This is a call for help to win an important battle that is currently being lost, and miserably so, in Cupertino, CA - and across the US - the PR battle on the
bogus "Declaration of Independence" related lawsuit. The media has done little to bring out the real facts and right wing extremists are threatening the staff of the school.
Some of the materials the teacher used were bogus (example Exhibit G and Exhibit E). Most of the other materials were unbelievably slanted and constitute thinly veiled propaganda - details here.
Please read what I have written below the fold to see why YOU SHOULD ACT (and HOW).
The reason you have to act is summarized in this letter that I wrote to the Cupertino Union School District:
-------------
Dear Mr. Bragg and Board members of CUSD,
May I request your indulgence in please taking a few minutes to read this letter?
Since I did not hear any response from you to my email dated 12/6/04 (included below), I am writing to you to point out that the passivity with which CUSD has approached this matter may have lasting negative consequences, not just for teachers in Cupertino, but for public schools across the United States.
Due to the lack of any feedback from you, I am going to assume that your passivity is out of a respect for due process considering that a lawsuit has been filed against CUSD. If that is the case, you are certainly well intentioned. Clearly, you know the facts are on your side and that you will prevail in the lawsuit (with even a moderate legal team on your side).
However, with your current approach, my years of experience studying the right-wing machine indicate that your victory in court will be a Pyrrhic one. To put it plainly, you will win the battle but lose the war to the Far Right in this country. What I mean by that is the following. The teacher, Mr. Williams, has already become a cause celebre for an unimaginably vast base of people who are misinformed and misled daily by ideologues in the media, uncritical reporters, and the disinformation machine of the "Christian Far Right". If Mr. Williams were to lose the case, he will become an even bigger cause celebre because his supporters will be told day in and day out that he lost not because he was wrong but because the schools and the judges are wrong, because the schools and judges are "too liberal" and lack "values". This will give them, ala Alabama's Roy Moore, yet another ideological figurehead to hold on to, to direct fictitious attacks against the "activist" judges or "liberal" schools and teachers, and to allow them to raise more funds to continue this practice against more public schools across the nation. If you naively think this matter will be "won" in the courts, then you will have only yourselves to blame when you discover that you lost long before that. The extensive disinformation campaign to fraudulently set in place an opposing conventional wisdom - well before the lawsuit is even adjudicated - has already achieved much of its goal today.
The misinformation in the media in this particular case has been, predictably, egregious and extensive. If there is one thing that you should know about the media in the United States, it is that many reporters and journalists are afraid of facing the wrath of the Right's activists (something Principal Widmar learnt the hard way) and will rarely step up to the plate with independent fact-checking - especially on controversial cases such as these which are aggressively driven by the right wing media. This is not just a matter of my opinion. Talk to Bill Moyers or any truly independent and reputable reporters and they will tell you something close to this. It was therefore no surprise to me that despite my contacting several media outlets (smallest - Cupertino Courier - to the largest - New York Times), not a single one has shown an interest (to me) in covering the real facts of this case (which I laid out in my email to you and to them). Their interest, predictably, is in he-said she-said reporting. Individual journalists' fear of retribution from the Right often forces them to rely largely on the parties involved, to educate them, rather than venture into real journalism. Since one party is hardly doing any talking, the result is the one-sided hysteria you have seen. That is the reality in America for well over a decade now. Unfortunately, your passivity is allowing the disinformation and intimidation campaign to win yet again.
I don't mean anything harsh by this, but as representatives of the school district you have a responsibility to correct the misinformation in the media - not passively but aggressively. You have a responsibility to protect public education, which is paid by taxpayer dollars, from false and misleading attacks that reduce the confidence of citizens in the ability of public schools to do what is right. You have a responsibility to educate American citizens that they are being misinformed and being lied to every day. You owe it to your teachers, to your students, to parents, to taxpayers, to your own office and to the country.
Let me assure you that I have no interest in any publicity in this matter. I have no objection to your using any, ANY, of the research material on my website - and you do NOT have to cite me or my website.
After all, everything I have on my site is in the public domain. My only interest is in educating people that the kind of passivity you have displayed is self-destructive in the long run for teachers, schools and by extension children/students. (If you want me to put this in writing on my website, I will). But, please, please wake up!
A final point. What you are seeing is just one manifestation of the Far Right's modus operandi. Another well chronicled example of the Far Right's and the media's demonization of teachers (among others) is this one from the independent, non-partisan website Spinsanity, following 9/11:
------------
http://www.spinsanity.org/columns/20020905.html
Over the last few weeks, the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers' union, has been widely denounced for supposedly calling on educators not to blame the Sept. 11 attacks on al-Qaida. But this is a manufactured falsehood created by a kind of assembly line for political myths. The story is familiar: A distorted claim is fed into the echo chamber, where it is increasingly twisted as it is repeated over and over until it becomes conventional wisdom...
-------------
That incident and the latest one are just small drops in the ocean of the Far Right's relentless attacks on public education and teachers (among others) over the decades:
http://commonwealinstitute.org/reports/ed/EdRespondReport.html
If you respond passively, you will be remembered in history as yet another casualty of their war on public education. If you are aggressive, CUSD may yet set the standard for how schools and school districts can stand up for education, for teachers, for students and for what is right.
With best regards...
--------------
Kossacks: As to how you should act, I implore you to please call or write as many media outlets as you can. Write to every organization you can think of (that is relevant). Please do everything you can to win this battle. I have provided a few links here:
http://www.eriposte.com/philosophy/fundamentalism/stevenscreek.htm#6
This may not seem to you as something that is as important as the Sinclair or Swift vet attack against John Kerry. But believe me it is. The attack against the school and "liberal" teachers and whatnot is going on nationwide and this has to be fought back with the facts. We keep talking about how to use the grassroots to win back America from the zealots and the extremists. This is an excellent opportunity to start doing just that.