Protests Against Rewriting History for Rightwingers

A new rightwing majority of Denver's school board members wants to rewrite American history to please themselves.

They've stated the curriculum must change so it "does not encourage or condone civil disorder, social strife, or disregard of the law." Their words.

Hmm. Seems most of the important turning points in American history were the direct result of civil disorder, social strife and disregard of the law as it stood at the time.

Whitewashing and censoring American history in Colorado means erasing the Civil Rights Movement and Rosa Parks. The Declaration of Independence itself was civil disobedience. The fight for unions brought us the five day workweek, eight hour workday, overtime and the end of child labor. And ironically, the far rightwing Teabaggers who are now running the school board, are named after the original Tea Party, which was a huge act of disregard for the law.

Signs read, "People didn't die so we could erase them," and "I want to learn the entire history to change the future."

Protesting students said, "The nation's foundation was built on civil protest;" "I don't want my education censored;" and "you always hear that America's the greatest, the land of the free and the home of the brave. For all the good things we've done, we've done some terrible things. It's important to learn about those things so we don't repeat them."

This is what happens when you don't vote and rightwingers have their way.

Republican Jackass of the Week

By now we've all heard the horrific remarks from one of the cast members of a show I've never seen and never will, Duck Dynasty. But he's not the Jackass of the Week.

Yes, in an interview with GQ Magazine, he made some ridiculously racist and homophobic comments. Something about comparing homosexuality to bestiality, and claiming that black people "were pretty happy" and had it pretty good in this country before Civil Rights legislation.

I guess he hadn't heard about segregation, laws prohibiting interracial marriage, separate water fountains, bathrooms, etc; not being allowed to vote, not being served in restaurants, the four schoolgirls who were killed in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama; the "Little Rock Nine" who were blocked from entering an Arkansas high school; the "Bloody Sunday March" in Selma, Alabama; Emmett Till, the kid who was lynched for allegedly whistling at a white woman, the shooting death of Medgar Evers (the American WWII veteran turned civil rights activist) killed on his own front porch, the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat, the civil rights demonstrations and race riots where countless people were killed or arrested, etc.

But it was all good in the Duck Dynasty Guy's cloistered little world.

No, he's not the Jackass of the Week. What would you expect from him? He's an old, grizzled, uneducated, ignorant, bigoted swamp rat. Not that I'm defending him; I'm just saying you wouldn't expect any kind enlightened thought to come spewing from this racist yokel.

The Jackasses of the Week are the blustery rightwing defenders of this sad little person. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and even Alaska's half-term quitter crawled out to defend him, claiming his First Amendment rights were infringed.

Nonsense.

If you work for A&E or any company, and you say such embarrassingly bigoted things as this guy did, the company has every right to fire or suspend you. A&E is a business and doesn't want its image damaged. (Really? Can you damage their brand any worse than putting Duck Dynasty on the air in the first place? Remember when A&E stood for "Arts and Entertainment"? Wow! Things have changed over there! But I digress...)

What Rush, Sean and The Quitter don't understand is that the First Amendment only applies to the government infringing on your speech. And since no government entity has done that, there's no First Amendment violation. It's as simple as that.