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FILLMORE COUNTY JOURNAL
Monday, February 10, 2014
The FCJ reaches over 13,000 households each week.
C ommentary A view of liberalism By Stan Gudmundson I do not care for liberalism. Not at all. Not because motives of liberals are bad, but because their premises for and “solutions” to supposed problems are repeatedly just wrong, and, far too often, result in absolute disasters. Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society is a great examCol. Stan ple in not just Gudmundson one area but in many. That effort, for instance, helped spawn a race-industry that has done little to solve the problems of minorities but has allowed racebaiters like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton to stay on center-stage and make a nice living. Moreover, our whole society is permeated with divisive initiatives, malemployment and wasteful spending on multi-cultural programs, diversity plans, affirmative action efforts, fairness initiatives, and so on. They rely on a premise that is factually incorrect and results in efforts that do more harm than good. That premise is that our society is permeated with racism. To liberals that requires all sorts of twisted efforts to compensate for that racism. Underlying all of this, is the notion that minorities don’t have the ability to succeed on their Kingsland School District... To the Editor, The publisher of the Fillmore County Journal, Jason Sethre, had a very good article in the January 20th edition. It was an interview with John McDonald, the superintendent for the Kingsland School District and it was related to the closing of the Wykoff building. This, and a previous letter by Lynn Kidd, former Wykoff school board member, has raised some alarms Editorial Cartoon
own and need outside help. In other words, minorities are victims and, worse, are probably intellectually inferior. Hispanic and black Americans for example, have academic scores and achievement levels that are lower than they are for Caucasians or Asians. Is this caused by racism? And are minorities really less intelligent? If you are a liberal you probably conclude that that is absolutely true for the first question and very probable for the second. Tom Sowell recently wrote a fascinating piece about recent research in England. Researchers there did a study of the academic achievement of children eligible for free lunch programs. 60 percent of one group met standards, less than 50 percent of another group did, and 30 percent of a third group met standards. If you buy into liberal’s noxious racist society theory you would likely conclude that 60 percent of Caucasians met standards, 50 percent of immigrant Muslim children from Bangladesh and Pakistan met standards, and only 30 percent of the black immigrant children from Africa and the Caribbean did. And that is exactly what researchers found is it not? Wrong. Immigrant children from Bangladesh and Pakistan and from black Africa were at the top. Next? Black children from the Caribbean. And at the bottom? for me about this deal. Apparently a committee was formed to study and review closing the Wykoff school and build a new one in Spring Valley. Cost would range from 7 to 17 million dollars. Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t we only a fourth of the way to paying off the last 13 million dollar building we put up in Spring Valley? Those supporters who pushed that through distinctly said, “if we build it they will come”, meaning more
White English children. This severely undercuts the ridiculous notion that some races of people are intellectually superior to other races. And, ridiculous too, are the theories of the liberals and race-baiters in the US. Along with their “solutions.” As is the English approach as well. Tom Sowell asks a fundamentally important question. What is the common thread between US and English concepts of disparate achievement? In America the purported cause of achievement differences is supposed to be race. In England, the supposed cause is, believe it or not, class. On both sides of the Atlantic, liberal “intellectuals” push the victimhood ideology, the idea that it’s not their fault, they need help, our help. This excuse doesn’t work and it never will. As a matter of fact, convincing people they are victims just makes things worse. Far, far worse. But we’ve come such a long, long way some might contend. In some areas, yes, but in others no. As Dr. Sowell writes, “Back in the 1940s, before the vast expansion of the welfare state and the ideology of victimhood used to justify it, there was no such gap on test scores between black schools in Harlem and white, working class schools on New York’s Lower East Side”. His buddy Walter Williams, who also has a PhD in economics, says that he is glad he got his degrees before blacks became popular. He could use no excuses and wasn’t
treated differently because the standards then were the same for everyone. What to do? We should no longer document, judge, or provide so-called remedies for anyone irrespective of tint, hue, etc. other than pursuing what Martin Luther King hoped for. That people be judged solely on the content of their character. Everywhere and in everything. Another goofy leftist notion contends that some people have won “life’s lottery.” This idea undercuts and diminishes achievement and the very, very hard work required to achieve success. I don’t buy it as the whole idea doesn’t adequately honor or acknowledge achievement especially where people overcome enormous odds. Most of us know people who were cooler, handsomer, prettier, smarter, and more capable then any of us hoped to be yet, for some reason, never came close to living up to their potential. Are they “lottery’s losers?” I don’t buy that either. The “life’s lottery winners” canard, to some degree, denigrates achievers while at same time providing excuses for not succeeding. Even for those who have been given special gifts but fail to use them. What is most egregious about the concept however, is that it provides the perpetually outraged with “justification” to assert a specious “equality doctrine” and attempt to “level the playing field” in the futile pursuit of “fairness.”
students. It hasn’t happened! Enrollment went the other way! Also, it was interesting to note that the committee looking into this was loaded totally with academia. There was not one farmer, business man, house wife, blue collar worker, truck driver, or retiree, on this committee. It seems like every time a new superintendent shows up here, they want to build a new monument to themselves. Five years later or so, they move on and we
In the February 3 edition of are stuck paying the bill. People, I implore you to pay the Fillmore County Journal, it very close attention to this situa- was stated that the next Fillmore Central School Board meeting is tion! Norm Eastvold scheduled for February 26, 2014 Spring Valley, MN at 7 p.m. However, the meeting is actually scheduled for 7 a.m. ****** Due to a technical error, we are re-publishing this Letter to the Editor submission, since the latter 136 St. Anthony St. • P.O. Box 496 portion was not included in the Preston, MN 55965 one that ran on Monday, Febru507-765-2151 • 1-800-599-0481 ary 3, 2014 FAX 507-765-2468
Kingsland School District... To the Editor, Another great article this week talking about the Kingsland School District! Jackie Horsman wrote a great article interviewing Al Williams making both towns open our eyes and question what goes on at Kingsland. I think a lot is being done without our knowing, we need to wake up and wonder what they are doing! Closing Wykoff is not the answer, and Al is right. All we are going to do as a public is open enroll to Fillmore Central or Chatfield. We can’t afford to lose any more kids or build on, please school board, can’t you see closing Wykoff and building on is not the answer!! Jennifer Lange Spring Valley, MN
Correction
In the January 20, 2014 edition of the Fillmore County Journal, it was worded that R-P Foundation Chairperson Lisa Ledebuhr was a co-donor of a $1,000 sum and $2,000 sum. However, Ledebuhr was acting as a recipient representative for the R-P Foundation. In addition, the $1,000 donation from Ruth Peterson was in memory of her husband, Dennis Peterson.
Correction
(In the 507 area code)
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