Submitted by Holly Nappen
History teaches us that an effective method to grab power is to make people fearful and sow division. This technique is called splitting. Turning neighbor against neighbor.
Coronado has been my home for the past 34 years and I will likely die here. It has broken my heart to watch words and labels intentionally weaponized to divide a community that undoubtedly shares most of the same values and ethics.
As I understand it, the current verbal ammunition aimed at splitting our community is the term critical race theory. This is a graduate level college course that was never designed to be taught in the public schools. Yet, people are reading impassioned treatises demanding promises that their children will not be exposed to the scourge of CRT.
Should we all make lists of college level courses we do not want our children taught just to engineer some artificial division? No advanced particle physics for my kid!! Every parent could grab the microphone to read his or her own personal screed wasting the time of the school board, undermining the teachers, and dividing the community. I assume that we all want our children to learn history, civics, science, math, ethics, and civility to guide them through life.
If we choose to fill our homes with the false outrage of overpaid talk show hosts and squabble over made up wedge issues then who are we and what are we teaching our children? Tolerance, kindness, Christian values?
The foundation of all faiths including Judeo-Christian beliefs is some form of the golden rule… treating others as you want to be treated, loving your neighbors. Engineering division where none existed fuels intolerance, self righteousness and even hatred. As Hitler, Stalin and others knew well, words are potent weapons, responsible for wars, countless deaths, and intentional misunderstandings. THEM AND US! An effective manipulation but not very Christian behavior.
I hope we can agree to support and appreciate our teachers. If anyone deserves to be put on a pedestal it is teachers. A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a lifelong love of learning. What greater gift is there than that?
Holly Nappen
