They didn't pick my letter to print, but there are two very good ones in the current Austin American Statesman, as well as a surprisingly smart editorial, attacking the political retaliation against Chris Comer by the creationist-run Texas Education Association. The editorial board opines:
The education agency, of course, portrays the problem as one of insubordination and misconduct. But from all appearances, Comer was pushed out because the agency is enforcing a political doctrine of strict conservatism that allows no criticism of creationism....
Whether one accepts the theory of intelligent design or not, discussion encourages scientific exploration, which is what a science curriculum director should do. Forcing Comer out of her job because she passed on an e-mail about the critic’s presentation is egregiously wrong.
It looks like the Texas Education Agency has fallen victim to a smelly little orthodoxy, to quote author George Orwell. And that cannot be good for the schools or the schoolchildren of Texas.
Apart from the little gaffe of calling ID a "theory," which is like some no-hoper pointing to a Playboy centerfold taped to his wall and calling it his "girlfriend," it's nice to see that the paper is ready and willing to call the TEA on its bullshit spin right away, and tell it like it is regarding Comer's firing: that she was forced out for not toeing a Christian neoconservative anti-science party line. And that the people who make a big noise about scientists being closed-minded dogmatists who have unfairly "Expelled" intelligent design from fair scientific inquiry are the most despicable of hypocrites and lying frauds. Good on ya, Statesman. Maybe you don't suck as much as I've been thinking all these years.
I'm also (pleasantly) surprised to see this in the Statesman. I hope it gets bigger and bigger and bigger until the TEA is the laughing stock that the Kansas school board become. If that happens BEFORE we implement some religious Sunday School teachings in our science classrooms, maybe TX can be spared the embarrassment of becoming the KS replacement as the nation's joke.
ReplyDeleteIf we are actually stupid enough to repeat KS idiocy in the wake of the definitive findings out of Dover...well, as much as I love my state--we'll deserve whatever ridicule comes our way.