The whole world should be watching.
Today’s New York Times editorial, “Evolution and Texas”:
It was especially disturbing that the agency accused Ms. Comer — by forwarding the e-mail message — of taking a position on “a subject on which the agency must remain neutral.” Surely the agency should not remain neutral on the central struggle between science and religion in the public schools. It should take a stand in favor of evolution as a central theory in modern biology. Texas’s own education standards require the teaching of evolution.
Those standards are scheduled to be reviewed next year. Ms. Comer’s dismissal and comments in favor of intelligent design by the chairman of the state board of education do not augur well for that review. We can only hope that adherents of a sound science education can save Texas from a retreat into the darker ages.
It remains a mystery how an education agency official could take such a public stand against the state’s education standards and still keep the job in these days, but no one is seriously talking about even investigating the odd events at TEA under the new highly-political director Robert Scott, or the Republican Party operative Lizzette Reynolds.
Texas is a particularly ironic location for these events, being the home of George Bush, who staked his reputation on education reforms that require higher standards, not lower ones; Texas being a state whose money and history rest on oil and natural gas, two fossil fuels found with the geology the TEA now repudiates; Texas being a state trying to get rid of the cotton boll weevil and the imported fire ant, both of which have nationally-coordinated eradication programs based on thorough knowledge of evolution to prevent the insects from evolving resistance or immunity to pesticides. Texas A&M University is one of the nation’s leaders in creating new food crops, using the evolution principles Ms. Comer was fired for noting.
Talk in Austin Rick Perry’s mind ponders whether Gov. Rick Perry has a chance at a vice president nomination. Perry is a typically-weak-by-state constitution Southern governor. He still has clout with agencies, if and when he chooses to use it. Perhaps Perry will read the New York Times today while sitting in an Iowa coffee shop, and wonder what’s up in Texas.
What passes for leadership these days.
Also see:
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
Connecting some dots:
Remember those coal mine tragedies in which the above-ground community ends up feeling bitter about being deceived and betrayed by management, compounding their grief over the entombed neighbors and family members (as happens every year, it seems)?
It strikes me that these are the same people ridiculed for censorship of books in the schools of Kanawha County, WV a few decades back. Or, take a look at John Sayles’ movie “Matewan.” Or either the documentary or the dramatized version of the Harlan County (KY) wars.
In these sagas, the local folk just flat out refused to believe the more literate city people who claimed to have their best interest at heart. In many of these cases, it would have been foolish of them not to disbelieve.
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Excellent points, Ed.
because the same people who oppose letting furbish’s lousewort live are the ones closing the mills and moving the jobs
Ah. But they can blame it on furbish’s lousewort. Thus deflecting public attention from the real reasons. Which would put Authority in a much more unflattering light. And because few people have a Darwin for their neighbor, and because the evolutionists typically do not have anything in their hand to replace what the mill owner has taken away, Authority can, I think, get away with this.
Against your case of Darwin is the one of a person of my acquaintance who told me not to move to a certain section of a certain town because I’d never see a blank face. I’m afraid I see (and others see) more of the latter than the former. What’s more, most people outside of a university campus will see a real live evolutionist seldom if ever, even on the idiot box. While the pastor is with them every week. If every pastor were a Wilberforce, the task would be easier. But …
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I’m sure that many people think that way — and it’s astounding, because the same people who oppose letting furbish’s lousewort live are the ones closing the mills and moving the jobs, and not because furbish’s lousewort has anything to do with it.
The connections are there, but they are not as perceived by many.
And I wonder, in the grand scheme of things, who would I want to be friends with: Charles Darwin, who campaigned fortune and soul against slavery, who provided money for orphans, missionaries, medical care for the poor, and who stood up for his enemies when his enemies needed help (see Pasteur), or Wilberforce, who campaigned for ignorance and was not known as all that friendly a guy?
It’s highly ironic that evolution is seen as impersonal, when it is exactly the opposite.
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Elbogz’s is an excellent point. I think, the education reforms that George Bush had in mind were the ones that allow the “educated” to read and follow orders (which, if I understand correctly, was the original intent of public education, directed at the mill workers of New England in the 19th century, in the first place). Thinking is optional. Especially if the thinking gets in the way of following orders. Or impulse buying, or all the other “Do it now!” stuff on which our economy is based. Can’t have an education that thinks about evolution, or anything else that teaches a message other than “believe and follow Authority”.
I suggest to proponents of evolution, and the teaching of same, that they would be better served, not by yelling at the opponents, but by trying to understand how come they’re so persistent. Indeed, so “fit” that they’re perpetually on the verge of running the students of Darwinian fitness out of town on a rail.
I’ve been reminded that labor has more votes than management. Labor tends not to be interested in the intricacies of evolutionary theory. They are interested in jobs that pay well and don’t require Ph.D.s to do them – ask anyone in places like Maine and Michigan where those jobs have all been taken away because “the smart people” made it too expensive for the big employers to stay. Evolution thinking is tied to environmental conservation which is tied to furbish’s lousewort which is tied to environmental regulation which is tied to the closing of the mill.
They are also, I find, interested in social groups that codify their preferences and (important) stick up for their members. Where they can count on prayers for a sick friend, pastoral solace when in emotional turmoil, and a guaranteed audience for their daughter’s high school graduation.
Thus, belief in a Creator is pro-people. Which is an image that is just fine with Authority. Evolution thinking is perceived as anti-people. Promoted by mostly rugged individualists who are too busy with differential equations to attend the football game starring their neighbor’s son. Which is also an image that is just fine with Authority.
To evolutionists interested in actually gaining some ground here, I recommend the church potluck. I was going to write “And take notes” – but that would be exactly the kind of “distancing” activity that gets evolutionists in trouble with everyone else in the first place.
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It remains a mystery how an education agency official could take such a public stand against the state’s education standards and still keep the job in these days
Not really. In a society that is more likely to believe that Harry Potter is true, than to believe evolution is true, it’s not hard to understand. In a society where kids graduate from high-school with so few skills they can’t ring up a Big Mac, without a picture of a Big Mac on the cash register, it’s not hard to understand.
I wonder if the next step is to change High School Chemistry to High School Alchemy. It’s a valuable skill to learn how to change lead into gold! Or, perhaps we’ll just teach that knowledge is the root of all evil, and dismiss class early.
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Two comments:
The world is watching, and intelligent design very often comes up when discussing USA. Our brothers and sisters in other countries must be scratching their heads that we on the one hand, have done so much technologically, but on the other hand, continue to battle anachronistic ideas.
THe other comment: Texas is a state and mindset unto itself. Rich in natural history, population, and talent….but it is also home of the Centcom of televangelism—most of those weeping TV ministries who beg for dollars are based in Texas – I forgot where, but a physician told me this once.
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