A little over a week ago, I posted and entry with some video exposing the real Kim Simac. At the time, I noted how galled I was at Simac’s support for firing teachers who dared express their personal views regarding Gov. Scott Walker’s budget “repair” bill, First Amendment be damned.
However, as noted by Steve Carlson, during the video I embedded in my entry Kim Simac actually talked about the “enemy liv[ing] among us” while failing to articulate exactly who that enemy was.
“While we have spent the post 9-11 years worrying and guarding against the terror attacks of al Qaeda, the real enemy lives among us, and it is cunning and very shrewd in its tactics,” said Simac, as you can watch for yourself (quote starts at 2:56 into the video).
I’ve made numerous attempts to contact Kim Simac or someone from her campaign to get some clarification on who she considers to be the enemy living among us, but have received no response to my inquiries.
So here’s a poll question for you all…..who do you think is Kim Simac’s “enemy living among us?”
[poll id=”18″]
Well… you can’t possibly answer this question. The video is edited beyond belief, so you’re absolutely denied any real objective look at the woman’s’ words or their context. Not only that but the video is riddled with editorializing pop-up screens with conclusions on them, just in case the editing job missed something.
Once again, if the purpose is partisan jocularity, kudos. But if a person was going to look/learn about what actually makes Kim Simac tick, what her appeal is, to understand it and possibly put it in context to politics today and EVEN possibly work against it. This ain’t it.
A few things – as a parent I have had situations like what she describes, a teacher, who has ENORMOUS influence over his/her students telling them emphatically what “reality” is on various political issues, how to think, what is the Right Way. That is NOT OKAY. That is not what the teacher is there for. In this case oh poor poor teachers who can’t editorialize in the classroom about Collective Bargaining. it’s okay when it’s “Our” side. right?
Then it was also okay when teachers ranted on in a pro-Bush, pro-war, liberal-hating manner to my children. That has happened. It then is also was okay when a VERY hostile UW professor mocked liberalism at UWEC in the classroom and regularly collects a posse of “favorites” (always guys) who talk pro-gun, pro everything Fox News-y during the first few minutes of every class. That’s okay too right? I say it’s not okay. It’s not okay at all. That is a teacher using their position to create a little one-room fiefdom. it’s abuse of power. You can’t challenge them or even express your own views without fear of getting on their shit list. Getting bad grades in a class you are required to take. This can devolve into a hellish situation.
Unless you’re teaching civics or some related area a teachers’ politics is not appropriate. Even in a civics class a teacher must be very mature, very un-selfish and use restraint. It’s also very wrong for a teacher to sue class time to unload about their marital problems, as I listened to from my own 6th grade teacher. Teaching is hard, and in some ways lonely, it’s normal to want to relate more personally to the people in front of you. But there is the power imbalance there, it must not be forgotten.
My kids came home very upset at the personal and high-pressure views expressed (sometime angrily and intimidatingly) by more than one of their teachers during class.
In addition we see every day that civics and government and hard core history have been de-emphasized in public schools – just as she mentions. The IRONY is that this very lack of civics and history leaves people vulnerable to THOSE WHO WOULD RE-WRITE that history and re-interpret the Constitution in ways that fits their own agenda. The tea party itself would be less successful now if people were not vulnerable to bogus interpretations of Thomas Paine and others.
My kid’s HS history teacher did nothing but show war movies for a whole semester. That was American History. It was not History of Film it was according to the course book normal old American History, and the only required Am Hist they had to have. But he was sick of teaching I guess but liked the pay. He’d turn on the film and that was it. Then a few silly “tests” sporadically. He should be fired.
Finally I’ll say that it’s just plain cowardly for teachers to abuse their power and preach/harangue their students with their own highly personal political beliefs. If they’re so darn committed to their ideals- go face the parents, face an adult, have the guts to get into it with a person who HAS A VOTE and is on equal footing. There are plenty of opportunities for an activist teacher to engage with other ADULTS if political discussion is desired.
I don’t need some teacher Rush Limbaugh in my kid’s face and making them feel they would be “hated” if the teacher knew their “real self’. Kim Simac probably doesn’t need some person harping to her kids in an over-the-line manner either.
Non-Christian kids should not be forced to sing Christmas hymns either, and on and on. If we’re going to have this multi-cultural society that means RESPECT and clear boundaries ESPECIALLY with our children.
Just because we think “liberalism” is the “right way” to think DOERS NOT enable pressuring of children along a teachers own political value system. I don’t agree with the end conclusions that Kim Simac comes to. but her complaint is valid and as a parent her rights in this area should be protected absolutely. As I wish mine could also have been. But my kids begged me not to “get into it” with the teachers because then they’d be vulnerable for the rest of the year. Great situation there.
The flip-side of Freedom of Speech is the Freedom to not be Indoctrinated by persons who hold positions of power over you.
In answer then to the question about the Enemy Among Us, I have an intuitive feeling about what she means, I think her supporters know, it’s a dog-whistle phrase, those who need to know probably already do. But I’d need to be able to see the full context of her words there. Not some Windows Moviemaker cut-and-paste Fest.
Judging from the long-winded, rambling, misspelled, typo-ridden, full-of-Fake-News-talking points missive above, I’m guessing school wasn’t that important for Annie K.
I think Annie K just likes to yank some liberal chain every now and then, though this probably wasn’t the right time to indulge such mischief.
You’re right.
Annie said: “The flip-side of Freedom of Speech is the Freedom to not be Indoctrinated by persons who hold positions of power over you.”
Really? Care to expand that thought. You have piqued my curiosity. And please back that up with the case law.
And while you’re at it, can you give me the facts on how many teachers push their “liberalism” on their students. Because for every one you show me, I will show you teachers who burn crosses into their students skin. http://www.keprtv.com/news/national/20614599.html
I got lost in that diatribe but I still say to this day that teachers should be able to discuss the Collective Bargaining law in the classroom. It was History in the making.
Now a days the right wing blows a gasket if any teacher says anything even slightly to the left of Limbaugh.
By the way, how can you tell what Simac thinks since she ducks all debates and would never dream of having a discussion with anyone who has a chance of being a “liberal”
Yes, labor history is a large part of American history and all history was once contemporary life.
In particular, Wisconsin has a proud and infamous place in our national labor heritage. The Kohler Strike, the longest strike in our history, tested the Taft- Hartley Act as it finally ended in 1954.
The “enemy among us” is a moving target but it can be short listed to this: “anyone who is not us”. Not that it clarifies much.
Oh Annie K, I’m so sorry that your innocent children have to endure the hideous indoctrination forced upon them by the evil school teachers. Why don’t you take those kids out of public schools and put them in a religious school? That way, they can learn independently without any undue influence from the teachers. After all, we all know that religious schools and religion in general never indoctrinates young people. Right?
The enemy in our society is the type of hateful, spiteful, shallow, and stupid thinking that characterizes Kim Simac and her supporters.
From the time she was five years old, my daughter wanted to be a teacher. She excelled in school and graduated with honors. She went on to graduate from college two years ago with a teaching degree in Music Education, and she is an accomplished musician herself.
Since she graduated, she has lost count of how many districts she has applied to for teaching positions. Either none are hiring, or other applicants have more experience and beat her out of the position. Money was never her motivator for going into teaching: It was love. She loved her teachers, and she loves teaching, and she loves music. She is currently employed as the manager of a music store in a Chicago suburb, where she makes a very decent salary—more than she would make as a teacher; yet she still continues to try to get into the profession for which she trained and studied.
To my daughter, teachers were heroes. They motivated her. They encouraged her. They praised her. They amazed her. They loved her. Even teachers that other kids thought were tough or mean became my daughter’s advocates because she went to school believing that teachers were there to help and guide and instruct her—not indoctrinate her.
This demonization of teachers by those on the Right is disgusting. It makes me want to punch people in the face when they talk about how greedy teachers are, or how teachers are the darlings of the Liberal Left and are there to proselytize their poor right-wing children into becoming gay lefties. What utter and contemptible bullshit. When I was growing up, teachers were respected and admired for what they did. Now, the Right wants people to believe they are evil, horrible people.
It’s beyond disgusting how the Right has adopted this attitude. They should all burn in hell for it. Seriously.