Rewriting textbooks so they are filled with lies is another.
In case you've been living on the Moon this past week, or maybe in Texas, here's what's going on. The State's Education Board has revised its education standards. And honey, it makes Kansas' removal of evolution look like child's play.
Highlights include:
- Removal of Thomas Jefferson. That's right kids: one of our most prominent and critical Founding Fathers has been erased from the record. Why? Because he promoted separation of church and state.
- Propagating the "we are a Christian nation" myth. While Jefferson is out, the Fathers in general are in. But only because they had some loose rooting in Judeo-Christian foundings. The fact that they were Deists will be conveniently ignored.
- No Freedom of Religion. Students will not be taught that the Constitution prohibits the State promotion of one religion over another.
- False vindication of right-wing abusers like McCarthy. That's right. Texas kids will now learn how poor McCarthy was "blacklisted" by the liberal media, when in "fact" his communist witch-hunt was "necessary."
- Rewriting post-Reagan sociopolitical history. Students will learn all about the magnificent "conservative resurgence" that Dear Father Reagan ushered in. Thank god he helped us get rid of all those pesky, liberal thinking hippies of the 70's. According to the new version, liberal thought is virtually nonexistent.
Now, if this stupidity was limited to Texas, I'd say who cares. Let them turn their kids into bigger idiots than they themselves are. But the situation is far more sinister.
Texas is the second largest buyer of school textbooks in the country. The publishers, eager to make a dollar in our marvelous, free-enterprise system, cater to the whims of the biggest buyers. So if Texas wants books full of lies, the rest of the country gets them too.
Sadly, this incredibly important story has received little coverage, even from the progressive media. While health care dominated (as it should), this story didn't even rank second. Ed Schultz spent all day talking about Tiger Woods. Randi Rhodes talked about Neal Horsley's admission that he f****d a mule. I heard Thom Hartmann mention this the other day, but it was a footnote in the main discussion.
Now don't get me wrong. I love all three of the aforementioned people. But it was a serious lack of judgement to let this story slip by. I'm especially looking at you, Ed.
I don't know what can be done now. I, for one, will make sure that my two kids know better. And I will keep screaming the truth here, there, and everywhere. I hope you do too. Because if we don't, we're lost. in two or three generations, the Truth will be gone forever.
The media has given the story a major play in Texas, and IMO the heat in the kitchen is getting rather hot, I SUSPECT that there MIGHT be rather major changes when the Texas Education Board meets in May for ANOTHER step in the approval process IF those involved keep the heat on.
ReplyDeleteI believe that these meetings were part of the political theater during the Republican primary and with MOST republican primaries the politicians need to cater to the Tea Party and to the people to the right of them, and historically they swing back to the middle a tad during the lead-up to the general election and I can see no reason for it to change this time IF the heat is continued to be applied within Texas.
Henry
Let's hope you're right, Henry. Still, it's rather frightening that there are so many Tea Party-type ignoramuses out there that this would ever be part of a legitimate discussion. This is beyond evangelical conservatives wanting evolution thrown out. This is so over the top, it defies words.
ReplyDeleteIt's an interesting topic -- and I agree! My hackles have long risen at the Unites States being called a Christian nation. I am a woman of Christ, and honestly, I do not see a lot of Jesus in our country ... not for a long, long time. Perhaps much of our country's ideals and laws WERE founded on the faiths of our Christian mothers and fathers. But somewhere in between "loving one another" and the kind of hate and intolerance that exists today, Christ left this country awhile ago. I thank God that His grace is available to all of us, but is our nation His? No, I would say not.
ReplyDeleteI'm also a former journalist -- and rewriting history is spooky, dangerous stuff. If we are ever to turn our country into a place where people are safe, well-fed and otherwise taken care of, we need to understand what we've done right, what we've done wrong and all the in-between ... the good, the bad and the you-know-what. After all, it was Christ who said, "The truth will set you free." (John 8:32)
You're right, Rebecca. While our Founding Fathers were Deist, they still clearly had a foot in the "Christian" world; if nothing else, they used the same language. But that does not make us a Christian nation. And I agree -- what goes on here today is NOT what Jesus would do!
ReplyDeleteIt's so sad that when you point out to the Tea Partiers that Jesus would in fact have supported single payer health care, they have no come back. They hate it when you call them out on their hypocrisy.
Spin is one thing. Karl Rove and Dick Cheney trying to erase the past with their babblings is one thing. Rewriting majore history? Totally not what Jesus would do.