Hey, you! Out there! My conservative friends - can we talk for a moment?
You lefties go save a whale or something for a minute, will you? No one can speak openly when you’re around, waiting to be offended by something, and I need to cover a few things with the grown-ups. Don’t you have some drugs to legalize or Christians to mock?
Are they gone?
OK, good.
“My client wasn’t even IN the bar the evening of the murder, and if he WAS there, he doesn’t even OWN a gun! If he DOES own a gun, he didn’t have it with him that evening, and if he DID have it with him, it wasn’t loaded – he’s not CRAZY! Even if it WERE loaded, he didn’t use it – why would he? He didn’t even KNOW the victim. If he DID know the victim, he liked him, and if he didn’t like him, he at least didn’t kill him. But if he DID kill him, it was self-defense. And if it wasn’t self-defense, he still had a very good reason.
In Part One, I waxed eloquent about secession and the South’s stated reasons for attempting to leave. Among their many complaints – most of which involved perceived threats to slavery – was the North’s tolerance of those who snuck in and taught slaves stuff.
South Carolina and the other seceding states were upset that the North allowed so much discussion of things which threatened their way of life and went against their beliefs. They listed as one of their central reasons for trying to break the country their collective outrage that other states weren’t doing enough to stifle debate.
Their little white feelings were hurt and their dominant role in the world inconvenienced. Poor things.
As the kerfuffle surrounding Oklahoma's sudden desire to de-thinkerize APUSH started making headlines this past week, NPR made a visit to the classroom of Christine Custred of Edmond, OK.
I don't know what they're teaching kids these days. Give them a little learnin' and they think they're supposed to go out and spout their thinkin' about everything.
This was sent to me by a former student who I managed not to completely ruin during her brief time in my world. She initiated the discussion, although I confess once I read the letter I got a lil' tingly teacher feeling. She's mailed it out - OLD SCHOOL HARD COPY - to relevant legislators.
In February 1958, Henry Slesar took a carefuly look into the future and saw the ideal educational system envisioned by Senator Brecheen and Representative Fisher from Oklahoma's future.
NPR's All Things Considered did a nice little 3 minute piece on the OK APUSH kerfuffle today, featuring our own Advanced Placement Heroine in Heels, Christine Custred:
You can listen to it here - and you should.
While my recent posts have been brilliant (naturally), it turns out there ARE other sources of information out there regarding Oklahoma's current efforts to make our children even more narrow-minded and send fewer of them to college. As I come across them (or as they're sent to me), I'll include them here. This nonsense is working its way through the process, so this would be the time to write/email/call your state reps and sens and let them know your thoughts.
A little healthy skepticism in the form of asking the right questions can also act as a filter for the loaded language and passionate diatribes of others, whether legislators or cult leaders. Nothing circumvents clear thinking like a sense of urgency or emergency.