Torchwood: Children of the Earth --- A Metaphor for Our Times?

Latino Children Play Swing (Photo credit: epSos.de)This week, my wife and I are watching this 2009 mini-series from the BBC.  http://www.bbcamerica.com/torchwood/

Basically, the plot involves a demand by powerful aliens that humanity turn over 10% of all its children to be transported off to outer space.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torchwood:_Children_of_Earth

The alien's ambassador has turned up in London, where the Prime Minister and his cabinet are more than willing to round up kids from Britain's "failing schools" to kick into the pot... just so long as no children from their own extended families are included.

Whether consciously or not, the series seems to be a metaphor for what is happening in America today.  Our public schools are being starved of funding, the children of the lower class being consigned to the outer spaces of our society.

http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/151204/the_religious_right_and_gop_escalate_battle_to_destroy_public_schools/

http://www.hermes-press.com/education_index.htm

http://readersupportednews.org/pm-section/191-191/10363-american-education-is-being-deliberately-destroyed-but-why

http://www.nea.org/home/39774.htm

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2012/04/across_america_public-sector_j.html