A Resounding Victory for Education
Wednesday, November 7, 2012 at 02:29PM 
Tuesday, November 6, 2012, was a huge victory for education in this country. Say what you will about the lousy job the public school system is doing, you have to hand it to them for what happened on election day. I’m not talking about various millage proposals that won around the country. While that may be true as well, I am specifically referring to the social agenda initiatives that made their way to the ballots in several states.
They educated America that homophobia is wrong and that same-sex marriage is absolutely fine. As a result, two states, Maryland and Maine, approved gay marriage. In addition, the first openly gay Senator was elected from the state of Minnesota.
They educated America that the use of Marijuana was okay. “In a historic move, voters in Colorado and Washington have legalized marijuana for recreational use, becoming the first states to do so.” Democracy Now!
They educated America that illegal immigrants (aka “undocumented immigrants) have every right to a taxpayer-funded education. To deny them this right is bigotry and discrimination. As a consequence, Maryland voters also affirmed the DREAM Act, allowing undocumented immigrants to receive in-state tuition. Democracy Now!
They educated America that women have a fundamental right to taxpayer-funded abortion and free contraceptives. This successful teaching drove many women to the polls to vote to preserve these rights.
Other measures that are gaining ground and will most likely become law at some point are a ban on voter ID, a ban on firearms except for the police and the military, enforced “card check” laws for unions, a ban on coal and select forms of fossil fuels, enforced use of green energy sources, and a constitutional amendment to approve same-sex marriage. The reason these issues—and many more— will undoubtedly find their way to acceptance is a testimony to the fabulous job the public educational system is doing.
Teachers DO know how to teach. Their expertise is unquestioned, make no mistake about it. The only question one may have involves the subject matter. Math, English, Science, History? Nah. Those are all electives, more or less. Liberal social behavior leads the list of required subjects. What happened November 6 is living proof.
Reader Comments (2)
The marijuana ballot initiatives passing were inevitable; this odd notion that the way to deal with plants and herbs is to criminalize them is something that only came into being in the United States -- for marijuana, at least, if not for tobacco -- in the early 20th century. We also had another failed experiment in the 20th century: the prohibition of alcohol, which thankfully, we repealed when we realized that it only created greater crime to prohibit alcohol. I wasn't taught that, by the way, by any of my teachers in school, not in primary, secondary, or post-secondary education; this idea that people are so easily influenced by social liberal thought, but somehow cannot be as easily influenced by conservative or religious thought testifies to the weakness of the argument itself. Independent thinkers are just that: they chew through what they are told and are not apt to believe something just because they hear it from a teacher or preacher; if anything, they question them both.
Giving "illegal immigrants" in-state tuition, as we do in Texas and as our decidedly non-liberal governor, Rick Perry, supports -- he would be very surprised to hear that his Texas A&M education indoctrinated him into his liberal ideas about immigration, mind you -- is not a liberal idea so much as a pragmatic one: once here, it's better to have an educated workforce than a uneducated one. An even better solution, obviously, would be to acknowledge and act on the reality of the serious need for common sense immigration policy that gives de facto Americans (the land does NOT belong to us, after all; we are only stewards of it) -- businesses would love this, and I don't think Jesus would find it terrible that we treated our neighbors to the south who come here to work with some respect and were hospitable to them and accommodated them. After all, "Sodom's sins were pride, gluttony, and laziness, while the poor and needy suffered outside her door." (Ezekiel 16:49 NLT).
Tim,
Clever phrase turned on plants and herbs, but I don't know of anyone who smokes carrots or peas. (Maybe they do...I'm a little naive). Also, does anyone cook and eat the cannabis plant? And, why is it that the same people who are offended at tobacco smoke are big advocates of smoking marijuana? (Generally speaking, of course!)
Also, I would be equally surprised if those who run the nation's educational system would admit that their advocacy of liberal positions was as feckless as you intimate. The general consensus is that the shift in much public policy has its origins in public secondary education.