RE: hmmm.....

Really!

I would have thought that an extremely intelligent person coming from a totalitarian socialist society that made the huge mistake of trying to turn science into an atheistic central-state religion -complete with a blood thirsty leadership cult- would have a little more insight into the need to keep some spiritual and ethical balance in the USA's political system by allowing a free range of educational choices along the spectrum from libertarian to communitarian ideologies.

Generally, the voices of conservatives and religious people have been excluded from participation in school systems, and all are vilified as extremists. In a democracy, you've got to let the people take responsibility, otherwise they don't learn what works, and in the case of conservatives & schools, when backed into the corner, they end up in a highly conflicted dysfunctional political relationship with the "oppressive" liberal education elites. Even given the absurd aspects of the Kansas situation, the ends ("good science") don't justify the means (exclusion of religion from public life). If you believe in the long-run prospects of democracy & civil society, you have to allow the participation of dissenting voices, including conservative ones, in decisions that have a practical impact, eg in how the schools are run. At this point there is a near dictatorship of anti-religious liberal establishmentarians desperate to protect its political "turf". The corruption is outrageous.

FWIW, I'm descended from mennonite kansan farmers who originally immigrated from bohemia, many as draft dodgers who were avoiding conscription into the kaisers' armies on the basis of ethical conscience. long live the luddites.

happy halloween!
ep

On 31 Oct 2000, at 13:50, Gogala, Mladen wrote:

Date sent:      	Tue, 31 Oct 2000 13:50:49 -0800
To:             	Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L <ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com>
From:           	"Gogala, Mladen" <MGogala_at_oxhp.com>
Subject:        	RE: hmmm.....

> Speaking generally, there are some things that are not well suited for
> the market and competition. One example are roads and highways, other
> example are schools. If you let the local communities run schools, you'll
> have evolution thrown out of schools in some parts of the country and the
> ones who would really suffer would be students.
> Ironically, Kansas is one of the greatest states for paleontologists and
> many dinosaur fossils have been uncovered in Kansas, of all states.
Received on Tue Oct 31 2000 - 19:09:32 CST