In my last post I mentioned that members of our armed forces, police officers, and members of our fire departments display courage every day. I also mentioned that there are lots of opportunities for everyday Americans to be courageous every day.
There are numerous examples of common people showing courage. A couple of nights ago a group of bystanders went to the rescue of a police officer who was being assaulted. Hooray for them! It is rarely reported but every day, all over America, people stand up to defend those being bullied. That is courageous. These are good examples. Americans used to do these sort of things instinctively. Recently there has been a general unwillingness of most Americans to stand up in mass for what is right. It took a serious threat to the safety of our children and grandchildren for us to say enough is enough.
That threat arrived at our K-12 schools in the form of Critical Race Theory (CRT). Perhaps it took so long for us to push back because we were not aware of the insidious nature of CRT. Indeed, many Americans are still either in the dark, or in denial, about this form of child abuse prevalent in too many of our public schools. Indeed, on 7/6/21 the President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) averred that CRT is NOT taught in K-12 schools in the USA. Her comments leave us to decide for ourselves why she would make such a ridiculous statement. It appears that we have three options from which to choose. She is either: A. stupid, B. ignorant, or C. a liar. Given her position as the leader of a union consisting mostly of degreed professionals stupidity seems unlikely. So probably not A. Given that the AFT has a multitude of minions visiting local schools and discussing curricula on a regular basis, ignorance would seem unlikely. Probably not B. I’ll leave it to you to decide which of the remaining choice (C) is most likely. It is sort of understandable why so many Americans are in the dark when they are being lied to by people who are traditionally trusted to be honest with us.
The feckless school administrators, board members, teachers, and leaders of teacher’s unions, misjudged how far they could push the people who are paying their salaries. (It is hard to believe we entrust our children to people who are this clueless). They have made a grievous miscalculation. They are threatening our children, our baby bears. By doing so they have pissed off the mama bears. Everyone knows there is nothing more dangerous than a pissed off mama bear who believes her cubs are being threatened. Instinct takes over. These are moms who heretofore were comfortable with the custodianship they had given to those in the educational system. Now, thanks in part to the COVID pandemic and its accompanying online learning, parents are beginning to see firsthand the sorts of evil indoctrination our children are being forced to learn. Finally parents sensed the well-being of their children is at risk. This was an issue that parents could not ignore.
If you don’t know what CRT is I offer a very short tutorial. CRT basically teaches our children that America is an evil, systemically racist, country. It teaches our children to despise their own country. It teaches white children they are inescapably racist oppressors. So they learn to hate who they are. It teaches children of color they are victims, and therefor inescapably oppressed. So children of color believe they are doomed to be victims, and it is white people who did this to them. Teachers in some schools are told to alter student’s homework assignments based on the color of their skin. Under the CRT guidelines everything is taught depending on the color of the students skin. Nothing could be more racist. CRT is the very definition of racism.
Instantly, from coast to coast, new heroes and new patriots sprang up everywhere. I am sure that none of these people did what they did with the thought in mind of becoming heroes. Like mama bears their reactions were instinctive. These new heroes come from all over the country and represent every race. White people are incensed that their elementary age children are being forced to participate in programs that try to convince them they are bad people. People of color are irate at the insinuation that their children are not capable of succeeding without special treatment. They are furious their children are being handed excuses for failure should they fail. All groups are angry at the hate their children are being taught for one another. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida said it best recently: “It’s offensive to the taxpayers that they would be asked to fund CRT, that they would be asked to fund teaching kids to hate their country and to hate each other”.
Sometimes it just takes a couple of heroes to inspire others. So I’m going to name a few of our new patriots. NBC reported that at least 165 local and national groups have formed to combat CRT in schools across the U.S. It would be difficult to mention them all so I’ll start at what I think is the epicenter of parental involvement. That would be the Loudoun County School District in Virginia. There were too many people, led by Elizabeth Perrin, who spoke against CRT to mention them all. The most moving was a woman, Xi Van Fleet, who lived through the Mao Zedong Cultural Revolution in China and ultimately immigrated to the U.S. She gave a heart rendering speech about the similarities she sees with what happened in China and the current CRT movement. How incredibly brave. The Columbus Academy is an exclusive private school in Columbus, OH. Two mothers, Amy Gonzalez and Andrea Gross, started a social media campaign to inform parents of the evils of CRT, and its existence in their school. They received immediate pushback from the Headmistress, and the school board. When they refused to back down they received a letter informing them that their three daughters would not be allowed to attend the Columbus Academy this fall. How childish! In Pennsylvania, Dr. Elana Yaron-Fishbein pulled her children out of Gladwyne Elementary School because of CRT. She then founded No Left Turn in Education. There are now around 30 chapters operating in 23 states. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention a couple of fathers who took brave steps toward protecting children. Andrew Gutmann removed his daughter from the Brearly School in New York City because he said his daughter recognized the academy was “trying to make her feel guilty about her skin color”. He sent an incredibly well written letter to the powers that be explaining why he was removing his daughter and pointing out the academy’s hypocrisy. Then there is Ty Smith who spoke about how insulting CRT is to black children and the hate it creates among children. Both of these guys are heroes. There are teachers like Daniel Concannon in N.H., and N.J. teacher Dana Stangel-Plowe, who resigned their positions as opposed to teaching a harmful curriculum to children. They are truly heroes. (Once upon a time I thought all teachers cared about the well-being of their students. Teachers who refuse to go back to school because of COVID, or teach CRT, proves that I was mistaken).
Most Americans despise confrontation and would be loathe to do what the above mentioned heroes are doing. The least we can do is support those who ARE confronting the evils facing our children. Below is a partial list of people who are getting involved, some of whom I didn’t have the time to get their locations. Also you will find a partial list of organizations that are actively fighting back against CRT in our schools. I hope you will take the time to learn more about them. If you can send financial contributions I hope you will. If not please send your moral support via email.
1776 PAC Southlake Families in Texas 1776 Action Awake Illinois Education First Alliance in N.C. Fight for Schools, VA Stand Up Virginia No Left Turn in Education Parents Defending Education-President Nicole Neily California for Equal Rights Foundation Oregonians for Liberty-Kim Walters Educators for Quality & Equality-Lori Meyers Moms for Liberty-Tina Descovich-co-founder Citizens for Renewing America-Russ Vought-developed and launched an anti CRT toolkit to help parents identify and combat CRT in local schools.
Other heroes fighting to stop CRT in our schools-Quisha King-Florida, Vicky Manning-VA. Beach, Yael Levin-Richmond, VA., Nicole Solas-R.I., Tatiana Ibrahim-New York, & Shawntel Cooper-Virginia. Thank you one and all.