Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Meet the Crusader Behind Texas' Textbook Whitewash

by Jeff Neumann

Meet the Crusader Behind Texas' Textbook WhitewashThe plan in Texas to rewrite history textbooks to fit a right-wing agenda could pass this week. The Guardian profiles the evangelical Christian lawyer behind the push, Cynthia Dunbar, who has plenty of interesting ways of looking at history.

Dunbar was elected to the state board of education for her evangelical Christian credentials, but no real surprise there because we already know that Texas has a large number of crazies in positions of power. A proponent of home and Christian private schooling, Dunbar says that sending kids to public schools is like "throwing them in to the enemy's flames." But because of the sheer number of the state's textbook purchases, the changes suggested by Dunbar could eventually reach most of the states in America.

The Guardian quotes Dunbar as saying:

In Texas we have certain statutory obligations to promote patriotism and to promote the free enterprise system. There seems to have been a move away from a patriotic ideology. There seems to be a denial that this was a nation founded under God. We had to go back and make some corrections."

What kind of corrections? Some pretty big ones!

  • Remember that thing called the slave trade? Well, it turns out what you learned was all wrong, because it wasn't some evil buying and selling of human beings, it was simply "Atlantic triangular trade."
  • The Civil Rights Movement created "unrealistic expectations of equal outcomes" for minorities in America. And Martin Luther King, Jr? Pretty much a Black Panther.
  • Thomas Jefferson? He was an insignificant, God-hating heathen who made sure that church and state remained separate.
  • Senator Joe McCarthy was right to go after the Godless commies in Hollywood and Washington. He will be vindicated.
  • The right to bear arms is essential to democracy and kids really need to learn this in school.
  • Sir Isaac Newton didn't know shit. We have military technology to thank for America's successes in science. So please, take the time to write Lockheed Martin and let them know that you appreciate everything they do for America.
  • Along with military technology, America can only flourish economically through "minimal government intrusion and taxation."
  • Capitalism was once a great word, but has been dragged through the mud by liberals. We now call it "free enterprise."
  • The Israel-Palestine conflict? Blame the whole thing on a bunch of dang fundamentalist Muslims.
  • Moses had a greater influence on the US Constitution than Thomas Jefferson did.

Advising Dunbar and the school board is David Barton, founder of the revisionist group WallBuilders, whose stated goal is "to exert a direct and positive influence in government, education, and the family by (1) educating the nation concerning the Godly foundation of our country; (2) providing information to federal, state, and local officials as they develop public policies which reflect Biblical values; and (3) encouraging Christians to be involved in the civic arena." Because if Christians aren't involved in the indoctrination of our youth, then the terrorist-loving liberals will continue to ruin our nation unchecked.

http://gawker.com/5540483/meet-the-crusader-behind-texas-textbook-whitewash

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