The school district where I live has decided that the President's speech to the children next Tuesday is perhaps too dangerous. So, they will not be showing it live, but carefully reviewing it (and possibly censoring it) before allowing our kids to be exposed. What lesson are they really teaching?
At least, this is what they said on the robocall to the parents in the school district this morning. Since that time, several in my family have called to express our displeasure, and, apparently, sick of us, the district has most recently decided not to let us speak.
I wrote, in response, the following letter to the Penn-Trafford School District, in western PA just east of Pittsburgh. As much as I know that some of us are disappointed in the lack of fortitude of the administration with regards to the public health care option, and many other important issues, let us not lose our own fortitude in matching the outright depravity of the radical right in this country today:
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I am the stepfather of [names removed], current students of Level Green Elementary. Yet, I am writing to you more as an American citizen than a parent. There are, or should be, some sacred truths about what it means to be a patriot and a citizen of this nation, and we would be well served not to carelessly discard these truths because of momentary and purely partisan fulmination.
There is much to discuss, to debate, to agree and to disagree about in the United States of America: our principles, the economy, the Congress, the Supreme Court, and our President among them. I firmly believe that, as long as we can consistently tie such debate to the facts, our children will ultimately benefit from being exposed to such rational discourse. Surely, the United States of America was not born in unanimity. Nor has it thrived because we all speak with the same voice. Yet, as citizens, let us never look back with regret about that time that we first lost the capability to disagree without keeping our core beliefs as Americans intact.
Yet, in buckling to an ill-advised smear campaign against our new President, the Penn-Trafford school district has taken an implicitly outrageous position. By not showing the speech live, the school district is suggesting that there is something possibly dangerous about what the President is going to say. By treating the vociferous opponents of the President with kid gloves, and by promoting the extraordinary stance that we need to protect our children from motivation about working hard and staying in school, the Penn-Trafford administration is saying what, exactly?
What, I ask, is the message that you believe you are sending to the students? Why, I ask again, should I not suspect that this is but the first step of an eventual retreat in the face of other misguided and uninformed opposition about, perhaps, the principles of science, the truth of American history, and so on? Is this nothing but another straw of inanity to add to the appalling pile that has been building lately: birth certificates, death panels, ... what next? I believe that, if we cannot remain steadfast for something so basic, that should be completely lacking in controversy, that we are actually lending the tiniest bit of credence to this festering pile of fabrications.
Far wiser school districts across the country have taken a braver and more patriotic stance. That is, let the people with the outrage against our government be the ones to take action to shield their kids from such dangerous sentiments: again, staying in school and working hard? Let them write letters explaining why their children should stay home. Let the rest of the children in this school district understand that this President won a national election, that this great country is a democracy and that not everyone always agrees with the government, but that we should band together in discussion, not fear. There was a time, not so long ago, that we were to respect our government even if we disagreed with it.
Our actions establish a record that our children and our children’s children will ultimately measure us against. We should proceed cautiously lest we callously decorate our beloved history with shame.
What is it about this President that really motivates this move? At long last, have we no sense of decency?