|
||
|
|
|
|
|
March 27, 2001 STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION COMES UNDER ASSAULT One is tempted to write off Keel’s proposal as another manifestation of the same legislative madness that drove him to submit a bill calling for the legalization of medical marijuana. The accusations being made against the State Board are overblown, and legislators should know first-hand what it is like to “manage” large amounts of money without the appropriate expertise. Unfortunately, however, many lawmakers have been supportive of the measure, including House Education Chairman Paul Sadler (D-Henderson) who was quoted recently as saying that the legislature gives the State Board certain duties, and can “take them back anytime we chose.” Apparently, “anytime we chose” includes those times when the legislature is struggling with a tight budget and large spending ambitions, and would love to see the constitutional guardian of the PSF discredited and stripped of its power before a raid on the fund is commenced. In a year when available discretionary funds are scarce, state lawmakers have been under increasing pressure to tap the Permanent School Fund for politically popular projects such as state funded teacher health insurance. This need for cash has driven lawmakers from across the political spectrum to declare legislative jihad on the State Board of Education. In addition to Mr. Keel’s legislation, there are several bills before the legislature this session that would shift money from the PSF into a teacher health insurance program, and one that would strip parents of their voice in Texas education by making the Board an appointed body. Chairman Sadler recently waxed eloquent on this final proposal, noting that the elected State Board “exists because we allow them to, and sometimes we should remind ourselves of that and should remind them of that.” Changes such as these do not come without a price. In their rush to push the State Board of Education aside and crack open the PSF piggy bank, state lawmakers are choosing to ignore some disturbing pieces of reality:
The legislature may have the power to take away the authority of the State Board of Education anytime it chooses, but the mere possession of raw power is never a good justification for initiating a controversial and questionable action. Nor is generating a quick-fix solution to the problem of funding teacher health insurance a good reason to embark on a reckless course. State lawmakers would do well to consider the fact that the State Board has managed the PSF with great success over the years, and then act in the best interests of all Texans. **ACTION ITEM** The following bills affecting the State Board of Education and the Permanent School Fund have been filed and are before the state legislature at this time. Please contact your legislators and ask them to vote “no” on these bills if/when they have the opportunity to consider them:
HIGHLY TOUTED CAMPAIGN REFORM BILL WOULD CLAMP DOWN ON FREE SPEECH As a partial solution to the enormous violation of free speech inherent in such a scheme, HB2 does provide for a review process whereby groups can be cleared by the Texas Ethics Commission (TEC) to send out materials that do not constitute express advocacy. According to the language of the bill, the TEC must determine “by a preponderance of evidence” whether a communication was made “with the intent to influence the election of a candidate.” This “solution,” however, simply serves to establish the TEC as the state’s “speech czar,” and would force groups to obtain state approval before distributing materials intended to educate voters on how best to exercise their constitutionally guaranteed freedoms—including the freedom to vote. These restrictions would tie the hands and stifle the voices of conservative pro-family organizations across the state. Although it is not surprising that some lawmakers dread the thought of being exposed for their liberal ways, one is still taken aback by the flagrant abuse of free speech represented in this latest effort to stymie the efforts of groups striving to educate the public on issues if vital importance. The express advocacy restrictions found in HB2 are an unacceptable and unconstitutional infringement of the First Amendment right to free speech, and should not be allowed to pass the state legislature. **ACTION ITEM** Please contact your lawmaker, as well as the key representatives listed below, and voice your opinion on the speech restrictions found in HB2 (the specific offending section is numbered 251.001(22)(B)) The bill has already passed out of committee, and is scheduled to be considered before the full house this week. 1) Please contact your representative: Capitol Switchboard: (512) 463-4630 2) Please contact these key representatives and ask them to oppose the
speech restrictions found in HB2: Rep. Kenny Marchant (R-Carrollton): (512) 463-0468 TEXAS APPEALS COURT UPHOLDS SODOMY LAW BY A 7-2 MARGIN A number of conservative groups, including the Texas Eagle Forum, had expressed concern that removing the sodomy law from the books would provide a greater incentive for homosexual rights activists to push for marital benefits under state law. Homosexual activists had countered that the law was outdated and discriminatory. Although many accept the argument of gay-rights activists that the sodomy law is nothing more than a relic of the oppressive past, it does serve a very valuable present day function. The sodomy law functions as a statement of legislative intent, protects public school children from homosexual indoctrination in the classroom, and gives guidance to courts on how to rule in matters affecting homosexual “rights.” Because Texas has a clear public policy against the promotion and acceptance of homosexuality, gay-rights activists have a much more difficult time pressing claims for domestic benefits, same-sex marriage, and other benefits afforded to heterosexual couples. The next stop along the judicial road for the case is the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Although many court watchers believe that the law is in no jeopardy here in Texas, some believe that the U.S. Supreme Court may decide to weigh in. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court’s recent rulings on social issues indicate that Texas’ sodomy law is by no means secure. Needless to say, this case is by no means closed. PORTUGAL GRANTS DOMESTIC PARTNER BENEFITS TO SAME-SEX COUPLES
Commentary - Reparations Controversy Erupts at UT Every so often, a man possessed of equal parts brilliance and lunacy comes along and shakes us out of our cozy intellectual slumber. David Horowitz is such a man. Having served faithfully in the ranks of the Cultural Left during the 60’s and 70’s, Horowitz careened hard to the Right after the tragic death of a friend at the hands of his liberal cohorts. Since that time, Horowitz has served as the self-appointed rabble-rouser for conservative causes. Always irreverent, totally controversial, and undeniably fun to listen to, he has consistently taken up causes that utterly infuriate his former friends on the Left. His latest cause celebre has involved running paid ads protesting the payment of slavery reparations to blacks. Focusing exclusively on college newspapers, Horowitz managed to cause a national uproar when several papers that had run the ad ran immediate apologies after being “reasoned with” by radical campus groups. Adding fuel to the fire, Horowitz then embarked on a national speaking tour to liberal academic institutions. His most recent stop was here in the Lone Star State at the University of Texas-Austin. Needless to say, his remarks were received cordially—for the most part. Although his actions smack of political exhibitionism, Horowitz’s campaign against reparations is a great example of the effectiveness of in-your-face political activity, and proof that conservatives can give as good as they take. Printed below is a copy of Horowitz’s ad, followed by links to numerous stories and commentaries on his efforts. I hope that you enjoy this excursion through the land of political correctness! Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Blacks is a Bad Idea for Blacks - and Racist Too By David Horowitz One There Is No Single Group Clearly Responsible For The Crime Of Slavery Black Africans and Arabs were responsible for enslaving the ancestors of African-Americans. There were 3,000 black slave-owners in the ante-bellum United States. Are reparations to be paid by their descendants too? Two There Is No One Group That Benefited Exclusively From Its Fruits The claim for reparations is premised on the false assumption that only whites have benefited from slavery. If slave labor created wealth for Americans, then obviously it has created wealth for black Americans as well, including the descendants of slaves. The GNP of black America is so large that it makes the African-American community the 10th most prosperous "nation" in the world. American blacks on average enjoy per capita incomes in the range of twenty to fifty times that of blacks living in any of the African nations from which they were kidnapped. Three Only A Tiny Minority Of White Americans Ever Owned Slaves, And Others Gave Their Lives To Free Them Only a tiny minority of Americans ever owned slaves. This is true even for those who lived in the ante-bellum South where only one white in five was a slaveholder. Why should their descendants owe a debt? What about the descendants of the 350,000 Union soldiers who died to free the slaves? They gave their lives. What possible moral principle would ask them to pay (through their descendants) again? Four America Today Is A Multi-Ethnic Nation and Most Americans Have No Connection (Direct Or Indirect) To Slavery The two great waves of American immigration occurred after 1880 and then after 1960. What rationale would require Vietnamese boat people, Russian refuseniks, Iranian refugees, and Armenian victims of the Turkish persecution, Jews, Mexicans Greeks, or Polish, Hungarian, Cambodian and Korean victims of Communism, to pay reparations to American blacks? Five The Historical Precedents Used To Justify The Reparations Claim Do Not Apply, And The Claim Itself Is Based On Race Not Injury The historical precedents generally invoked to justify the reparations claim are payments to Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, Japanese-Americans and African- American victims of racial experiments in Tuskegee, or racial outrages in Rosewood and Oklahoma City. But in each case, the recipients of reparations were the direct victims of the injustice or their immediate families. This would be the only case of reparations to people who were not immediately affected and whose sole qualification to receive reparations would be racial. As has already been pointed out, during the slavery era, many blacks were free men or slave-owners themselves, yet the reparations claimants make no distinction between the roles blacks actually played in the injustice itself. Randall Robinson's book on reparations, The Debt, which is the manifesto of the reparations movement is pointedly sub-titled "What America Owes To Blacks." If this is not racism, what is? Six The Reparations Argument Is Based On The Unfounded Claim That All African-American Descendants of Slaves Suffer From The Economic Consequences Of Slavery And Discrimination No evidence-based attempt has been made to prove that living individuals have been adversely affected by a slave system that was ended over 150 years ago. But there is plenty of evidence the hardships that occurred were hardships that individuals could and did overcome. The black middle-class in America is a prosperous community that is now larger in absolute terms than the black underclass. Does its existence not suggest that economic adversity is the result of failures of individual character rather than the lingering after-effects of racial discrimination and a slave system that ceased to exist well over a century ago? West Indian blacks in America are also descended from slaves but their average incomes are equivalent to the average incomes of whites (and nearly 25% higher than the average incomes of American born blacks). How is it that slavery adversely affected one large group of descendants but not the other? How can government be expected to decide an issue that is so subjective - and yet so critical - to the case? Seven The Reparations Claim Is One More Attempt To Turn African-Americans Into Victims. It Sends A Damaging Message To The African-American Community. The renewed sense of grievance -- which is what the claim for reparations will inevitably create -- is neither a constructive nor a helpful message for black leaders to be sending to their communities and to others. To focus the social passions of African-Americans on what some Americans may have done to their ancestors fifty or a hundred and fifty years ago is to burden them with a crippling sense of victim-hood. How are the millions of refugees from tyranny and genocide who are now living in America going to receive these claims, moreover, except as demands for special treatment, an extravagant new handout that is only necessary because some blacks can't seem to locate the ladder of opportunity within reach of others -- many less privileged than themselves? Eight Reparations To African Americans Have Already Been Paid Since the passage of the Civil Rights Acts and the advent of the Great Society in 1965, trillions of dollars in transfer payments have been made to African-Americans in the form of welfare benefits and racial preferences (in contracts, job placements and educational admissions) - all under the rationale of redressing historic racial grievances. It is said that reparations are necessary to achieve a healing between African-Americans and other Americans. If trillion dollar restitutions and a wholesale rewriting of American law (in order to accommodate racial preferences) for African-Americans is not enough to achieve a "healing," what will? Nine What About The Debt Blacks Owe To America? Slavery existed for thousands of years before the Atlantic slave trade was born, and in all societies. But in the thousand years of its existence, there never was an anti-slavery movement until white Christians - Englishmen and Americans -- created one. If not for the anti-slavery attitudes and military power of white Englishmen and Americans, the slave trade would not have been brought to an end. If not for the sacrifices of white soldiers and a white American president who gave his life to sign the Emancipation Proclamation, blacks in America would still be slaves. If not for the dedication of Americans of all ethnicities and colors to a society based on the principle that all men are created equal, blacks in America would not enjoy the highest standard of living of blacks anywhere in the world, and indeed one of the highest standards of living of any people in the world. They would not enjoy the greatest freedoms and the most thoroughly protected individual rights anywhere. Where is the gratitude of black America and its leaders for those gifts? Ten The Reparations Claim Is A Separatist Idea That Sets African-Americans Against The Nation That Gave Them Freedom Blacks were here before the Mayflower. Who is more American than the descendants of African slaves? For the African-American community to isolate itself even further from America is to embark on a course whose implications are troubling. Yet the African-American community has had a long-running flirtation with separatists, nationalists and the political left, who want African-Americans to be no part of America's social contract. African Americans should reject this temptation. For all America's faults, African-Americans have an enormous stake in their country and its heritage. It is this heritage that is really under attack by the reparations movement. The reparations claim is one more assault on America, conducted by racial separatists and the political left. It is an attack not only on white Americans, but on all Americans -- especially African-Americans. America's African-American citizens are the richest and most privileged black people alive -- a bounty that is a direct result of the heritage that is under assault. The American idea needs the support of its African-American citizens. But African-Americans also need the support of the American idea. For it is this idea that led to the principles and institutions that have set African-Americans - and all of us -- free.
For links to newspaper articles on Horowitz’s UT speech, click on the following links:
Please contact us if you would like to request information, or place a friend on our e-mail list. Phone: 972-250-0734 |
|
|
© Copyright Texas Eagle Forum. All rights reserved.
