Yeah, Dan, It’s Just Like Segregation
Dan Patrick (not the sport announcer) is Texas State Senator and Radio Talk Show Host.
It is said around the Capitol that Dan has an attention deficit disorder, and that’s why he tries to get so much of it.
Second Only to God
Patrick wrote a book entitled, “The Second Most Important Book You Will Ever Read: A Personal Challenge to Read the Bible.” People were a little surprised that he put himself below God, but were reassured to know that he’s still way above Hawthorne, Melville or Twain.
Dan’s latest camera grabber is this one. Dan wants private schools, who can recruit and give scholarships based on athletic ability, to be able to compete in UIL sanctioned sports.
A Texas Senate panel has endorsed letting private schools join the University Interscholastic League for all sports and activities except football and basketball.
Tuesday’s vote by the Senate education committee sends the bill to the full Senate for consideration. The measure by Sen. Dan Patrick, a Houston Republican, is the latest effort to let private schools into the UIL, which has been rejected by lawmakers in previous years.
Public schools have resisted allowing private schools into the UIL over fears of recruiting for sports. Patrick has compared the separation to the era of racial segregation.
In case you missed the last sentence, I’m gonna read it out loud to you. “Patrick has compared the separation to the era of racial segregation.”
Yeah Dan, just like it. Exactly like it.
Thanks to Web for the heads up.
The private schools have their own league. They should stay to it.
1At first I though this article would be about religion, then about sports. Then I realized that to this guy they’re probably the same thing.
Go, Jesus! Rah, rah, rah.
2This is Texas. Football is a religion. I didn’t realize until I was out of college that other states didn’t show the high school football scores on the Friday night 10:00 news (long before the movie “Friday Night Lights” came out).
3Oh, my, SusanF, my dear friend! I didn’t know until just now that other states didn’t show the high school football scores on the Friday night 10:00 news! And since I’m older than you, I’ve been uninformed for WAY longer than you!
4(Haven’t attended a football game since graduating from high school a few decades back, but I can still recall the score from the drumming my alma mater received at the hands of our crosstime rivals — 24-6.)
Uh-hum. That should have been “”crosstown rivals.”
5I am just so sure that God and Sweet Jesus will be so indebted to Dan for pushing this.
Perhaps Dan should take his own damn advice: read the Bible. I did, and I am unaffiliated. Maybe Dan would be a nicer, more tolerant man, supportive of things like the Affordable Care Act and public educatiion, and such if he reallly read the book. Oh, wait – I forgetf, the ability to read and the ability to comprehend what you read are not the same skills. Guess he lacks the second.
6We need a meeting. The 2013 Private School Students & Surviving Civil Rights Participants Conference. So much to talk about, so many notes to compare. Opening Session: We could play football, but not against the teams we wanted to play.”
7I knew when I lived in Houston and watched his show that there was a reason I didn’t like him…and I still don’t. And, ks sunflower, you have excellent advice for him.
8As for his ideas… Gee, Texas hasn’t changed; football ahead of everything..sports next…and then maybe some academics. And, I am a former Texas teacher who tangled with more than one shitty coach who would tell his students “Open the book and do the section checkup” in History while they did plays. I came from a state where the private schools either played regular high school sports with the ‘regular public schools’ or they didn’t play sports. And, the parochial schools did NOT raid the public high schools. If the kids went to Cathedral, they were Catholic and had grown up in a Catholic school…and yes, they played a mean game of football. We also did not have class ball…
Yes, I remember when the first non-UIL sat down to eat at the lunch counter at Woolworth. I remember Bull Conner sicin’ his dogs on the non-UILs. I remember separate waiting rooms and water fountains, and crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Yep, it is really rough being a non-UIL. Just like racial segregation.
9I’m pretty much indifferent to ball sports, which would make me a heretic in Texas and probably get me burned at the stake; but, having relocated from the San Francisco area to Seattle’s Eastside some few years back, I find the same mindset here. Both the Seattle Times and the Post-Intelligencer devote a lot of column inches to high school sports, college sports, and pro sports. Je m’en foutre!
10Well somebody might have read the bible to Dan but I’m pretty sure he hasn’t read it by himself. His poor little lips would have been worn out. I guess Dan’s next move will be to include correspondence and online schools.
11So DandyDan’s thinking here is that if we let private schools into UIL we will be supporting integration?
If the school his kids/grandkids/whoever go to winds up admitting a bunch of black athletes, is he really going to be thrilled by that?
12Interesting that my home state, Louisiana (that paragon of virtuous doublespeak), is attempting to undo the very thing Patrick is promoting. After about ninety years of high school athletics with both public, parochial and private schools competing together, someone determined that the playing field wasn’t exactly level. Seems two private schools (Evangel in Shreveport and John Curtis near Baton Rouge/New Orleans) have won something on the order of thirty-eight championships between them. Evangel has less than three hundred students, but routinely won football championships against school in the highest class with several times their enrollment. A few years back, the rules were changed to prevent “playing up” in a classification higher than your school population dictated. So, Evangel and John Curtis simply win their division year in and out, pummeling the small schools. This year, the public schools had enough and voted to create two systems, much like the one that exists in Texas. Now the courts have to decide. Evangel is a Christian school affiliated with the Baptist church. Always amazing to me what “Christians” consider fair. Ties into the comments above about Patrick needing to read and comprehend the Bible. There is an entire school of thought and instruction that covers that: Apologetics. Gives explanation about what the Bible “really” means.
13If the Privates aren’t allowed into Holy Football and basketball, my guess is it leaves them golf and tennis unless croquet is a UIL sport.
14Bible thumpers do not actually read the book, it’s just for thumpin. So I hear…
15Racial segregation. Yep, all those folks attacked on the Edmund Pettus bridge chose to be black, just like all those private school students chose to be where they are.
16Back in the oil lamp days my parish school in Michigan had just enough boys to play basketball with a volunteer to coach them. Our gym was a converted furnace room that ran clear across the back of the building and had 20 foot ceilings. We could only play schools similar to us; small, volunteer supported, needy schools. Went to only one basketball game. No one in the hierarchy got their knickers in a twist cuz we were in a league of our own. They had this crazy view that school was for book learning. Jocks like Patrick would never understand that idea. Oh Danny boy, the books, the books are calling . . .!
17Choosing to attend a private school over public is self-segregation, in most cases to avoid integration. This involves a choice, so let’s not hear anymore whining.
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