The people who live in Oak Park, Illinois take pride in their heritage of accepting diversity. While neighboring Chicago was pilloried for decades as being the most segregated city in Chicago, Oak Park labored to desegregate itself.Oak Park in 2008 is diverse, and it's the type of town where you see a lot of those "Coexist" bumper stickers.
But Oak Park is intolerant of one thing, the Chicago Tribune's John Kass tells us: Republicans.
Eighth grader Catherine Vogt decided to wear a "McCain Girl" shirt to school one day.
Immediately, Catherine learned she was stupid for wearing a shirt with Republican John McCain's name. Not merely stupid. Very stupid.
"People were upset. But they started saying things, calling me very stupid, telling me my shirt was stupid and I shouldn't be wearing it," Catherine said.
Then it got worse.
"One person told me to go die. It was a lot of dying. A lot of comments about how I should be killed," Catherine said, of the tolerance in Oak Park.
One teacher gave Vogt a hard time, and a student suggested that she "should be crucifixed (sic)."
Feel the love. Vogt did the next day--when she wore an "Obama Girl" shirt.
Little Marathon Pundit wore a pink McCain-Palin T-shirt to school on Election Day. Oh, a couple of kids made wisecracks, but nothing like the bile Vogt dealt with on her "McCain Girl" day. Obama won LMP's mock election with two-thirds of the vote.
I guess Oak Park is selective in its tolerance.
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Sounds more like intolerance to me.
ReplyDeletePeople can be very cruel, that
McCain girl has a right to wear the
McCain shirt without being heckled
for it. That teacher should be
ashamed for the crucified comment.
You want to talk about intolerance:
ReplyDeleteElection spurs 'hundreds' of race threats, crimes
By JESSE WASHINGTON (AP National Writer)
From Associated Press
November 15, 2008 7:36 PM EST
Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting "Assassinate Obama." Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars.
From California to Maine, police have documented a range of alleged crimes, from vandalism and vague threats to at least one physical attack. Insults and taunts have been delivered by adults, college students and second-graders.
-Four North Carolina State University students admitted writing anti-Obama comments in a tunnel designated for free speech expression, including one that said: "Let's shoot that (N-word) in the head." Obama has received more threats than any other president-elect, authorities say.
-At Standish, Maine, a sign inside the Oak Hill General Store read: "Osama Obama Shotgun Pool." Customers could sign up to bet $1 on a date when Obama would be killed. "Stabbing, shooting, roadside bombs, they all count," the sign said. At the bottom of the marker board was written "Let's hope someone wins."
-Racist graffiti was found in places including New York's Long Island, where two dozen cars were spray-painted; Kilgore, Texas, where the local high school and skate park were defaced; and the Los Angeles area, where swastikas, racial slurs and "Go Back To Africa" were spray painted on sidewalks, houses and cars.
-Second- and third-grade students on a school bus in Rexburg, Idaho, chanted "assassinate Obama," a district official said.
-University of Alabama professor Marsha L. Houston said a poster of the Obama family was ripped off her office door. A replacement poster was defaced with a death threat and a racial slur. "It seems the election brought the racist rats out of the woodwork," Houston said.
-Black figures were hanged by nooses from trees on Mount Desert Island, Maine, the Bangor Daily News reported. The president of Baylor University in Waco, Texas said a rope found hanging from a campus tree was apparently an abandoned swing and not a noose.
-Crosses were burned in yards of Obama supporters in Hardwick, N.J., and Apolacan Township, Pa.
-A black teenager in New York City said he was attacked with a bat on election night by four white men who shouted 'Obama.'
-In the Pittsburgh suburb of Forest Hills, a black man said he found a note with a racial slur on his car windshield, saying "now that you voted for Obama, just watch out for your house."
I guess the double standard still
ReplyDeleteapplies! Funny isn't it, how there
is absolutely no mention of the
innocent truck driver Reginald
Denny who was beaten half to death
by a mob who was later aquitted of their crimes! And that truck driver
had nothing with any (racial)
injustices!!!!
And I'm pretty sure there were
ReplyDeleteplenty of treats made to McCain
supporters as well. But that will
never make the news.
"Plenty of treats"? Is that a Freudian slip?
ReplyDeleteActually, an "attack" on a McCain supporter was all over the news just weeks before the election. Quite a few news outlets were ready to jump on the story of the woman who was attacked by an African American man at an ATM and branded with a backward "B" because she had a McCain sticker on her car. Just turns out that it was a hoax.
I don't think you want to go down the path of comparing innocent victims of horrendous racial violence. For every Reginald Denny, there are 100s if not thousands of James Byrds and Andrew Goodmans in this country's past. That's not a double standard. That's a fact. While all such incidents are equally despicable, trying to draw a comparison with regard to frequency would be ridiculous.
And the three Supremicist that
ReplyDeletethreatened to "assassinate" Obama.
What a pathetic bunch they were.
They deserve to rot in jail. They
looked like they were 3 sandwiches
short of a picnic.
What you're saying basically is that Reginald Denny just to name
ReplyDeleteone particular incident, deserved what he got? The L.A. cops that
were on the video taped incident
involving Rodney King were wrong.
And the group responsible for Pulling Mr. Denny out of the cab of his truck, and beating him to a pulp, should never been aquitted!
Freudian Slip? That's your opinion
and you have every right to it, just as anyone else does to theirs! And that's no comparison either! Intolerance unfortunatly,
comes from many different ethnic
groups and it's not just a problem
in this country, but a problem
throughout the world. And anyone
who commits a hate crime, or acts of vandelism should be arrested.
Grow some jewels you gaseous
ReplyDeletepiece of S**T!!!!