Second and third grade children at an elementary charter school in Arizona had the opportunity to meet Representative Matt Salmon (R-AZ) but, after he finished speaking to them, some of the children may have wished they never met him.
Rather than discuss the lawmaking process in an age-appropriate manner, Representative Salmon talked to the 7 and 8 year old children about nuclear weapons and suicide bombers.
"It should have probably just been a good civics lesson for kids who initially were excited to meet their congressman," parent Scott Campbell said. [...]
"The congressman chose to give an example of the current situation in Iran, and made some inappropriate comments about 'Do you know what a nuclear weapon is? Do you know that there are schools that train children your age to be suicide bombers?'" Campbell said.
He and other parents were shocked. He said he had to console his young daughter.
"After school my daughter was very concerned and said to me she actually didn't even know what suicide was and was very afraid," he explained.
Representative Salmon was referring to President Obama's pledge to veto congressional disapproval of the Iran peace deal.
There are a thousand other ways Salmon could have discussed the veto process with school children, but he chose to speak in soundbites more fit for the cable news circuit.
Representative Salmon's grotesque lecture may have been more appropriate for adults but it still manages to be just as childish as the children he frightened. That's the current state of discourse in America.