Vendor Writing: 2+2=5

2+2=5

BY JEN A., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

One of the saddest lessons of history is this: if we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we've been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back."

— Carl Sagan

The speaker of the Tennessee House has said that he would like the legislature to consider turning down the $1.8 billion the federal government sends to Tennessee to educate our children. His rationale seems to be that there are too many strings attached to those funds. Requirements like standards of achievement for teachers and students and for how in-

clusive school programs must be to insure each student, regardless of who they are or where they come from, has the equal ability to succeed are too cumbersome for our legislators. A free, quality public education in Tennessee would become a thing of the past.

Speaker Cameron Sexton would like to see our schools run, "the Tennessee way." When I stopped to consider what exactly he meant by "the Tennessee way," I got a little shiver down my spine. As far as I can tell from the legislation being proposed this year, it means that students will be lied to continually as the Tennessee government seeks to indoctrinate them with the conservative social dogma of ignorance, division, and intolerance. And they will do it by saying that God is on their side. Which leaves me wondering how they can possibly believe God takes sides.

The Tennessee Code Annotated is our set of state laws that govern the citizenry. There is a section that outlines the once inalienable right of parents to make decisions about how to educate their children and to seek the physical and mental health care they think appropriate. Now our legislative Republican super-majority wants to amend those rights. They want the state to control the education and medical decisions instead of parents. They're taking control of our children, "the Tennessee way!"

Our governor and legislature have been directly responsible for the highly publicized gross failures of Tennessee's Department of Children's Services. If those in charge are such bad stewards of the children in the care of the State, how can any parent feel confident that those same State officials will make decisions that will lead their children into a bright, successful future. The State' s failed track record, going back years and years, speaks for itself.

Tennessee Republicans want to control the past. They want to burn the books that document America's sins. They seek to obliterate the blood-soaked, hardfought human rights of women, immigrants, Blacks, gays, transgender citizens, children and their parents. One has to wonder how long it will take for them to come for those who aren't in the minority. How long will it be before they come for you? Perhaps they already have! Unless we speak out for those who have no voice, unless we protect our parental rights, we are all just frogs in a pot — waiting.