the occasional rant

Don’t mean to rant but….. last night I had supper with a friend who told me that the County (which partially funds the place) would no longer allow organized games of “tug –of-war” at the local historical interest place. You have to wonder why – which brings me to my rant.

 A few nights ago on TVO there was a discussion of the Ontario Government’s attempt to update their sex education programs for elementary schools in Ontario. There had been such a large public outcry about the content, that they were obliged to withdraw the text and start over. One of the panel members on the TVO program was so homophobic  that he would never have been comfortable with any discussion occurring about gender identity for any age group. I think he took some sort of pride that he and others like him had convinced the Ontario Government to change their minds as to what should be taught to our students. He, of course, argued that the vast majority of parents felt the same way.

It is these sort of individuals who make/change public policy. Not because they are right or because they reflect the majority opinion, but because we do provide the opposite point of view. We who may be on the Left (some of us are so far to the left that not only have we fallen off of the fence, but we can’t even see the fence anymore!) have made the assumption that our truths are so self evident that we don’t need to argue our points. We seem to have some difficulty in understanding that the Right are equally as convinced as to their truths and that they are far better organized. We need to become organized! The civil rights movement in the USA used the Black churches to recruit and train activists – who are we going to find activists? How are we mobilizing? We can not sit back and let the Right win by default.

p.s. the need for diversity training particularly in term of gender identity is critical. The current research in terms of bullying and the % of self labelled GLBTQ students who feel at risk in the school system suggest that there is much to be done in education our youth. http://www.ismss.ualberta.ca/documents/people/kriswells/ResearchBriefonSexualMinorityYouthHealthWells2009.pdf  and http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Research+exploring+the+health,+wellness,+and+safety+concerns+of...-a0217847390