Sunday, April 23, 2006

Enemy Thy Name is Estabrook



Enemy, Thy Name is Estabrook

This lets you know what goes on in Massachusetts' schools when the teachers get tired of teaching the "three R's" -- do they even do that anymore?

Massachusetts is continuing to fulfill its unofficial mission as a "gay-rights" activism lightening rod. Estabrook Elementary, in Lexington continues the time-honored northern tradition of pushing gay activism early in life through public education. Students were assigned to read the book "'King and King,' the story of [a] prince who is interested in the brother of the princes." And, yes, "interested" in this story means sexually.

This type of thing is nothing new to the school system; "The Estabrook School is the same school that garnered attention last year after another father, David Parker, was arrested when he protested the school's decision to have his 5-year-old son's class read a book depicting gay families."

Mr. Parker was arrested when he refused to leave school grounds till someone assured him that he would be told the next time this type of advocacy was taking place, presumably to remove his child from the premises during such instruction. His reward for exercising his right as a parent to direct his child's education was to be banned from the school grounds. (Take that, you straight-laced, xenophobic, probably Christian, closed minded, uneducated Pat Robertson-type.)

When called out on this latest round of "get 'em while they're young" publicly funded moral insurrection, unnamed "school officials" are quoted defending the action saying "...their goal in exposing the children to such topics was to be inclusive as possible...." Helen Cohen, a "school committee member" went on record defending the indefensible saying "We want all our families and all of the children to feel that they're welcome and included there, and one of the ways to do that is to show different kinds of families."

"The school superintendent, Paul Ash, issued a statement about the latest controversy saying, 'The Lexington school system cherishes diversity...we welcome children and families of all backgrounds, including families headed by same-sex parents."

Note to Estabrook "officials": Get out of the business of authenticating gay "families" to 5 to 10-year-olds. Stick to reading, writing, and arithmetic, and let the church, and the family teach about gay morality issues.

Not taking this sort of thing lying down (no pun intended) parent Robin Wirthlin said "My problem is that this issue of romantic attraction between two men is being presented to my 7-year-old as wonderful and good and the way things should be. We feel like 7 years old is not appropriate to introduce homosexual theme."

So what's the big deal? Why should you be concerned? Because, it only takes one incident in one place to start a movement. If you will remember, government sponsored gay advocacy happened once before when local governments in Massachusetts took it upon themselves to hand out gay marriage licenses. Once they started -- and knowing that what they were doing was unlawful for a public official to do, and with only confused stares as any type of correction, more localities began to follow suit.

By the time the endeavor was put to a halt almost seven states had some version of the illegal marriage ceremonies going on. Once gay couples had a "certificate" in hand there were charges of lawsuits if they were not recognized by employers for health benefits. There were pushes to make every state recognize these marriages, and ultimately, gay divorce and custody issues.

What is even more disturbing in the Parker case, was that the school officials denied Mr. Parker the choice to "opt-out" his child from these teachings. They refused to tell him when his child will be taught such "lessons" so that he could not exercise his right as a parent, and then banned him from school property, disabling him from finding out on his own, except after-the-fact. This is dis-enfranchisement of the worst kind. This may be precieved as a small instance, but "from little acorns, do great Oaks grow."

Link: http://www.thebostonchannel.com/print/8846994/detail.html
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1 Comments:

Blogger f mcdonald said...

This story is disturbing to put it mildly. You are quite right to be concerned about a snowball effect.

Virginia is set up for the fall. There are Gay Straight Alliance Clubs in public schools all over the state including one at a Chesterfield Co. Middle school. Administrators and School Boards are terrified of Gay Activists and the threats of ACLU lawsuits. Most cave in without a fight - Powhatan Co. for example.

One inroad gay activists have made is in school libraries, particularly the high schools. I urge parents to check it out for themselves (look for keywords like lifestyles, civil rights and activism).

April 23, 2006 11:37 PM  

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