Tennessee can do better than right wing Senator Marsha Blackburn

Echo to the editor of the Williamson Herald newspaper, in Tennessee.

Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn is an airhead - but that's just my Maine Writer opinion.

Senator Marsha Blackburn in a Republican right wing Senator who claims to represent Tennessee: Disgusted by Blackburn’s column.

To say I (i.e., the letter writer) was disgusted by Marsha Blackburn’s commentary about Critical Race Theory written in [a recent] email (and published on her website) from the Herald is an extreme understatement. 

Blackburn writes on her website: 

What Senator Blackburn Is Doing To Stop Critical Race Theory

Although I respect that she has a right to speak her mind, it is, nevertheless, deeply disturbing to be reminded that our state is represented in the U.S. Senate by someone who is so willing to fan the flames that keep our country divided by writing a piece of propaganda like this.

Senator Blackburn has also pushed for legislation to prohibit federal funding for the “1619 Project". 

Please allow me to clear the air on a few basic points, using facts instead of falsehoods. Critical Race Theory (CRT) has not been taught in our state’s or county’s public schools. Further, “the left” is not making an effort at “brainwashing” our kids or “shaming” white children in our state/country’s schools. And CRT does not actively encourage discrimination, nor does it “segregate people into two main categories: oppressors or victims.”

CRT “at its core” (to borrow Mrs. Blackburn’s words) IS about understanding inequality and racism in our country and encouraging debate about how we should address it. It IS based on the idea that racism is a part of our everyday lives as it is embedded into our legal systems and policies. And as such, people who do not intend to be racist may make choices that fuel racism.

It is about outcomes, not only individuals’ own beliefs. And it calls for these outcomes to be studied and rectified. Clearly, there is much room for debate about how outcomes can be rectified, but we should welcome such debate, not stymie it. 

We need to broaden our children’s world view, not narrow it Mrs. Blackburn points out the voice of one parent (of many, I’m sure). But there are also many parents who believe — as my wife and I do — that our kids are very capable of critically considering many ideas. We believe it is important that they are exposed to these kinds of ideas and that they should be encouraged to consider the implications of our history, both the good and the bad, including how it has informed both our historical and current laws and policies. This is why we are so concerned by the law recently passed in TN (SB 0623) and by propaganda like Mrs. Blackburn is spreading.

I agree, parents need to show up at school board meetings. But we need to show up to make sure that our kids are allowed to learn about institutionalized racism. We need to make sure our board members understand that we know this teaching does not imply that white kids are demonized. Rather, we believe it is important that our kids are allowed to consider ideas in a broader context. Our kids are very capable of critically considering these kinds of ideas, and they need to be given the opportunity to do so.

Sincerely,  Tony Caudill in Franklin Tennessee 

Senator Marsha Blackburn is an Idiot fan club! Just click "like"!

Taaaa-daaaa! I was delighted to find a social media page titled "Marsha Blackburn is an Idiot". Check it out!

Bennett cartoon published in the Chattanooga Times Free Press 

So, my series about Blackburn's incompetence is not an original idea! I'm glad to be like minded with 300 plus people who support the Marsha Blackburn is an Idiot social media page with "like".

This blog is my own first in a series of echoes titled "Blackburn is an Idiot", or "BIAI".  In my opinion, Blackburn's wrong-minded supporters are zealots who practice snake worshipping, believe the earth was created in seven days, aka, "creationists" and that evolution never happened (reference Scopes Monkey Trial*).  These weird constituents are the right wing Tennessee idiots who elected BIAI. Unfortunately, she has delivered for them.  In other words, "Stupid Is As Stupid Does", or #SIASD is the BIAI slogan.

Following is an opinion echo, published in the Williamson Herald, in Franklin, Tennessee.  A ray of BIAI hope beams from this opinion. At least, some Tennesseans are not among Blackburn's weird BIAI cult. 

Letter to the Editor: Disgusted by Blackburn

It is deeply disturbing to be reminded that our state of Tennessee is represented in the U.S. Senate by someone so willing to fan the political flames that keep our country divided by writing propaganda.

 
Please allow me to fact check BIAI, to correct the falsehoods she spews in her op-ed articles. 

In fact, contrary to her uninformed position, Critical Race Theory (CRT) has not been taught in Tennessee's public schools. Furthermore, what BIAI claims as “the left”, are not making an effort at “brainwashing” kids or “shaming” white children in our state/country’s schools. 

Moreover, CRT does not actively encourage discrimination, nor does it “segregate people into two main categories: oppressors or victims.”

Check out the best selling book "How to be an Anti Racist" by Ibram M. Kendi.

CRT “at its core” (to borrow Mrs. Blackburn’s words) IS about understanding inequality and racism in America and encouraging debate about how it should be addressed. It IS based on the idea that racism is a part of our everyday lives as it is embedded into our legal systems and policies. And, as such, people who do not intend to be racist may, inadvertently, make choices that fuel racism.

It is about outcomes, not only individuals’ own beliefs. And, it calls for these outcomes to be studied and rectified. Clearly, there is much room for debate about how outcomes can be rectified, but we should welcome such debate, not stymie it. We need to broaden our children’s world view, not narrow it.

Mrs. Blackburn points out the voice she hears from only one parent (but, of many other idiots, I’m sure). Yet there are also many parents who believe — as my wife and I do — that our kids are very capable of critically considering many ideas. We believe it is important that they are exposed to these kinds of ideas and that they should be encouraged to consider the implications of our history, both the good and the bad, including how it has informed both our historical and current laws and policies. This is why we are so concerned by the law recently passed, in Tennessee (SB 0623: Tennessee passes bill to withhold funding for schools teaching about systemic racism)
and by propaganda like Mrs. Blackburn (aka #BIAI) is spreading.

Parents need to show up at school board meetings to protest this discriminatory bill. But we need to show up to make sure that our kids are allowed to learn about institutionalized racism. 

We need to make sure our school board members understand that we know this teaching does not imply that white kids are demonized. Rather, we believe it is important that our kids are allowed to consider ideas in a broader context. Our kids are very capable of critically considering these kinds of ideas, and they need to be given the opportunity to do so.

Sincerely,

Tony Caudill,  in Franklin, Tennessee

*A misdemeanor, punishable by fine in Tennessee, to “teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible....

It's time to formally launch the #BIAI fan club! 

https://www.facebook.com/MarshaBlackburnIsAnIdiot

Tennessean - echo letter to the editor: America in debt

"GOP budget deal that is projected to add $1 trillion to our current $20 trillion national debt" ~ Donald Griffin

Plunging America into debt - Echo letter published in the Tennessean

Plunging America deeper in debt

On Feb. 13, Sen. Lamar Alexander sent an email that included the following:

“Congress passed and Donald Trump signed a 2-year budget agreement into law that sets priorities for our nation: fighting the opioid crisis, ending sequestration funding restrictions on our military, and improving our nation’s roads, bridges, locks and dams. It also extends funding for the community health centers that nearly 400,000 Tennesseans rely on for their health care, and extends funding for Cover Kids, which provides health insurance to nearly 74,000 Tennessee children and pregnant women.”

My response was as follows:

Sen. Alexander: You forgot to mention in your comments on the two-year budget deal that it is projected to add $1 trillion to our current $20 trillion national debt. This will become more of an issue as interest rates rise, resulting in debt service taking a larger and larger portion of the federal budget.

Also, exacerbating this problem was the removal of the debt ceiling, which will allow Congress to continue adding more debt without any meaningful debate.

Your decision to vote with the Senate Republican leadership for political purposes will encumber future generations of Americans with the burden of dealing with this massive debt.

Donald A. Griffin, Franklin