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By Guy Page
About 1,000 people gathered Saturday, June 14, for the “No Kings” rally in downtown St. Johnsbury, many holding signs expressing opposition to former President Donald Trump and support for various causes.
One sign in particular — carried by 7-year-old Imogene Riley of East Burke and a photo of it published in a June 15 news story in Caledonian-Record – has drawn sharp opinions on social media and on the venerable NEK daily’s own editorial page.
The child’s hand-lettered sign read, “F–K TRUMP, but all four letters were spelled out. The newspaper’s editor blurred the offending letters for publication to the paper’s family audience.
According to the news report by Amy Ash Nixon, Imogene’s mother, Carolyn Hawkes-Riley, told the newspaper it was Imogene’s own idea. Imogene’s 14-year-old sister Eloise also participated, carrying a sign decorated with flowers that read “Free Palestine.”
Other signs also attracted attention, including one carried by Amanda Frattaroli of Lyndonville that read, “Divorce your MAGA husband.”
The rally was peaceful, but the signage has sparked an ongoing community conversation about protest, parenting, and political expression.
Kevin Powers wrote in a June 18 letter to editor: “The Caledonian-Record and the reporter who took the Photo of the child holding a sign with a vulgarity/expletive about the President at the NO KINGS rally in STJ Saturday, should be ashamed! It was heartbreaking for me as a dad and grandfather on Father’s Day ironically, to see a child manipulated by the parent and then see it sensationalized and published.”
Comments by Caledonian-Record readers (yes, they too allow comments!) were mixed.
“Using a young child as your prop to hold up a sign with a hateful, divisive message, then attribute the sign to the little kid….shameful and disgusting,” one reader said.
But another reader saw hypocrisy in the criticism. “The pearl clutching over an insinuated sign is in direct hypocrisy to every “F Biden” flag publicly flown on the back of a truck or in the front yard of a Hatriot. I saw a man with a “F Biden” tshirt on at WalMart on Father’s Day. When the hypocrites grow up and become a mentor, get back to me.”
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Categories: politics
In case the little girl and her deluded parents missed it on a previous post.
https://static-assets-1.truthsocial.com/tmtg:prime-ts-assets/media_attachments/files/114/690/162/046/671/088/original/587ced20324baa36.jpg
Think about it… this is what they do to little girls and boys in the public school system too.
Does the little girl look like Greta Thunberg…
https://duckduckgo.com/i/2b6c6dde3bb13691.jpg
.. or am I imagining things now too? God help me.
What a wretched little brat. Yes, her sign (and probably her IQ) are a sad indictment of public education in Vermont and the state of our culture.
It’s fine for her to dislike Trump, although how much can a 7-year-old understand about politics? The problem, of course, is not her hatred but the way she expressed it. Her sign would have been just as nasty and inappropriate if directed at Joe Biden or any other Democrat. I predict that this photo will come back to haunt her in years to come when she’s looking for a job. The Internet never forgets.
Social Services have to check out the situation.
Social services are part of the problem. They are the enforcement arm of transgender /sex reassignment group who will take kids from parents who don’t honor their government coerced gender transition. I doubt they’ll be bothered by any of this.
Absolutely! Who makes a sign like that for a child but who brings a child to a Protest that could possibly turn violent! Child Endangerment totally!!
Should Social Services “check out the situation” in every home that flies a F_ck Biden or F_ck Liberals flag? There might be children living there being indoctrinated to hate!
Here in Colchester, these flags are flying high in close proximity to elementary schools and have been for years. I’m guessing this girl got the idea for her sign from like flags flown by angry MAGA extremists who have no regard for their impacts on the young school children who see them everyday. They have normalized public display of political vulgarity as being a socially acceptable form of freedom of speech. (Of course, the same could be said about flyers of F_ck Trump flags, but I haven’t seen one outside of a demonstration.)
I often wonder if the evolution of this normalization of public display of political vulgarity would lead to F_ck (insert local candidate’s name) election season lawn signs and year-round flags in local politics.
“It was the kid’s idea…” The excuse of many currently behind bars. I doubt the kid came up with it in vaccuo.
Proves what I’ve always thought, that liberals are so open minded that their brains fell out.
Love it Dan !
These people are seriously unhinged.
My comment and a few others have disappeared. Is Big Brother Guy censoring us?
Yes I’ve had the same thing happen numerous times on different articles. No bad language just my opinion. I guess there is no such thing as free speech any more.
“VIP”? That’s your name? How did you elude the requirements for VDC comments?
“Real, full names are now required. All comments without real full names will be unapproved or trashed.”
Oops, sorry, looks like VIP’s comment was trashed. Never mind …
Is “JP” a “real, full name”? How about “Drj”?
Brian, see my response to your other comment
They sensor me
I assume that my earlier comment on this story was deleted because I had said unflattering things about the little girl, in which case I understand and think removal was right and justified. As for the adult protestors, however …
Their pretty little signs with hateful meanings directed toward our country. It’s all so incredible.
Don’t forget the keffiyeh around her mother’s neck.
And yes,…. She does look errily like Greta.
They seem like very nice people which makes it all the more bazaar.
And the dove in the sign held by the woman with the keffiyeh around her neck?Once again, the good and virtuous things God highly esteems, such as true peace—not some “we are the world” demonic counterfeit of the genuine shalom Jesus is and came to give us in relationship with God—are co-opted and hijacked for evil purposes.
“And this is not all that is meaningless in our world. In this life, good people are often treated as though they were wicked, and wicked people are often treated as though they were good. This is so meaningless!”
Ecclesiastes 8:14
“What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter. What sorrow for those who are wise in their own eyes and think themselves so clever.”
Isaiah 5:20-21
Seems like those keffiyeh’s are the new ‘virtue signaling’ fashion statement.
Amen, Rebecca. Free speech is one things, but freedom to spout hate and evil is another. A parent who would allow or encourage his or her child to carry such a sign is abusing that child and guilty of the same kind of indoctrination into hate as rabid anti-semites do with their children.
Let’s go, Brandon. Ask your parents.
Bought that t-shirt !
“Imogene’s mother, Carolyn Hawkes-Riley, told the newspaper it was Imogene’s own idea…” An 8 year old decided to print those words? Really… any mature, decent parent would have suggested different wording.
Yup, that would have gone over like the proverbial fart in church ! My mom would have wacked me, then told me to go and “talk” to my father !
Even on the outside shot that is WAS a 7-year-old’s own idea for that sign it begs the question; where was the mother’s supervision and parenting skills to allow a child to do and say whatever they wants without saying “No”? I would love to be a fly on the wall when this child one day says “F*CK You, Mom.” They are raising monsters . . .
Believe this is the product of the liberal teaching sex (subjects) in schools. That and the associated literature in the school libraries is a reality problem. The Libs are trying to take control of their kids and controlled by Gov. If happening in VT, parents have to move the kids out of state and into a real world. Very disgusting for a parent to stand back and smile allowing this to happen. They aren’t a parent and it’s child abuse. There is a lot of articles about this subject.
When I clicked on the 2 links of the Caledonia Record I get this I suspect if I did a search, I could access their web site. Bad link.
451: Unavailable due to legal reasons
We recognize you are attempting to access this website from a country belonging to the European Economic Area (EEA) including the EU which enforces the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and therefore access cannot be granted at this time. For any issues, contact news@caledonian-record.com or call 802-748-8121.
“It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of our children and exalt their courage; to accelerate and animate their industry and activity; to excite in them an habitual contempt of meanness, abhorrence of injustice and inhumanity, and an ambition to excel in every capacity, faculty, and virtue. If we suffer their minds to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel all their lives.” John Adams 1756
Another sign that wasn’t pictured was carried by Amanda Frattaroli of Lyndonville that read, “Divorce your MAGA husband.” There it is, the Dem/Prog underlying agenda of breaking up the family. Another example or their moral character . . .
Shoe on the other foot, if you will, can you imagine a conservative carrying a poster that tells conservative men to divorce their liberal wives ? Yeah, I can hear (smell) it hitting the fan now !
These are very sick individuals who are warping the minds of children. In a way this is George Orwell’s 1984!! People like Bernie Sanders have a broad smile on the puss. “Our doctrine is working”!! The founders of Vermont are turning in their graves!
Get used to it. We are on the 3rd generation of the flatlander moonbat invasion that started around the time Phil Hoff was governor. Remember, the hippies came to Vermont because it was cheap to live and no one told you how to live…then they mobilized to drive up the cost of living here and they have a passion for telling others how to live.
Booyah ! Wish I could give you more than one like on this one Rich !
So, the only good Vermonters are the 4th+ generation Vermonters. Got it. Who’s spreading hate and division now, Rich?
Say what? Maybe one of my fellow commenters can explain this to me. I see nothing hateful or divisive in Rich’s spot-on observations. Who can argue with the truth?
Text book, case study.
Ever take the time to find out whom these bitter, liberal, single women are? Most always rejected by a desirable, masculine, provider, becoming consumed with hate for, respected, successful men. More so if the man has an elegant woman on their arm.
Poor kid being raised in a single-parent household that cultivates hate. Please pray for her.
You’re delusional
Guy, can you please explain why some people can use fake names and others are required to use their real names? There seems to be some confusion among your readers on this rule.
Hi Brian- i try to catch fake names- hard to know all the time. I am giving a little leeway on initials for first and middle names – for some people it’s a preference. The obvious pseudonyms I bounce when I see them, but I don’t catch them all right away.
JP is my real name, just as JP Morgan, JK Rowling, BJ Thomas, GK Chesterton, PG Wodehouse, and BB King are real names. Has a nice ring to it!
I’m no fan of manipulating children’s perceptions of the world by twisted rhetoric on posters, but I’ll take it over our government arresting high school graduates like Heidi Perez. Have any of you commenters considered the psychological consequences of the hundreds of Milton students now considering their government to be cruel?
Mr. Rosato, perhaps you’ll find something or some topic that’s truly ‘twisted’, if you keep digging. But not yet.
Heidi Perez is an illegal immigrant from Mexico, an 18 year old activist, who refused to accommodate law enforcement officers. And I suspect you are one of many local activists who think Ms. Perez was unlawfully detained.
That you may not understand the law is unfortunate. Apparently, many other Vermonters don’t understand the law either… or, perhaps, choose to feign ignorance. I suspect the teachers and administrators at Milton High School are indoctrinating students in this regard, as are many of Vermont’s public-school staff.
Here in Putney, for example, we have activists trying to raise concerns about ICE detentions of local ‘migrant’ farm workers too. But what continues to be unsaid by the activists is whether or not the migrant workers are here working legally or not.
We have many migrant workers here legally, working hard and paying taxes. But what is unfair and cruel is that there are migrant workers here illegally too, working under the table for less pay than their legal counterparts receive, taking jobs from those who follow the law. Conversely, our local legal migrants see these lawbreakers, and their supporters, as the ones being cruel.
“Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster… for when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” ― Friedrich W. Nietzsche
Jay, my argument is that even if she is here unlawfully she is a good person trying to live her life like the rest of us. She didn’t commit rape, murder, or child abuse. I think it best to welcome her and those like here into our community. I hope the schools are teaching children to like human beings because of the content of their character rather than what nationality they are or what legal status they have. Allowing those like her to become citizens will broaden our tax base, increase revenue, and make our country a better place. As far as understanding the law, thankfully it can change by the will of the people. And in regard to your Nietzsche quote, I will not become a monster republican despite my challenging their viewpoints. Here’s a quote for you, lest you forget…
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
That, my friend, is America.
Re: ” … my argument is that even if she is here unlawfully she is a good person trying to live her life like the rest of us.”
Live life ‘…like the rest of us’, Nick? Do you honestly believe a ‘good person’ would break the law, knowing that they’re harming other law-abiding ‘good people’ in the process?
You obviously don’t understand our Constitutional rule of law. Allowing people to become U.S. citizens is good. Broadening our tax base and increasing revenue is good. As long as it is done legally. Do you honestly believe the message on the Statue of Liberty invites migrants to break the law?
If you want to change the law, change it. Don’t break it. Breaking the law, my friend, is not the America I know.
Jay, you must be happy that Mahmoud Kahlil has been released from ICE. For a minute there I thought our government was getting away with unlawful acts of denying due process! And Rumesya Ozturk, Mohsen Mahdawi, and Peter Sean Brown, etc. etc. Breaking the law is the America Trump wants, but fortunately opinions like yours are here to stop him. Thank you!
The children will think it is cruel if the parents, and teachers tell them it is cruel. It should be explained that the United States has laws and rules for the people that are allowed to come here and stay here and there are good reasons for that. Explain the Statue of Liberty and how the people came here and had sponsors and were detained and checked that they had someone to go to and skills that would help the nation. They were held for a while and checked by a doctor to make sure they had no diseases that would affect or kill the people who came here at great peril. It could be explained that the economy can only provide so many jobs and homes and the immigration process needs to be regulated. The law is the law! When laws are broken there should be consequences, not rewards. That’s something I learned even as a child. After 9-11 it is unbelievable to me that anyone would think that open borders was a good thing.
Silk purse, or sow’s ear? Your recent and obvious false dichotomy is noted, Nick. But that you still don’t address the harm caused by illegal/undocumented migrants affecting law-abiding citizens and documented migrants, remains the primary issue. It is equally curious that your latest citation of the circumstances involving Rumesya Ozturk, Mohsen Mahdawi, and Peter Sean Brown, is anything but an example of Trump administration law breaking. It is, rather, the exercise of the adversarial, inquisitorial, and constitutional ‘due process’ you claim is absent. I recommend you be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
That is not the handwriting of a 7 year old. The reporter should’ve asked if the child knew the definition of that expletive that she creatively wrote. I’ll bet she would’ve looked straight up at her mama.
HA!!! Jocelyn! Great observation.
You are spot on correct.
Since this discussion has to do with kids getting involved in Government things that maybe need to be monitored, I wanted to see what readers think of this program for the children being promoted by Vt. Secretary of State! Myself, I am just glad I am not raising children in this Vermont environment. Though I do believe the idea of citizenship and how the government works should be taught in schools (following the laws of the land), I question why the Secretary of State is getting involved in this. I would think she has enough to do without this project. See this link.
https://sos.vermont.gov/secretary-s-desk/commentary/vermont-secretary-of-state-introduces-kid-governor-civic-education-program/
Sounds like a great program. A good use of tax dollars.