My daughter's second-grade class put on a little musical about America on Tuesday, to celebrate Veterans Day. They recited the preamble to the Constitution, sang songs about American history, and did other patriotic stuff. My daughter's favorite line that she memorized was, "African Americans did not share the same rights as whites until the Emancipation Proclamation, signed in 1863." She loved repeating Emancipation Proclamation over and over when she was home practicing.
It was really a touching performance. Her class is quite racially diverse, so it was especially cool seeing kids of all colors singing side by side, "This is America, a land of true equality." Our president-elect wasn't mentioned by name, but a week after the election, it was clearly part of the subtext.
Then, this morning, I read the tale of another school in Idaho, where kids were chanting "Assassinate Obama" on the school bus.
Which one is the "real America"?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Why do you think there is A real America? I am puzzled.
Now the U.S. has a president-elect that some favor assassinating. How is that these people are not called terrorists? I hope the Dept of Homeland Security is taking all of this seriously and that all of these people will be outed as terrorists. It will be interesting to see what the popular discourses around this will be....
Thanks for the post.
NK
Hey Dan! It's me: ek! I think I agree with your previous commenter in that America is largely fractured nowadays. I am not sure there's a real America either. I live in Decatur, a VERY diverse urban community in which we voted almost 80% for Obama. And yet we are centered in a state (GA) that is scarily white and racist. I read a recent article that said there have already been 200 racial incidents since the election that have been related to Obama being elected. Many of those have happened here in GA. Anyway, my lovely tree-lined street with Obama signs in every yard is "my" America. But drive half an hour in any direction and I am almost fearful! (Luckily I don't leave the city limits too often!)
Post a Comment