The following excerpts are from The Heritage Morning Bell posting, dated May 12, 2009. For the full post go here: http://blog.heritage.org/2009/05/11/the-story-of-lies-greenpeace-in-your-kids-school/
The Story of Lies: Greenpeace in Your Kid’s School
In case you weren’t reading the New York Times front page today, we wanted to point you to an especially disturbing story. The Times wrote about The Story of Stuff, “a 20-minute video about the effects of human consumption, [which] has become a sleeper hit in classrooms across the nation.” What classrooms? Very likely the school your child attends, since over 7,000 American schools or churches have ordered the DVD.
The Story of Stuff highlights the very extreme left’s Greenpeace view of America. Essentially it tells the story of how America is not a nation to be proud of, and in fact, your child should be ashamed for living in it. For example: after implying that the radios for sale in Radio Shack are assembled by 15 year olds in Mexico, and by purchasing one, you contribute to the exploitation of the third world and the eventual end of the Earth, the film’s creator and narrator Annie Leonard says:
“So MY country’s response to this limitation is simply to go take somebody else’s.”
But how does she take shots directly at America? A healthy discussion on capitalism vs. the benefits of socialism might be okay, right? Annie Leonard tells us:
“Let’s start with the government. Now my friends tell me I should use a tank to symbolize the government and that’s true in many countries, and increasingly in our own. After all, more than 50% of our federal tax money is now going to our military.”
Aside from throwing in a little jab towards the expense our government spares to its ultimate duty of protecting us, and telling children to resent our armed forces, it is also factually inaccurate. The Congressional Budget Office estimated direct defense outlays to be roughly 20% for FY 2007 and that number has remained largely consistent until President Obama’s proposed defense cuts this year.
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If you'd like to see Annie Leonard in action, check this video. For the full version go to You Tube and enter "Story of Stuff."
