The Forest Lake school system caved to Democratic pressure by cancelling today’s event by Vets for Freedom. Here’s what you need to know about this disgraceful decision:

Steve Massey, the school principal, said the decision to cancel was prompted by concerns that the event was becoming political rather than educational and therefore was not suitable for a public school.

He said the school had received several phone calls from parents and others, some of whom indicated that they may stage a protest if the event took place.

“The event was structured to be an academic classroom discussion around military service. We thought we’d provide an opportunity for kids to learn about service in the context of our history classes,” Massey said. “As the day progressed, it became clear that this was becoming a political event…which would be inappropriate in a public setting.

“We decided to cancel,” Massey said. Organizers of the National Heroes Tour then scrambled to relocate the event to the American Legion building in Forest Lake. The visit, which U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Stillwater, had been scheduled to attend, is sponsored by Vets for Freedom, a national organization run by Pete Hegseth, a 1999 graduate of Forest Lake Area High School who served with the 101st Airborne in Iraq in 2005-06.

Here’s more on why the decision was made:

At “Democratic Underground Forums,” there was an announcement of a press conference by various unidentified groups opposing the Vets for Freedom appearance. The announcement exhorted “Veterans for Peace” to oppose the appearance and listed contact info for Massey; school board president Bill Bresin, and the Forest Lake Area Schools district office. The post expressed “outrage” that Vets for Freedom was going to meet with students to “indoctrinate them on the joys of war.”

By cancelling the event, Mssrs. Bresin and Massey just put themselves in the middle of a political firestorm.

Question: Were Mssrs. Bresin and Massey being profiles in cowardice or were they just agreeing with their liberal allies? Or was it a little of both?

The word now is spreading like wildfire, with the the event taking a much higher profile because of their decision. What was going to be a nonpartisan event has just turned into political theater.

I suspect that the evening news will focus on the cancellation of the event. Rest assured that this blog and others in the True North network of blogs will have much, much more on this breaking story. There’s already three posts up on TN on this event. I recommend that you make the True North network of blogs your one stop shopping center for continuing updates on this anti-war protest/political event.

UPDATE: Drudge linked to the Strib article. Jim at Gateway Pundit, Uncle Jimbo at Blackfive and Michelle Malkin have posted about this profile in political cowardice, too.

Technorati Tags: Vets For Freedom, Vets For Peace, Democratic Underground, Anti-War Protest

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

1. See what this principal is really like… http://www.riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2008/03/forest-lake-pri.html

   Comment by Cory — March 25, 2008 @ 1:32 pm

2. It’s about time we called the hounds out on these shitheads.

   Comment by T. A. Gray — March 25, 2008 @ 4:32 pm