Sean Allen is a 16-year-old in Aurora, Colo., who couldn't take it anymore. Sitting day after day in Jay Bennish's 10th-grade geography class had become too much.

Though Bennish teaches students to identify which continent Tokyo appears on, and what the climate of India is like compared to Tibet, Bennish had taken it upon himself as the geography teacher to begin teaching his view of political science (a course not presently offered at Allen's Overland High School).

Following the president's State Of The Union address, Bennish boiled up a bit, until he could no longer take it. Marching into his classroom – preceding what was supposed to be a lecture on geography, Bennish opened his remarks thusly:

He [Bush] started off his speech talkin' about how America should be the country that dominates the world! That we have been blessed essentially by God to have the most civilized, the most advanced, best system, and that its our duty as Americans to use the military to go out into the world and to make the world like us.

Sounds a lot like the things Adolph Hitler used to say. We're the only ones who are right. Everyone else is backwards. And its our job to conquer the world and make sure they all live just like we want them to ... There are some eerie similarities to the tones that they use. Very, very – ethnocentric.

Deciding he had had enough of Bennish's rubbish, he taped him on his IPod, played the tape – for his parents – who took the matter to the school administration who then put Bennish on paid leave. Yesterday, ignorant students walked out of Overland protesting the teacher's paid leave.

But what did Bush say in the beginning of his State Of The Union addresss? Indulge me ...

Abroad, our nation is committed to an historic, long-term goal – we seek the end of tyranny in our world. Some dismiss that goal as misguided idealism. In reality, the future security of America depends on it. On September the 11th, 2001, we found that problems originating in a failed and oppressive state 7,000 miles away could bring murder and destruction to our country. Dictatorships shelter terrorists, and feed resentment and radicalism, and seek weapons of mass destruction. Democracies replace resentment with hope, respect the rights of their citizens and their neighbors, and join the fight against terror. Every step toward freedom in the world makes our country safer – so we will act boldly in freedom's cause.

Far from being a hopeless dream, the advance of freedom is the great story of our time. In 1945, there were about two dozen lonely democracies in the world. Today, there are 122. And we're writing a new chapter in the story of self-government – with women lining up to vote in Afghanistan, and millions of Iraqis marking their liberty with purple ink, and men and women from Lebanon to Egypt debating the rights of individuals and the necessity of freedom. At the start of 2006, more than half the people of our world live in democratic nations. And we do not forget the other half – in places like Syria and Burma, Zimbabwe, North Korea, and Iran – because the demands of justice, and the peace of this world, require their freedom, as well.

No one can deny the success of freedom, but some men rage and fight against it.