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Tuesday, July 13, 2004 |
California state Education Secretary Richard Riordan was at a promotional event last Thursday at the Santa Barbara library. The event was focused on creating and maintaining summer reading programs for young kids. An unidentified girl, preschool age, asked Riordan if he knew that her name meant "Egyptian goddess."
Riordan replied, "It means stupid dirty girl."
The Salon news reported on comments from various leaders:
Alice Huffman, president of the California chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said Riordan "is not suitable to lead education in our state" and should be removed.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, his longtime friend, called Riordan's statement to the girl "unacceptable in any context" ....
....In an editorial Thursday, The Sacramento Bee said California "shouldn't have an education secretary who makes offensive, damaging remarks to young children for no apparent reason."
"He's the governor's top person on education, which means we would expect him to have some love and respect for children," Huffman said. "I think he is the wrong man for the job. There is no way for him to explain this away."
Riordan, who has a history of this type of flippant and controversial behavior, has apologized to the girl twice for his remarks.
State Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, a Democrat who served on the Los Angeles City Council when Riordan was mayor, called the remarks to the girl "completely reprehensible" but said they were uncharacteristic for a man with a soft touch for children.
"I've been in dozens of situations with him with children -- he's usually the grandfatherly guy," Goldberg said. "I've seen him say things he wished he could take back many times -- but never around kids."
When Goldberg explains that Riordan is a "man with a soft touch for children," the only thing I can think of is Michael Jackson. Not a good turn of phrase to persuade someone that your friend is a viable advocate for children and their education! Arnold, if he's not interested in replacing Riordan, should get him into a program that will work on social skills and behavior problems.
6:11:30 PM  | |
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From Chris Hedge's work War is the Force That Gives Us Meaning; the first chapter The Myth of War, page 38:
The myth of war rarely endures for those who experience combat. War is messy, confusing, sullied by raw brutality and an elephantine fear that grabs us....Soldiers in the moments before real battles weep, vomit, and write last letters home, although these are done more as a precaution than from belief. All are nearly paralyzed with fright. There is a morbid silence that grips a battlefield in the final moments before the shooting starts, one that sets the back of my own head pounding in pain, wipes away all appetite, and makes my fingers tremble as I ready myself to go forward against logic. You do not think of home or family, for to do so is to be overcome by a wave of nostalgia and emotion that can impair your ability to survive. One thinks, so far as it is possible, of cleaning weapons, of readying for the business of killing. No one ever charges into battle for God and country.
"Just remember," a Marine Corps lieutenant colonel told me as he strapped his pistol belt under his arm before we crossed into Kuwait, "that none of these boys is fighting for home, for the flag, for all that crap the politicians feed the public. They are fighting for each other, just for each other."
5:36:16 PM | |
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