The worst people

The flag-waving, “Mission Accomplished” crowd is having a hissy fit. All because of a yearbook put out by the students of Russellville Middle School in Arkansas.

Fox News is suggesting there should be an investigation. Gosh, what would they find? Subversives?

It seems someone — undoubtedly one or more students — got creative and inserted a list of the “Top 5 worst people of all time.” It had Hitler on it, plus Osama bin Laden and Charles Manson. So far no feathers ruffled.

But then they had the audacity, the sheer mind-boggling nerve to add — George W. Bush and Dick Cheney!

The sky fell in. The yearbook adviser, who said she hadn’t noticed, was called on the carpet. The school tried putting black tape over the list. (The yearbook had already been printed.) But the tape was easy to pull off. Which, of course, everyone did.

There used to be a saying, “Out of the mouths of babes.” The dictionary says it means “something that surprises you because it shows an adult’s wisdom and understanding of a situation.” Kids in middle school are no longer babes, but they are kids. Grownups think they have to tell them what to think — but these kids are old enough to have minds of their own.

Thanks, whoever you are at Russellville Middle School, for affirming that this rising generation already has a lot of wisdom and understanding of the political situation.