensitive to the international community, which loathes America because it uses the name "America" as though it only could mean "the United States of America." Which even that is a cruel and unjust appropriation, since Mexico, too, is a "united states" and it is in "America."
Why do they hate us? This is why! Why can't we be like those über-sensitive Europeans who would never call something the "European Union" unless it included every nation in geographic Europe?
I'm sure the Canadians will be delighted to know they, too, now can have the pleasure of being spit on in London and snubbed in Normandy and berated in German university towns as "Americans."
Yes, this is why they hate us. The arrogance! Like our "World Series" in which only one country (OK, two, Canada has teams) can play. Can you imagine the gall of those Americans back in 1903, when no one but Americans had the slightest inclination to play baseball? Why didn't they call it the "American" series or the "National" series? OK, those two names are the league names, so that would have defeated the purpose.
Nope, we did it just to piss y'all off. And the "Super Bowl." Usually it's not super at all. Usually it just sucks. And the "Stanley" Cup. How many guys named "Stan" are playing in that this year, huh? And the "poet laureate." Poet my ass. Most of them bums couldn't write a shopping list.
Take a guess. C'mon. Is it that "Huck Finn" word? Is it something in Judy Blume novels?
In perhaps a well-intentioned, but pernicious example of political correctness, the Michigan Department of Education is attempting to ban the "America" and "American" from our public schools.
They're just being sensitive, you see. Sensitive to the international community, which loathes America because it uses the name "America" as though it only could mean "the United States of America." Which even that is a cruel and unjust appropriation, since Mexico, too, is a "united states" and it is in "America."
Why do they hate us? This is why! Why can't we be like those über-sensitive Europeans who would never call something the "European Union" unless it included every nation in geographic Europe?
The Department of Education asserts that "Americans" includes Mexicans, Canadians and others in the Western Hemisphere, so referring to U.S. residents as Americans is inappropriate. In the department's view, "America" happens to include South, Central and North America.
I'm sure the Canadians will be delighted to know they, too, now can have the pleasure of being spit on in London and snubbed in Normandy and berated in German university towns as "Americans."
Yes, this is why they hate us. The arrogance! Like our "World Series" in which only one country (OK, two, Canada has teams) can play. Can you imagine the gall of those Americans back in 1903, when no one but Americans had the slightest inclination to play baseball? Why didn't they call it the "American" series or the "National" series? OK, those two names are the league names, so that would have defeated the purpose.
Nope, we did it just to piss y'all off. And the "Super Bowl." Usually it's not super at all. Usually it just sucks. And the "Stanley" Cup. How many guys named "Stan" are playing in that this year, huh? And the "poet laureate." Poet my ass. Most of them bums couldn't write a shopping list.
