I have been listening to the GOP candidates talk about the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and what the Founding Fathers’ vision of America was and how they will restore that.
The Declaration of Independence states “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” So you would think that the GOP and the Democrats would be open to such things as Same Sex marriage, reproductive rights for women, gender rights for transgendered people, the right to protest the greed of corporate America, and other issues that fall under life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. What the politicos don’t openly say is that they have added extra wording “as long as it pleases us.” I watched both Michele Bachmann, Milt Romney, and Rick Santorum speak after the Iowa caucus and it was like watching a crusade without an altar call. They all mentioned God so many times that it seems like God is their running mate. I do not think the founding Fathers ever envisioned an America where God was featured so prominently. Where politicians are proclaiming themselves crusaders while they campaign for President.
The right-wing is firmly entrenched here in Arizona where there have been laws passed to “protect” our borders. Currently there is a move to prevent the Tucson Unified School District from implementing a Mexican American or Chicano studies program. One of the first stories I covered for KTKT radio in 1978 when the school district was ordered to desegregate their schools. For years there had been much discrimination against Chicano youth not only in Tucson but across the Southwest. This was not something new I remember my parents telling stories of growing up while facing blatant discrimination of having been held back in Elementary school because they were Mexican.
The ethnic studies program would enable Hispanic youth to know their ancestors had a place in history, their bravery in WWII, their place in securing worker’s rights in Copper mines and lettuce fields, and how they; as U.S. Citizens were loaded into train cars and returned to Mexico during the depression. I believe the main reason these studies are blocked is fear, for the Bachmanns, Romneys, Santorums, of the country only want a sanitized history to look back on and promote. They can quote the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, from Dr. Franklin, and Mr. Jefferson but from their mouths the words are empty and hollow, lacking the life and spark that they were intended to create. Fear of what an empowered people can achieve and fear of what an educated society can become.
