Land of the free

From Democratic Underground’s The Top Ten Conservative Idiots (No. 157) (link via TBogg):

Bill Nevins was recently fired from the largest public high school in New Mexico. Why? Because he foolishly decided to help organize a school poetry club. Yeah, yeah, I know that organizing a school poetry club wasn’t always a criminal offense in freedom-loving America, but remember – we’re now living in the Century of the Wingnut. See, it turns out that one of Bill Nevins’ students wrote a poem that criticized the war in Iraq and the Bush administration, which, in the Century of the Wingnut, is a crime apparently comparable to ritual Satanic child abuse. When Rio Rancho’s military liaison officer heard the poem he complained to Principal Gary Tripp, who promptly suspended Bill Nevins and then fired him. The complaint? “Disrespectful speech.” That’s right – there were no obscenities nor incitements to violence in the poem, it was simply “disrespectful.” But that’s not all – Tripp then went on to ban the poetry club and classes in poetry. He also ordered the student’s mother – who happens to be a teacher at Rio Rancho – to destroy her daughter’s poetry. The mother refused, and now her job has been threatened too. But that’s not all either! Tripp discovered that some art students had created satirical posters in class which criticized George W. Bush and promptly had the posters torn down, then refused to renew the contracts of art teachers who refused to participate in the destruction. Finally, at a school event Tripp apparently read a poem of his own which instructed those who disagreed with him to “Shut your faces.” I do hope Gary Tripp’s students have learned a valuable lesson from this incident – there’s absolutely no place for dissent (or critical thinking) in the Century of the Wingnut. Heck, let’s go shoot some poets! Who’s with me?