Little Monkeys

Five little monkeys jumping on the bed,
One fell off and bumped his head.
Mama called the Doctor and the Doctor said,
"No more monkeys jumping on the bed!"

Anyone ever heard this little ditty before? Well, in Carpentersville (it's near Chicago), village trustee Linda Rameriez-Sliwinski has been cited for Disorderly Conduct after calling her neighbors children "monkeys".

The two children were climbing and playing in a tree, which may or may not have been partially on her property. The parents of the children complained the remark was racist.

According to a Carpentersville PD Cmdr, Ramirez-Sliwinski admitted to telling the children to 'stop playing in the tree like monkeys.'

Well, I've never been subjected to racial injustice so it's not my place to say the children or their parents were wrong in the complaint. However, it's fairly obvious (since Ramirez-Sliwinski was given a village ordinance ticket and WAS NOT charged under the Illinois Hate Crime Statue) proving her intent was a racial slur is going to be difficult if not impossible.

The issue of course is ignorance by humanity. Niggardly is not an extension of the awful invective. It stems from a Scandinavian word for misererly. Trees are the habitat of Monkeys and little children are sometimes (perhaps even often) refereed to as Monkeys.