It was an exercise in inclusion.
The students at a Calgary school were posed with creating their own mayor and city council, chosen from a group of potential candidates.
Candidates with different abilities, different cultures — but candidates no less.
An interesting idea, by all rights. But instead of a sharing of thoughts and ideas, it became a lesson in intolerance.
Not by the students, but by the teacher, whose woke agenda would be exposed for all these young minds to see.
It all went downhill, when one student was called upon to share his choices.
The student, thinking in his own way, chose the most capable group to run his city council.
His logic was, if I had a city council, I would not care if the candidates were of any ethnicity or creed, but only that they be capable. The best of the best.
A noble stand, but one that is not popular today. God no. In fact, it is vilified.
Instead of having the class discuss this and offer their thoughts on it, the teacher — a big supporter of Justin Trudeau, by the way — decided to call out the student, make him stand up in class and essentially bash his lack of token inclusivity.
In other words, he was made to pay for it, as she tried to humiliate him and infer that his stand went against the grain, to put it nicely.
While the word racism or racist was not used, it was clear which way the teacher was going with it, in an effort to make an example of the boy.
It thus became an attempted dressing down, a punishment, rather than a lesson of any value to be taken forward. A lesson in ego, if you will.
But it didn't work. Instead of caving, the lad held his ground and gave the teacher what for!
Reiterating his stand, that he did not care what race or creed the candidates shared, his mission, was to choose the best and he chose the best. Inclusivity be damned.
Bravo! The kid was right, the teacher was wrong.
The story, which was told to me by the parents, over nachos and drinks at a northwest pub, stuck in my craw.
But in today's world, this is nothing.
All this inclusive/gender stuff being shoved down our throats, is enough to make a horse choke.
Would you believe, that even the vaunted RAF, the great Royal Air Force of the UK, has now been forced to embrace inclusivity.
That means, choosing fighter pilots who may not have made the grade, over pilots who have excelled.
All in the name of being inclusive.
This, of course, has created a firestorm of controversy, in online forums such as LinkedIn. But that is the way things are heading, folks and there's not a helluva lot anyone can do about it.
Someone recently asked me, 'who is driving all this woke inclusive crap?' and I didn't really have a solid answer.
University types and educators? Social scientists? Celebrities and mainstream media? Television show hosts? Governments? I have no idea, only that my back-in-the-day thinking is old fashioned and out of step.
But perhaps the most foolish exercise in inclusivity, that I have come across this past week, is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's tied demand to aid to Ukraine.
If you can fathom it, the Canadian government is funding a multimillion-dollar "gender-inclusive" effort in Ukraine to remove landmines and explosive ordnance from the war-torn country, FOX News reported.
Our nation was committing $3.02 billion CAD, or roughly $2.2 billion USD, in financial and military support for Ukraine — a conflict that has seen the momentum shift to Russia.
It has become a desperate battle of survival for Ukraine, amidst stalled US funding due to the political circus going on in America.
According to FOX News, the government press release detailed several initiatives within the funding package, including $4 million CAD, or just under $3 million USD, for an initiative dubbed, "Gender-inclusive demining for sustainable futures in Ukraine."
Gender-inclusive demining? Can you possibly believe that?
No wonder we are not being treated seriously any more, internationally. We are nothing less than a joke. A bunch of bleeding heart idiots.
As one US commentator said, as if it makes a difference who gets blown up. Sorry, bad joke. But there is some truth in that!
The fact that Canada would enforce such a ridiculous stipulation to their aid at this juncture, is the height of madness.
Could we possibly be more out of touch with reality?
Upon hearing it, one might even think it was a joke or a deep fake. Alas, it is not. Liberal politicians have actually put this forward as a legit demand.
Ukraine has enough trouble just keeping their newly attained de-mining equipment from being stolen, let alone who is using it.
Sources tell me the brand new CEIA demining equipment donated by the Italian military to Ukraine — CEIA are by far the best on the market — have turned up for sale online!
They know this, because they can read the serial numbers off the photos in the online ads.
What's worse, they are being sold at one-third the price of their actual retail value.
Meanwhile, Ukraine desperately needs this equipment at the front, where the Russians have placed mines in areas, such as under damaged power lines.
Efforts to repair this infrastructure, I am told, has resulted in many tragic deaths of electrical workers. And the CEIA kit is the only detection equipment capable of finding and clearing these mines.
Which takes us back to our Calgary teacher, who is using her woke agenda, to twist young minds to her way of thinking.
Whether this is common in today's schools, I don't know. I can't conclude that. But the fact that it is happening, is enough to warrant concern for parents and educators alike.
Good thing it was not my kid, as I would have taken that teacher to task, and then some.