don't shoot the pianist
he is doing the best he can

If there was a handbook on how to become a modern dictator, one of the first instructions would probably be to indoctrinate every person between the ages of five and twenty-five. History is littered with examples of regimes that used youth movements to acquire a stranglehold on power: the Hitler Youth; the Soviet Young Pioneers; China’s Hongweibing (Red Guards). In Iran, Islamist student groups were at the forefront of the 1980 revolution.

Which makes this video all the more alarming. This is from B. Bernice Young Elementary School in Burlington, NJ, and apparently, this is what counts for music education these days.

Now, ignoring the oft-quoted truth that “rap” is just missing a “c”, and that the first song, well, isn’t really a song (Mendelssohn wrote songs without words; this is a song without music!), and that the second song never quite reaches the cadence of The Battle Hymn of the Republic (that alone makes it more annoying than the “I know a song that gets on everybody’s nerves” variant), let’s visit the words to the first song again:

Mmm, mmm, mmm, Barack Hussein Obama
He said all should lend a hand to make the country strong again
Mmm, mmm, mmm, Barack Hussein Obama
He said we must be fair today, equal work means equal pay

Mmm, mmm, mmm, Barack Hussein Obama
He said take a stand, make sure everyone gets a chance
Mmm, mmm, mmm, Barack Hussein Obama
He said red, yellow, black and white, all are equal in his sight—

Wait a second. “… red, yellow, black and white, all are equal in his sight”? If you grew up with a Christian background, that line may sound a bit familiar. It’s adapted from Jesus Loves the Little Children, a Civil War-era children’s hymn:

Jesus loves the little children,
All the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white,
All are precious in His sight,
Jesus loves the little children of the world.

I’m certainly not the kind of person who likes the sensationalism of “hit the panic button; this country is doomed”. And besides, I prefer not to rail on the United States at least while I’m a guest living and working there. But there are few surer signs that something sinister is occurring than when the deification of a leader begins to happen in a country’s schools.

I mean, why stop there? While you’re worshipping Barack Obama, why not pray to him too? It wouldn’t be too hard to adapt the Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father, which art in Washington, Barack be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done in California as it is in D.C.” As for the ban on prayer in public schools, I’m sure we can make an exception for the Great Leader.

via Michelle Malkin

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 26th, 2009 at 1:00 am and is filed under American politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.