musings: issues in home education and other choice morsels…

For those  who find deep spiritful fulfillment in music, some fellow music lovers have created a new concept- and new venue for Sunday morning music, a former filling station. The Church of Beethoven was a recent guest on NPR’s Weekend Edition; here is a link to that show…

Hmmmm, in my recent post about the public mixing of religion and politics, I should have added another: religion and sex.

To which I can only respond: churches ought to stay out of the voting booth- and the bedroom.

I’ve seen this HSLDA letter circulating around for a few days… Daryl highlighted the key part of the text in red at his blog. That would be the part where Michael Smith asks for money, haha.

And speaking of Obama and his stance on homeschooling and HSLDA’s determination to have us all afraid- very afraid- of the President-elect’s education and parental rights policies… It seems to me that HSLDA and its homeschooling fans have had a predilection for hiding any information that they do know about Obama which might just ease those fears…

I had posted a note about Obama on a moderated homeschooling list a couple of weeks ago, before the election. Go figure, it was rejected and just made its way back to me. And what did I write that was so taboo, so awful?

Here is another perspective on Obama regarding homeschooling in case
anyone is interested:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post_group/NewHampshireEducatorsforObama/CJxd

He wrote: “none of these policies need discourage families from
deciding to keep a parent at home. For some families, that may mean
doing without certain material comforts. For others it may mean home
schooling. Whatever the case may be, such decisions should be honored.

This is very telling and a reminder that kids repeat everything they hear… And when you are in Red Country, what else might  kids hear… but threats on the life of our President-elect?

Chalk this up as another reason to be thankful for homeschooling.

Mamma mia, religion and politics… They seem to go hand in hand no matter what Uncle Sam has to say about those sticky tax issues. The Mormon Church is being boycotted (and rightly so) for their underfunding and actions regarding the Proposition 8 debacle in California. They prefer to put their religious beliefs above other citizens’ civil rights, it seems.

And now, a priest from Upstate South Carolina (my former home) has declared that those who voted for Obama may no longer take Holy Communion.

Organized religion seems like little more than a means of exerting control over the masses (no pun intended), tax deduction or bust… Not one bit surprised by church actions, their hypocrisy still never ceases to amaze me. After all these very same church leaders never fail to vote for those who beat the drums of war the loudest.

Perhaps one day those in lofty church positions will decide to look around them: at the suffering going on all over our very own country and around the globe, at the needless blood shed in recent wars, at the hunger and constant death in Africa.  And be moved to positive action to actually help people instead of working so fervently merely to exert control over others’ lives and bodies.

from the NC State Pipes and Drums 40th Anniversary concert…

UPDATE: Another noteworthy review of the McCain campaign is here, and an excerpt:

Of course, McCain’s gracious concession speech is only notable because it contrasts so sharply with the sad and shabby campaign that he chose to run. Five classy minutes should not expiate several months’ worth of name calling, insinuations, and intellectual dishonesty. Honor cannot be worn like a jacket, to be slipped on and off as the situation dictates. John McCain irrevocably ceded his moral high ground during the course of his campaign, and the press should realize that one good speech doesn’t change that. Joe Klein has it right: Talk about putting lipstick on a pig.

The Republican Party is kaput, having been taken over by radical right-wingers- and McCain pandered to that noisy crowd to the point that he became one of them. It is too little, too late to to shrug his behavior off as expected antics during an election. America has spoken, and they don’t like what they saw.

—

John Aravosis, over at Americablog, has a way with words and hits the nail right on the head about the ugly reality of the recent, never-to-be forgotten campaign. Surely his thoughts will not be to everyone’s taste, however it zeros in on the ugly depths that many people including -yes, homeschoolers- went to in order to encourage a McCain win. The massive spamming and over the top sensationalized, racist, and fear-mongering emails sent to *homeschooling lists* by some far-right NC homeschoolers was appalling. Too bad that there will be more to come, more of it to come…

Change has come, in a defining moment… Both at the national and at the North Carolina state level,  that glass ceiling of racial and gender inequality as well as that of religious discrimination, is shattering.  It is a good day, very good…

Andrea Bocelli…

Dobbs says, “Crazy” in reference to Elisabeth Dole’s repulsive ads linking Kay Hagen with “Godless Americans”.

That is a good start, bit it barely scratches the surface of what is wrong (may I say even anti-American?) with the Dole attitude…

I’d like to point out that the manner in which Dole refers to “Godless Americans”, as though they are social pariahs and not to be respected, is really no different than overt racism, homophobia- or McCarthyism- in the end. It is deliberate marginalizing and scorning of fellow Americans who happen to march to the beat of a different drummer or who simply follow different traditions. Dole might do well to review some basic civics lessons here and read some Thomas Jefferson (from the same site):

Q. Weren’t religious qualifications for public office once a common thing?

A. Yes, but the practice was abandoned on the federal level more than 200 years ago. Even at the time they were in force, such provisions were controversial. In his famous Virginia Statute Establishing Religious Freedom, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “[T]he proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to the offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages to which in common with his fellow citizens he has a natural right.”

John Leland, a Baptist minister and friend of Jefferson’s, put it even more succinctly: “If a man merits the confidence of his neighbors in Virginia let him worship one God, twenty Gods or no God be he Jew, Turk, Pagan, or Infidel, he is eligible to any office in the state.”

As for her  allusions to Kay Hagen as being linked to a group which wants to remove God from the Pledge of Allegiance, another civics lesson is in order. For over 60 years after the Pledge of Allegiance was adopted in US public schools the original version (without any reference to God) was perfectly acceptable… In fact, it wasn’t until the early 1950s (the McCarthy witch hunt era) that, after pressure by the New York’s (Catholic) Knights of Columbus and others on Eisenhower and Congress that the reference to a deity was added.

Are we heading towards a new-fangled McCarthyism with folks like Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota and Elisabeth Dole of North Carolina (barely)  ranting about anti-Americans and Godless Americans? I hope not, and it does look like there is a real public backlash towards this attitude going on right now, even in North Carolina.

I already know… so many people think Germany is a socialist haven… They tend to forget it is a capitalist market, too.  However… those darn ’socialist-leaning’ banker types there are taking the high moral and ethical ground during this economic crisis. Top bankers there and in other European countries are declining multi-million dollar bonuses this year. No matter that their actions might be motivated by sheer theatrics, they are declining millions in cash, which will stay with the hurting banks instead.

Meanwhile over here across the Atlantic, morally corrupt bankers are planning to use US taxpayer bail-out money to make dividend payments to shareholders, saying it is legal.  Legal, maybe. Appropriate, absolutely not.

Talk about spreading the wealth… to the well-off instead of helping those families that are about to lose their houses to foreclosure. Surprise, surprise, surprise…  Morally. Corrupt. Capitalists.

Sigh. Why do these ultra-conservative Christian issues continue to haunt homeschoolers? Pacific Justice Institute, which represented Sunland Christian School in the recent In re Rachel case, is back in the news with regards to California’s Prop 8 and the name Brad Dacus, head of PJI,  keeps popping up. This time, he implies that defeating gays is like defeating Hitler…  And to serve what ends? To take away a fundamental and current right from California gays? That shows a convoluted values system and one I do not, as a homeschooler, want to be associated with… And yet…

And yet…  homeschoolers are weighing in. Some are thoughtful and respectful about their deliberations, while other homeschoolers are jumping on the Prop 8 bandwagon using World Nut Daily articles as their reference point. Well good grief, that article reminds me of the whopper about an Obama bill to teach kindergarteners sex ed.  Nuf said…

…such as her recent ad suggesting Kay Hagen is an atheist. And what if she were? So? However, it is a lie- sheer fabricated sleaze. The facts are here and here. Further, the issue of a candidate’s personal religion has about zero to do with ISSUES which voters around NC are facing in these times. North Carolina deserves better.

To try on a certain phrase used so generously by some modern republicans, perhaps that is anti-American and the real definition of radical. Conservative Republicans are the real radicals…

Proposition 8 = Unconstitutional Discrimination.

After all, our Declaration of Independence includes the phrase “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness“  among its inalienable rights, and goes on to say “we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal”.

And, from the US Constitution: “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

A couple of white supremacist skinheads were caught and arrested for plotting to kill 88 students at a predominantly black high school and then assassinate Senator Obama.  It makes one wonder just how much these hate-filled men were influenced by the pro-America / anti-America and racist banter of the modern Republican party and its trickle down effect. I no longer link to AP stories, however this one is easy to find at MCNBC, CNN, and through the following Google search.  Here is one direct link.

This is beyond sad and appalling, being downright frightening, chilling to the bone…

The good times:

and  the not so good…

Michael Farris of HSLDA and Patrick Henry College appeared on Colbert’s show a couple of days ago. The segment starts at about 15 minutes into the show.

And how was it…? Well, the segment sure does portray homeschoolers in general as Christian Conservatives- no matter how untrue.  Still, a few chuckles… One of the best Colbert lines, “So it is harder to get into Patrick Henry College than heaven?”  And, early in the show Farris had conceded that not all of our (USA) “Founding Fathers” were Christian.

Robin Hayes, a US Rep from Concord, NC has been a supporter of homeschoolers over the years, even those in ‘liberal’ California.  However now he has apparently jumped on Bachmann’s “liberals are anti-America” bandwagon and said the following in a recent speech at a McCain rally in NC: “liberals hate real Americans that work and achieve and believe in God.”

Hmmm, so he must believe a number of things: that I must not be a real American, that I hate “real Americans” (whatever that is supposed to mean),  that  liberals neither work nor achieve- and must be atheists to boot…

Here is a more complete version of what he stated:

He [McHenry] yielded the microphone to Representative Robin Hayes, who prefaced his comments by saying it was important to “make sure we don’t say something stupid, make sure we don’t say something we don’t mean.” Republicans, he reminded the crowd, were kind people. Plus, he added, the liberal media had shown itself eager to distort such remarks. With the crowd duly chastened and put on best behavior, he accused Obama of “inciting class warfare” and said that “liberals hate real Americans that work and achieve and believe in God.”

All I can say  to this is to vote this hater out of his office in two weeks. He doesn’t deserve it.

Michele Bachmann of Minnesota has had a lot to say about pro-America and anti-America folks and attitudes lately…  Even Colin Powell weighed in on the issue yesterday as it had gained so much traction (btw, I take my C Powell with a grain of salt)…

So, under which category would Bachmann file this despicable anti-Obama act?  Any way to (literally) bash Obama, or is animal cruelty going too far?

As for myself, a North Carolinian- whomever killed a bear just to create a political stunt- at a state University campus no less!-  is less than humane and obviously anti-life. I am sad- no, alarmed- to see people resort to this sort of destructive action.

Colin Powell really did this country a disservice in the prelude to the Iraq war (read: what WMDs ?), however here, in his recent Obama endorsement speech, there is absolutely nothing to criticize. He endorses Obama and hammers the nails over the rightward-moving Republican Party  coffin at the same time.

Here are a couple of memorable quotes, where so much is said in between the lines:

“I’m also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, “Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.” Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim; he’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?”

and: