President Barack Obama said during his visit to Northern Ireland this week that Catholic schools are a form of division.
To a Belfast audience Obama said, "If towns remain divided, if Catholics have their schools and buildings, and Protestants have theirs, if we can't see ourselves in one another, if fear or resentment are allowed to harden, that encourages division. It discourages cooperation."
Obama clearly denies - or is probably just unaware of -- the very significant role that religious education — especially Catholic education — has played in ending the strife in Northern Ireland, in particular the role of Catholic educators in helping to raise new generations in Ireland who recognize the importance of cooperation and peace. That's something that should be praised, not denounced.
But the threatening gauntlet has been laid. It just remains to be seen how long it will be before Obama starts spewing his rhetoric here that American Catholic schools are divisivse, a.k.a. intolerant, prejudiced, bigoted...and ultimately outlawed. And I wonder how many of Obama's blind followers will buy into his rhetoric and start believing and repeating the nonsense that Catholic schools are somehow a bad thing and should be shut down. Inflammatory rhetoric is a powerful tool, and if Obama starts spreading his views in America, Catholic schools here could be in trouble.
To a Belfast audience Obama said, "If towns remain divided, if Catholics have their schools and buildings, and Protestants have theirs, if we can't see ourselves in one another, if fear or resentment are allowed to harden, that encourages division. It discourages cooperation."
Obama clearly denies - or is probably just unaware of -- the very significant role that religious education — especially Catholic education — has played in ending the strife in Northern Ireland, in particular the role of Catholic educators in helping to raise new generations in Ireland who recognize the importance of cooperation and peace. That's something that should be praised, not denounced.
But the threatening gauntlet has been laid. It just remains to be seen how long it will be before Obama starts spewing his rhetoric here that American Catholic schools are divisivse, a.k.a. intolerant, prejudiced, bigoted...and ultimately outlawed. And I wonder how many of Obama's blind followers will buy into his rhetoric and start believing and repeating the nonsense that Catholic schools are somehow a bad thing and should be shut down. Inflammatory rhetoric is a powerful tool, and if Obama starts spreading his views in America, Catholic schools here could be in trouble.
We can still hope the president will keep his own intolerance - and destructive agenda - to himself and let the rest of us live our God-given, consitutional rights. We can also hope he'll stop making such foolish comments when representing our country overseas.
The writing, however, is on the wall of what this man is all about. He is not an organizer. He is not one who unites people. In fact, he is more divisive than any president we've ever had and he is certainly more divisive than a Catholic school (which permits people of all faith - or even no faith - by the way). Obama is nothing more than a flame-thrower, and a destroyer of rights, traditions and individualism. But he certainly is effectively doing what he set out to do: transform America from the leader of the world to something less and less recognizable every day.
The writing, however, is on the wall of what this man is all about. He is not an organizer. He is not one who unites people. In fact, he is more divisive than any president we've ever had and he is certainly more divisive than a Catholic school (which permits people of all faith - or even no faith - by the way). Obama is nothing more than a flame-thrower, and a destroyer of rights, traditions and individualism. But he certainly is effectively doing what he set out to do: transform America from the leader of the world to something less and less recognizable every day.
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What? Northern Ireland has had so much strife between Protestants and Roman Catholics. Protestants were stronger supporters of the political party that supported Northern Ireland remaining part of the UK, while the Catholics wanted a united Ireland. I do believe things are better than they were in the 1960s and especially after the Belfast Agreement, but there is still some division.
ReplyDeleteHere's one Irish telling of the remarks our President said: http://www.irishcentral.com/story/news/people_and_politics/accusation-by-sean-hannity-and-others-that-obama-anti-catholic-is-nonsense---taking-catholic-remarks-in-northern-ireland-utterly-out-of-context-is-plain-wrong-212660251.html
And I agree that instead of separating the children IN Ireland into two separate schools that have different beliefs, have them go to the same school so they can learn that there aren't any differences between them. Obama said nothing about American schooling, since he was in, y'know, Ireland.
So Anne, I take it you are completely opposed to diversity - you know, that thing we like to call "the right to be different." You just exposed the real truth about those who preach tolerance: you really want everyone to be the same (teach them that there aren't any differences? Are you really serious???)
DeleteAnd by the way, yes, Obama was in Ireland (I'm pretty sure we all knew that but thank you for being so generous in pointing it out for us) -- but you missed the obvious point Julie made: that Obama was exposing his real feelings toward religious institutions - period, and it's no stretch of the imagination that he feels that way in America too (just look at the HHS mandate). But he's too chicken to come right out and attack Catholic schoos so blatantly in the US - for now. And I'm sure you know that even in Ireland, the schools don't cause the strife (did you even read Julie's post - or anything about the world, for that matter?). Sorry that the whole thing, like, totally went over, like, your head, y'know?? Unbelievable.