02/07/2022
A Future Without Memory
Nothing can be taught in school if it might, just might, make someone feel uncomfortable. No mention of whites’ owning slaves, no mention of the “Founders” as slave owners and the laws they put in place to dehumanize Blacks. A discussion about the treatment of women might make boys uncomfortable, there can be no mention of LGBTQ+ people. Don’t talk about humans having anything to do with Climate Change, and while we are at it, no mention of anything done by anyone in authority, in government, religion, education, or business that might cast aspersions on them, their children, or future such leaders.
It is time to prohibit college professors from challenging law makers and the executive branch from passing or promoting anti-democratic, anti-science, or racist legislation. Limits on voting rights, establishing electoral districts, or testifying on science must be banned. It has become essential to protect the “right NOT to know”. We should follow the lead of a previous official who proclaimed his love of the uneducated as he marshalled forces to challenge democracy.
If we cannot teach it we are unlikely to learn it. With that, it will fade from memory, but the loss of collective memories makes it impossible to correct mistakes, learn what we did wrong, understand errors, and makes it likely we will do horrific things again.
No memory of wars we lost, no memory of genocides, no memory of the Holocaust. Wipe the slate clean, create a “Stepford” world, where a smile covering blank faces is all we need to know. Is that what parents want for their children? The murder of creativity, the destruction of curiosity, the end of aspiring to make a better world. This is this the message parents are sending when they threaten the lives of teachers, administrators, and school board members.
Parents: good, bad, or indifferent want to be in charge of education, healthcare, and everything having an impact on their child. It matters not if they have experience or expertise. All parents know what is best. After all, we have great pre-parenting education. We ourselves are perfect parents, coming from long lines of perfect parents. We only have disfunction because of scientists, educators, and professionals who have nefarious intentions when it comes to the children of others.
Mothers for Liberty will soon be at television stations challenging the weathermen and women, bad weather can upset children. No words can be spoken challenging the sacred role of the parent…no more coverage of child abuse, especially if committed by a parent! Ban the books, remove them from shelves, first in public spaces but eventually from homes our children might visit. Can we stop them from being printed? How about a Mothers for Liberty committee for each publishing house?
The number of these deeply fearful parents is only a fraction of the overall population, but they are vocal and often remind us that they are armed. They speak the language of office-holding tyrants attempting to decapitate self-government and the democracy that generations of soldiers and civilians have struggled to preserve. Their shared fears and thirst for power limits their ability to see the negative impact they are having on their children and ours. Threatening violence if they do not get their way, screaming and shouting others down, pushing through legislation, and establishing paramilitary forces that will march to their “leaders” drum, not at all an example of what Washington or Lincoln stood for. Not the world Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his life for, but the whining of fully grown two-year olds with weapons and words that threaten the world of social justice our most admired leaders never tired of struggling for.
An informed electorate is necessary for a functioning democracy. All are created equal and are endowed with certain unalienable rights. A world free from fear and free from want. These are words spoken and often repeated by leaders over the two hundred plus years of our nation’s history. They should be studied, they should be known, and they should be part of our collective memory.
Words matter, the above words reminded us of the world as it was, showing us a way to a world that could be. Had a few parents screamed these citizens down, those words might not have been uttered, and our world would be the poorer for it. Lincoln talked about the dangers of mob rule. There are no Lincolns today. Frederick Douglass would say “Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.” There is no Frederick Douglass today, but his words ring true. Knowledge is the key to freedom. When we deny it to our young, we condemn them to a life less than what is rightfully theirs to claim. What parent wants that for their child?
Parents should be included in discussions about their children’s healthcare and education, but they should not be the primary factor deciding health or education policy for all children. Laws that allow and even encourage legal attacks on the professionals we entrust our health and education to indicates we have not learned well from history. Every child will play a future role in society and has a responsibility to fulfill their greatest potential benefitting, not only themselves, but the nation as a whole. This is why people around the world declare in word and song, children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way.
Robert Kesten February 7, 2022
