by Guy Page
In a scene from J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic “The Lord of the Rings,” Saruman the Wizard tries to persuade his angry listeners that, despite invading Rohan with an army of Orcs, somehow he is the aggrieved party. He’s a smooth talker. A few people begin to doubt the evidence of their own eyes. But not Gimli the dwarf, who growls:
“The words of the wizard stand on their heads.”
In a press release published yesterday, Sen. Kesha Ram (D-Chittenden) bemoaned “a growing narrative coming from outside of our borders” challenging the new ‘equity and diversity’ instruction in Vermont schools.
To listen to Ram, you’d think that a group of intolerant ideologues had invaded the state to fundamentally alter students’ understanding of American history. Like Saruman in his tall tower, surrounded by Gandalf and the warriors of Rohan, Ram and the public school officials pushing Critical Race Theory would have you believe that they are the misunderstood and oppressed.
She writes: “As our educators engage students in conversations about addressing institutionalized and systemic racism in Vermont, there is a growing national movement gaining ground in Vermont that seeks to install an outdated and dishonest version of history in its place.”
That ‘outdated and dishonest version of history’ is what we learned in school: that America once allowed slavery but then fought and died to end it, and then fought again to end Jim Crow segregation. In its place Ram would teach that white capitalism continues to enslave minorities and that Vermont is – again against the plain evidence of our eyes and ears – a safe haven for ‘systemic racism.’
What is the entire recent history of progressive legislation but the importing of progressive ideas from California? Ram, Santa Monica Class of 2004, should know. Not to mention the British aristocrats in her family tree, according to Wikipedia: “Sir Ganga Ram, her great-great-grandfather, was a supervising engineer and philanthropist in British India and her aunt is Baroness Shreela Flather, life peer in the British House of Lords.”
No, Sen. Ram, Critical Race Theory does not have its roots in the hills and town meetings of Vermont. If ever there was “a growing narrative coming from outside of our borders,” it’s CRT. But the parents who aren’t buying your Marxist version of history and society do have their roots here. More important they’re raising their children here. Look at any Town Hall meeting and you will see just-folks Vermonters standing up and saying in their own way, ‘the words of the wizard stand on their heads.”
And that’s why the “Vermont’s Legislative Social Equity Caucus” is so scared. Like Saruman, they know the truth, too. And so they circle the wagons, lock themselves in their ivory tower, choose your metaphor for hiding what’s really happening behind the insider rules, regulations, and procedures they know so well.
Ben Morley (raised in VT) of FAIR is teaching Vermonters how to file Freedom of Information Act requests for taxpayer-funded school curriculum and communications regarding ‘equity and diversity’ instruction. These FOIA requests wouldn’t be necessary if these supposedly oppressed school officials would just disclose what they’re teaching and why. But too often, they don’t.
What are our school districts hiding? Parents have a right to know.