DOMA PETITION DRIVE INVIGORATES GRASSROOTS A petition drive initiated by a Dallas businessman has energized grassroots activists across the state. The petition asks Governor Perry to call a special legislative session for the purpose of passing a Defense of Marriage Act. The businessman was prompted to take action after hearing about the failure of DOMA in the 77th Legislative Session from Free Market Foundation’s Kelly Shackelford. Since that time, he has circulated copies of the petition throughout the state via churches and radio interviews. The language of the petition is quite simple. It states:
During the 77th Legislative Session, your representatives had the opportunity to pass the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a bill that would have protected our state from being forced by the courts to recognize "Civil Unions" or "Same-sex Marriages" performed in other states. Tragically, DOMA was killed in the House of Representatives during the last week of the session, leaving the definition of the family under Texas law vulnerable to radical revision by the extremist homosexual lobby. DOMA can still be enacted however, if Governor Rick Perry assents to calling a special legislative session for the purpose of addressing this crucial bill. Please sign this petition and express your support for a "DOMA Special Session."
If you would like to sign the petition online, please visit www.texasdoma.org.
To request copies of the petition for circulation, please contact Texas
Eagle Forum at (972) 250-0734.
FOCUS ON THE FAMILY CRITICIZES IN-STATE TUITION BILL FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS In a recent edition of their web-based magazine “Family News in Focus,” Focus on the Family criticized a new Texas law passed during the 77th Legislative Session giving in-state public university tuition benefits to illegal aliens who graduate from Texas high schools. The law passed as House Bill 1403 and was authored by Representatives Rick Noriega (D-Houston), Domingo Garcia (D-Dallas), Fred Hill (R-Richardson), Elvira Reyna (R-Mesquite), and Kino Flores (D-Mission). The law states that an applicant to a state university or college in Texas need only graduate from a Texas high school and have resided in the state with a parent or guardian for three years prior to graduation in order to receive in-state tuition benefits. The law also adds the requirement that all applicants must prove that they have filed with the state to become a permanent resident prior to matriculation.
HB 1403 was opposed by Texas Eagle Forum. It will encourage continued illegal immigration by sending the message that, far from punishing such behavior, the state of Texas gives out benefits to those who flaunt our laws. Students graduating from high school in Texarkana or Calera, OK must still pay out-of-state tuition despite the fact that they could throw a stone across the state line while seated at their school desks, yet those who come into our state illegally from a foreign country can take full advantage of our state’s higher education system for a bargain basement price. This situation is unfair and wrong.
DISAGREEMENTS OVER STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION AUTHORITY FAR FROM RESOLVED AS BOARD
MEMBERS CLASH WITH EDUCATION COMMISSIONER OVER STANDARDIZED TESTS The 77th Legislative Session proved in many ways to be open season on the elected State Board of Education. Legislators proposed bills that would have done everything from stripping the Board’s authority over the Permanent School Fund to making all members subject to appointment by state executives. Although the session is now finished, attacks on the State Board have continued unabated. The latest involves a dispute over who has the authority to develop the state’s standardized test. Education Commissioner Jim Nelson apparently hired an outside consulting firm to review the state’s new test scheduled to be given in 2004 without discussing the matter with State Board members. Although Commissioner Nelson managed to produce letters from Rep. Paul Sadler and Sen. Bill Ratliff noting that the TEA has “all authority to determine the content and construction of an assessment,” Board members countered that the rules allow them to override the agency when developing assessments.
Although no clear-cut delineation of the Board’s actual authority is likely to come of this episode, the fact that certain state leaders are still actively working to reduce the power of the Board is beyond doubt. In recent years, a number of conservative members have been elected to the Board and have proceeded to scrutinize the workings of the TEA rather closely. This additional scrutiny, however, has not been welcomed by many in the state’s education establishment, and has led a number of lawmakers to pass bills curtailing the Board’s authority over education matters, including its power to appoint the Commissioner of Education. Texas Eagle Forum supports keeping the maximum amount of authority in the elected State Board of Education in order to allow parents a true voice in the education of their children.
Eagle Eye on
the World
TEXAS EAGLE FORUM LEADER CATHIE ADAMS TRAVELS TO BONN, GERMANY FOR UNITED NATIONS FRAMEWORK CONVENTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE
(UNFCCC) Texas Eagle Forum President Cathie Adams will be reporting live from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bonn, Germany for the next two weeks. The UNFCCC deals with alleged global warming issues, and is responsible for facilitating discussion regarding the Kyoto Protocol. Please visit our website at
www.texaseagle.org to read her conference updates.
BEIJING AWARDED 2008 SUMMER OLYMPICS DESPITE TERRIBE HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD Beijing, China was announced as the site of the 2008 Summer Olympics by the International Olympic Committee on Friday amid protests from many world leaders that such a move would give prestige and positive attention to a communist nation with a long history of human rights abuses. Beijing lost a bid for the 2000 Olympics to Sydney, Australia seven years ago. This time, China’s capitol city overcame strong bids from Paris and Toronto to secure the bid.
Few problems in our society have the ability to shock and frighten us as much as the specter of school violence. As a general rule, children do not instinctively kill other children. Thus, when we see reports of school shootings such as the atrocities that were committed in Littleton, Jonesboro, and Paducah, we instinctively cast aside the idea that children in our state going to our schools could ever perpetrate such crimes. This “head in the sand” attitude, however, ignores the very real and alarming level of violence present in Texas schools today. Statistics compiled by the Texas Education Agency for the 1999-2000 school year indicate that students in Texas schools were cited for 1,230 assaults against school personnel, 1,654 instances of possessing a firearm, knife, club or prohibited weapon on campus, and 646 incidents of gang-related school violence. In addition, Texas schools reported 11,054 incidents of student possession of a controlled substance, and 1,784 terrorist threats. And these are only the incidents that were detected and reported! A report published by the Texas Kids Count project in 1998 placed the total number of assaults committed against students at an appalling 58,634! Clearly our schools are not immune from the problem of student-initiated violence.
The public response to this mind-boggling level of violence in our schools has been swift. Commissions have been formed and numerous studies conducted on the best way to identify “at-risk” students and intervene in dangerous situations. Intervention and prevention strategies have been developed and implemented, metal detectors have been installed, and a host of values-clarification and sensitivity training programs have been put in place. In addition, schools have scrambled to discourage spanking and gun ownership by parents while setting up zero-tolerance policies and hate crimes training programs for students of all ages. In spite of this rash of activity, however, our schools have yet to become safer places to learn.
This failure stems in part from a lack of emphasis on the truly important aspects of a child’s development. Numerous studies have shown that media violence and poor academic performance are leading indicators of future tendencies toward violence in young children, yet few educators have been willing to tackle these issues head-on. This should come as no surprise to those who understand the oppressive atmosphere of political correctness in which many educators find themselves today. While beating up on media conglomerates that peddle violent fare to youngsters is acceptable, criticizing “progressive learning techniques” can amount to career suicide. A number of prominent citizens outside the education establishment have taken up these issues, however, and their stories deserve to be heard.
In his book Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill, author Lt. Col. Dave Grossman notes that graphic portrayals of “screen violence” in various forms of visual media have a powerful and far-reaching effect on the minds of impressionable children. He cites several studies that correlate aggressive behavior with exposure to high levels of depicted violence in television programs and movies. In particular, he points out the grave dangers associated with playing ultra-realistic interactive video games in which the player is continuously rewarded for obliterating everything…and everyone…in his path. These virtual “kill simulators” actually train the player to shoot and kill with accuracy and speed while simultaneously giving him intense satisfaction in the number of “kills” he accomplishes—all without upsetting his increasingly jaded conscience. He writes that these games are intended to “arouse instead of awaken; excite instead of examine; splatter instead of study.” Ironically, these graphically realistic games are more readily accessible to young children than are R-rated movies where the viewer must first pass by a ticket counter (hopefully) checking IDs. This widespread availability of violent video games undoubtedly contributed to the rampages of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold at Littleton, and Michael Carneal at Paducah—all avid players of graphically violent interactive video games.
Beyond the obvious dangers of massive exposure to high levels of screen violence, Grossman touches on a second problem that contributes directly to the formation of violent tendencies in children—illiteracy. His comments on the topic are worth quoting at length.
“It should give us pause when we consider how many millions of adults in America are functionally illiterate. It may seem like a simple solution—too simple to be believable—that literacy skills can act as a buffer to potentially violent behavior. But the more a child is able to verbalize and think on higher levels, the easier it will be to teach children about the consequences of violence.”
This fact seems obvious, but its sweeping implications for our society are made clear only when one considers the fact that government studies and employer experience indicate that 40% of American youngsters are functionally illiterate. John Stormer, author of the book
None Dare Call It Education, points out that this crisis of ignorance has been created almost out of thin air by an education establishment bent on implementing progressive learning techniques such as “look-see” and “whole reading” at the expense of teaching phonics. He notes that a report issued on January 30, 1915 found that “only 22 out of 1000 children between the ages of 10 and 14—slightly over two percent—were illiterate.” Although no one reason can be given for the abandoning of phonics education in favor of experimental reading programs, Stormer suggests that this shift was part of an overall effort to undermine and devalue the whole of Western culture in every academic area. Apparently, reading was just one of many casualties in the war against tradition still being waged by the National Education Association.
What can be done to turn the tide on the vital and disturbing issue of youth violence? This question admits no easy answer, but there are simple ways in which concerned parents can make a difference. First, parents must have the courage to
screen what their children are watching on television, and monitor what video games they play. This tremendously simple yet exceedingly difficult task is no longer an option for parents whose children are growing up in an increasingly violent world. These reasonable activities can spare children the mental damage done by repetitive exposure to gratuitous violence.
Secondly, parents can take the initiative in making sure that their children are able to read. Phyllis Schlafly, President of the Eagle Forum, has developed a phonics-based reading system called
First Reader that empowers parents to teach their children the fundamental building blocks of literacy (For more information on this program, please call 972-250-0734). By increasing literacy and shielding children from violent material, parents may be able to strike a major blow against school violence without ever setting foot in the schoolhouse door. These issues must be dealt with quickly and forcefully, however, because all of the metal detectors and sensitivity training programs in the world are no match for a kid with a will and a gun.
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