Wow, are you watching Chris Hayes?

[Cleita]

He's talking about the attacks Melissa Harris Perry is receiving from Faux News. Melissa suggested that children were a community responsibility not just their parents. Oh, my Gawd, the communist, Maoist woman dared suggest this?

HAIR ON FIRE!

What horrible attacks on Melissa, an educator, to suggest that we all have a responsibility to make sure the children are educated to the best of their abilities and that parent get help from their community if they can't meet all the parenting responsibilities alone.

What circle of Hell do those people dwell in?

[OneGrassRoot]

1. Rep. Stockton (of "if babies had guns they wouldn't be aborted" bumper sticker fame)

When I looked up his FB page to see if he is for real (he is), I also saw this graphic posted regarding Melissa's quote. I admit I was surprised that they were attacking that quote. Why am I ever surprised?

[Cleita]

2. I'm stunned to tell the truth.

Melissa is suggesting what African American communities do all the time, look after each other's children. I think it's a great idea.

[Jackpine Radical]

13. Not just AA communities. Just about all stable, traditional communities

in which people know their neighbors. It was certainly that way in farming and other rural communities a few decades ago in the US.

[JDPriestly]

25. Yes.

[whathehell]

51. She's really just talking good communities -- the kind "Small Town America" traditionally prized

I think, though, that she might have worded it a bit better -- not that most non-wing nuts

wouldn't understand, but the Reich Wing is always looking for a Communist Plot somewhere.


On the other hand, it may not have mattered -- They went kind of nuts with Hillary's "It Takes A Village to Raise a Child", too.

[tech3149]

15. I'm a tired old white dude and that was the world I grew up with.

All the neighbors knew each other, we all played together and ran wild most of the time we weren't in school. When any of us did something that was out of line, there wasn't one who would let it go unnoticed. If they didn't handle it themselves, they would sure let our parents know.

What was that saying? "It takes a village to raise a child" Who said that anyway?

[xtraxritical]

22. Me too, any of the neighbors would change a diaper.

[OneGrassRoot]

42. I was thinking how they demonized Hillary for the "village" comment...

I'm sure she was quoting someone else when she said it back in the mid to late 90's, but I recall right-wingers going OFF about that comment. Any time "it takes a village" is mentioned since then, in any context, right-wingers deride the whole idea.

It's really so sad. For whatever reason, an entire segment of our population ridicules and demeans the whole idea of authentic community, compassion, and cooperation over competition.

Most of them also claim to be "good Christians," of course, though they also excuse their hatred with the umbrella statement that "we're all sinners."

They are terrified of everything. It sucks that they make life so much more difficult than it needs to be for the rest of us because of their fear and cowardice.

[xxqqqzme]

57. My mother was

ranting for months after it was published. All the while my sister & her 3 kids were living w/ my mom & dad. My parents took the kids to school, doctors, dentists, after school events, helped w/ homework. My dad even coached her son's little league team.

But don't get my mom started on Hillary Clinton and that book!

[AngryOldDem]

10. Wow...the dissonance in that bumper sticker is stunning. n/t

[malaise]

3. Reagan and Thatcher hated society and community

Ask Lyan Ryan and Rand Paul.

[Cleita]

8. I'm starting to think this is a veiled racist attack.

I'm wondering if we should report Fox News to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Maybe they will investigate and sue them. They are really effective at suing racist organizations and Fox is certainly that. But this is really a blatant attack on an idea that African Americans have practiced in the inner cities forever of looking after each other's children and raising them as a community. White people as a whole don't do that and wealthy white people like those Fox "news" personalities definitely don't because they all have nannies.

[LeftInTX]

28. Sounds like a racist attack to me

[Bernardo de La Paz]

56. Yes. "It takes a village to raise a child" is a very old African proverb. nt

[patrice]

5. Children are NOT property!!!! They have rights of their own. nt

[SCVDem]

24. If that were true,

children should not be taught one religion but all religions including none.

When they are 18 they can choose if they wish to join.

[JDPriestly]

26. Actually, speaking from experience, that works very well.

It may seem crazy, but why shouldn't children understand that all religions, when it comes to the really, really important things, one, the same. If there is only one God, there can be only one religion. Right? So, if you teach children to appreciate all religions and to be intolerant of no religion, they will understand that.

[Cleita]

29. Even though I was raised Catholic and went mostly to parochial school, I went to

church with friends and even the Temple a couple of times for Friday night services with my Jewish friend. My mother told me to never tell anyone at school because she would be getting a call from the nuns, but she was very open to letting me explore other churches. I never joined another church and I'm not a Catholic today, but I was free to explore.

[patrice]

34. No religion should object to that either, because each one claims to have the absolute truth, so if

truth is true, it is also, by definition, inevitable. If one's truth can be falsified, why does one believe in it? If it can't be falsified, that will become apparent.

[MattBaggins]

36. How is there only one God?

[JDPriestly]

40. Nearly all religious people are members of faiths that either have no

God or only one God. I suppose the exceptions are some aboriginal religions and maybe the Buddhists, perhaps Wikkans or people who take no stance. But they are not very numerous.

[MattBaggins]

41. What does how numerous have to do with it

If people think religion should be taught in schools then you must teach the idea of many gods as well

[Cleita]

54. Actually Hinduism which has millions of followers has almost as many gods and is

widely practiced in the world today.

[patrice]

32. Agreed, though not sure that I'd teach the religions themselves, but that they should be taught

about ALL religions as part of their core curriculum, since religion is so omnipresent and so powerful and can have such huge everlasting effects upon their lives, whether they believe in one or not, they should know what religion is and how it works.

Another part of core curriculum should be about science, that is, how science works, not so much the content of sciences, as much as how it is possible to produce any kind of scientific knowledge, the rational basis of what makes knowledge knowledge.

Students should end up knowing what religion is and how it works and what science is and how it works and this should be accomplished as completely and as honestly and as objectively as possible.

[niyad]

6. "it takes a village" is a VERY old, and true, concept

[otohara]

7. I Had A Feeling They'd Freak Out

when I first saw the spot. My Gawd they went into full meltdown mode - Does Michele Malkin even have kids?

FreakLand vs NerdLand

[AngryOldDem]

9. It is obvious what she means.

As usual, the Right will contort anything to make a controversy.

Harris-Perry could have said the sky was blue and the Right would have found something to bitch about.

I don't know if it's willful ignorance, or if they are really that dense. I tend to believe the latter.

[just1voice]

11. I'm emotionally outraged by Faux's emotionally charged propaganda!

Not really, I could care less about whatever BS Faux is spewing.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

12. It's all about ME ME ME!!!

"Community" is "COMMUNISM" Get it???

She wants to take away your kids and put them in Marxist Training Camps where they will learn about Unions. And as you all know, we fought in the Civil War because the Union Army tried to turn the Free People of the South into card carrying members of the ACLU!

[maddiemom]

19. LOL!

[merrily]

14. That is his priority this evening?

[Frustratedlady]

16. They gave Hillary ten kinds of hell when she wrote her book...

"It Takes A Village" which didn't make sense then, and doesn't make sense with Melissa. Must have been a slow day when they chose to battle with her.

They should all be ashamed.

[brewens]

17. As a single guy without kids I've never resented paying taxes to educate others children,

at least not completely. I would favor a system that does not encourage large family's. Maybe a larger tax break on the first kid, the same for a second, smaller for a third and then nothing beyond that. Reduce the incentive for having that third kid and then make them pay the full load for every additional kid. Of course that would be a little more practical had we not been looted so savagely the last thirty years. It's not so easy to get and keep a job that can support any size family these days. Slapping a bigger tax burden on some guy that lost his good job recently wouldn't fly.

[Cleita]

18. All you need to limit families is to give women everything they need to

control their own fertility. That means access to contraceptives and abortion if necessary. Women will have only the children they want then. Many will choose to have none. It will balance out between the families with many children and the couples with no children.

If planned parenthood got the support they need to meet women's fertility needs instead of having to battle the religious right all the time, all would be well.

[brewens]

20. Apply that to guys as well. How much would free vasectomy's save us in the long run?

Those can be reliably reversed can't they? I have no clue.

I'm one that is very glad I was never part of an abortion but would not deny that to anyone that needs one. I'd hate it if one of my ex-girlfriends told me she had one 30 or so years ago, but I wouldn't blame her. I was a little unreliable at that age to say the least. I might feel that she should have given me a chance though. I did have a pattern of coming close to disaster and then pulling myself out in the nick of time. It could be that I would have gotten with the program and been a good father and husband. We'll never know. Since I was about 35, I wanted nothing to do with women that were interested in having children.

[Cleita]

21. Vasectomies are already part of what is offered by clinics like Planned Parenthood.

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/birth-control/vasectomy-4249.htm

They aren't free, but what if there were programs that would make them free for those who can't afford them?

[love_katz]

30. ^^^^^This^^^^^

[JDPriestly]

23. There is a middle ground. Parents are ultimately responsible,

and, outside the home, you can't heal the damage or replace the good that can be done by parents. But society has a role to play too. Although it is a lesser role, it is indispensable. Families have to have the support of the society around them.

[Cleita]

27. It's like anything else. People are responsible for themselves and their own, but sometimes

they need help. I read stuff like we have enough homeless children in my county to fill an elementary school. These parents need help, it's plain, and we as a community need to help them for the sake of their children. Living in shelters and getting a free lunch at school isn't enough although I think Melissa was speaking more about making sure they get a good education.

[JDPriestly]

37. Thanks. Precisely. +1000.

[discopants]

31. Fox's new war on "liberal" universities

Attacking "liberal" Harvard for some rapper performing there. Attacking "liberal" USC because of a cellphone video of a professor saying the GOP was mostly old white men. Now, attacking Perry as an educator.
O'Reilly does a segment on his show where he proves how wrong universities are, such as the other night there were several students who didn't know anything about Thatcher and his commentary that all universities are producing idiot students.

Seems their one thought is that colleges have only one purpose that is to promote anti-American values. They twist and contort Perry's comments to fit that faux outrage. And so it goes.

[R B Garr]

43. Wow, that USC video made it to Fox News? How amazingly petty

Now I'm going to have to find it and watch it since it's getting more and more attention here. Apparently that professor is not tenured, so I guess that means his detractors will be trying to show him the door in a show of force.

What Melissa Perry was saying doesn't sound that much different then how a church is organized in any community. Isn't the saying I am my brother's keeper in the Bible? It's a pretty basic concept.

[jaysunb]

33. It's the "racial" circle...

It's their job to promote this kind of divisive unreality. They should be mocked continuously.

[MattBaggins]

35. She should have said

"are a part of the community" rather than "belong to whole communities"

If she had done that and used "belong to" with parents and families the statement would have been more powerful.

[randome]

45. I agree.

She is right, regardless, but the way she said it gives ammunition to the Conservatives, who don't appreciate having to use their brains for anything other than filler to keep their heads from imploding.

[itsrobert]

38. Not too many people are watching

His timeslot is tanking. America wants Ed.

[Raine]

59. That's true for me, after Rev Al goes off so does MSNBC on my TV. I used to watch them all

but just can't get into Hayes. I don't feel like turning MSNBC on again after I switched to something else, by that time I'm get involved in other stuff.

[ProudProgressiveNow]

39. +1000 nt

[malaise]

44. Melissa is tearing them a new one on her program

right fugging now

[Zorra]

46. They're just afraid education will make their kids smart and subsequently become godless libruls.

[jambo101]

47. Thats what righties do

They hate just about everything. Hate is their new knee jerk reaction to anything they dont agree with.

[lunatica]

48. Fox is the Outrage Gang looking for a cause

Those people are, like, on eleven or twelve decibels all the time.

[colsohlibgal]

49. The Crazy Right In Lockstep

Well we can be sure they all got the memo on what to go nuts about.

This is insanity but it's gone semi mainstream. The end game from where this country is is hard to figure out but unless enough people wake up soon I'm uneasy about where we're headed, especially if the Kochs or Murdoch get to buy up 90% of the media - too many low info lemmings in the US now.

[Gregorian]

50. I think this is the biggest problem with the world today. There, I said it.

We're all such individual, unconnected people, that our children never get the value a community brings to life.

This may be a puny example, but I hang out in all kinds of forums, and one sticks out. It's a humor/art forum that is essentially self policed. The members value the forum so much that anyone who misbehaves gets an earful. I was shocked when I first noticed it ten years ago. I never expected the forum to last. But it has. There is no disruption. There are no ugly fights. It's beautiful and fun. I've never seen anything like it.

Melissa is so on to this. I'd love to hear more people get on board this idea.

My guess is the people who oppose it had horrible parents, and awful childhood experiences.

[BlueToTheBone]

52. I guess they forgot "It Takes A Village"

by Hillary Clinton about 20 years ago. New concept, that!

[Cleita]

53. Well, Hillary doesn't count to them. n/t

[Bernardo de La Paz]

55. Repubs claim no nation cares more for its kids & then they villify anyone who dares suggest

Republicans and conservatives (who are blindly full of illusions) claim no nation cares more for its kids. Then they crucify anyone who dares suggest that really, actually, wouldn't it be a good idea if the nation (community) cared for children.

Hypocrites.

[Tom Rinaldo]

58. It used to be traditional for all the adults in a neighborhood to have interest in all the kids

That was how traditional values worked. Conservatives used to believe in that, it "kept kids in line" knowing that just being out of eye sight of one's parents didn't give anyone a free ride. Conservatives are the ones who always claim kids need strong guidance or kids will grow up believing in "Lord of the Flies". The kids were always under a neighborhood watch. That was the old fashioned way.