DownloadOct. 13, 2008 issue
On freedom — and desks
By Kathleen Kern Christian Peacemaker TeamsPage:
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Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is one of last year’s U.S. presidential candidates I’d most like to meet. The way he integrates what appears to be a sincere, genuine faith into his political life interests me.
Kathleen Kern, of Rochester, N.Y., serves with Christian Peacemaker Teams.
He warmed my heart when he spoke of his excitement at Barack Obama’s candidacy — though they disagree on most issues — because he had grown up in the racist society and felt glad that the situation in this country had changed enough that a black man could be president.
I also appreciate prominent Christians showing they have a sense of humor and a taste for the absurd — something Huckabee demonstrated when he invited faux right-wing political pundit Stephen Colbert to be his running mate.
I was thus surprised last month when Huckabee did not seem to recognize the absurdity of a story he shared in his speech at the Republican Convention.
Huckabee spoke of a teacher in Arkansas who would not let the students in her classes have desks until they explained how they earned desks. At the end of the day, war veterans entered the classroom, carrying desks, and she told the students they did not have to earn their desks. The soldiers had already earned the desks for them.
I am not only frustrated with Huckabee for using images of sacrifice and patriotism to evoke feelings in a way that offends logic. I am disappointed that the media did not comment on this strange story.
If you run a Google search on “Huckabee” and “desks,” you will find few political analysts pointing out that this anecdote made no sense.
The wars the U.S. has fought have had no connection to whether American students have desks. Even if we had not fought the Revolutionary War and ended up securing independence like Canada did, our schoolchildren would have had desks.
I also ran some Google image searches and found pictures of children in Uzbekistan, China, Iran, North Korea, Yemen, Syria, Zimbabwe, Cuba and Libya seat-ed at school desks. None of these countries grants their citizens the full range of freedoms granted to U.S. citizens in the Bill of Rights.
I feel similarly frustrated when politicians and media figures glibly describe all currently enlisted American soldiers as “fighting for our freedom.”
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Comments
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I tried not to respond to your opinion sketch about our former Governor Mike Huckabee. You are entirely correct in assuming he is sincere, and genuine while integrating his faith into a political life. I can see how you might have difficulty understanding his "parable" about the desks delivered to a Little Rock classroom by men and women of the Armed Forces, but then one must "want" to understand in order to get the message. Still, I was about to move to the next link when I read your closing line, i.e. your frustration that the media and politicians describe our enlisted American soldiers as "fighters for freedom". It was a bit haunting, and I am trying to understand if you thought the reference was too lightly taken by the media, and others, or if you are saying there is no relevance between the soldiers presence and a fight for freedom. Toward either end, I am reminded of the many times in history that tyrannical movements had as their goals the withdrawal of freedom, most notably from Americans on Dec 7th and Nine-eleven. The position of the Mennonite Church has always been on the side of peace. WWI and WWII supported Mennonite Conscientious Objectors and Non Combatant in the ranks of the Armies and they served with dignity and often with valor to preserve freedom. Perhaps the gradual realization that freedom sometimes requires some willing to risk their lives and take the lives of others that has brought a moderation in the position of the church. A recent example is that of one raised in a Mennonite family tradition who rose to the position of General of the Army Chief of Staff (Google it if you don't know his name). So... back to "desks" and "freedom": My take on the desk story was simply that the children of Iraq would not have had desks --- reading writing, and arithmetic--- had it not been for US soldiers on a mission of freedom to restore democracy, and it could happen in Little Rock. I read that to include womens rights, open and free elections, running water, electricity, news papers and maybe, even a WalMart or two!
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