Life in the Fourth Grade: Today's Thought Control Decree

By Barry Rubin

I hope you've been following the amazing story of what's going on in my son's fourth grade. If not please look through the archive on these articles. Today a new decree came down (for those of you who have read Harry Potter it is like the time the ministry took over Hogwarts School).

My son came back from school and announced: "We were told today that we can't say `Eskimo` any more. We have to say `Inuit.'"

Why? Because Eskimo, he was told, means "raw meat eater." So another word is banned.

I'm glad that they have time to discuss Eskimos, I mean Inuits. Too bad they haven't had time to discuss anything positive about American democracy or history (except slavery; bashing the Indians, I mean Native Americans; and the internment of Japanese during World War Two). I wish this was an exaggeration but it isn't.

Please explain to me: What's going on in this country? Don't parents know? Don't parents care?

Guess that's why people grow up here to hate America.