Thirty Years Ago, Some Children Cheered Reagan Assassination Attempt
As a reminder that leftists have been poisoning the wells of civility and basic human decency for a very, very long time, I present these two items from the Associated Press and United Press International on April 1 and 2, 1981, respectively:
- Via AP, dateline Tulsa -- "Teachers Stunned as Children Cheer Reagan Shooting"
- More generalized coverage from UPI -- "Children Cheer News President Was Shot"
Details are after the jump.
Here's the AP item, which deals with the reaction at one Tulsa school:
Here's the UPI item, which mentions similar incidents in Minnesota, Chicago, and New Orleans:
This search at the New York Times indicates that the paper did not find the children-cheering story newsworthy.
Look at who these educators were trying to blame, namely "an insensitivity to violence that has built up over a long exposure to television." Puh-leeze. I can see how that might conceivably transfer to indifference about people being killed, but that doesn't explain why someone would be happy about it. Someone -- parents, teachers, possibly others -- taught these children that Ronald Reagan getting shot would be something to cheer about. I suspect that those who were quoted were distracting from a situation they had caused.
Those who weren't around at the time or who were apathetic won't recall that Reagan was intensely despised by the media, the intelligentsia, and the educational establishment. All of them waged a non-stop campaign during the 1980 election season to convince people that electing Ronald Reagan president would be the equivalent of signing a nuclear holocaust death warrant -- and that if he didn't do that, he'd starve them to death by cutting government spending. I remember because, sad to say, I was sufficiently persuaded by the first argument to feel compelled to vote for John Anderson that November.
That early teens would find these lines of non-reasoning especially persuasive shouldn't surprise anyone.
There was a silver lining to the ugliness: As a result of learning about children cheering the Reagan assassination attempt, one man turned himself in to police and confessed to a murder he had committed eight years earlier:
That noted, it may be that the man involved, Daniel Kariem, was not prosecuted because the case was so old. The Internet news trail goes cold here. Info concerning whether the conviction led to jail time for Mr. Kariem would be welcome.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
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Comments
And those kids grew up to be
Submitted by brutony1 on Wed, 03/30/2011 - 6:05pm.
Modern members of the Demoncrap party! Were one of them lil Barry Soetoro?
When will liberals WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE! -Me
And today
Submitted by Radical1979 on Wed, 03/30/2011 - 6:33pm.
the teachers would also be cheering.
"Just Because Media Matters Does It" Isn't A Good Enough Excuse
Submitted by TheReal7Sticks on Wed, 03/30/2011 - 6:46pm.
Though, for some reason, I doubt Media Matters would have gone all the way back to finding news stories about whether President Carter's feelings ever got hurt by "mean conservatives" who criticize his bungling of the Iranian hostage crisis.
Why do I get the feeling the radiation from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant has now seeped into the minds of the editors of Newsbusters? First the anti-abortion propaganda being pushed here today, and now this. Can I say "nuclear meltdown" without getting fired like Gilbert Gottfried?
AFF-LACK!
Huh?
Submitted by Tom Blumer on Wed, 03/30/2011 - 7:13pm.
Is there a point in this?
Trolling
Submitted by Radical1979 on Wed, 03/30/2011 - 7:21pm.
is the point with 7.
Let me guess, sticks.
Submitted by Newsbubba on Wed, 03/30/2011 - 8:49pm.
You were in the 8th grade about 30 years ago?
NO no - he's still in 8th grade, for 30 years. ACA
Submitted by acaiguana on Thu, 03/31/2011 - 8:17am.
Geex, can't you get the facts strate. They were going to socially promote him when he hadta start shavin'.
ACA
...
Quoted from: 'Acaiguana notes from the Underground' (Soon to be at theaters near you)
Wait
Submitted by HockeyKid on Thu, 03/31/2011 - 11:56am.
So now you're saying your own singular argument: "both sides do it" isn't good enough.
Well, I guess it's one way to try to get out of a rut. Zzzzzzz...
"Beauty is only skin deep, but liberal's to the bone." - me
It went on long before Reagan
Submitted by CobraMan on Wed, 03/30/2011 - 7:56pm.
This has been occurring LONG before Reagan even took the oath of office. I remember a few my grade school teachers screaming to each other in the break room (and yes, they actually screamed) about Nixon running for office and how bad he would be for America, along with giving us all lectures as to how the world's going to end in a nuclear holocaust and that the government will be to blame.
It even got to the point that I, with no understand about politics at all, started chanting "Nixon, Nixon, He's our man. If he can't do it, no one can!" (which was something I hear on TV) just to annoy them. Oh, man, did that upset more than a few teachers! One even sent me to the Principal's office for "disturbing the class" even though I wasn't even in that class.
After sharing a chuckle with the Principal. I promised to "restrict' that kind of behavior to outside of class (and, being a rambunctious kid, I proudly marched back and forth in front of the school with my Nixon button every day after school for weeks, chanting that slogan again and again. Imaging, if you can, a fourth grader marching back and forth (lifting legs high!) and chanting Nixon election slogans in democratic Minneapolis in the early 70's, in front of a public school staffed mostly by democrats faithful to McGovern, no less. If looks could kill! I must have seemed like a demon-child to them.). Those teachers, of course, never had to follow that same restriction.
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
Old story
Submitted by JPTSO3 on Wed, 03/30/2011 - 8:59pm.
I was having lunch with an ex-girlfriend when the news about Reagan was broadcast on a TV. Her reaction was stunning... she said "good, I hope he dies..." I just stared at her, with my mouth open - I was thinking "I almost married this bitch".
I said "have a nice life" -- and left.
It wasn't just "teenage brains" - she was a lib but had other, ah... talents. I drove her nuts - she drove me nuts... contact ended with that...
Only a Liberal can wish death on others with no reaction.
Submitted by acaiguana on Thu, 03/31/2011 - 8:20am.
If you are a Liberal you can hope for death.
Just like luck if you are writing for the New York Times and pray to God for Obama to have 'luck' in Libya.
WTF again.
ACA
...
Quoted from: 'Acaiguana notes from the Underground' (Soon to be at theaters near you)
My first guess would be...
Submitted by Phryj1 on Thu, 03/31/2011 - 10:35pm.
an upbringing by conservative-hating, drug-addled, leftist hippie parents, who, naturally, used the self-esteem boosting parenting techniques that were so popular at the time. Needless to say, the kids became spoiled, narcissistic little sociopaths, as such methods often gave rise to, particularly in the hands of the typical self-centered hippie-turned-yuppie types you think of whenever you think about the 80's. Also, I wouldn't be surprised in the least if the teachers had a hand in fomenting the students' viciously anti-conservative attitudes. After all, look how quickly the teachers blamed TV. If it had been 20 years later, they would have just as quickly blamed it on video games. Yeah, it couldn't possibly have anything to do with the fact that so many teachers are brainwashing schoolkids into thinking conservatives are evil. Keep in mind that jr. high aged kids have a propensity for being jerks anyway, so when you throw lousy parents and bad teachers into the mix, stuff like this is going to happen.
Progressives seem to be completely averse to facts and logic. Apparently, reality has a conservative bias.