"Bullied" screening at UCC

If you're in the Austin area, please stop by the United Church of Christ at 3500 W. Parmer Lane this Sunday at 6PM. We're hosting a free screening of the Southern Poverty Law Center's documentary "Bullied".

The documentary tells the story of one high school student who held his school district accountable for the years of bullying he experienced while attending their schools. Despite repeated pleas for help, a suicide attempt and running away from home, this young man was forced to sue the school district before they would acknowledge the problem.

The film is about 40 minutes long and there will be a short discussion afterwards. If you aren't in the Austin area, I encourage you to find a way to view this film.

Henry A Wallace - a definition of fascism and a warning

Excerpted below is a letter written by Henry A Wallace, Vice President under FDR from 1941-1945. Written in 1944 and printed in the New York Times, this piece is warning of the dangers of American fascism. It's clear to me that many of the things he warns us about are evidenced today in the Republican party, especially the Tea Party variant. You can read the full document here. Emphasis is mine.

A fascist is one whose lust for money or power is combined with such an intensity of intolerance toward those of other races, parties, classes, religions, cultures, regions or nations as to make him ruthless in his use of deceit or violence to attain his ends. The supreme god of a fascist, to which his ends are directed, may be money or power; may be a race or a class; may be a military, clique or an economic group; or may be a culture, religion, or a political party.  […]

The obvious types of American fascists are dealt with on the air and in the press. These demagogues and stooges are fronts for others. Dangerous as these people may be, they are not so significant as thousands of other people who have never been mentioned. […] The dangerous American fascist is the man who wants to do in the United States in an American way what Hitler did in Germany in a Prussian way. The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power. 

If we define an American fascist as one who in case of conflict puts money and power ahead of human beings, then there are undoubtedly several million fascists in the United States. There are probably several hundred thousand if we narrow the definition to include only those who in their search for money and power are ruthless and deceitful. Most American fascists are enthusiastically supporting the war effort. […] They are patriotic in time of war because it is to their interest to be so, but in time of peace they follow power and the dollar wherever they may lead. American fascism will not be really dangerous until there is a purposeful coalition among the cartelists, the deliberate poisoners of public information, and those who stand for the K.K.K. type of demagoguery. 

Still another danger is represented by those who, paying lip service to democracy and the common welfare, in their insatiable greed for money and the power which money gives, do not hesitate surreptitiously to evade the laws designed to safeguard the public from monopolistic extortion. […] 

The symptoms of fascist thinking are colored by environment and adapted to immediate circumstances. But always and everywhere they can be identified by their appeal to prejudice and by the desire to play upon the fears and vanities of different groups in order to gain power. It is no coincidence that the growth of modern tyrants has in every case been heralded by the growth of prejudice. […] 

The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism. They use every opportunity to impugn democracy. […] They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection. […] 

It should also be evident that exhibitions of the native brand of fascism are not confined to any single section, class or religion. […] It is an infectious disease, and we must all be on our guard against intolerance, bigotry and the pretension of invidious distinction. But if we put our trust in the common sense of common men and “with malice toward none and charity for all” go forward on the great adventure of making political, economic and social democracy a practical reality, we shall not fail.

Those who will not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

H/T to jobsanger.

Bryan Fischer is an idiot

The First Amendment was written by the Founders to protect the free exercise of Christianity.

So says Brian Fischer at his column  on RenewAmerica.

That someone has such a limited grasp of the Constitution and history is nothing short of amazing. He even goes so far as to quote a "Constitutional scholar" who says:

"The real object of the [First] amendment was, not to countenance, much less to advance Mahometanism, or Judaism, or infidelity, by prostrating Christianity; but to exclude all rivalry among Christian sects, and to prevent any national ecclesiastical establishment, which should give to an hierarchy the exclusive patronage of the national government."

Really? I seem to remember the First Amendment to our Constitution differently:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The parts of the First Amendment dealing with religion are commonly referred to as freedom of and freedom from religion. The government will not force a state religion (freedom from) and will not prohibit a citizen from exercising religious faith (freedom of).

I love that Fischer and his so-called Constitutional expert both seem to think Thomas Jefferson wanted to prevent the establishment of one Christian sect as primary but had no concerns about the free speech or exercise of religion for other religious faiths. Jefferson is who coined the term "separation of Church and State" and his interpretation of the First Amendment has stood the test of time. Plus, he was not really the kind of Christian that Fischer would have approved of - being a deist and eschewing orthodoxy.

These people who hold up Jefferson has the perfect example of a Christian Founding Father should really pay attention to history. Or at least let the man speak for himself:

I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between church and State.

Or this:

Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve the homage of reason than of blindfolded fear.

There are more, of course. Jefferson was intensely interested in theology but not orthodoxy. He even went so far as to create an edited version of the Bible that removed all mention of miracles. Not really the kind of Christian Fischer and his cronies would like if they took the time to really get to know the man.

H/T to Texas Freedom Network for the article that led me down this rabbit hole.

Recipe for Hilarity with a dash of WTF

Blend:
1 tank
12+ Maricopa County Sheriff Office SWAT members
1 bomb robot
Steven Segal

Add 115 chickens and one unarmed man.

Mix well. Spice with terror, miscellaneous armored vehicles and blown out windows.

Recipe makes 115 euthanized chickens, thousands in property damage and one community outraged.

This, they're outraged about. Crazy immigration ideas, not so much. Oi.

H/T to Daily Kos for a diary that made me laugh out loud and then shake my head.

Texas State Board of Education and the Lege

It appears that the Texas Legislature is waking up to the fact the State Board of Education has royally screwed our children and, by extension, the future of Texas.

Amazing when you consider that the legislature consists of a 101 to 49 Republican supermajority. Texans across the board think the SBOE crossed way over the line last year with their adoption of a "we have to stand up to the experts" expert-free social studies curriculum.

There are at least 11 bills making their tortured way through the process as we speak. Some call for the complete dissolution of the SBOE, others seek to reform it. Most noticeable are three that specifically deal with how the Board handles curriculum votes and those experts they like to ignore. One other demands the nullification of the social studies curriculum and would force the Board to reopen the standards.

It is my fervent hope that significant change comes to the State Board of Education. Here's my letter to my representative, Larry Gonzales.

As a Texas Freedom Network Lobby Day participant, I was able to meet with your Chief of Staff, Chris Sanchez to discuss our legislative agenda. I wanted to thank you and Mr. Sanchez for this opportunity. 

I believe it is critical that we do everything legislatively possible to rein in the State Board of Education. 

There are several House bills currently in committee that propose to do just that. In particular, HB 3257 and HB 3504 are both important steps in eliminating some of the more egregious tactics that Board has implemented in the past. HB 3257 would require that the Board make any amendments available for public review 3 business days prior to a vote and require the final version of the standards to be posted for at least 24 hours prior to final adoption. Currently, the board is able to make changes right up to the minute that the standards are voted on. This bill would allow much needed time for scholars and Board members alike to have ample time to review amendments and the final standards. HB 3504 goes one step further and requires a two-thirds vote by the Board to reject recommendations of curriculum and textbook review teams. Currently, as we saw to the state’s detriment last year, the Board only requires a simple majority vote to reject these recommendations. 

HB 2217 would nullify the social studies curriculum passed last year by the Board and force them to reopen the review of the standards. The Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative-leaning education policy think tank, has said that the Board has created a “politicized distortion of history” through the adoption of the current standards. Educators, scholars and voters in Texas all agree that this curriculum needs serious review. 

These are but a few of the bills currently under review by the legislature; I would strongly urge you, as your constituent, to review all of the pending legislation and determine which ones you can support. The State Board of Education has made our proud state not only the laughing stock of the entire nation, but the world as well. Their blatant attempts to revise curriculum from a personal and political bias may well cost us jobs. Employers want to know that their prospective employee pool consists of people who have a firm grasp on history and science. Currently, this is problematic, at best. 

I left with Mr. Sanchez a list of the current bills pending or in committee. Please take the time to review this list and throw your support behind this vitally needed reform. As someone intimately connected with Texas education, I hope that you share my concerns with the direction the SBOE has taken.

I will mail it to him tomorrow. I'm not really expecting a reply. My last letter to him after the Equality Texas lobby day has so far gone unanswered. I'm also faxing a note to each member of the House Public Education committee expressing my interest in seeing these bills make it out of committee.

I'm tired of sitting back and letting the lege do it's thing every two years with no input from me. Here's hoping that being the squeaky wheel has some effect. At least they'll learn to cringe when my postmark crosses their desk.

Related articles

• Slow Learners: Conservative Think Tank Flunks Texas Social Studies Standards (secularnewsdaily.com)
• Pressure mounts for curriculum redo (chron.com)