School Choir Pulled From Conservative Festival

A school district in southern Utah has opted to pull their kids out of the upcoming Western Freedom Festival, where they were to perform a medley of patriotic songs in front of the festival’s attendees. According to officials, the decision was made after parents complained about the political leanings of the event.

“We’ve stepped out of our participation,” said Iron County school district spokesman Steve Burton. “It’s our policy not to be involved in events that have a political agenda.”

According to the festival’s organizers, the event – scheduled for October 23 at Southern Utah University – is intended to celebrate heritage and culture as well as discuss federalism and the importance of keeping private lands out of the hands of the federal government. And while it’s impossible to pretend there isn’t a political agenda here…when is that not the case?

Everything is political to some degree. Every speaker has an agenda, and every event is put on with a purpose. There are two (or more) sides to every issue, and it’s ridiculous to pretend otherwise. Critics only bring out the “too political” card when they disagree with the politics in question.

Besides, were the children expected to get up on stage and pontificate on the importance of private land ownership? No, they were going to sing songs in praise of America. And when you think about it, it’s a minor surprise that even that wasn’t considered too political. After all, we live in an era where liberals are constantly complaining about the oppressive history of the American flag.

It’s okay to pull out of events whose topics you don’t agree with, but at least have the courage of your convictions. No one has the option to stand silently by and refuse to choose a side. By not choosing, you’ve still made a choice. All due credit to Rush.

According to op-ed writer Marcos Camargo, the event has sinister undertones. “Promotion of ‘western values’ sounds a lot like white nationalism,” he wrote in the Utah Independent.

Of course it does. When these liberals can’t argue on the basis of fact, they resort to this kind of name-calling. They go straight to the race card, knowing that even the insinuation of hate speech is enough to cast their enemies in a disturbing light. It doesn’t matter if they have any proof to back up their claims. Just by saying it, they’ve already turned the tide of the debate in their favor.

Iron County fifth graders will be spared the horror of this “white nationalism,” but they will go back to their classrooms and learn a distorted view of American history, learn a twisted interpretation of the Constitution, and complete an education that is inevitably colored by … drum roll, please … politics! There’s no escaping it. There’s simply no way to give a child an unbiased view of the world; it doesn’t exist. What these people want to do is shield them from the views they don’t like.