Belle of Liberty

Letting Freedom Ring

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

The Little Red School Bus

Once upon a time, there was a very smart lady who drove a yellow school bus. Sometimes she drove the children to and from school. Other times, she drove them on class trips.

The lady bus driver knew a lot of things and would talk to the children on the class trips about history and literature and science. On class trips to the Statue of Liberty, for instance, she’d tell them how the statue had actually been planned as a tribute to President Abraham Lincoln. But there was no pedestal for her to stand on once she got to New York, so children all across America contributed their pennies so the pedestal could be built.

On science trips, she’d tell them about geology, and about how once, the earth was all one great mass of land. She’d tell them about the layers of rock making up the earth’s core, and how, if you looked very closely, you could see fossils of ancient creatures embedded in the rocks.

She showed them Niagara Falls and how far back the rocks under the falls had eroded over the many centuries. The lady bus driver told them about American history and the Founding Fathers, and how they put their lives on the line for liberty, that they were wanted men, considered criminals by the British. She told them about all the wars that had been fought to preserve freedom, from the Revolutionary War to the flag-raising on Iwo Jima.

The lady bus driver cautioned them not to believe anyone who told them there was a better way than freedom. Some of the teachers didn’t like that, but when the lady bus driver was behind the wheel, she was the boss.

She taught them to pay attention to the road, that it was important to know where they were going. The lady bus driver had them look up at the sky in the evenings, at the stars drifting in the vastness of space, to remind them to be humble and ambitious at the same time.

“The fault lies not in our stars, but in ourselves,” she would intone, quoting Shakespeare. She liked to quote Gone with the Wind and the Bible, too. That was something else the teachers didn’t like very much.

One day, her high school age daughter wrote a story about her, after a school librarian refused to allow the lady bus driver’s son to take out a book on astronomy. The first thing the daughter did was kick the teacher off the bus. Then the lady bus driver and her students took off for history and the stars.

They didn’t get very far, though, before the teacher managed to clamber back onto the bus and take control of the adventures. So now, in southern California, we have The Little Red School Bus.

According to The Blaze:

“The Southern California Young Communist League (YCL), a branch of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), announced on its website that it’s launching a “National Red School-Bus Tour.” The YCL calls each stop on the tour “weekend long schools” for “young activists.” So what exactly is this tour all about?

“The blog P/Oed Patriot broke the story after it went digging. Here’s what it found:

According to the SoCal YCL’s website the “Schools” will include:

‘Lively classes and discussions: Marxism and the Political Moment: Building the Movement for Change; The Crisis of Capitalism Today: Causes of Crisis and the Class Struggle; Working Class and the Labor Movement; Racism, Immigrant Rights, Women’s Rights, LGTB Rights and the Struggle for Equality; The CPUSA and YCL, envisioning Bill of Rights Socialism and how to get there. Also plenty of cultural, social and recreational activities.”

It’s not bad enough that students are being inculcated in the glories of socialism and communism in the classroom. The SCYCL wants to continue the brainwashing on the weekends. Communism 24/7. Never mind the Ten original bill of rights. Instead, the students will learn the Ten Planks of Communism.

“We do not believe in violence simply as a means to an end,” the website continues. “However, we support all forms of revolution, which historically have included violent forms but only were they successful or lasting and positive when the circumstances had called for it, when the assessment was correct (under fascism, extremely repressive and life-threatening conditions are set in place and creates justifiable responses) and ultimately if the end result is the achievement of a democratic, just society.”

Just what sort of “tour” is this going to be? Are they going to tour the notorious neighborhood of Watts, the scene of race riots during the Sixties? Will they take the children to see Rodney King’s neighborhood? Will they hold practice protests at Disneyworld and throw eggs and rocks at Mickey Mouse, that ultimate symbol of successful capitalism?

Will they take them to the fields of central California, where Che Gueverra organized the farm laborers into unions? Along the way, instead of singing the “Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round” will they sing Woody Guthrie songs while passing joints among the teenagers?

At present, this seems to be voluntary excursions aimed at minority and inner city children. It may be another attempt to copy the admirable efforts of Tea Party activists to peacefully educate children about America’s great heritage, to counter the classroom activists who’ve been teaching the young that America is a terrible place, created by greedy, grasping white men.

The SCYCL is taking these kids for a ride.



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