3 ms·

>> den of trigger-happy bigot-hunters Yep, that's the US today. And of course Obama doesn't waste a second to exacerbate the situation by vilifying the school/

by efa 11y ago

>> den of trigger-happy bigot-hunters Yep, that's the US today. And of course Obama doesn't waste a second to exacerbate the situation by vilifying the school/policeman/whatever. It's amazing how in 5 minutes everyone knows all the facts and concludes these school officials are racist xenophobic knuckle-draggers.

mikeash 11y ago
Where did Obama do that? The only comment from him I've seen was his tweet that just said, "Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It's what makes America great."
- efa 11y ago
  As a leader who is supposed to be about bringing people together and not being divisive, he had an opportunity here. Fine to complement the kid. But he could also have thrown in a "in this time we know school administrators have to be vigilant, they have a tough job, we're all in this together, whatever". Something like that. But his tweet indirectly says this kid is great and the school admins are the bad guys. I just wish for once he could do something to calm a situation instead of throwing gasoline on a fire.
  - mikeash 11y ago
    So saying nothing at all about the administrations and police, not even mentioning that they exist, is "vilifying the school/policeman/whatever"?
    - efa 11y ago
      Yep. This is like two parents. One is scolding a child for doing something wrong. The other parent goes to the child and says, "come on, lets go to Chuck E Cheese". It's undermining the authority figure. How much do you think this kid will respect the administration/teachers at this schools after his visit to the White House where Obama reinforced how they were all horribly wrong? All I'm really saying is he could have easily cooled the situation.
      - mikeash 11y ago
        If it's like two parents, then one of them is abusive, and the other one is trying to gently steer the kid away from the abuser. Sometimes authority figures need to be undermined. Doing so is not "vilifying" them, even if the abuser might see it that way. Why does the situation need to be "cooled," exactly? There aren't any riots over this. The only person who was harmed in any way was the 14-year-old kid who was arrested and interrogated at length without a lawyer and without his parents. Why are you more concerned about the feelings of the people who did this than about him?

by efa 11y ago

mikeash 11y ago

Where did Obama do that? The only comment from him I've seen was his tweet that just said, "Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It's what makes America great."

efa 11y ago
As a leader who is supposed to be about bringing people together and not being divisive, he had an opportunity here. Fine to complement the kid. But he could also have thrown in a "in this time we know school administrators have to be vigilant, they have a tough job, we're all in this together, whatever". Something like that. But his tweet indirectly says this kid is great and the school admins are the bad guys. I just wish for once he could do something to calm a situation instead of throwing gasoline on a fire.
- mikeash 11y ago
  So saying nothing at all about the administrations and police, not even mentioning that they exist, is "vilifying the school/policeman/whatever"?
  - efa 11y ago
    Yep. This is like two parents. One is scolding a child for doing something wrong. The other parent goes to the child and says, "come on, lets go to Chuck E Cheese". It's undermining the authority figure. How much do you think this kid will respect the administration/teachers at this schools after his visit to the White House where Obama reinforced how they were all horribly wrong? All I'm really saying is he could have easily cooled the situation.
    - mikeash 11y ago
      If it's like two parents, then one of them is abusive, and the other one is trying to gently steer the kid away from the abuser. Sometimes authority figures need to be undermined. Doing so is not "vilifying" them, even if the abuser might see it that way. Why does the situation need to be "cooled," exactly? There aren't any riots over this. The only person who was harmed in any way was the 14-year-old kid who was arrested and interrogated at length without a lawyer and without his parents. Why are you more concerned about the feelings of the people who did this than about him?