Children's Theatre Production calls for beheading Sarah Palin
By AnjaP
@Rollo1 (16679)
Boston, Massachusetts
January 31, 2011 10:01am CST
A letter to the Missoulian recounts an evening at the theatre. Normally an evening of Gilbert & Sullivan would be entertaining light-hearted and comical, especially if the chosen operetta is 'The Mikado'. However, when the performers are children and the lines of Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner are altered to call for the beheading of Sarah Palin as she "will not be missed", something is just a little short of light-hearted.
If you don't know The Mikado, Ko-ko sings a little song in which he says he's got a little list of people who would not be missed if ever he had to perform an execution.
Now on Broadway, song lyrics are often changed or well-known people or events are inserted into the performance to engage the audience with something relevant to their lives.
But this is children's theatre. The director should be aware of how impressionable children are and just how "uncivil" it is to have children call for the death of any political figure from the stage.
Here's the letter to the newspaper from someone who attended the performance:
http://missoulian.com/news/opinion/mailbag/article_cc99fa98-2aef-11e0-9141-001cc4c03286.html?mode=comments
What do you think? Did the director irresponsibly use children to express his own political ideas? Is this an example of how the left is eschewing "violent rhetoric"? Or is this just free speech, albeit by proxy?
1 person likes this
6 responses
@ParaTed2k (22940)
• Sheboygan, Wisconsin
31 Jan 11
I think it's pretty funny how the left was willing to twist themselves in knots trying to come up with some connection between Sarah Palin, right wing radio and the shootings in Tuscon... yet actual hate speech, with direct targeting is well.. "kids will be kids" :~D
3 people like this
@Taskr36 (13963)
• United States
31 Jan 11
Can you imagine if 6 months ago someone had made this play with Giffords being the one used instead of Sarah Palin? Granted, it would have never made it to the stage, but if it did, the person responsible would probably be behind bars right now.
3 people like this
@Taskr36 (13963)
• United States
31 Jan 11
Yup, there's that "civility" the left has been calling for. I am beyond sick of the way these morons, primarily on the left, keep using children as pawns in their political games. This is even worse as they are not only being used as pawns, but this is another way for the left to indoctrinate them into hating people like Sarah Palin to the point where they are being taught that it's good and funny to call for her to be murdered.
3 people like this
@Rollo1 (16679)
• Boston, Massachusetts
31 Jan 11
When it comes to politics and children, teachers of any kind ought to consider the age of the child and any instruction should be limited to basic things, like how our government is constructed and works. Using children as a mouthpiece for hate speech is abominable. As I said in another response, if adults performing on stage decide to put their own views out there, it's free speech and it's up to the audience to accept or reject it. But using kids is wrong and as you say, it is indoctrination.
2 people like this
@Rollo1 (16679)
• Boston, Massachusetts
31 Jan 11
I personally think that using children is low and cowardly. I don't like the insertion but if it were a production performed by adults and an adult interjected their own views into the programme, I would consider it to be free speech. The audience is free to cheer or jeer as they wish. Of course, this doesn't sound to me like the left is listening to their own calls for civility, does it?
2 people like this
@twoey68 (13627)
• United States
1 Feb 11
I think this is terrible to be showing to kids. Then we wonder why kids are so violent. Whether you like Sarah Palin or not it's not appropriate to be saying these types of things in front of kids.
[b]**AT PEACE WITHIN**
~~STAND STRONG IN YOUR BELIEFS~~[/b]
1 person likes this
@Adoniah (7513)
• United States
31 Jan 11
There are a lot of sick baztards out there aren't there? In order to do this play the children had to be at a cognative level to understand what they were saying....They understood what they were saying and will not forget what they said. Even if they did not understand all of the implications, it will eventually dawn on them...
@Rollo1 (16679)
• Boston, Massachusetts
31 Jan 11
You'd have to be at a decent vocabulary level to do Gilbert & Sullivan. Their operettas are all about words. Granted, they are also full of social commentary, but the society they were written for was England of the late 1800s, not America of the 21st century. Therefore, these kids were old enough to understand what they were told to sing and I am sure they understood why.
Using young people this way to promote a political agenda is simply wrong, wrong, wrong. They should be learning about government and their part in it, but not be schooled on particular positions or encouraged to share a teacher's own political opinions. Children should be allowed to form their own political ideas or at most, get information from their families. They should not be indoctrinated by teachers or directors of childrens' theatre productions.
@millertime (1394)
• United States
2 Feb 11
It's just another example of the far left crowd living by their double standard. They jump all over someone with an opposing view to theirs who uses a metaphor such as "targeting" someone for defeat in an election and call it hate speech or being responsible for a shooting, yet they feel it's perfectly okay to stoop to the unbelievable low of using children to actually mouth the hate speech of murdering a political figure. It's such an extreme level of hypocrisy it's almost beyond belief.
I'm sure this got no coverage at all by the left stream media but if it had been done with any liberal figure or politician's name substituted for Sarah Palin's, they'd all be having a conniption fit. Can you imagine the headlines if it had been said about Hillary Clinton or Michelle Obama? They'd demand a public apology by whoever was responsible. They'd call for his/her firing if not their arrest. They would DEMAND satisfaction.
Yet, it seems any derogatory thing said about a conservative gets a pass. Talking about beheading a conservative is considered high class entertainment. Corrupting and exploiting children to get your political hate speech out is okay as long as it's for a noble liberal left cause.
These people just disgust me.
