From The Blaze:
I didn't realize 13 year olds went on spring break vacations with their friends. If I was a dad, my girls wouldn't be allowed to do that.
I wonder if I will be asked to remove this post?
Have you heard that Malia Obama, the president’s daughter, is reportedly spending her spring break in Oaxaca, Mexico? Allegedly, she’s jetting off with some of her classmates and 25 Secret Service agents to a country that the State Department has said all Americans should avoid. But something is different about the latest “Obama vacation controversy:” references to it are disappearing from the Internet — and fast.
I didn't realize 13 year olds went on spring break vacations with their friends. If I was a dad, my girls wouldn't be allowed to do that.
I wonder if I will be asked to remove this post?
Wonder if ol' BO sent her down there with an adequate amount of birth control - you know, just in case.
ReplyDeleteIn case she wouldn't be punished with - I thought the same thing.
ReplyDeleteI can see going to Cozumel or Cancún safety-wise, or even to one of the bigger cities - Guadalajara, DF, Monterrey, but Oaxaca is very poor and there is lots of unrest. I wonder if she's going on a mission trip?
ReplyDeleteBtw that link you cite says no warning in effect for Oaxaca :). Still, ...
ReplyDeleteIt's not a vacation, but a school trip. And the birth control remarks were uncharitable.
ReplyDeleteMercury said:
ReplyDelete" I wonder if she's going on a mission trip?"
Now, you're sounding like my grandma who always gave everyone the benefit of the doubt!
Bill - you are right - I'm sorry. School trip does make a difference. Sorry about the bc snark.
ReplyDeleteThere was a strong quake there, but Milai is safe. What a great experience for a kid.
ReplyDeleteMalia.
ReplyDeleteServus, I do like to give the benefit of the doubt, but in this case it's because Oaxaca is not a party spot - it's one of the poorest regions of Mexico, and the people are mostly indigenous. Lots don't even speak Spanish, or can barely remember what they learned in school as children.
ReplyDeleteSo this is not Cancún or Cabo San Lucas or whatever. It probably is a trip where rich Americans travel south to help poor people. Sure, it can involve Bono-level posturing, but for the most part such trips are good and do help people.
The dumb thing is allowing the daughter of the POTUS to go somewhere where kidnappers would dream of getting her. Maybe there's Secret Service all over the place?
Grammar alert!
ReplyDeleteTerry: "If I was a dad..."
Nah, what you want here is the subjunctive mood -- "If I WERE a dad."
I went on Srping break when I was 13 and that was back in the 80s. Several teachers, parents and about twelve of us went to New York City. We went to Easter Mass at St. Patricks, saw museums, Radio City and shopped at Macys.
ReplyDeleteT - see, I need an editor.
ReplyDeleteMercury--
ReplyDeleteI admire the benefit of the doubt. My grandmother was a far better Christian in many respects than I average out to be. I wish I had more of her virtue in me.
I hope she's helping poor people in Mexico. A spring break trip in the 1970s and 80s in rural Montana wasn't something anyone gave thought to. There were lambs being born, cows to milk and farm work to do. Sometimes I think I grew up in a bubble or a time warp. I later experienced in the real world that we were like a generation behind out there on the prairie.
Thank you, Terry. This is a trip sponsored by Sidwell Friends School. Middle school students take trips to other countries all the time - when I was that age, our Spanish class got on a bus and spent a week in Monterrey, Mexico. Parents pay for the trip, and from what I understand there are several other dignitaries' children on the trip who also require Secret Service protection - the 25 agents aren't all for her.
ReplyDeleteThe State Department has not advised Americans to avoid traveling everywhere in Mexico, and Oaxaca is probably safer than Monterrey or the rest of northern Mexico right now. As someone noted upstream, there is no advisory in place for Oaxaca.
It really is not surprising that Glenn Beck's The Blaze would frame a story about a school trip in the most lurid manner possible or misrepresent the State Department's travel bulletins.