Attorney Wendy Long, campaigning for the Republican nomination to take on Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, blasted City Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott for backing a switch up of the songs at a kindergarten graduation, and in doing so, slipped in an attack on one of her rivals, Rep. Bob Turner. Mr. Turner helped create the Jerry Springer Show and Ms. Long blasted the replacement of “God Bless the USA” for Justin Bieber’s “Baby Love” as “replacing civic education with Jerry Springer-like popular culture.”
“It seems that the New York City Schools Chancellor approves of replacing civic education with Jerry Springer-like popular culture,” Ms. Long declared in the statement. “This is a big problem in a country whose survival depends upon the success of self-government, of citizens who love this country and understand and defend it.”
“There was an opportunity for Chancellor Walcott to correct this unfortunate attempt to smother the patriotism of young students and their families,” she continued. “But the Chancellor chose to endorse the actions of the teacher, who thinks that a patriotic popular song is not ‘age-appropriate,’ yet she thinks it is appropriate for five year-olds to sing a Justin Bieber song about teenage love.”
Mr. Turner’s name was not mentioned in the statement, nor was that of the third candidate in the race, Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos. However, the release did contain links to YouTube videos for both Mr. Bieber’s song and “God Bless The USA” by Lee Greenwood, which you can view and judge the appropriateness of below:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHVhwcOg6y8]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRCQypnVeXA]
