"If a person is a practicing homosexual, they should not be teaching in our schools." DeMint later said he felt the same "if a single woman who is pregnant and living with her boyfriend should be hired to teach my third-grade children." - Candidate for senator from South Carolina, Jim DeMint
I don't understand why anyone who is running for office in this country can get away with gay bashing and single-mom bashing and not recieve large amounts of public backlash. If he said that Chinese or Jews or African-Americans shouldn't be allowed to teach in schools, there would surely be a large backlash against him (remember what happened to Trent Lott?). But no, he picks two groups in america that are still widely discriminated against. A person's sexuality has NOTHING to do with their ability to teach children math or science, nor does any other marital status. A single mom can just as easily teach as any married man or woman. While the senator later said he "regretted the comments", he never did apologize for them. In a country where we are already falling short of quality teachers, i don't think we should be discouraging anyone from trying to be a teacher. Besides, a teachers private life is just that, PRIVATE. The government has no right to say who can or can't teach based on their private life, as long as their private life isn't harming anyone (yes, i will concede that pedophiles, rapists, murderers and the like should NOT be allowed to be teachers). A government is supposed to protect its citizens. By electing senators like this, all we are doing is alienating groups, and if you get enough alienated groups, you could have a pretty big problem on your hands. Seriously, please think before you vote, and don't vote for any candidates that are just using their bigotry to distract people from the real issues in life.
Posted by weav0097 at October 19, 2004 11:13 PM | TrackBackJim DeMint, who is running for Senator in South Carolina, must have really beleived those comments, about not having a homosexual or pregnant single mom living with her boyfriend teaching in schools, or he wouldn't have retracted them by only saying he "regretted the comments". It is hard for me to imagine people making statements like that when running for public office. He must believe that the majority of the constituents in his state will feel like him and vote for him. He is supposed to be working for the people in his state. How can he when he ostrasizes some of them with comments like that? Perhaps he should consider the worth of teaching children values and morals at home and exposing them to diversity in the public schools. Shouldn't children be allowed to learn that lives are lived differently than theirs and that alone doesn't make it wrong, just different. Perhaps there would be fewer shootings in schools (by kids who felt teased and ostrasized by their classsmates) if kids were taught at home how to be accepting of others who live life differently than themselves.
Posted by: Shari Lynne at October 20, 2004 08:21 PMIts upsetting to me why people just can't accept people for who they are. There is no excuse for anyone's actions like that. If you don't agree with someone's lifestyle, then keep it to yourself but don't go around bashing people for who they are. This is the main thing I have to say on this issue. All people are different. People live their life how they want to and not to accomodate their lives for other people. Homosexuals are people too just like you and me. If you don't have something good to say, then don't say it at all, especially if it may hurt someone.
Posted by: Jeff Regan at October 21, 2004 11:17 PMI agree with all these posts. The worst part is that someday everyone will look back on this time period and will not be able to believe that we treated each other with such disrespect. Our children will feel the same way about our treatment of homosexuals and single mothers as we do now about the treatment of African Americans earlier in the century by our preceding generations. It is very sad that we as a society cannot learn from our mistakes and correct ourselves before alienating another group of society solely based on their differences.
Posted by: Tory R. at October 26, 2004 10:49 AMi think that it's really weird how people like to ick on those people who are different. i don't understand why they do that because everyone is just the same. you shouldn't be attacked because you are different because that thing that makes you different makes you. i guess to me, not a lot of respect is shown nowadays towards people. I mean, President Bush opposes homosexual marriage laws, but he still got votes from them too, to make him a president. so like the say what goes around comes around.
Posted by: thaox075 at October 26, 2004 12:20 PMI fear that Mr. DeMints comments are representative of teh apparatchik or supremacist mentality that now rules the white house. George Bush, et al won on moral ground..because of their proclaimed belief in God. Would God have invaded a country that did nothing to us? He said vengenance is Mine, turn the other cheeck, love thine enemy. Would God discriminate against anyone, especially since He picked a single female to mother His Son. Bush et al are evil...only evil can fool innocent people into believing that they are moral, God fearing people. All of us who are fair, honest, non-judgemental people who believe in democracy are facing great difficulty in this country now, with these idealogs in power. I fear formy country and my countrymen. These poor people who voted for Bush have no idea what they have done...to themselves and to the rest of us. The only thing we can do now, the thing we MUST DO, is hold on to democracy - we must unite. We must work together to keep the imbalanced power in our country balanced. Please e-mail me if you have some ideas:
www.mamacarmensauce@earthlink.net
Posted by: Carmen at November 3, 2004 07:11 PM