There's no end of stories about kids being hassled or harassed by the authorities - and no, we aren't talking about a group of kids hanging out on a street corner, or student protestors, but when kids are brought up short by an encounter with the modern, politically-correct, bureaucracy. We all have heard about little girls whose lemonade stand is shut down because it lacked a permit; or youngsters whose tree house was ordered removed because it hadn't been inspected, etc. We've had kids get in serious trouble at school for kissing someone on a dare, for hugging, for chewing a Pop-Tart into a gun-like shape, for saying "God Bless You!" or for drawing a picture of Christ for an art project.
And then we have Ahmed Mohamed. His homemade clock caused a ruckus at the school in Irving, Texas. He was confronted, detained and even was handcuffed, and then the trouble started. For unlike the students who were involved in the incidents given above, Ahmed is a Muslim - and that changed everything.
In the other cases, the race or faith of the students involved was not a factor. Oh, sure, there were plenty of people upset about those cases above - but the aggrieved parents didn't claim their children were being picked on because of their ethnicity. No, their complaints were about those things that bureaucrats too often do – intruding, overreaching, treating an innocent act as an offense, or failing to distinguish between (so to speak) a molehill and a mountain.
And one could make the case that the same holds true for the "clock boy" controversy - except the activists and America-bashers have used it to symbolize all that they see is wrong with racist America. In other words, rather than saying that the student should not have been confronted over his clock, the activists have turned it into a ethnic/cultural incident.
The facts of the case get in the way of that argument, for the "clock" the boy made looked not at all like a clock. It was circuit boards, bristling with wires, contained in a briefcase. If one showed a picture of it to one hundred people, it would be surprising if even one of them called it a clock. And it would be even more surprising if the clock and its maker would be allowed to board any airplane or enter any courthouse or school in America. Whoever possessed such an item surely would be detained. And he would be detained if his skin was white, black, red, yellow or brown or any shade in between. We were going to say Ahmed's clock couldn't be taken into the White House - except President Obama has invited him, and asked him to bring the clock. The President has not reached out to Pop-Tart boy or the Lemonade girls or the "God Bless You" kids, but this story wasn't more than a few hours old until the President extended the invitation to Ahmed. If he was trying to make a point, he made it. And the President was not the only one - Hillary Clinton, Mark Zuckerberg and a host of folks on the progressive left were quick to embrace Ahmed, because for them, his religion and race outweigh all other considerations.
It goes without saying that the President can invite anyone he wants, for whatever reason he wants. We would not expect a "big government" President to take the side of kids who run athwart of municipal regulations, nor one who has disdain for those who own firearms to take the side of those who are punished for using Pop-Tarts, sticks or fingers as "guns." But whenever there is a possibility of whacking someone with the club of "racism," this President is prompt to do so.
The Irving school has taken a pounding over the incident, but although in all of the other cases above we think that the authorities overreacted, in this one we will take their side. Any school that did not challenge such a contraption would be irresponsible - and let's add a bit more context to the story.
Ahmed's clock was not a science project . It was something he did on his own. And, despite what President Obama may believe, the youngster did not "invent" that clock: he disassembled a Radio Shack clock of mid-1980s vintage and reassembled it in a briefcase or a pencil box. He did show it to a teacher, who apparently was impressed with it - but who also advised the youngster not to take the clock to school. He took it anyway, another teacher saw it and heard it beeping, and, remembering the admonition "If you see something, say something," actually did say something…and we know what happened next.
Many of the news stories about the case did not make it clear, but the student was not charged with bringing a bomb to school. The police quickly realized it was not an explosive device, so instead Ahmed was arrested for possessing a "hoax bomb," which, for all the authorities knew, could have been used to scare, threaten, intimidate or extort. Of course, he did not do so - but who knew? As was stated - this device did not resemble something the average person would say was a clock. And Ahmed gave evasive answers and did not provide an explanation, other than to say, "It's a clock." His family has refused to waive its privacy rights, thus forcing the school to remain silent.
The school and police may have overreacted and Ahmed may have been mistreated, but why the activists ran through the open door of opportunity to make this a "federal case" is open to speculation, considering the raft of similar cases that escape the notice of the progressive left; and it is legitimate to question why our President, who couldn't find the time to call the family of Kate Steinle (the woman who was murdered by an illegal alien), unquestioningly bought Ahmed Mohamed’s story even before there was time to verify the details.