Letters – Reader worries about anti-parent messages

To the Editor:
I was pleased to read the accounts of the two Lockhart youngsters who were given a trip to Washington, D.C., for the Inauguration. They were well-written and entertaining.

Subsequently other accounts have surfaced including a tape recording of Vice President Al Gore’s speech on global warming made to that same group while they were in the city.<
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The tape recording was made during that speech by a 12-year-old whose father had given her the equipment to bring back memories of her exciting trip to the Nation’s Capital.

When she returned home her father was alarmed to hear a speech on global warming laced with remarks about how the parents back home might not agree with Mr. Gore that global warming was occurring, but Mr. Gore knew he could talk to that group of youths without interference because they were smart enough to agree with him. Pre-teens?
Last week the tape was partially played on the Glenn Beck radio show after an upset father called to express his anger at the insinuations and remarks the former Vice President made about the parents of those very young tourists on their exciting trip to Washington: don’t listen to your parents; your parents don’t know about climate change; your parents are very (racially) biased people; you are smarter than that. To which his audience answered with cheers.

The girl’s father was very angry at Al Gore’s references to parents in front of a very vulnerable group of youngsters far from home and family. At best it was an irresponsible speech designed to propagandize school-age children.

Glenn Beck interviewed the young girl and her father on his Friday afternoon TV show.

The father had been rightfully alarmed when he heard the full tape since Gore was so sure of his audience of impressionable youths. His point was well-made: teachers and speakers who rise to teach have no right to propagandize vulnerable students.

We adults must teach our children that not everything they hear in life is acceptable, regardless of who the speaker is. Disparaging parents is a propaganda move that should not be acceptable before our children. No statesman would ever consider such a move.

Sincerely,
Katy McMillen
Tampa, Fla.