So Much For Realism

Vermont is almost certainly the most liberal of the 50 states. For years they have sent an avowed socialist to represent them in Congress. Vermont is the land of Ben & Jerry's ice cream for the Common Man. Those few Vermonters who actually believe in motor vehicles tend to buy Volvos.

Given all this, I am not terribly surprised when they do wacky things in Vermont. This one, however, stuns me. Officials in Burlington decided to stage a mock "hostage" drill at their local high school, using police officers, school personnel, and a handful of volunteer students. No problem so far - these things do happen so police and school staff ought to be prepared.

In order to make the drill as "realistic" as possible, a fictional scenario was developed for the players to follow. So, what kind of people would you expect to invade a public school and take hostages? Muslim terrorists, maybe? It's happened before. But no, in Vermont offending Muslims is verboten. They found another target:

The mock terror attack involved two irate men armed with handguns who invaded the high school through the front door. They pretended to shoot several students in the hallway and then barricaded themselves in the media center with 10 student hostages.

Two Burlington Township police detectives portrayed the gunmen. Investigators described them as members of a right-wing fundamentalist group called the “New Crusaders” who don't believe in separation of church and state. The mock gunmen went to the school seeking justice because the daughter of one had been expelled for praying before class. MORE

Keep in mind, the whole idea was to keep the exercise "realistic." Now, do the "New Crusaders" sound like people who are likely to live in Vermont and send their daughters to public schools? How often have we seen "right-wing fundamentalist groups" who "don't believe in separation of church and state" invade schools "seeking justice" in the last few years?

This is nothing more than blatant anti-Christian bias and political correctness run wild. Realism was the last thing on their mind. It was an opportunity to take a free shot at a group they don't like, and they grabbed it.

The most amazing thing is that the folks in Vermont actually thought they get away with such bigotry. That tells you how insulated they are. In their minds, Christianity is nothing more than some crazy cult composed of people who eat meat, harm the environment and have too many kids. People like us aren't welcome in Vermont.

More here, here, and here.