We Are Losing

 From the Washington Post by Ron Charles:

“In the heated competition between Texas and Florida to see which state government can shed IQ points faster, the Sunshine State has pulled ahead. Aspiring Fox News personality Ron DeSantis, who moonlights as Florida’s governor, has proposed the Stop W.O.K.E. Act. Invoking the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr., DeSantis explained that the act will allow Floridians to take “a stand against critical race theory in our schools” (story). The fact that critical race theory has never been part of Florida's curriculum is irrelevant to the GOP’s Theater of Horrors. 

Aping the structure of the new Texas anti-abortion law, DeSantis’s proposal would give parents a “private right of action” to sue any teacher they think is promoting critical race theory — whatever that might be. Talking to supporters on Wednesday, DeSantis was candid about hoping to create a climate of “fear” in which teachers censor themselves. His army of thought police snuffing out free expression with nuisance lawsuits is part of the governor’s plan to defeat “cultural Marxism.” And irony.”

Is this what we are going to turn our once proud society into over the next few years? We pass laws allowing our fellow citizens to sue us for providing abortion services, teaching accurate history or providing comfort to someone standing in line for hours waiting to vote. California is looking at taking a page out of the Texas playbook and allowing citizens to go after each other over gun rights. It looks like we won’t have to worry about government stripping us of our constitutional rights. They will just stand back and let us do it to each other. I’m beginning to believe I don’t understand how schools are intended to work. It was always my belief that they taught you facts and challenged you to consider them and think independently. I majored in history in college. I don’t see anything wrong with teaching about Columbus and his interactions with the indigenous peoples of the Americas. He was an explorer and a cruel man. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in cooperation with others. While he wrote all men are created equal he owned slaves and felt women were not qualified to vote. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves and wanted them returned to Africa. Our founders and past presidents were not perfect. They were human. They had flaws. They made mistakes. We as a nation have made mistakes. If we don’t honestly look at them and teach about them we cannot learn any lessons from them. It is time to stop yelling at each other. Talk. Find common ground. Compromise.