This week in Alabama a measure was defeated that would have eliminated SEGREGATIONIST language from the Alabama state constitution. Why was it defeated? Because repeal of the segregationist sections would have stricken a clause saying Alabama was not obliged to provide public EDUCATION. And so if the measure had passed the state would have needed to raise funds for education and taxes might have gone up. Spearheading the effort to defeat the measure -- to retain the segregationist language and to keep the state from having to increase funding for education -- was a CHRISTIAN group. This should be an example to everyone how dangerous these delirious religious fundamentalists are. Education? Hell who needs education all you need is the Bible. For them education is even worse than segregation. They DON'T want people to use their brains. They want YOU to follow like sheep. Albeit sinner sheep who kill and persecute in the name of the Lord. And maybe they even think segregation (and with it inequality), along with keeping people in ignorance for want of education, is not such a bad idea after all. You better get smart fast about these fanatics. Or suffer the consequences.
It's not all retarded. My fiance has a friend from 'bama, and he told some really disturbing stories about the town he grew up in, but he's a cool guy, albeit a little bit narrow-minded, but not horribly. He's open enough to listen and try to see other points of view...for the most part . Anyway, this is pretty stupid though. The education part especially, reminded me of a friend of mine from school. She told me once about her uncle and aunt, who are both religious fanatics. The kind who brag about their abortion-clinic-bombing-days. Anyway, they also homeschooled their daughter. Homeschooling I have no problem with, except the way they and others like them do it. The girl is 15, reading at a low elementary level, because they taught her EVERYTHING from JUST the bible. Nothing else. And didn't even focus on the basics, such as spelling and math. She never even spells "the" correctly. Spells it "tha". She's started highschool now though, at a public school. My friend hasn't heard recently how she's doing there, but I imagine not so good. Go figure. It's a shame that some of these religious fundamentalists don't even care about a basic education for everyone. The world must be just so damn evil....*sigh* Idiots. "Hmm, lets just keep that racist drivel in there so we can keep the kids from learning such deviant, evil things as reading, writing, and 'rithmatic!" Yeah...that's smart. By the way...do you have a source for this? I'm interested.
Well of course it should be changed not to be rascist, but I don't think any state should say it is obliged to offer free public education.
I need to say more. You don't always get things right on the first post. Sometimes you sense the importance of something but not clearly, not the big picture, and you can't really put it into words or the best words the first time around. Then gradually it sinks in and you see what's really going on and you can better express it. There's something incredibly bad going on here with this Alabama story. And I'll explain it better now than in my first post. The thing is this. You would think people would vote against segregationism. Because segregationism usually means bigotry. Everybody knows, or should know, that segregation is bad. Everybody knows where the segregationism in a thing like the Alabama state constitution comes from and what it represents. It means things like people being forced to sit in the backs of buses and having separate washroom facilities and not being able to go to college and being attacked in the streets with police dogs and lynchings and all kinds of horrible stuff. You would think people would be chomping at the bit to have the oppportunity to cast a vote to eliminate segregationist leftovers. OR if people were going to vote to retain segregationist remnants it would only be in an EXTREME case where doing so would lead to something EVEN MORE TERRIBLE. The only time a person agrees to have his arms and legs cut off is to avoid a fate even more terrible... And so WHAT is the thing that is MORE TERRIBLE than segregation and racism and bigotry??? It's EDUCATION. EDUCATION for these fundamentalists is WORSE than segregation and its bigoted foundation. Education is something WORSE than segregation? I thought EDUCATION was something GOOD. It's like one of the few hopes for society and humanity. These people are saying EDUCATION is a greater threat to humanity than segregation and racism? Jesus Fucking Christ. I'm sorry if my language offends you. I NEED your attention. I don't know what other kind of language to use to express how incredible this is. Have we really come this far? EDUCATION is something bad? Education is worse then bigotry??? Do any of you understand how horrible this is? Do you know what happens to people and societies without education? Or even individuals? *** Do you know what the conservatives call us? You do know of course. They call us "liberals" and the "liberal elite". And yes most of us are the elite: we have brains that we USE and we are EDUCATED. We don't swallow blind doctrine. Liberal elite. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Proclaim it loudly. But to profess IGNORANCE as a virtue. To condemn EDUCATION. This is insanity of the first degree. We have seen brainwashing we know where it leads and we reject it categorically. (Recently on the news I heard about ice core samples from Antarctica that give a record of climate history spanning 750,000 years. Just think. We have people running around who got their "education" from religious myths written by who knows whom who knows where who knows when and these people actually believe history only goes back 6000 years...) This nation is DOOMED. If this kind of stuff doesn't end this nation is DOOMED. This is NOT just Alabama. These religious fanatics and their supporters now control the House the Senate the White House the airwaves and they're working on the judiciary. *** And MadcapSyd where the HELL are you coming from? States should not provide public education? What about equality and equal opportunity? Are only the wealthy supposed to be educated? Only the religious? (THAT'S a joke.) Only employees of Halliburton? Should kids USE their brains?
No, as long as our taxes are paying for it we better damn well get our education, but I don't think it should be in the constitution of a state or the federal government that the government has an obligation to provide free education.
Eliminate equitable education and you will reap what you sow: a nation of idiots. Which won't be a nation worth mentioning for long. I think we're on our way.
