In this morning's Amarillo Globe-News, Virgil Van Camp tries valiantly to convice his readers that he's not really the sort of old codger who chases kids away from his zinnias by angrily waving his cane and shouting incoherently:
Our church has a very active choir program for children, from kindergarten through high school age. There are regularly scheduled Sundays at which they furnish most of the music for our service.
. . .
We love these children. We would spare nothing to keep them out of harm's way.
As it turns out, Spacedark, Jr. is one of these very children! Yes, Virgil, sometimes liberals go to church, too! (This one attends the very same church as V.V.C.) And we even love our children, just as much as Republicans do!
But here's the thing: not all of us share V.V.C.'s radical views. After establishing pathos with his tableau of these adorable, mostly white children singing "Jesus Loves Me" V.V.C. dubiously claims that he's been thinking about Russian and Iraqi schoolchildren.
My thoughts turned to another group of kids in Beslan, Russia. They were the same age groups that performed for us. They went to school one day and, before the week was done, were removed in body bags.
. . .
Early in October, 35 children were murdered in Baghdad. They were not the main targets. U.S. troops, guarding a celebration for the opening of a sewage plant, were handing out candy to the children.
Spacedark's a schoolteacher. Spacedark's in the kid business. And Spacedark hates all the pictures of dead children with which we've been plagued nearly daily for all of this young millenium. But V.V.C.'s just tearjerking us around. He betrays his real crusade in a short paragraph:
What is the one common characteristic of all these murderers? They are all Muslim and practice their version of Islam.
Aha, V.V.C. So that's why you brought up your church. Your Christian church; now I get it. Your white Methodist kids singing "Jesus Loves the Little Children."
Except they're not your kids, Virgil. One of them is mine. My son and I, like you, practice our version of Christianity. But we also practice liberalism, and we don't share your prejudice against other faiths.
V.V.C. wails and gnashes his teeth that Kerry views terrorists as isolated individuals. He flat-out lies that, as President, Kerry will just "hope in time [terrorists] simply will wither away."
Policing individual bad seeds isn't the same thing as just hoping that they will go away. Policing individuals is the correct policy when the bad seeds are individuals. What's the alternative? Exterminate all practitioners of a particular religion? Genocide?
And, by the way, Virgil, your president and your war also have spilled the blood of children. Or have you forgotten Ali Ismail Abbas?
Finally, Virgil, the next time you get the idea to use children to advance your extremist views-- just don't use my kid, okay?
SPACEDARK
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