The crazy parents of Federal Way, Washington
By Michael J.W. Stickings
You know, crazy like James Inhofe. Fucking crazy.
Some of them, including Frosty E. Hardison (believe it or not), have complained to the local school board about Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Frosty, it seems, didn't want one of his daughters, a seventh-grader, watching it in her science class:
Yes, fucking crazy in that specially Christian way. Sure our planet's fucked. Sure we're all fucked. But it's all part of God's plan -- so why worry? Well, not to be too blunt about this, but he and those who think like him can go fuck themselves silly as they await the rapture. The rest of us -- those of us who haven't succumbed to fantasy -- would rather get on with doing something about the climate crisis. For those who think like Frosty are not just ignorant and delusional but grossly irresponsible. They are, to be blunt again, the willing enablers of genocide. For while their little fantasy keeps them ignorant and delusional, the costs, the human costs, of the climate crisis will prove to be enormous. Millions dead, whole cities eradicated, land masses submerged. A true apocalypse, not the imaginary one you can read about in their books.
Al Gore's great documentary is an important film about the most important issue of our time. We ought to watch it. Our children ought to watch it. The crazy parents of Federal Way, and its cowardly school board, be damned.
You know, crazy like James Inhofe. Fucking crazy.
Some of them, including Frosty E. Hardison (believe it or not), have complained to the local school board about Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Frosty, it seems, didn't want one of his daughters, a seventh-grader, watching it in her science class:
"No you will not teach or show that propagandist Al Gore video to my child, blaming our nation -- the greatest nation ever to exist on this planet -- for global warming," Hardison wrote in an e-mail to the Federal Way School Board. The 43-year-old computer consultant is an evangelical Christian who says he believes that a warming planet is "one of the signs" of Jesus Christ's imminent return for Judgment Day.
His angry e-mail (along with complaints from a few other parents) stopped the film from being shown to Hardison's daughter.
Yes, fucking crazy in that specially Christian way. Sure our planet's fucked. Sure we're all fucked. But it's all part of God's plan -- so why worry? Well, not to be too blunt about this, but he and those who think like him can go fuck themselves silly as they await the rapture. The rest of us -- those of us who haven't succumbed to fantasy -- would rather get on with doing something about the climate crisis. For those who think like Frosty are not just ignorant and delusional but grossly irresponsible. They are, to be blunt again, the willing enablers of genocide. For while their little fantasy keeps them ignorant and delusional, the costs, the human costs, of the climate crisis will prove to be enormous. Millions dead, whole cities eradicated, land masses submerged. A true apocalypse, not the imaginary one you can read about in their books.
Al Gore's great documentary is an important film about the most important issue of our time. We ought to watch it. Our children ought to watch it. The crazy parents of Federal Way, and its cowardly school board, be damned.
posted by Michael J.W. Stickings at
10:53 PM
9 Comments:
This has to be one of the best posting about the damn lunacy of the militant right in a very long time. With a name like Frosty I myself would be worried if I could actually make it past this "climate change" and make it to the second coming...part 193845.
It actually saddens me that the school board succumbed to the looney snowman and prevented the rest of the children from seeing it. Then again half of this nation trust their gut and the Chimp in Chief rather then science and fact.
By
Anonymous, at 12:14 PM
Thank you, Shane. I appreciate the kind words.
I need to look into why the school board succumbed to the pressure of what seems to be a small group of parents, but you're right that so many Americans share Frosty's views. Even the right's support for Israel is largely motivated by an anticipation of the End of Days.
By
Michael J.W. Stickings, at 12:28 PM
More proof that all wingnuts are lunatics.
It is completely false to claim that America alone is to blame for global warming. What nation has *not* engaged in deforestation, coal mining, steel manufacture, tire manufacture, and/or textile manufacture? What country doesn't have cars on its roads spitting out pollutants as exhaust? Name one corporation who ensures that all of their plastic or styrofoam products are biodegradeable? I believe the expression "like coals to Newcastle" is British in its origin.
Mr. Frosty is against this movie because he actually believes in the propaganda that any comments about America which are not high praise must fall into the category of "blaming America for everything". He and his kind have been trained to attack the "blame-America-firsters" wherever they may find them. What Mr. Frosty doesn't realize is: that attitude is precisely what makes America so worthy of criticism these days.
By
Anonymous, at 12:45 PM
Don't know why that school didn't answer: "If you subscribe to that particular dogma, and want your daughter to do the same, then best send her to a "specialised" school. We can't teach faith as fact here."
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Anonymous, at 1:21 PM
It's the right's hypocrisy, isn't it? If this were, say, a Catholic school, and some secular parent were to protest the teaching of, say, the virgin birth, and the school gave in (which it wouldn't, but let's say it did), right-wingers across the land would blame secular liberals for imposing their beliefs on everyone and trying to destroy civilization. Imagine how the insane asylum known as Fox News would respond.
But in an America where the religious right has so much influence -- even, apparently, in Washington, a mostly blue state -- it's actually secularists who are on the defensive.
By
Michael J.W. Stickings, at 2:02 PM
Did anyone notice the father's name was...Frost?
By
Anonymous, at 6:23 PM
What actually happened is that the school board postponed showing the film "in the interest of fairness" when a teacher and several parents voiced complaints. The school board has a policy that insists that all "points of view" be presented in the classroom when the subject is controversial. The school board claims that the media picked the one parent whose complaint was the most ignorant-sounding in order to create a stir.
The problem I see with this policy is that the only people still denying global warming are the polluting corporation's hired "scientists" and idiots that think that the earth is only 6,000 years old and that God is going to fix the place up someday. Not exactly the opposing "points of view" I'd want my kid hearing. I also think the objection to this film was mostly motivated by politics - if anyone but Al Gore was presenting the material, it wouldn't have been an issue. These Neanderthals aren't interested in scientific validity, they just hate Al Gore.
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Anonymous, at 11:48 PM
Thanks for the details, Anonymous. And I agree with you. The deniers of global warming are loud and well-funded. And they've managed to convince the mainstream media (which is so concerned about being perceived as too liberal and which always has to present two sides of an issue, even if the other side is crazy) that there's some controversy over global warming. There isn't. There's an amazing consensus in the scientific community.
By
Michael J.W. Stickings, at 5:13 PM
Oh, and I guess the ranks of the deniers include end-of-days wackos named Frost or Frosty.
By
Michael J.W. Stickings, at 5:14 PM
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