Posting The Truth

IT WAS, HANDS DOWN, the single greatest Facebook post I have ever seen, and that's goin' some, because I have seen quite a few gems, as I'm sure most of you have. It said: "Until some drag queen walks into an elementary school and beats eight nine year olds to death with a copy of "To Kill A Mockingbird", we may be focusing on the wrong shit." Well said. It is not hard to imagine, however, some of our conservative colleagues not understanding what it means. It refers to the fact that in conservative Republican states, much attention is being paid to an alleged problem of children having access to inappropriate books, and another imaginary non problem, that the nation's children might be harmed emotionally if they are made to feel guilty about living in a racist society,and must therefore be taught, falsely, that they are not living in such a society. Whatever. But these are only make believe problems. The real problem is that all too often somebody walks into a school and mass murders people. Whatever,if any solutions Republicans offer for this very real problem are pure nonsense. They offer no solution which includes reducing the number of deadly weapons in the hands of Americans, the only real solution in a country in which there are more firearms then firearm owners. Conservatives embrace the sheer lunacy that the more guns that are in the hands of "good people", the safer America will be, schools, and streets. Sheer craziness.Our conservative comrades want to eliminate from public schools all mention of LGBTQ or gay people, to elimiate all books in which there are gay characters, eliminate all mention of racism in America, historically or current, and remove all books about it from the library book shelves. Gay people are no threat to children, nor anyone else. Teaching the truth about American history, including the unpleasant realities of that history, is not harmful to children. Actually it is harmful to not teach true history, harmful to substitute for the truth a watered down, white washed version of American hsitory, which is called "hagiography", hagiography being nothing other than history written so as to flatter its subject matter. Hagiography is what has traditionally been taught American children; onlly in recent decades has there been a meaningful movement to start teachign the truth, actual history, to Americn children. This movement has been entierely spearheaded and implemented by progressive academicians, and thinkers, with complete, uncooperative, resistance by American conservatives, both in edudation and outside the field. Conservative dishonesty, as always, rearing its ugly head. Teaching both the good and the bad in American history does not cause people to grow up hating America. Quite the contrary, in fact. Every country in the world except the United States understands to necessity of strictly limiting by law the ownership of fire arms. Nearly every mass murder in America, including those in schools, - and they seem to happen with greater and greater frequency - is perpetrated with a high powered fully automatic military style assault rifle,which nobody has any business of owning, but which every one is allowed to own, an insane arrangement, which nonetheless is wholeheartedly supported by conservatives. Until this changes, the senseless slaughter will continue.