The Crazy Train Picks up Some PB&J Along the Way
Tim Bean
9/15/2012
Racists!
And so the crazy train keeps rambling down the tracks; where it stops nobody knows – hopefully it is at a station called reason. What am I referring too? Well this recent little gem in the Huffington Post, entitled “Peanut Butter And Jelly Racist? Portland School Principal Ties Sandwich To White Privilege.” I really encourage you to read that article, and see if you don’t find it even remotely mind-numbingly ridiculous that the PB&J sandwich can be considered a tool or symbol of racial insensitivity.
So, let me see if I can keep count of all the wisdom cast forth from on high that school boards across this once free and rational country are levying upon their ever “loyal” subjects.
(1) First we had a high school valedictorian in Prague Oklahoma who was denied her diploma because in her commencement speech she slipped up and said the word “hell” instead of “heck.”
(2) Second we were “blessed” with news of school officials, again in Oklahoma, enforcing a zero tolerance on gang related apparel by having a 5 year old turn his University of Michigan t-shirt inside out.
(3) Third, apparently the Oklahoma/Nebraska rivalry goes beyond the football field, because Grand Island Nebraska wanted in on the school board rules absurdity by banning a 3 years old deaf child named Hunter from signing his name, because the hand gestures too closely resemble a gun.
(4) Fourth, well, we all know football is a very competitive sport, and sensing that the momentum of asinine school rules might be slipping away, the city of Greeley Colorado had to punish a 3rd grader for wearing current Denver Bronco quarterback, Peyton Manning’s jersey to school – because the school board has a zero tolerance policy on gang related things, like the number “18” (as well as several other numbers) which is the number Peyton Manning wears.
(5) Fifth, we finally get a decidedly “blue” state stronghold to join the ranks of school lunacy, with a LA middle schooler, and honor student, being sent to the principal’s office because her leggings were too close in tone to her skin color. The little girl is of African-American descent, and her leggings were brown.
(6) We get this story out of Oregon; another bastion of “blue” state politics, declaring that a sandwich is a racist symbol, which must offend those who do not eat sandwiches….
As you can see these are not strictly the instances of one political leaning or another, they are uniform in their moribund and maniacal attempts to legislate morality and even equality in the last instance; forget whether or not they are even remotely rational. Never mind that they are devoid of common sense. Pay no attention to the fact that in each instance you are being told essentially how to raise your child – which reminds me of an older story out of the kingdom of Chicago, where that city’s school board has banned some lunches that are brought from home, because they are deemed unhealthy; which brings the count up to seven. But how many is too many? How long before we start electing sane, rational people? Maybe I am the crazy one. Maybe all of these things are perfectly okay. Maybe I should just get on board the crazy train, sit down, shut up, and let the conductor drive us all down the tracks and wherever they lead should be of no consequence to any of us? Yeah, and maybe PB&J is actually an offensive racist tool.
It is often easier to become outraged by injustice half a world away than by oppression and discrimination half a block from home. (Carl T. Rowan)
