What in the world does one do when reading about ignorance this extreme? Laugh? Cry? Or get angry?
A school board member in Granbury, Texas, about an hour southwest of Ft. Worth, entered a school library to search for pornographic books she was certain were in there. According to the report, she lied to the assistant principal who encountered her, told him that the superintendent had instructed her to go there and look. She spent about an hour in the library.
So, first of all, what we have here is a liar. That goes to her lack of character, as far as I am concerned. And that should disqualify her from the school board.
Five of the seven board members agree with that, because they voted to censure her. Several suggested that she resign, and she defiantly refused. So that sets up an effort to oust her the next time there's an election. And this is a really great illustration of why no one should ignore or think it's too much bother to vote in local, minor elections.
And the whole issue brings up this question. If she was so certain there was pornographic material in the library, did she find any in her search? Apparently not, and that also makes her a conspiracy theorist. That goes hand in hand with being a liar.
Critical Race Theory All Over Again
When Trump floated his undefined and completely inaccurate version of Critical Race Theory, and claimed this was being taught everywhere in public schools, it made fools out of a lot of school board members who sought to eradicate it from the curriculum, and then they found out, the Trump version of it wasn't an accurate description of Critical Race Theory, and it wasn't being taught in the public school system.
An outside political group attempted to write a resolution to be adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention at its annual meeting, until members of the resolutions committee realized how much of an embarassment it would be to the denomination to pass a resolution against something that didn't exist, at least, not in the form that the resolution stated it did, and changed the wording to reflect a more accurate definition of CRT, along with modifying hysterical, hateful rhetoric that a Christian denomination shouldn't be using.
Enough people were convinced this faulty version of CRT was real, and was being taught in schools, to get Glen Younkin, a ridiculously unqualified conspiracy theorist, elected Governor of Virginia. From what I hear, his term in office has convinced most Virginians not to make that mistake again.
Stand Up for Freedom
It was disappointing to discover that a person similar to the board member in Granbury, Texas had been elected to our local school board on the same platform. There are 45,690 people in the school district where I live in suburban Chicago. A grand total of 930 registered voters cast ballots in the school board election. I wonder how many of those were members of the megachurch to which this board member belongs, with a bellowing, far right wing fundamentalist pastor. When I voted, I was the only person in the room.
So I determined, when some of this nutcase stuff began being reported in the board meetings, to start going to them. I don't have children in school, but I thought it might be a good idea to find out if it is possible for citizens to speak. And it is. But when the Critical Race Theory issue came up, I had to get in line to get a spot to address it in the meeting. I wondered how many of the nearly 30 people who showed up were individuals who regretted not voting, because they gave the school board an earful, and they leaned into this particular member like nobody's business.
In the course of the discussion, it was discovered that this board member had not even looked at a single curriculum map belonging to the district. How could they know what was being taught if they hadn't bothered to review the district's curriculum objectives?
People, this is the kind of ignorance we are dealing with here.
Good for the Board Members who Voted for Censure
The board members who voted to censure this woman for her unethical actions, unfounded accusations, failure to abide by school district policy and for lying about it did a good thing. In a small, Texas town in a conservative part of the state, censorship and bullying people who don't think and act like the white majority of the population is commonplace. I've lived in three small towns in Texas, and I can provide first hand accounts of racism, bigotry, bullying and even violence committed by the people who sit in the church pews listening to sermons on Sunday. They know neither the constitution, nor the Bible.
But the best thing we can do is vote. Always be registered, always vote. I looked it up, and found the turnout in the school board election where this woman was elected was just under 12% of the registered voters in the school district. And one of the local newspaper articles called that "high."
There is no excuse for not voting, and when we don't, this creeping fascist authoritarianism wins.
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