The News According to Hughes

Teachers Unions Are Not Worse Than Al Qaeda!

by Spencer Hughes

21 February 2007

Right wing radio host and author Neal Boortz made some amazing statements this week on Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes. He made a comparison between the teachers unions in America and Al Qaeda. "Look, Al Qaeda, they could bring a nuke into this country and kill a hundred thousand people with a well-placed nuke somewhere, OK? We would recover from that. It would be a terrible tragedy but the teachers unions in this country can destroy a generation," he said.

HUH?!?! Was he making a mushroom cloud sound preferable to public education? Could teachers unions really be worse than the Islamic fanatics that want to slit our throats? I had to watch the clip several times in order to believe it. But he said it. He also made those comments in his new book, so one might argue he is just being shocking to sell his work. Perhaps. Or he really believes this, the way singer Harry Belafonte really believes that George Bush is the top terrorist in the world. Both beliefs are idiotic and not based on any facts.

As shocking and silly as Boortz's comments were, nothing could prepare me for what some of my listeners had to say about them on my show Wednesday. They came to Boortz's defense...almost ALL of them did. They accused me of underestimating the grip the unions have on our children. They tried to make me feel guilty for picking on one of my own.

As awful as I think the teachers unions are, they are NOT in the same league as Al Qaeda. The unions are not plotting to slam a plane into a building or bomb a school or slit the throats of our children. We may not agree with their philosophies and politics, but let's not get crazy here.

If we DO get crazy in our comparisons and accusations, we will be bigger lunatics than the people on the left we attack for doing the exact same things.

So for a brief time today, I felt ashamed to be a conservative. But only for a little while. Don't worry. I bounced back after a few hours and will be ready to come out swinging again tomorrow.

This all reminds me of a saying I remember from childhood...Lord, make my words sweet...I may have to eat them tomorrow.

Let's be careful what we say, but mean every word of it with total conviction. And a little common sense couldn't hurt, either.