Dando caña

Cuando la gente con poder hace cosas malas hace falta saltarles a la yugular. Cuando sus fechorías son cosa de todos los días, hay que caerles encima sin piedad. Esta columna salió en Uweekly la semana pasada. Recibí mensajes de texto, mensajes en la versión digital y una individua envió un mensaje a la página de Facebook de Uweekly pidiendo que me dieran un Pulitzer. No me opongo.

OPINION: Texas Board of Education
Taking care of what really matters
By Gabino Iglesias

Last February, the narrow-minded Jesus-freaks that hold the reins of the Texas Board of Education scored big when they approved a social studies curriculum soaked in all things Republican. Not satisfied with taking names like Thomas Jefferson and Cesar Chavez out of textbooks and rearranging history to fit their conservative agenda, now they're back to make sure their right-wing extremism hits every aspect of education. Bravo!

A new resolution proposed by Odessa businessman and State Board of Education hopeful Randy Rives is based on what he perceives as a powerful "pro-Islamic, anti-Christian" bias in textbooks. The six-page document has one purpose: to eradicate those books that "offend Texas law with respect to treatment of the world's major religious groups by significant inequalities of coverage space-wise and/or by demonizing or lionizing one or more of them over others." The resolution was presented on September 23 and approved on the 27 with a 7-5 vote.

To give you a sense of what the resolution presented as conclusive proof of pro-Islamic bias, here's the first point of the document:

"In one instance, devoting 120 student text lines to Christian beliefs, practices, and holy writings but 248 (more than twice as many) to those of Islam; and dwelling for 27 student text lines on Crusaders' massacre of Muslims at Jerusalem in 1099 yet censoring Muslims' massacres of Christians there in 1244 and at Antioch in 1268, implying that Christian brutality and Muslim loss of life are significant but Islamic cruelty and Christian deaths are not."

As you can see, they did their research. None of what was presented is false. Unfortunately, this column is too short for me to make a list of the murders that have been committed in the name of Christianity that are left out of textbooks.

Given the rampant popularity of Islam and the utter lack of bible-thumping, gunshot-wielding inbred Republican bigots in this great state of ours, I think I have to agree with the geniuses that supported this resolution. If we keep teaching our kids about other religions and cultures while simultaneously promoting diversity and tolerance, what kind of awful future awaits us? We need to accept the fact that academia has skewed way too far to the dirty left and that's what's causing the economic meltdown, the budget cutbacks, illegal immigration and our sorry-ass loss to UCLA. The sooner we purge Texas of all this liberal bias, the sooner we can have what we all dream of: a country chockfull of Rush Limbaughs, Glenn Becks and Sarah Palins. I can't wait for Fox to be on every channel!

Think about it: you haven't noticed how many kids are embracing Islam lately? Okay, at least you've had to become aware of the skyrocketing sales of the Qur'an in Texas bookshops. If you haven't, then you're probably a filthy freethinking liberal and you deserve to remain ignorant. You need to help the righteous Board in their quest to get rid of all the Latinos, African Americans, Homosexuals and Muslims that appear on our way-too-liberal textbooks. The sooner we take care of that, the sooner we can start concentrating on bringing back slavery, making sure we build that wall on the border and getting women back into the kitchen where they belong.

Okay, enough cynicism. As I read how textbooks are supposedly heavily pro-Islam and how we need to take drastic measures to prevent Middle Eastern influences from creeping into the nation's publishing industry, I remembered that these are the same folks who still question Darwin's theory of evolution. Seriously, is anyone surprised at their latest inanity? I vote to leave textbooks as they are and concentrate on eliminating idiocy from the Texas Board of Education - now there's a challenge for you.

At least there's a sliver for hope. I feel that the 7-5 vote is something we can hold on to: it means there's a righteous, thinking minority on the Board fighting for what's right. As for your role in this mess, here's a treat: you can contact Randy Rives at his office at (806) 239-9472 and let him know what you think! Be sure to thank him for contributing to the exposition of the seldom-represented and oppressed Republican political philosophies.

http://uweeklyaustin.com/magazine/10-06-2010/opinion-texas-board-of-education