A lot of people have commented on this moronic twit who used his classroom pulpit not just to bash the Bush administration but to vent what seems to be a deep and genuine hatred for America:
He said that in Bush's State of the Union speech, the president was, in effect, "threatening the whole planet."
"Sounds a lot like the things that Adolf Hitler used to say — we're the only ones who are right, everyone else is backwards," Bennish said.
He told students he was "not saying that Bush and Hitler are exactly the same."
"But," he said, "there's some eerie similarities to the tones that they use."
He talked extensively about U.S. foreign policy and capitalism. At one point, he questioned Bush's stated belief that democracy is the solution to bloodshed in the Middle East.
"Who is probably the single most violent nation on planet Earth?" Bennish asked. "The United States of America, and we're a democracy — quote, unquote."
But a point I haven't seen made is how such people cleverly create false parallels that can make their tirades sound almost reasonable. Even if you believe Bush threatened the whole planet in his State of the Union (not true, just read it, which Bennish apparently did not), even if you think the United States is trying to project its power around the globe, you probably understand there is a slight difference between Hitler's Germany and today's America. The Third Reich was intent on conquering the world with a master race of people. America hopes to transform it with a superior idea -- that rights inhere in the individual rather than the group and that democratic institutions are necessary to protect those rights. By focusing on "errie similarities in tone," the Bennishes attempt, too often successfully, to blur the difference.
I also think those who fault Bennish for "not providing both points of view" are understimating his dereliction. Granted, a good educator will try to make the classroom experience a search for the truth rather than a flat declaration of it. But sometimes the path to truth is so clear that those who veer from it lose all claim to be our guides in its pursuit. Bennish has no more right to stay in the classroom than a science teacher who insists on teaching that the Earth is flat and the center of the universe. Revoke his license and never let him teach in a public classroom again.
Comments
Is it ok to compare Sean Allen to Elizabeth Vetter then?
Teachers say a lot of funny things. My 9th grade health teacher told us to smoke pot rather than drink alcohol if we had to choose because of the negative qualities of alcohol (he may be right but I wouldn't have remembered that he said that if I was a pot smoker).
My 8th grade health teacher told us the best way to commit suicide was to go out and lay in a snow bank when it was really cold out. And my 5th grade teacher said he invented the game "Battleship", but somehow lost the rights to it. What's everyone else got?
Can't really recall ANY teacher I had that used his or her desk as a pulpit to promote "their" beliefs, even during the war in 'Nam.
I did have one Latin teacher that I could swear was a dead ringer for Caesar...that was scary!
My art Teacher (Bill Kuchler) was a refugee from the 1956 Hungarian revolt and he never even alluded to "whose side was right" in all that, just that he was glad to be OUT of there and doing what he loved. Besides, he did like to play the SECIOND side of Abbey Road at lot.
I even had one teacher that as an ex-marine, and he never promoted a hawkish stance for the war.
Seems that teachers had more *important* things to do...namely TEACH US.
Best to keep any pulpit in the church, and NOT the classroom. Unless you want to sign up for the DEBATE TEAM...
Bob
The similarities between Hitler and Bush are breathtaking. Consider 911 and the Reichstag fire. Both self-inflicted wounds. Don't call me a conspiracist unless you do not believe a conspiracy theory yourself. It is flat out impossible that those 3 WTC buildings fell from anything other than controlled demolition.
The way the Bush reich has bought and played Christians like a harp from hell also has exact parallels with Hitler.
That Christianity is the Arian god-chosen religion and that Muslims are the Israeli-killing devils is taught to our military rather than precautions for handling depleted uranium.
Democracy - give me a break.
"...that rights inhere in the individual rather than the group and that democratic institutions are necessary to protect those rights..."
We are not fighting this war for individual rights but for corporate freetrade on a global scale. It is fascism under a different name. I wish there was something that would penetrate through your fear and hatred of facts. But I know there is blood on the ground now. You are locked into the way you think because of all of the arguments you've had in the past. Unless people like you wake up and really look at what is happening, we are doomed to repeat what every great power repeats when it sets forth on the path to empire.