Welcome back, I think it's been long enough since the porn episodes to let the dust settle from everyone asking themselves why they were reading my blog. I stated I wanted to move on past my world tour stories and into other things that have caught my attention. As you may know by now I care about a few things in life, education being one of them. I have friends and family in education as a vocation, who have dedicated their lives and sanity to the cause of bettering the children of today, who very well may one day run our country. I do my best to stay up on information that pertains to education in the news, recently I came across something that outraged me. The Texas State Board of Education approved some controversial right wing nut job changes to text books that are used in about 80% of schools across America. Today I want to go over the reported changes according to Yahoo News. I will post the link to this article at the end of this blog so you can read for yourself what I am writing about. To some these changes may seem like trivial things that shouldn't piss me off. But if you are a free thinker who happens to enjoy the idea of school being a place of unbiased learning of facts and solid theories, then you might be a bit bent out of shape as well. I have copied the highlights from the article below and my comments will be after each section.
A greater emphasis on “the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s.” This means not only increased favorable mentions of Schlafly, the founder of the antifeminist Eagle Forum, but also more discussion of the Moral Majority, the Heritage Foundation, the National Rifle Association and Newt Gingrich's Contract With America. ----- First off, I do not have any objection to a fair and equal amount of information from both sides of the political party represented in history, as they have played a part the making of said history. I have a problem with what they plan to remove and replace a large portion with ultra christian conservatism into a state and government funded education system. I further object with the Board showing an interest in spending a portion of a school hour talking about the NRA! What possible good will come from a teacher (who may or may not have an opinion on the NRA) being forced to talk about the fucking National (Religious) Riffle (Asshole) Association, what could they plan to talk about? Here is how I picture a leason going. The teacher comes in with a case full of guns and passes them out in class and says “Today's lesson is 'how to clean your gun so that when you want to shoot someone who doesn't agree with your political or religious views you can!'” Little Suzy picks up her first gun and adjacent literature and reads that the NRA are friendly people who just want to make sure that every nut job who claims to know Jesus can have the freedom to own a weapon that can end the lives of just about anyone they see! Good job republicans! Way to encourage another fucking school shooting!
- A reduced scope for Latino history and culture. A proposal to expand such material in recognition of Texas’ rapidly growing Hispanic population was defeated in last week’s meetings—provoking one board member, Mary Helen Berlanga, to storm out in protest. "They can just pretend this is a white America and Hispanics don’t exist," she said of her conservative colleagues on the board. "They are rewriting history, not only of Texas but of the United States and the world." --- Mary I can't agree more. How can we as citizens who go to the store and see isles dedicated to the ever growing multicultural society we now live in not be outraged by a few conservatives who were given way too much power and who are deciding to ignore the fastest growing ethnicity in America? I believe that any immigrant who chooses to make this their home, should be obligated to learn our history. But, does that mean that we are no longer a country that has proclaimed that this is not just a place for one race, but for all who seek freedom? From what I take from this idea proclaimed the Board is that we are to forget about the impact that our southern neighbors have had on our lives from the inception of this country and pretend that this is white American! I'm pretty sure the KKK are fucking holding hands and skipping down fucking redneck road with their NRA tattoos on their asses happy as they could ever be right now.
- Changes in specific terminology. Terms that the board’s conservative majority felt were ideologically loaded are being retired. Hence, “imperialism” as a characterization of America’s modern rise to world power is giving way to “expansionism,” and “capitalism” is being dropped in economic material, in favor of the more positive expression “free market.” (The new recommendations stress the need for favorable depictions of America’s economic superiority across the board.) --- That's right, hide the truth of a recession that the kids already know about because daddy is home from work due to his company shutting down because of the market weakening. Mommy cries all the time and they keep looking at apartments to rent because they can't pay the mortgage. “Free Market” ? Perhaps for the republicans who happen to have money still, but for us everyday people who work 50 hours a week or wish to work because we got laid off, there is no “Free Market” accessible to us. How about teaching the kids about spending their money wisely, like paying your bills each month and not using credit cards to pay for everything because that's what they are told to do by the MasterCard commercials telling them that “for everything else, there's MasterCard”.
- A more positive portrayal of Cold War anticommunism. Disgraced anticommunist crusader Joseph McCarthy, the Wisconsin senator censured by the Senate for his aggressive targeting of individual citizens and their civil liberties on the basis of their purported ties to the Communist Party, comes in for partial rehabilitation. The board recommends that textbooks refer to documents published since McCarthy’s death and the fall of the Soviet bloc that appear to show expansive Soviet designs to undermine the U.S. Government. --- Do you have any idea what this means? Does it means that we should pretend that McCarthy didn't try to be a tyrant who threw people in jail because he was on a fucking witch hunt! The idea of trying to portray a time in our history as “Not that bad” is a disgrace to the dream and idea that American can and does change for the better. Here's an idea that makes about as much sense, lets teach our kids that slavery back in the pre-civil war days wasn't really slavery, it was more like a bunch of friends working together and living together and that nothing bad ever happened! Sound ridiculous? So does telling the kids that the cold war wasn't that big of a deal and that the anticommunism that happened didn't lead to prison camps where honest working American citizens were fenced in and held like common criminals because they were Asian! How dare we taint the memory of those who suffered under a government who was so scared that they resorted to the same kinds of acts that are so touted as evil and vile when carried out by German Nazi's! Those who forget the past are condemned like hooded men led to the gallows to relive it.
- Language that qualifies the legacy of 1960s liberalism. Great Society programs such as Title IX—which provides for equal gender access to educational resources—and affirmative action, intended to remedy historic workplace discrimination against African-Americans, are said to have created adverse “unintended consequences” in the curriculum’s preferred language. --- Do I need to expound on this? I mean, really? “Unintended consequences”? Holy shit! Lookout a black man can ride the subway with a white man! What is this world coming too? Ridiculous!
- Thomas Jefferson no longer included among writers influencing the nation’s intellectual origins. Jefferson, a deist who helped pioneer the legal theory of the separation of church and state, is not a model founder in the board’s judgment. Among the intellectual forerunners to be highlighted in Jefferson’s place: medieval Catholic philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas, Puritan theologian John Calvin and conservative British law scholar William Blackstone. Heavy emphasis is also to be placed on the founding fathers having been guided by strict Christian beliefs. –- Does this not border on treason? How can anyone refute the impact that one of our founding fathers had then and now on this great country? To remove Thomas Jefferson from history books because he didn't hold the same “Christian” ideals as these men and women on the Board of Education in Texas is at the very least a mockery of the very freedoms that Mr. Jefferson helped pen. To strike his name from our text and refuse the children of America an education on the man who is stamped on both coin and parchment that those on that Board hold so dear is something that should piss off each and every one of us! I know that you might think that because many atheist claim Thomas Jefferson as one our own to be the root of my righteous rage at having him removed from the text books. It is not, I would be equally angered and outraged by them removing any one of the founding members of our country. What would you feel if you found that George Washington wasn't American enough to be talked about in school anymore? What would you feel if you were told that Lincoln was being removed because he did too much to help free the slaves? How can I not be angered by the notion of a board removing such an important person from history books? This is another move to force down a ultra conservative education down kids that tells them that this is a Christian nation when it truly is not! It is a free nation that guards your right to worship whomever you wish, be it Jesus, Allah, Abraham, Vishnu, Buddha, a jelly fish, french toast or whatever else you want to worship as a god. This is a great crime if allowed to pass into the educational system and each of you should be pissed off at this!
- Excision of recent third-party presidential candidates Ralph Nader (from the left) and Ross Perot(from the centrist Reform Party). Meanwhile, the recommendations include an entry listing Confederate General Stonewall Jackson as a role model for effective leadership, and a statement from Confederate President Jefferson Davis accompanying a speech by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. --- Oh this is a brilliant idea! Lets remove anything that doesn't conform to the two major parties! That's right kids, no more individuality! Lets all put on the suit and tie and be little robots for the government. While we are at it, lets add to the list of great people in the world to learn from Mr. Jefferson Davis who was a fucking Racist bastard who wanted to keep all his slaves picking cotton and saying “master” forever.
- A recommendation to include country and western music among the nation’s important cultural movements. The popular black genre of hip-hop is being dropped from the same list. --- This is just fucking stupid, and only the ego of Texas could propose this!
This is a fucking shame, a outright sad day for each and every one of us. Even if you didn't know this was going on, this is the kind of thing that happens and we rarely hear about it. I am not a parent, so I have little input into the educational materials that kids are being taught, but if you have a child in school and want them to have a fair and unbiased education please look for these kinds of things. Pay attention to what your kids are being taught. If this passes it's final stage and is accepted then one day you might wake up to your child cleaning his gun and looking at a poster of the NRA on this wall while singing Amazing Grace because he was taught that guns are good, he is a christian because this is a christian nation and that the NRA is the type of people we should be idolizing.
If you are a republican and are offended by my comments here, please contact me and I will be more than happy to defend everything I've written here. I will not sit by and remain silent regarding a travesty of this level.
With that being said, BRING ON THE HATE MAIL!
*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts1253
