This is going back a bit, but not exactly time sensitive so worth examining on this Columbus Day. (You know Columbus\u2026 the murderous pillager of native lands.)<\/p>\n
Last Sunday my hometown paper (that\u2019s The Washington Post<\/em>) published a piece in its magazine section (the \u201cEducation Issue\u201d) about third graders in the D.C. area and how they feel about certain grownup topics. (The world according to third graders or some such thing.) I think the editors of the Post<\/em> intend for you to take this seriously, and weep and wail for the future. Please do not. Just laugh along at some of the responses. (Save the weeping for the grownups who peddle this junk.)<\/p>\n On presidential politics\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cI think Hillary should have won because people are saying that Trump cheated in the election because they said he was working with Russia or ISIS or something.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI would vote for Hillary Clinton because Donald Trump doesn\u2019t like black people and Hillary Clinton does.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think that if I could vote, I would vote for Hillary Clinton because I wouldn\u2019t vote for Donald Trump because he\u2019s orange.\u201d (This was about the most reasoned, thought-out response I encountered.)<\/p>\n On race and gender issues\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cGirls can\u2019t pass the gas without saying excuse me, but sometimes some boys don\u2019t have to.\u201d (Actually this was the best response of the whole lot.)<\/p>\n \u201cI heard on the news that this black guy, he was graduating, and\u2026 he was sitting at the bus stop, and then a white person came and he was telling him stuff about things, and then the guy got a knife and then he killed him.\u201d (Doesn\u2019t really say who killed whom, but I wouldn\u2019t let facts get in the way of this story.)<\/p>\n \u201cSome people can be very rich for doing nothing, and they can just sit back and relax their whole life, and there are some people who are poor and they have to get really hard jobs and they get paid very little and they get treated horribly, and Donald Trump hasn\u2019t done anything to help people about this.\u201d (This is pretty much the thinking at the big-boy version of the Post<\/em> as well. And CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times<\/em>, etc.)<\/p>\n On climate change\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t really understand climate change, but didn\u2019t Donald Trump do it?\u201d<\/p>\n If I were president\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cI would end slavery.\u201d (I should note this survey was conducted in 2017.)<\/p>\n \u201cI would make slavery against the law, and, what I would do, I would let blacks and whites get along.\u201d (Same comment.)<\/p>\n \u201cI would tear down the wall from Mexico and let them be free. Because Donald Trump is a jerk to Mexicans\u2026 I mean, Mexico is not that bad. I mean, it\u2019s not like what it used to be. It has tall buildings.\u201d (#smh)<\/p>\n Lofty goals for our kid presidents, the brainwashed gang of eight-year-olds roaming the streets of the DMV. Fear not, though, grownups, for among the zero percent support for Trump or anything resembling diversity of opinion there is this nugget of wisdom, easily the most reasonable answer given among the presidential plans for a future generation:<\/p>\n \u201cI would make it so that there\u2019s only 10 states so it\u2019s easier to remember all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n Brilliant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is going back a bit, but not exactly time sensitive so worth examining on this Columbus Day. (You know Columbus\u2026 the murderous pillager of native lands.) Last Sunday my hometown paper (that\u2019s The Washington Post) published a piece in … Continue reading