As a longtime educator, I have always believed that whatever progress we can make as a species resides within the domain of knowledge and its concomitant, critical thinking. When both fall into societal disrespect, devolution seems to be the inevitable outcome.
Now that education has become one of the right's political footballs, what happened to Colleyville Grapevine principal, Dr. James Whitfield, should surprise few but dismay all fair-minded people.
Please advance to the 9:55 mark for the story:
It would seem that in Amerika, a little knowledge is, indeed, a dangerous thing.
Education can spark a revolution, Lorne. Ignorance is the foundation of tyranny.
ReplyDeleteAnd the U.S. clearly has chosen the latter course, Owen.
DeleteIs America's race to the bottom unstoppable? Jennifer Rubin's column yesterday depicted white supremacy as the fuel that powers today's Republicans. In today's WaPo there's a report on how a trial in Charlottesville is turning into fodder on online white supremacy sites.
ReplyDeleteWe are witnessing a malaise that has its roots in colonial America. Francis Scott Key incorporated it into the third verse of the Star Spangled Banner.
Had Lincoln not been assassinated he might have stomped this out but Andrew Johnson ensured that would never happen. US Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman should have marched across the south, putting every plantation house and legislature to the torch. Instead they were called off.
Few realize that a form of slavery existed in the US right up to the advent of WWII. Even today there are towns that enforce "sunset laws" against any black caught within municipal limits after the sun sets. That continues to this day.
Chuck Thompson in "Better Off Without 'Em" details how fundamentalist Christianity is used in the south to perpetuate school segregation.
This is a disease that is rotting America from the inside out.
So many things you mention here, Mound, I was not aware of. Thanks for the information, which I shall pursue to better educate myself.
DeleteI've put links to them in my post, Never Let Treason Go Unpunished.
DeleteThanks, Mound.
DeleteSomehow I have learned enough from history to understand that leveling the south might not have been the best solution. If the grievances are deep now, just imagine. I wonder if old lefties can ever leave behind their attachment to counterproductive machismo.
ReplyDeleteHistory can offer us lessons, Brian, but they must be heeded. I'm not sure that we give a lot of thought these days to the complexity of issues. We seem to prefer to immediately react instead.
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