Front page in my local paper this morning, the
Panama City News Herald, (paid subscription required for access to online content even if you get the print version; don't even go there today), first sentence of an article titled
County sticking to FCAT standard in the top right hand column (emphasis mine):
Bay District School Board Chairman Ron Danzey said Wednesday that the theory of evolution is wrong and intelligent design should be taught in local classrooms.
Yes, this is my local school board chairman. The one who said that homosexuality is a sin in an open meeting a couple of years ago.
Note that Suicide bombers kill 57, wound 115 gets relegated to the bottom of the front page, under the three-column spread on Alzheimer's.
Rant/questions begin...
The only thing that calmed me down on the homosexuality thing was that the next day two of the three letters to the editor were excoriating him, and the third one was about the proposed new airport (inconvenient, unnecessary, expensive, you know the drill).
This time I'm livid, and I don't know how to respond. Do I run for School Board? I have a first grader, but I'm a relative new-comer here (only been living here for four years). I'm encouraged by Pennsylvania and disturbed by Kansas. I don't know anything about the School Board: when they come up for re-election, how many there are, what exactly they do (besides clamor for uniforms and make offensive comments), how much time it takes... I'd like to think there's a constituency here for someone with a little common sense: a good science education is as much a right as the opportunity to learn to read and to determine what the best price is at the supermarket.
Danzey said the biblical account of life on Earth is accurate.
"We teach the theory of evolution. If that's just a theory, then why not let the door be open to other theories?" Danzey said. "And there are many of us who believe that this magnificent place we call Earth didn't just happen."
How can someone in charge of the School Board that represents my son's interests make statements that betray his complete unconcern for the tenets of the subjects he is supposed to be ensuring are taught properly? How do I even fight this?
I have a slogan that expresses how I feel about him
Irresponsible. Incompetent. Unfit.
but what do I do with it? Our state standards are coming up for reassessment next year. Aaaarrrgh!