Ok, normally, if ever do I get offended at someone else’s approach to writing about things. But, for the first time, I found Michelle Malkin’s reaction to the View’s, Joy Behar’s supposed critical comments regarding home schooling as critical and offensive.
Offensive? I found Michelle Malkin’s use of profanity in reaction to the comments more offensive.
I watched the video. I didn’t find anything offensive other than a person expressing an uninformed opinion.
Is it anything to get mad about? No, in fact most home-schoolers will pay no attention to the comment as they are to busy being productive with their education and probably not having the time to watch a TV show like the view. In fact, I will take a risk and assert that Michelle Malkin took the comments out of context and created a straw man argument based on what she heard.
And people wonder why I have become a moderate? I think there are better things to write about…don’t you?
Addendum:
Looking at what I wrote I guess moderate was a bad choice of words….I am a Bible believing Christian. I am also a home school advocate. After 10 years of public school teaching I left because of the inhuman approaches that they were taking with Kids who had physical disorders. Cutting to the chase…my problem with Malkin’s response is that it was profane and didn’t attack the core issue. One of the reasons I have pulled away from the conservative "christian" movement is that it has become as ugly as the liberal side in using yellow journalism as a tool to make their points. And no it would not be okay if someone trashed another’s belief system (right or wrong).
Here is the thing that got to me…as Joy was getting on her rant about homeschoolers and we didn’t see Michelle Malkin deal with this either is that Elizabeth Hasselbeck stepped up to the plate and defended homeschoolers…and see the whole thing wasn’t about education..or even home schooling…it was about how the obama’s are going to school their kids…When I read Malkin’s article and link to the video…I had the impression it was going to be a major salvo against home schooling….I was disappointed….it wasn’t even much of an attack. I was rather disappointed….I like writing letters to folks who attack causes I support…..Thing is..if I am going to deal with a supposed boulder…then let’s make it a boulder…not a pebble….I was called demented by my supervisor as a teacher that it might be a better deal if we let a kid be educated at home especially if they aren’t learning anything at school.. and that if a kid came into my classroom I had a right to expect the parent to give a hoot about how their kid acted…….
Revised: 11/25/08
It was not out of context you can hear the entire conversation. She did call homeschoolers demented and that they were afraid of other children. Yes it was an ignorant comment like many of her comments. It is one thing to trash Bush and others in the public eye but to insult homeschoolers. Why is that okay with you? If she said Blacks or Muslims were demented, would that be okay with you also?
Someone who calls themselves a moderate always makes me laugh.
I read this and thought, “Profane? It was?” I went back and read what Malkin wrote, and still didn’t see any profanity. I read it again, and then realized that you must have meant “the manners of an ass.”
This expression refers to the animal ass (as in, Samson slew a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass) not the human posterior. Calling someone an ass (as in jackass, or donkey) is simply calling them a fool, and it’s not considered obscene. Since body parts cannot be said to have bad manners, but barnyard animals can, Ms. Malkin wasn’t being obscene.
Thanks for the comment Brigette and your very insightful comment to the conversation!
My choice of words may have been off kilter just a tad….it just irked me a little that one small comment could be interpeted to be an attack on a group.
Michelle, at least from my viewpoint, was making “supposed” inferences from the comment and then slanting the comment for her article. When I watched the episode I was anticipating Joy Behar to get into one of her rants, which she is brilliant at, but all that was there was a peanut gallery comment…the focus of the discussion on the view wasn’t home-schooling it was where would the Obama children be going to school when their Daddy takes office on January 20th.
I mean if someone is going to spell out that there was an attack made on homeschoolers…make it a good one…not “home schoolers are demented.”
I just expected a better article from Michelle Malkin and didn’t get it.
It was one small comment, but still, that small comment was an attack on a whole group, albeit an off-hand attack. Malkin’s article was just a short clip directing her readers to the video clip, which didn’t take Behar’s comment out of context, so I didn’t see anything wrong with it.
I linked to her post on my blog, and got a very nasty ad hominem attack on my post that said I had proved Joy Behar right, and was ruining my own kids, making them “demented” since I was too ignorant and immoral to educate them. Not to mislead anyone, I should admit that this attack wasn’t simply because I criticized Behar, but because of something else I wrote in the post that the reader found offensive. Still…
I am not sure where your faith journey is so I am not sure if this will make sense…..
The Bible says “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33 NIV)..It also says similiarly in Matthew 5 and Luke 6 that we are to pray for those who persecute us and to rejoice when trouble like this comes. But instead of looking at what the Bible says our response should be we choose to take a political approach and return salvo for salvo under the context that we need to defend ourselves. 1st Peter says that we are to present a defense of the hope that is in us…not of anything else…with gentleness and respect.
So in all respects I rejoice when we, who believe that homeschooling is neccesary in order to produce effective and whole children are called demented. It was 12 demented men and a few demented women in the 1st century who were accused of turning the world upside down. I rejoice when I am called every filthy name in the book because I believe that a kid’s socialization is not nearly as important as being able to spell and write a proper paragraph.
In the end, our kids will be the legacy that will stand the test of time. In my small time on this earth very few will remember the Joy Behar’s of this world….it will be the Thomas Edison’s (a homeschooler)……the David Brainerd’s (another homeschooler)…that will be remembered.
So…the question needs to be asked again….what is more important?…1 comment or seeing our kids become testimonies that outlast the stupidity of one?
It makes sense. “Blessed are those who suffer persecution for my name’s sake” and all. Still, it’s hard finding that “in the world but not of the world” balance, isn’t it? Seems to me that lately, a lot of the Christians I know are withdrawing rather too much from the world into the comfort zone of their faith, and saying, in essence, let Jesus sort it out when the End Times come. I got a few “Jesus will still be the Lord no matter who wins the election” e-mails in the weeks leading up to the election, and that kind of thinking drives me up the wall. It strikes me as a way to be complacent and justify it Biblically.
Wow! I thought I was the only one who thought this way.
I think many Christians want to do a limited reading of the Gospels. They pick and choose and try and create this little “Christianized World” in order to feel safe. (It is also what creates misconceptions…people think that homeschoolers are doing what they do to feel safe…when the reality is the modern american educational system is rotten…and parents are trying to take responsibility for their kids education and help them be educated in all spheres of influence)
“In the World but not of the World”–You know I used to think that this was a direct quote from the Bible…actually it is a summary of 1st John 2:15-16. The thing is Jesus never called us to that approach to life. If we follow his example he engaged the culture and lived a life that was different and in contrast to the culture. The balance I think comes from the strength of one’s relationship with Jesus and not be the distance you have seperated yourself from society as a whole. When we seperate ourselves we basically say that God can’t use us to make a difference.
I think as time goes on that Rabbit hole mindset is going to increasingly permeate the church and eventually cause an implosion of sorts. This is why we are seeing the 19-29 age group heading to so many different directions…the “rabbit hole” church has decided that “status quo” was more important than being a living epistle to them and let them ask questions….just because we don’t know the answers doesn’t make the question bad…the question gives us an opportunity to journey with the person to find the answer and in the end all our blessed as all have grown.