Suffer the French Children, Come Unto Me

Posted on June 17, 2003 in Francophobia

Nurse Ratched picked up this awful tidbit:

A group of French schoolchildren has been forced to cancel a summer exchange trip to America after being told it was no longer welcome because of anti-French sentiment over the war in Iraq.


The teenagers from Carcassonne, in southwestern France, were told that four of the American families that had agreed to put them up had withdrawn the offer. Other host families, meanwhile, could not guarantee that the children would not be greeted with “unpleasantness.”

I’d like to know which American families backed out of the exchange and treat them to a little “unpleasantness” — before some Right Wingnut puts words in my mouth, I am thinking of plain old good Pennsylvania Dutch shunning.

The families have no idea of the politics of the kids. France has not declared war on us. I suspect that if the organizers just went to the local Quaker Meeting House, they could find a pleasant bed for every one of those children. If they can afford to come to California, I am sure I could find volunteers to take the kids in and show them a good time with people of their own age.

It’s time to identify the hatemongers and to make it clear that we don’t want their kind of politics poisoning our international relations. Shun them. If Pennsylvania passes these anti-French laws, boycott the whole state. Identify those who are spreading the evil: vote them out of office, don’t buy their goods. Show them that they are NOT AMERICAN to act like this.

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JUST SAY NO TO JINGOISM