Thursday, December 7, 2006
This is just amazing. The principal will be allowing Ron Francis and Tom Meyers' radical anti-American, anti-Israel group Wheels of Justice (search -- start with the entry: The anti-Semites on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round...) into Andover High School for their indoctrination tour: Wheels of Justice will turn at Andover High
The group will come to Andover High for one in a series of three forums, each featuring a different perspective on Middle East conflicts, Principal Peter Anderson said in a statement released yesterday.
Anderson canceled the first planned visit by Wheels of Justice after the Anti-Defamation League, Rabbi Robert Goldstein of Temple Emanuel and others called the group "extremist" and "anti-Israel."
Anderson's two-paragraph statement yesterday marked his first comments on the controversy.
"It was never my intent to stifle the educational process," [This is education?] he said. "My goal has been to ensure that the presentation of the information resulted in a positive learning experience for our students."
Anderson changed his mind because of a combination of legal and educational issues, School Committee lawyer Naomi Stonberg said.
"We thought this would be in the best interests of all parties involved," she said.
Goldstein said he was not happy about Anderson's decision because he would have preferred one forum where speakers on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could have debated and asked questions of each other. He called the Wheels of Justice visit "worthless" and said the group has "questionable educational merit."
But, he added, "I'm glad to hear that there will be an opposing view offered, one that is more supportive of Israel. [Not supportive of Israel, Rabbi, supportive of the truth. You don't counter propaganda with propaganda, you counter it with reliable sources and facts.] I hope it will not be someone who will do to the Palestinians what Wheels of Justice does to Israel." [Should be: Do to the truth what Wheels of Justice does to the truth!]
Teachers union President Tom Meyers was one of six social studies teachers who organized the first planned Wheels of Justice visit. When Anderson canceled that event, Meyers enlisted help from the American Civil Liberties Union and threatened a First Amendment lawsuit against the school...
When are their contracts up for renewal?
One thing to do would be to attend the WoJ forum, then plan the follow up as a refutation of it, piece by piece.
According to this story in The Jewish Advocate, the forum is going to be open to the "entire Andover community."
Update: Here's your guy, Ron Francis bragging in his own special way on the Green-Rainbow Party email list (emphasis mine):
In a dramatic turn-around, that decision has been reversed today thanks to the intervention of the ACLU and several social studies teachers who were prepared to go to court over the matter. Negotiations between the School Committee lawyer and the ACLU led to the school administration agreeing to have the Wheels of Justice speak at the high school and also paying the expenses to bring the Wheels of Justice back.
One of the strategies of the pro-apartheid forces is to avoid discussion about the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by trying to block public discussion about the forced displacement of 750,000 Palestinian refugees in 1948 and the subsequent denial of the right of return of those refugees. Apparently that strategy is not working in Andover...
"I'm glad to hear that there will be an opposing view offered, one that is more supportive of Israel. [Not supportive of Israel, Rabbi, supportive of the truth. You don't counter propaganda with propaganda, you counter it with reliable sources and facts.]"
No, the Rabbi had it quite right. It's not about facts, but about Stalinist-esque support of Israel.
Oh, please.
Just because you have land, doesn't mean you can run/handle it.
Oh, please is right.
What's "Stalinesque" is the revisionist history, thinly veiled bigotry and employment of inaccurate - but inflammatory language - propaganda really - which completely stifles nuanced debate. Terms like "ethnic cleansing", "apartheid", and the like, in the complete absence of historical context and without regard to the fact that the period before, during and after WWII was one of violent upheaval all over the world, do nothing to promote knowledge.
On the contrary, they serve primarily to inflame passion.
A presentation like this, absent such context, flirts closely with outright falsehood. It does point up, however, the fact that alone of all WWI - WWII era refugees, and amidst ALL the upheavals, partitions - for example of India - the "ethnic cleansing" of Turkish Christians, massacres of Armenians and Assyrians, not to mention the horrific violence done to the Jewish community - only the Palestinians remain "refugees" in spite of the fact that the Arab world controls 1/9 of the world's landmass, vast resources and 22 nation states PLUS the P.A.
Yet, no peace, no safe place, can be found for the world's Jews.
Andover ought to be asking, why?
Sophia, there is no missing historical context to the use of the tern "apartheid".
Even dolts like Carter are waking up and smelling the roses. The Stalinists reveal themselves by their hysterical response to Carters fairly mild critique.
There are South Africans, who know precisely the 'context' of Apartheid, who say that the term is not only appropriate, but that it is insufficient to fully describe Israeli policy.
The ACLU, harkening back to its support of nazis to march in Skokie Illinois, has helped the "Wheels of Jihad" traveling propaganda circus to spew its half truths and outright lies.
If "Wheels of Al-Jazeera" is so sure of its position, then it should be willing to SHARE THE STAGE with Pro-American, Pro-Israel advocates.
Their brainwashing presentation should be open to ALL so knowledgeable people can ask some pretty simple questions of the presenters.
The "innocence" of the Philistines is mirrored in the daily carnage between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq and the blood baths in Hindu India between Hindus and Muslims and current day slavery in Sudan and the "dress codes" that Muslim women are forced to obey in Sharia law Muslim countries.
Forced Dress codes should go over quite well with High School students.
Ask "Wheels of Progressive Blindness" which country meets their standards of "justice". I wonder if any Arab/Muslim/Islamofascist Republic does.
Will Ron Francis attend wearing a black hood and green bandana with some excerpt from the koran and a hopefully mock bomb belt around his waist?