If Texan Theocratic Superstitionalists have their way, Ted Kennedy's name won't be in school books [View All]

[zulchzulu]

I know Christians and was raised a Catholic. I'm now a believer in the god MYOFBA (which stands for "Mind Your Own Fucking Business, Asshole") and personally think that more blood has spilled in the name of "God" than all wars... which many times are over which "God" is the "One".

So it comes with no surprise that the Texas State Board of Education, loaded with hair-brained Theocratic Superstitionalists, wants to "amend" school text books that would affect national text books for the next ten years to fill their anti-science, myopic Fox News Worldview agenda.

In today's New York Times Magazine's article How Christian Were the Founders?, here is what is going on, essentially under the media's radar:

Over two days, more than a hundred people — Christians, Jews, housewives, naval officers, professors; people outfitted in everything from business suits to military fatigues to turbans to baseball caps — streamed through the halls of the William B. Travis Building in Austin, Tex., waiting for a chance to stand before the semicircle of 15 high-backed chairs whose occupants made up the Texas State Board of Education. Each petitioner had three minutes to say his or her piece.

(snip)

Following the appeals from the public, the members of what is the most influential state board of education in the country, and one of the most politically conservative, submitted their own proposed changes to the new social-studies curriculum guidelines, whose adoption was the subject of all the attention — guidelines that will affect students around the country, from kindergarten to 12th grade, for the next 10 years. Gail Lowe — who publishes a twice-a-week newspaper when she is not grappling with divisive education issues — is the official chairwoman, but the meeting was dominated by another member. Don McLeroy, a small, vigorous man with a shiny pate and bristling mustache, proposed amendment after amendment on social issues to the document that teams of professional educators had drawn up over 12 months, in what would have to be described as a single-handed display of archconservative political strong-arming.

Essentially, what is decided by the board members of the Texas State Board of Education regarding what should or should be in books is what children will be taught or not for the next ten years or more.

So what do these Theocratic Superstitionalists want to take out of school text books?

McLeroy (board member) moved that Margaret Sanger, the birth-control pioneer, be included because she “and her followers promoted eugenics,” that language be inserted about Ronald Reagan’s “leadership in restoring national confidence” following Jimmy Carter’s presidency and that students be instructed to “describe the causes and key organizations and individuals of the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract With America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association.”

(snip)

Finally, the board considered an amendment to require students to evaluate the contributions of significant Americans. The names proposed included Thurgood Marshall, Billy Graham, Newt Gingrich, William F. Buckley Jr., Hillary Rodham Clinton and Edward Kennedy. All passed muster except Kennedy, who was voted down.

(snip)

The state’s $22 billion education fund is among the largest educational endowments in the country. Texas uses some of that money to buy or distribute a staggering 48 million textbooks annually — which rather strongly inclines educational publishers to tailor their products to fit the standards dictated by the Lone Star State.

(snip)

Since the election of two Christian conservatives in 2006, there are now seven on the Texas state board who are quite open about the fact that they vote in concert to advance a Christian agenda.

So, if you are talking to your child or someone else's child and they are puzzled by you mentioning Ted Kennedy, it's because his name was ripped out of school text books by a bunch of redneck Jesus freaks who are trying to inflict their superstitions on everyone else.

Here's a simple paragraph about Ted Kennedy that barely even covers the surface of what his legacy is:

Ted Kennedy’s greatest contributions—affecting hundreds of millions of Americans—were on domestic issues such as health, education, labor, and civil rights. But with the exception of his opposition to the war in Iraq, he played a largely overlooked but important role in international affairs, fighting for refugees from Vietnam to Ethiopia to Iraq and crusading against political oppression in nations such as Pakistan, Chile, Northern Ireland, and South Africa.

http://www.eturbonews.com/11269/global-hero-remembered-senator-ted-kennedy

Take his name out and put in Phyllis Schafly, a die-hard anti-gay, racist, pro-war swine. But remember she's the first one in the room to yell out to everyone that she believes in "God".

I ask all in the Senate and especially Barack Obama to completely expose and condemn these idiots. NOW!

Texas State Board of Education:
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index3.aspx?id=1156