In California the Kern County School Board has decided they don't care, and have insisted that no school in their district can or should permit any celebration of Harvey Milk's life. A member of the the school board insisted on National Public Radio that to honor someone like Harvey Milk was not justified, not because of his lifestyle, he said, but because Mr. Milk was only in office a brief time and surely in that brief time he (Mr. Milk) did very little to alter the course of American history. And throughout the entire 20 minute interview the School Board Commissioner repeated four times it had nothing to do with his lifestyle, but if it had did you know the kind of lifestyle he (Mr. Milk) led.
Did you know that many states at first thought that Martin Luther King Jr was an anarchist? Did you know that many true born again Evangelical Christian in this country felt that his (MLK's) lifestyle was sinful and barbaric because he was black. Did you know many a John Bircher, an Aryan Race member, a Southern Republican spread rumors hat MLK had few affairs and was a part of the plot in killing JFK. Did you know that many American capitalist felt Cesar Chavez was a socialist because he wanted, what...fair wages for migrant workers. Did you know that many a staunch Republican and Neo Con were trying to trace a lineage between Cesar Chavez and Fidel Castro, because if anything they were both Hispanic.
For some fact does not out weigh fear. For some the only way they think they can maintain status quo is to fight the forces of reason, the factors of change, the fictitious findings of fault. For some anyone wanting to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps is misconstrued as pulling other down.
In the Republic of Texas the State Board of Education is planning on rewriting the annals of American history so those deemed true Christian/Americans get better play. Thomas Jefferson is being downgraded to one chapter because he was an advocate of making sure this was not a Christian country. He wrote too many papers on the division of church and state. And since division is good in some circumstance for the Republic of Texas School Board they are highlighting the the Republican Party's Contract for America which stated very clearly that there was only one way to think if you were to think a a true American. And in that Contract they made it clear, progressive and liberal thinkers were not true red white and blue, more pinko's like the Communists.
No one has to attend events for slain hero's heroines, no one has to offer effigies to people who fought a battle for civil rights, no one has to even acknowledge the trials and tribulations of those who tried to make a difference. But in the same vein, no one has the right to decide that the truth can not be spoken and no one has the right to deny the freedom of speech the freedom of existence of those who made and make a difference in this country.
I am so tired of a small mined minority of people jumping to judgement out of hate, self loathing, and fear of change making so many decisions that deny me my rights as an American and a human. Why is fact so dangerous to so many?
Happy Harvey Milk Day to a man who is one of my many hero's. I wish in my life I can be a brave as he.
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