These there items were taken, by me, from various news sources around the internet, including the Associated Press, NPR, and Reuter’s.
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One of Three:
54
That’s how many new math textbooks the state of Florida has rejected from next year’s school curriculum, citing references to critical race theory among the reasons for the rejections. The Florida Department of Education said the list of rejected books makes up approximately 41% of submissions, which is the most in the state’s history.
Two of Three:
Critical race theory has become widely politicized in recent years. Opponents argue the area of study is based on Marxism and is a threat to the American way of life. But scholars who study it say it explores the ways in which a history of inequality and racism in the United States has continued to impact American society today.
Three of Three:
Public school teachers in Florida are banned from holding classroom instruction about sexual orientation or gender identity after Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signed the controversial “Parental Rights in Education” bill.
Also. The bill, which some opponents have called “Don’t Say Gay,” was signed by DeSantis on Monday. It reads, “Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”
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Sure. This is all Florida, but the reality? This is Ohio too. This is everywhere in the United States.
In addition to these older news items, now, most recently, women’s rights are being shattered by the Trump-appointed Supreme Court.
The people behind these restrictions are trying to take away people’s freedom to think — to think for themselves. To be themselves. To snuff out our very Declaration of Independence and our Constitution, in one fast and furious motion.
According to them, those documents of freedom only apply to white, Christian, heterosexual men, with white Christian heterosexual women as their submissive subservient wives.
Do you realize where that takes us? Into the Dark, Dark Ages without a flashlight. Right into George Orwell’s 1984. Or even closer, into The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.
I try to practice compassion for all people. I pray that all sentient beings be free from needless suffering.
But here is where I become a hypocrite.
I have no room for these people who propose these laws of exclusion and inequality. Not in my life, and not in my world, either.
This feels like a huge contradiction in my spiritual and ethical terms. A hypocrite. I don’t know what to do about this, in myself.
So on this day, I don’t have any words of wisdom.
I simply hope these people will somehow lose their bid to harm others. Because that’s what they are doing. They are setting up the world to harm others.
May all sentient beings be free from needless suffering.
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“Compassion is the basis of morality.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer
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“For me, I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today about the world than I knew yesterday and lessen the suffering of others.”
― Neil deGrasse Tyson
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“It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners.”
― Albert Camus
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