Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on an editorial in today’s New York Times:
No newspaper in the country likes protests more than the New York Times. There is a qualifier, though, as made clear in the September 8th edition.
Michelle Cottle is a member of the editorial board of the New York Times. “Chaos at the School Board Meeting” is the title of her editorial-page column. She does not like chaos. To be more precise, she does not like the politics of those creating chaos at school board meetings, many of whom object to mask mandates and left-wing exercises in thought control.
Cottle opens her diatribe with this screamer, “America’s school board meetings are out of control.” What’s wrong with that? After all, the Times all but cheered Black Lives Matter and Antifa last year when they took to the streets engaging in mayhem. These thugs took part in over 600 riots, resulting in a considerable loss of life and property.
Why is “chaos” at school board meetings objectionable, but not the truly “out of control” violence of Black Lives Matter and Antifa?
Cottle cites as an example of school board “chaos” the meetings in Loudoun County, Virginia. She says, quite rightly, that critical race theory and a transgender-laden curriculum have “drawn the wrath of parents.” With good reason.
Unlike her, these “chaotic” parents object to teachers being forced to accept the racist dogma that defines critical race theory. They also object to teachers being punished for refusing to call a boy a girl, and vice versa (the school was forced by the courts to reinstate the teacher).
Another problem for Cottle are parents who worry about their children being “indoctrinated or otherwise manipulated” by educators. What she says is actually worse than this—the indoctrination is in full swing at our nation’s leading colleges and universities.
When Ivy League institutions hold separate graduation ceremonies for multiple demographic groups, all of whom have one perceived grievance or another (e.g., Columbia), and when they force incoming freshmen to sit through presentations on racism that are themselves patently racist (Princeton), they are no longer engaged in education. They are engaged in indoctrination.
The good news is that Cottle and her colleagues admit that conservative parents are pushing back against highly politicized school boards. If there is one good thing that the pandemic has wrought, it is a new awareness on the part of previously unsuspecting parents of the extent to which education is being corrupted by left-wing ideologues.
What the New York Times fears most is “power to the people.” When the people stand up, the elites are forced to sit down.
Contact Michelle Cottle: Michelle.Cottle@nytimes.com
