蘑菇视频

Apr 11, 2022 By Al Owens 4 min read

Republicans think they have a sure-fire formula for staying relevant and in office.

Run campaign ads, in which they promise to block the teaching of Critical Race Theory and sex education in kindergartens while cleaning up the scourge of widespread voter fraud; then stick the word “woke” in there somewhere – and voila! You’ve got yourself an unstoppable political campaign.

Bullocks!

Republicans have shown they’re good at one thing – fixing stuff that ain’t broke.

They enjoy complaining about the way things used to be but aren’t like that now, because Democrats are messing things up.

That’s not necessarily a prescription that heals anything – except leaking campaign coffers.

Working to help create a more perfect union never enters into it.

Since January of 2021, 42 states have introduced bills that would restrict the teaching of Critical Race Theory in the nation’s schools.

No matter how vehemently school districts around the country deny they’re teaching CRT, Republicans still say they’re going to pull it out of America’s schools at the root.

There’s been an assortment of bills introduced in as many as 42 states that are designed to prevent the teaching of it – as if little Karen and Billy have been exposed to the indignity of blaming white people for everything.

I find it hilarious when I hear some Republican talk about how there are schools out there teaching the racist nature of America.

Nobody is doing that.

They are, however, teaching how slavery was America’s original sin.

Because, well, that’s the truth.

Thankfully, slavery no longer exists. But its residue still does.

I suppose Republicans are OK with slavery being taught, as long as children learn that those Black folks pictured in history books are most likely voluntary slaves; gardeners, who have no slaveowners or slave catchers, or that there were no whips or chains, and enforced servitude. And that working from dawn ’til night in sweltering heat was just plain, old fun.

Truth doesn’t have to reside in the nation’s grade schools. Republicans seem to think truth might become more brutal for young minds than slavery itself.

So, they’re trying to legislate truth right out of education.

Florida is now leading the way with what is being called the “Don’t Say Gay” law.

To be frank, that’s a misnomer.

Nobody says, “don’t say gay.” But what the fine folks in Florida have managed to do is produce a law that can (and this comes from the new law’s text) “reinforce the fundamental right of parents to make decisions regarding the upbringing and control of their children.”

In other words, you can say gay, but not to kindergarteners through third-graders.

Note: If you’re in kindergarten through third grade, and you live in Florida, stop reading this now! Although, if you’re in kindergarten through third grade, tell Mommy or Daddy, old Al Owens says you’re mighty special if you can read stuff like this. But stop now, anyway.

Gay, heterosexual, homosexual, transgender, transexual, nonbinary, agender, gender-expansive, gender-fluid, omnigender, polygender and pangender people exist. Nobody has been teaching grade-schoolers which of them are what they are.

Republicans have devised a way to prevent something that doesn’t happen from happening.

What’s even more ridiculous is that parents in Florida can sue schools if they feel they violate the new law.

Meanwhile, Republicans around the country are busily ridding the nation of widespread voter fraud.

There hasn’t been any widespread voter fraud. But Republicans are doing away with it, anyway.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, since January of 2021, there have been hundreds of Republican-generated bills and laws that are designed to restrict voting.

Worse, many of those laws will have a disproportionate impact on voters of color.

They’re fixing widespread voter fraud, without there being a reason to fix it.

There are a few things they could fix. Like, stop saying the word “woke.”

People who use the word “woke,” to make a point, shouldn’t be telling people what they can, or cannot teach children.

They are children.

Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter, and anchor for Entertainment Tonight, and 40-year TV news and newspaper veteran. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.