Here's How It is Done

Did you ever find yourself wondering how Americans got so stupid?

I've often quoted the Mark Twain observation about his father in which he says that as a young man he was embarrassed by how stupid his father was but then twenty years later he was amazed at how wise the man had become. As young people we tend to be self-rightous, naive, and maybe idealistic. As mature adults we are expected to know that actions have consequences, work is its own reward and there's no such thing as a free lunch.

But, today it becomes increasingly obvious that we aren't getting wiser as we get older. We're becoming institutionally more ignorant. We are being conditioned and propagandized like the society of Orwell's 1984. We live in a world of New Speak.

LA Schools To Teach that AZ is Un-American

This is not a simple little backward one-horse school system in a benighted, in-bred, isolated moon-shiner's valley. This is Los Angeles.

The students in a school district that has a huge Latino population are going to be taught that Arizona law is un-American. The students are going to be indoctrinated into the belief that Arizona is racist. Clearly this is another example of some senior decision makers, like the Attorney General of the US or the Secretary of Homeland Security, who have not read the ten page law. It doesn't seem to matter.

"America must stand for tolerance, inclusiveness and equality,” said Board President Monica García, according to the release. “In our civics classes and in our hallways, we must give life to these values by teaching our students to value themselves; to respect others; and to demand fairness and justice for all who live within our borders. Any law which violates civil rights is un-American."

Monica, baby, I'm all for tolerance and equality, but first and foremost I'm for the rule of law. You don't ignore law simply because it is inconvenient. When you break a law you lose your enitlement to tolerance and equality. I don't tolerate you if you rape, rob, assault, murder, libel, embezzle, or commit arson. If you have broken a law, you can't be tolerated and equal any more.

If the law is a bad law and we all agree that it is inappropriate, unfair or unnecessary, then repeal it. But don't simply say you disagree and therefore anybody who wants to enforce it is un-American.

The school district resolution also opposed another new Arizona law that bans schools from teaching classes that promote the overthrow of the government or advocate ethnic solidarity.

The First Amendment allows freedom of speech, so we can have open political discourse. But even with that guarantee we have laws against treason, sedition, and sabotage. How can the LA School Board oppose a law that bans a school from teaching children to overthrow their government? In their view, it should be a curriculum item apparently to encourage the little meatheads to destroy America if the spirit moves them.

Frankly the need to pass a law to ban advocacy of ethnic solidarity simply astounds me. The basis of America has always been "e Pluribus Unum". We have proudly declared ourselves a melting pot of cultures. We have long taught that we are Americans first and only after that are we also proud Germans, Italians, Poles, Greeks, Latinos, Asians, etc. We should be teaching American solidarity first and then ethnic pride.

The distinction here is that we are a nation. When we start with ethnic solidarity first, we are subordinating the greater society and in fact become racist in the process. It was pretty clearly stated in that quote about "content of his character" taking precedence over color of his skin.

I've never been a great fan of home schooling as I've always judged myself incapable of offering a child the full breadth of curriculum that a formal school does. But, if I had kids and I lived in LA, there's not the slightest doubt in my mind where they would be getting their education. It wouldn't be LA schools.