Pinthouse Pizza
More Education Is Needed
RECEIVED Tue., July 10, 2007
Dear Editor,
Louis Black’s concise, eloquent people’s history of the U.S. (“Page Two, July 6) preaches to the choir because the conspiracy theorists that he addresses are slaves to their convictions and world-views, which – rather than the American ideal of truth and justice – is the big lie where the game’s fixed, rigged for the elites, crushes the small, and nothing can be done because the game’s fixed. The column also fails to ask for an explanation for the conspiracy theorists’ dogmatism, Texas always being at the low end for voter turnout among the 50 states. A charismatic political animal who could turn all those conspiracy theorists’ suspicions into votes could fast grab the reins of power. (In the Texas' 80th Legislature, to preserve their fragile franchise, the GOP stooped to the point of a fast vote and a quick-draw gavel by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in an attempt to disenfranchise voters with the voter-ID bill (House Bill 218). One man, Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, stood up to continue the tradition of one-man, one-vote; thus, the elites aren’t omnipotent.)
Lastly, the recent “Page Two” columns give no conspiracy theorists raison d’être. There were conspiracy theories for the Lincoln assassination and the sinking of the USS Maine, and the fraudulent Protocols of the Elders of Zion are still published after being debunked by every generation in their 100 years of existence. Possibly the waning of religious intolerance, in the Christian spectrum (you’re OK if you’ll honk for Jesus!), has created a vacuum for the lunatic fringe. Education’s needed – as Louis Black has done with his history – and educating now in head-start, kindergarten, and primary schools so 15 years in the future, the next generation says no to fanaticism, and they are not knuckleheads running around with insane demands for certainty.
Louis Black’s concise, eloquent people’s history of the U.S. (“Page Two, July 6) preaches to the choir because the conspiracy theorists that he addresses are slaves to their convictions and world-views, which – rather than the American ideal of truth and justice – is the big lie where the game’s fixed, rigged for the elites, crushes the small, and nothing can be done because the game’s fixed. The column also fails to ask for an explanation for the conspiracy theorists’ dogmatism, Texas always being at the low end for voter turnout among the 50 states. A charismatic political animal who could turn all those conspiracy theorists’ suspicions into votes could fast grab the reins of power. (In the Texas' 80th Legislature, to preserve their fragile franchise, the GOP stooped to the point of a fast vote and a quick-draw gavel by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in an attempt to disenfranchise voters with the voter-ID bill (House Bill 218). One man, Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, stood up to continue the tradition of one-man, one-vote; thus, the elites aren’t omnipotent.)
Lastly, the recent “Page Two” columns give no conspiracy theorists raison d’être. There were conspiracy theories for the Lincoln assassination and the sinking of the USS Maine, and the fraudulent Protocols of the Elders of Zion are still published after being debunked by every generation in their 100 years of existence. Possibly the waning of religious intolerance, in the Christian spectrum (you’re OK if you’ll honk for Jesus!), has created a vacuum for the lunatic fringe. Education’s needed – as Louis Black has done with his history – and educating now in head-start, kindergarten, and primary schools so 15 years in the future, the next generation says no to fanaticism, and they are not knuckleheads running around with insane demands for certainty.
Sincerely,
Warren Weappa
Warren Weappa