Brainwashing Children

AP: Nearly 4,000 Students Write to Bush---

WASHINGTON - Nearly 4,000 students from every state and the District of Columbia have written Bush to express their hopes and concerns about the country. Their notes have been assembled in what organizers are calling the longest letter in the world. It will be unspooled across a half-mile of the National Mall on Thursday.

Handwritten by students who were in the third grade or fourth grade last spring, the letters address issues that are timely, touching and, sometimes, troubling.

Gretchen Mohr has never earned a paycheck, but she knows enough to get worked up about what teachers make. So she wrote to President Bush. "We couldn't live without them," she wrote. Teachers are "paid like dirt. It's disgraceful." Strong words from a 10-year-old, but this one had done some homework.

"I saw an article, and it had numbers on how much money each job makes," said the fifth-grader at Alan Shepard Elementary in Long Grove, Iowa. "A tattoo artist made more than a teacher! I just think he should raise their pay a little."
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Ashley Attaway, 10, of Anderson, S.C., asked Bush: "Please, if you don't mind, when is the war going to end?"

Her grandfather was in the Vietnam War and now she wants all U.S. troops in Iraq to return safely, explained Ashley, who attends Homeland Park Elementary.

She also noted that her grandfather is in his 50s and he's "still here!"

That might get a chuckle out of the 59-year-old president — assuming, of course, that Bush has time to read Ashley's letter or any of the others.

Dear Children,

President Bush has no business raising teachers' pay. That is left to school districts. Teachers are paid, for the most part, very well. They also have summers and school holidays off, which most people do not. They have opportunities for furthering their education---much of which school districts pay for. Many, many that I have met have lake places.

They certainly are not "paid like dirt." If they got into teaching to make millions, then they are in the wrong field. Perhaps they should work in the private sector, rather than as public servants.

Of course, if liberals would allow "merit pay" to be introduced into schools, then great teachers would receive even better pay. Unfortunately, liberals don't like it because they don't think it is nice to incompetent and bad teachers.

And tattoo artists, actresses like Lindsay Lohan, singers, and others make more money because they are in the private sector. The government doesn't pay for their jobs. That's called capitalism. I doubt your teachers will teach you about it, so perhaps you should look it up on your own.

And do ignore the liberal media that snarkily wonders "That might get a chuckle out of the 59-year-old president — assuming, of course, that Bush has time to read Ashley's letter or any of the others." The President is the busiest man in the world, but he takes always takes the time to care for people. That is why we are fighting in Iraq: so that children there don't have to worry about the government ripping them out of their homes just because their parents did something the government didn't like. We don't do that here.

Hopefully you will all learn the truth about America when you get older. The U.S. is the greatest country in the world, the most generous, the most welcoming, and the best place to live. You will probably hear differently from your liberal teachers and the media, but remember the truth.

Take Care,
Lady Jane