Makes Sense to Me
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The Texas Board of Education finally made it big time – they were on The Daily Show last night.
If you didn’t know that republicans are creepy people who did not listen in high school, you know it now that the Texas School Board is in session.
“Good Lord,” Juanita sighs, “the Texas Board of Education is living proof that just because somebody has banana-breath doesn’t mean they are Tarzan.” Andy Borowitz takes his shot today. Explaining the changes to our history books, including excluding Thomas Jefferson, Andy says he got a press release about it —-
The one-sentence statement reads as follows: “If you were the state responsible for George W. Bush being elected President, you’d throw out your history books, too.”
Y’all, my personal state school board member is so nuts that even the nuts think she’s nuts. Her name is Cynthia Dunbar and she’s more bitter than gar broth. 
Please help me replace her with Dr. Judy Jennings, a smart, gorgeous, sane woman. If you can help her, even a little bit like $5.00 will help, go chip in or mail her a check by clicking right here. Judy has a great chance of winning but we need every dollar bill cash American money we can get.
Go show some love and tell her that Juanita sent you. She won’t even make fun of you for it.
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Not All Texans Are Fanatics
Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.
-George Orwell, 1984
I must begin this statement by establishing my identity and background. I was born in Texas, and but for a few years just after college, have lived in this state for all of my life. I was educated in the public school systems of three progressively larger Texas cities and graduated from a university in Texas. This is by way of announcing that I am proud of my state, but I am not at all proud of the current state of my state.
I am, first of all, not proud that we have a sitting governor who, if justice were done, should have been removed from office under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States which states: No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
The Governor of Texas who now asks to be elected to yet another term did just that; gave aid or comfort to those who proclaim their enmity toward our country when he stood before an anti-government rally and suggested secession of this state from the union. He has continued to suggest secession without cessation and has aligned himself with those in at least one other state who also speak of secession.
Second of all, I am not proud that the State Board of Education of Texas has acted in such a way as to give rise to the belief that the entire population of this state is, to put it gently, loco. Here is a suggestion for correcting the undue influence the 10 uber-conservative members of that body apparently have regarding the adoption of information to be contained in textbooks that will serve the nation’s schools.
Texas has always been very proud of its Alamo defenders. The story of Colonel Travis’s line in the sand is one Texans learn early on. It is time to draw another line in the sand and to ask our sister states to cross over and stand with us to defend facts that should be available to students who deserve unbiased information. Those who are the future of this nation should receive education not indoctrination.
I call upon the other 49 states to join those of us in Texas who deplore the actions of this board. I suggest that they can do this by telling publishers of textbooks that they will not buy any materials that incorporate the omissions and/or misstatements demanded by the Texas Ten. The only thing that works in the country today seems to be monetary pressure. If there is a blanket refusal to spend state money on the incomplete, slanted material proposed by the Texas Ten, we might see some reason returned to this process. Within our own state, I call for a serious effort to discover a way to rid this board of those who would pervert the facts in order to promote political and religious views. George Orwell warned us 62 years ago that tyranny through force is but one form of tyranny. Tyranny through control of information is another more insidious form.
1Juanita, I can’t thank you enough. Those of us who love Texas and are proud to live here can boot out those SBOE members with political agendas and return education to real educators! While the current board will approve the social studies curriculum in May, it will be the new board, elected in November, that reviews and approves science and social studies textbooks in the next two years. I am dedicated to doing the right thing for the teachers and students of Texas, and I am so honored to have your support!
2What an excellent comment, Mickey! As someone else who is a born and bred Texan, and who attended public schools in San Antonio, I am now so embarrassed by our State Board of Education’s actions. And the fact that several of them are homeschooling their children makes it even worse. Why are they among the decision makers on the Board of Education? People who homeschool have made their disdain for public schools known by that act; how did they ever get on the Board to decide educational matters for people who chose to send their children to public schools?
I think you should try to submit your comments as an article on Huffington Post, especially the final paragraph. You just might be amazed at what can happen when bloggers take up the challenge to get the other 49 states on board with those of us who are appalled by the historical rewriting that this Board of Education is trying to foist on us.
As I said in response to an earlier post by Juanita Jean/Susan (“You Had to See This Coming”), if these whackjobs succeed in replacing the history books with their version, can we bring suit against them in regards to the separation between church and state?
3Shouldn’t it be called the Texas Board of Miseducation?
4Thank you, Mickey, for your excellent post. I was also born and raised in Texas, living in San Antonio now, and agree with Mary’s great idea about submitting your comments as an article to Huffington Post. You’ll find many people with liberal and seemingly very sharp minds there, and they do like challenges.
5Thank you, Mary and June. I edited the comment and sent it to the HP. We’ll see what happens next.
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