Americanism trumps Conservatism this week in JeffCo schools

Kudos to those Jefferson County, Colorado, students who staged a walkout this week to protest to new conservative school board's attempt to to ram their "America is Perfect!" history curriculum down student throats. They are perhaps a bit more wise that we were, back in the 1950s and 1960s, when we blithely attended our "Americanism vs. Communism" classes. BTW, Americanism, whatever that is, won.

One thing I will tell those students: history education only begins when we get out of school. Experience will teach you that Americanism has many faces, some of them glorious and some quite ugly. I'm hoping that you will read widely, watch a lot of offbeat indie films, learn another language, travel all over, and talk to everyone you meet. People will tell you the darndest things, if only you lift your head from the iPhone and really listen. Family elders are a great source of information and bullshit. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. My suggestion is to check your elders' facts. If they tell you, as Bluto Blutarsky did so famously in "Animal House," that the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor, check it out. After all, fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son.

I'm impressed with the student activism I've seen out of this generation. Elders are supposed to spend an inordinate amount of time criticizing the younger generations. I suppose I've done some of that. But those 20-somethings and 30-somethings that I've met in the arts world and progressive politics, well, they are amazing. Young artists, impatient with the entrenched art establishment, have gone to crowd-funding and other resources to meet their goals. The Wyoming Democrats employed a young undocumented UW graduate as its PR person until recently, when he decamped to Austin to help the Texas Democrats hone their social media outreach. When the Occupy Movement was in full flower, I met young people from throughout Wyoming who were fed up with the status quo and willing to take to the streets to do something about it. Just as those JeffCo students did this week.

Now here comes the advice -- you knew that was inevitable, right? Activism is not a short-term strategy. You have to be in it for the long haul. You will be disappointed. You will fail. At times, you will succeed. When you get to be 60-something, you can look back with satisfaction and say that you fought the good fight.

And that you are fighting it still.

Congressional Republicans just want to watch the world burn

From Meg Lanker . I know that Sen. Dr. Barrasso is in here somewhere with all these OWGs from the GOP.

Kansas is perfect, so anti-abortion zealots come to Wyoming

Anti-abortion protesters from Kansas are demonstrating in Jackson. From Wyoming Public Radio:

The pro-life protest is being organized by a Kansas-based group called Operation Save America. They say their goal is to make Wyoming the nation's first abortion-free state, and they say the protest will continue into the weekend.

Read the rest at WPR: Abortion protestors and counter protestors clash in Jackson

Why aren't they busily making Kansas the first abortion-free state? Or maybe they could make Kansas the first hungry-child-free state. Or maybe they could make sure that the kids in their local schools always have lunches to eat. Or maybe they could lobby their Kansas reps and senators to save Medicaid from Republican budget cuts so there won't be sick and dying babies and mothers in Colby and Wichita and Topeka.

I'm a big fan of protests. But I do wonder why these Kansans are so interested in Wyoming. And I wonder why they always care so much about the fetus but care so little about the babies and children and toddlers once they are born? This has always puzzled me.

Right-Wing Group from Utah Spearheading Effort to Recall Wisconsin Dems

Why oh why is a batshit crazy group of Utah right-wingers spending time and money in Wisconsin?

Because they are batshit crazy Utah right-wingers and they've run out of targets in Utah and its satellite states of Wyoming and Idaho and Arizona and are now spreading venom to Wisconsin.

The conservative American Recall Coalition, a group from Salt Lake City, Utah, is leading the charge to reel in eight Democratic Senators in Wisconsin who are among 14 lawmakers who left the state in protest of Governor Scott Walker's budget repair bill, according to the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (GAB).

The out-of-state group last week filed with the GAB website to recall the Senators, but initial filings did not have anyone from the local senatorial district as part of the recall requests.

"They didn't have any local people involved, so we contacted them and said they need to have one local person in each district," said GAB spokesman Reid Magney. "They withdrew those initial filings and made new ones and we are waiting for the signed paperwork."

Wisconsin senators targeted in the campaign are Lena Taylor, Spencer Coggs, Jim Holperin, Mark Miller, Robert Wirch, Julie Lassa, Fred Risser and Dave Hansen.

According to a Reuters report, the American Recall Coalition is also campaigning to recall Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik of Arizona, who drew conservative fire last month after linking the Tucson shootings that killed 6 and seriously hurt 13 people, including U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, to "political vitriol, prejudice and bigotry."

Read the rest at Workers' Uprising: Right-Wing Group from Utah Spearheading Effort to Recall Wisconsin Dems| AlterNet

Wyoming Sen. Kit Jennings: Guns before people!

Republican Sen. Kit Jennings of Casper on Wyoming Legislature's concealed carry bill: "We kind of drew the line in the sand and said we're going to start here and start working back toward everybody having constitutional rights." He also said that Wyoming citizens and lawmakers sent this message with the passage of the bill: "Quit taking away our constitutional rights."

So why did he vote to strip constitutional rights from Wyoming LGBT citizens? Guns before people? Does he have a list of people he is going to eventually endow with constitutional rights? If so, gays and lesbians and teachers and immigrants must be way down at the bottom.

Check out his contradictory votes at http://legisweb.state.wy.us/

Wheatland -- put those banners back up!

"Don't Ban NO PLACE FOR HATE banner" petition now up at http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/NoBanningTheBanner

Get more info about the drive to get the banners back up at Wheatland High School and Wheatland's West Elementary at Wheaterville.

See previous posts about the controversy below...

Sen. Enzi cited in Jeff Sharlet book as member of D.C. cult The Family

Jeff Sharlet is the author of "The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power" (Hardcover, 464 pages, Harper, $25.95). Wyomingites may recognize a familiar name in the following excerpt:

The Family, or the Fellowship, is in its own words an "invisible" association, though it has always been organized around public men. Senator Sam Brownback (R., Kansas), chair of a weekly, off -the-record meeting of religious right groups called the Values Action Team (VAT), is an active member, as is Representative Joe Pitts (R., Pennsylvania), an avuncular would-be theocrat who chairs the House version of the VAT. Others referred to as members include senators Jim DeMint of South Carolina, chairman of the Senate Steering Committee (the powerful conservative caucus co-founded back in 1974 by another Family associate, the late senator Carl Curtis of Nebraska); Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa); James Inhofe (R., Oklahoma); Tom Coburn (R., Oklahoma); John Thune (R., South Dakota); Mike Enzi (R., Wyoming); and John Ensign, the conservative casino heir elected to the Senate from Nevada, a brightly tanned, hapless figure who uses his Family connections to graft holiness to his gambling-fortune name. Some Democrats are involved: representatives Bart Stupak and Mike Doyle, leading anti-abortion Democrats, are longtime residents of the Family's C Street House, a former convent registered as a church and used to
provide Family-subsidized housing for politicians supported by the Family. A centrist occasionally stumbles into the fold, but the Family is mostly conservative. Family stalwarts in the House include Representatives Frank Wolf (R., Virginia), Zach Wamp (R., Tennessee), and Mike McIntyre, a hard right North Carolina Democrat who believes that the Ten Commandments are "the fundamental legal code for the laws of the United States" and thus ought to be on display in schools and court houses.

"The Crucible" on UW stage Sept. 29-Oct. 4

My daughter is reading Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" in her American literature class. The class is studying the Puritans and some of the earlier U.S. writers (before it was the U.S.).

In a fine bit of serendipity, the University of Wyoming theatre program in Laramie is opening its season with "The Crucible." It plays at the Fine Arts Main Stage Sept. 29-Oct. 4 with Tuesday-Saturday shows at 7:30 p.m. and the Sunday matinee at 2 p.m.

The story is about the hysteria surrounded the Salem witch hunts of the 17th century. But this was also Miller's response to the McCarthy witch hunts of the 1950s -- another bout of mass hysteria. Miller won the 1953 Tony Award for best play.

Tickets can be purchased in person at the Fine Arts Box Office in the Fine Arts Lobby or online at www.uwyo.edu/finearts, or by calling 307-766-6666. Ticket prices: $14 for general public, $11 for seniors, and $7 for students.

I'd like to be able to say this play is a hard-hitting commentary on our own hysteric times. But better to say it's a ripping good yarn.

P.S. Did you notice the six sixes (666666) in the UW Fine Arts phone number? Is this a coincidence, or does it mean that arts programs at UW are promoting "the mark and/or sign of the beast," a.k.a. Satan? I call for an investigation into these practices. Call your senators! Carry signs and yell out unintelligible things at meetings of the UW Trustees! Better yet, let's have a trial.

All's calm at school after Obama Speech Day

This evening I attended the open house at my daughter Annie's high school, Cheyenne Central. The wily administrators schedule the event as a replica school day. Seven minutes sitting at my kid's desk in World History. Listening to the teacher describe the school year in detail. I take notes, of course, the inveterate scribe. The bells rings and me and my bum knees have five minutes to weave through hordes of neighbors to get to the other side of the building for P.E. Nice gym, or should I say "athletic center." One big b-ball/v-ball center court with practice courts lengthwise at each end. Big bleachers for the fans. Wooden floors that give a little when you run so you don't end up with shin splints after every game.

My high school gym had one court, wood over concrete which made the floor as hard as, well, concrete. There was a stage along one side and cramped bleachers on the other. The end walls were about three feet from the out-of-bounds line, which was one reason we never got through a season without a player smashing into the wall and breaking a crucial bone. Still, our court was better than the one across the county. It was an aging World War II Quonset Hut with support poles that were on the court. The poles were covered with mats, just in case. And it was a technical foul to use a pole for a pick. But many of us tried anyway.

It's not just the facility when it comes to schools. My daughter has several small classes staffed with two teachers. In physical science, there's two teachers and ten kids. Pretty darn good, I say. Sure, I pay my taxes and all that blah blah blah. But you can't pay enough for the dedication I've seen from the teachers and counselors and administrators at Central High School.

Now about that Obama speech today. At the open house, I expected to see phalanxes of bug-eyed students wandering the halls chanting: "Repeat after me -- I'm a socialist community organizer who wants to kill Grandma." But I only saw a few, those whose minds have already melted down from watching too much FOX News.

Annie said she didn't have a chance to see the speech because her algebra classroom doesn't have a TV. I can understand why. Leninist/Stalinist/Hitlerist Obama messages might leak out of the tube and creep into the minds of the students who should be concentrating on equations. Annie said that a couple of the kids had made snide remarks about Obama but there didn't seem to be any major protest or massive walkout or let's-all-yell-at-the-TV-screen event. The school district had made viewing voluntary, saying that teachers could show it during class time or show it later. Students could opt out, spending their time in some worthwhile pursuit, such as study hall or sneaking a smoke out in the parking lot.

I did notice that two of the eight teachers I visited had quotes from Pres. Obama written on their white boards. That's something, I guess, although probably enough to get some Glenn-Beck-watching Know Nothings wildly indignant. But they get wildly indignant about every little thing. Too bad they didn't pay attention in civics class back in the day.

Give me some of that new-era science

After hearing about it on NPR's "Science Friday," I cast my vote of support for Science Debate 2008. Here's a short description of the project's goals:

Given the many urgent scientific and technological challenges facing America and the rest of the world, the increasing need for accurate scientific information in political decision making, and the vital role scientific innovation plays in spurring economic growth and competitiveness, we call for a public debate in which the U.S. presidential candidates share their views on the issues of The Environment, Health and Medicine, and Science and Technology Policy.

The web site features a long list of people who support the effort. It includes scientists, media people, politicians, and bloggers.

What's the likelihood of such a debate? Not bloody likely, as the Republican side has everything to lose and nothing to gain. A recent article in Reason Magazine revealed that all the Democratic candidates believe in evolution and most of the Republicans are on the side of the creationists and the so-called "Intelligent Design" curriculum. Reality-based vs. faith-based.

But hold on a minute. Reason also notes that all of the Democrats also believe in God, so they really fall into the category of "theistic evolutionists." In other words, Obama and Clinton and Edwards and Kucinich and all the candidates who've since dropped out believe that God plays a part in evolution.

That's the tack that the nuns and priests took at my Catholic school way back in the sixties. Evolution was a given, they said, but God's influence was in there somewhere. How much of a role did he/she/it play? After all, doesn't the Bible say that God created this whole mess in six days and rested on the seventh? My university-educated teachers all cautioned us not to take the Biblical account too literally. We should see it as a story, an illustration of the power of God the Creator. We should look at the term "day" as metaphorical. Who's to say what a day means to God? It could be a millisecond; it could be five billion years. This brings to mind the courtroom exchanged in "Inherit the Wind."

The contemporary Catholic Church has fallen into the clutches of its anti-abortion allies in the Religious Right. The Bible has crept back into everyday Catholic teachings, and that doesn't allow for any metaphors. Metaphors out, dogma in. Rigidity, too. That's why so many practicing Catholics have gone over to The Dark Side.

Let's have this 2008 science debate! Sing with me now. "Give me that new-era science, give me that new-era science...."

CAPTION: In the 17th century painting by Guido Reni (above), St. Michael (my namesake) is shown subduing science-loving Liberal Catholics, driving them out of Wyoming and into Denver, where they all become Democrats. This is metaphorical, of course.

U.S. Ignores History Lessons

During a recent trip across snowy WYO, I listened to the unabridged version of Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883, by Simon Winchester. The author also narrates the audiobook and does a pretty good job, although he seemed smitten with his own Brit wit.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the book concerned the aftermath of the Krakatoa eruption. The cataclysm was one event among many that gave credence to prognostications of a Javanese Muslim seer – exploding volcanoes, dead cattle, huge waves. This helped spark the rise of Muslim fundamentalism in Java and Sumatra, then a part of the Dutch East Indies. Only a few days after the eruption, a Dutch soldier was hurt in a walk-by stabbing by a local dressed in white and wearing a turban. Another attack happened shortly thereafter, and the short-lived Banten Uprising took place in 1888.

Although the population was predominately Muslim at the time of the eruption, it was not the hardcore conservative Islam of Saudi Arabia and Yemen. It was leavened by Buddhist and Hindu influences.

But, as more of the island’s Muslims traveled to Mecca, they came under the influence of Arab Muslim fundamentalists who preached "Death to Infidels." When they returned, the Javanese Muslims viewed their Dutch overlords through the eyes of The Hajj. Over time, this led to the fight for independence and modern-day Indonesia with its cadres of Muslim fundies.

Winchester refers to the West’s present confrontation with Muslim extremists. He notes how occupation of Muslim lands by infidels led to a home-grown insurgency in 1880s Java. Now we’re in the Muslim lands of Iraq and Afghanistan. Bush and his cronies are cooking up plans to wage war on Muslim Iran and Syria. We show no signs of learning the lessons of history.

And now we want to send more troops to Iraq? Al-Qaeda needs no recruiters when it has the U.S.A.

Yellowstone Tourists Pick "Nostrils of Satan"

Grand Canyon: A Different View by Tom Vail tells the amazing story of how the canyon was carved out by Noah’s Flood 6,000 years ago. No problem. People can write anything they want. It’s probably fiction anyway, right?

No. The book is billed as nonfiction (as in science) and supports the creationist view that the Bible tells the true story of earth’s origins.

The biggest problem with the book is that it is on the science shelves at Grand Canyon National Park. Out of 23 books reviewed for the park in 2003, it was the only one approved. In August 2003, Park Superintendent Joe Alston attempted to block the sale at park bookstores. He was overruled by Bush-appointed fundies in the National Park Service.

The entire sordid episode was recounted in a Dec. 28 story in the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) newsletter. Here are the concluding paragraphs:

Ironically, in 2005, two years after the Grand Canyon creationist controversy erupted, NPS approved a new directive on "Interpretation and Education (Director’s Order #6) which reinforces the posture that materials on the "history of the Earth must be based on the best scientific evidence available, as found in scholarly sources that have stood the test of scientific peer review and criticism [and] Interpretive and educational programs must refrain from appearing to endorse religious beliefs explaining natural processes."

"As one park geologist said, this is equivalent of Yellowstone National Park selling a book entitled Geysers of Old Faithful: Nostrils of Satan," added Jeff Ruch, PEER executive director. He pointed to the fact that previous NPS leadership ignored strong protests from both its own scientists and leading geological societies against the agency approval of the creationist book. "We sincerely hope that the new Director of the Park Service [Mary Bomar] now has the autonomy to do her job."

Sen. James Webb, Non-literalist

Syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker, who spent most of the last six years as a Bush apologist, wrote a good column on the anti-democratic principles of literalism. Her examples are Muslim fundies (of course) but also former Republican Sen. George Allen’s attempt to slam his Dem opponent, James Webb, during the recent race in Virginia.

Allen sent out a press release with some selected passages from Webb’s novels. Yes, strange as it may seem, the new senator from Virginia is a guy who uses his imagination to write books. Allen thought this would be a shocker to the state’s voters. Some of the novel passages were a bit shocking, too, detailing sex acts and atrocities committed during the Vietnam War. Webb, a Viet Vet, did not have to imagine all of these things. But the act of writing and revising a 400-page book is an act of the imagination.

Parker says this: "...we all have an interest in defending art against the kind of literal-mindedness that undergirds this sort of political tactic." She is troubled by the fact that "a novelist seeking public office should have to explain what he had in mind while writing."
I’m also troubled by this. Allen obviously thought he would make hay with the many literal-minded fundamentalist voters in Virginia by pointing out that Webb was a non-literalist, a guy who sees the world in all its colors and shades. Allen hoped he could defuse some of Webb’s appeal as a decorated war veteran by showing that he actually wrote about the underbelly of the war and American foreign policy during that time. Thus, implies Allen, Webb’s a traitor and not to be trusted as your senator from the Glorious Patriotic Commonwealth of Virginia.

This sort of tactic underlies Republican strategies since March of 2003, when Bush & Co. Launched the Iraq War. The war was heavily supported by literalists. Non-literalists pointed out that there was more here than meets the eye. The literalists taunted us, called us names, and generally just discredited us as cut-and-run Dems who don’t support the troops.

The literalists have now been discredited by the many complications of the war in Iraq. It was not what it seemed. As another non-literalist writer (Robert Towne) described it: "It’s Chinatown." Shades of grey everywhere. Can’t tell the good guys from the bad guys; combatants from civilians. Chinatown. Or Vietnam. Or you could say "The Real World."

The imaginative writer explores what’s behind the doors and under the rocks. It’s not always pretty. But that kind of unclouded vision in a U.S. senator could save us from ourselves.