Moving Kentucky Forward
Moving Kentucky forward isn't part of David Edmunds agenda. Read his op-ed piece “Tuition dollars and drag queens" from the Louisville Courier-Journal of June 2, 2008 if you don’t believe me. The Family Foundation's special interest is creating a climate of fear that whips well-intentioned believers into a frenzy of nostalgia for "the good old days" that never existed and a "bible-based" Christianity invented in the early 20th century to fend off the modern world and shore up creationism and other Protestant notions that reject reason and all evidence to the contrary.
Fear mongering, scare tactics and religious cover for bigotry and jingoism are not going to move Kentucky forward. Notice the special words the Family Foundation uses to push the panic button for their adherents. "Bureaucrat” is one of the usual suspects. Pretending that no one actually needs government services and that all government services are a waste is certainly an argument that has failed spectacularly but continues to appeal to somebody somewhere. It's funny how those same people stubbornly refuse to see a connection between vital services they need or that their children, neighbors, elderly parents and community need and those despised "bureaucracies."
Providing fiction and distortions and calling them facts doesn't move Kentucky forward either. Mr. Edmunds and the Family Foundation know that no state money is used to pay for domestic partner benefits for university employees. Did the employees of the Family Foundation get a special interest break on their health insurance this year? I didn't and it had nothing to do with other people's partners and spouses. The cost of health care in the United States is a national problem that is going to require federal action. It wasn't triggered by the Fortune 500 companies that offer domestic partner benefits to their employees or the state governments, institutions of higher education or religious bodies that decided to provide health insurance to more people rather than less. Mr. Edmunds and the Family Foundation want fewer people to have insurance. It's that simple.
Pretending that there's nothing to learn from Drag Queens, lesbian, gay or bisexual students at UofL, and all the other people that Mr. Edmunds doesn't like and would rather relegate to second class citizenship doesn't move Kentucky forward either. The point of a university is analysis, discovery and dissemination of knowledge. Most programs in biology, anthropology, sociology, pan-African studies, women and gender studies and theatre arts would fail to meet with Mr. Edmunds and the Family Foundation's approval. That Mr. Edmunds fails to comprehend the work done by the Audre Lorde Endowed Chair in Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality is certainly not surprising. Since Mr. Edmunds and the Family Foundation really have no desire to learn anything from anyone that doesn't conform to the "good old days" model of "bible-based" heterosexual privilege there is very little out there for them to do other than rail against the modern world we live in. It must be nice to already have all the answers and need no further information.
Mr. Edmunds and the Family Foundation have bamboozled the people of this state long enough. They are holding us back. Pretending that everything was better in some Never-never Land back in the days of real (white, straight) men like Daniel Boone and Davy Crocket is very romantic but not very helpful. I am an 8th generation Kentuckian of Appalachian descent and have forebears that came through the Cumberland Gap from Yancey County. My ancestors fought on both sides of the Civil War and my relatives are spread from Erlanger to Oneida. It's time for those of us that actually care about the future of the commonwealth to speak up and stop allowing people like Mr. Edmunds and the Family Foundation to blind us to the future.
That's the way to move Kentucky forward.
Fear mongering, scare tactics and religious cover for bigotry and jingoism are not going to move Kentucky forward. Notice the special words the Family Foundation uses to push the panic button for their adherents. "Bureaucrat” is one of the usual suspects. Pretending that no one actually needs government services and that all government services are a waste is certainly an argument that has failed spectacularly but continues to appeal to somebody somewhere. It's funny how those same people stubbornly refuse to see a connection between vital services they need or that their children, neighbors, elderly parents and community need and those despised "bureaucracies."
Providing fiction and distortions and calling them facts doesn't move Kentucky forward either. Mr. Edmunds and the Family Foundation know that no state money is used to pay for domestic partner benefits for university employees. Did the employees of the Family Foundation get a special interest break on their health insurance this year? I didn't and it had nothing to do with other people's partners and spouses. The cost of health care in the United States is a national problem that is going to require federal action. It wasn't triggered by the Fortune 500 companies that offer domestic partner benefits to their employees or the state governments, institutions of higher education or religious bodies that decided to provide health insurance to more people rather than less. Mr. Edmunds and the Family Foundation want fewer people to have insurance. It's that simple.
Pretending that there's nothing to learn from Drag Queens, lesbian, gay or bisexual students at UofL, and all the other people that Mr. Edmunds doesn't like and would rather relegate to second class citizenship doesn't move Kentucky forward either. The point of a university is analysis, discovery and dissemination of knowledge. Most programs in biology, anthropology, sociology, pan-African studies, women and gender studies and theatre arts would fail to meet with Mr. Edmunds and the Family Foundation's approval. That Mr. Edmunds fails to comprehend the work done by the Audre Lorde Endowed Chair in Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality is certainly not surprising. Since Mr. Edmunds and the Family Foundation really have no desire to learn anything from anyone that doesn't conform to the "good old days" model of "bible-based" heterosexual privilege there is very little out there for them to do other than rail against the modern world we live in. It must be nice to already have all the answers and need no further information.
Mr. Edmunds and the Family Foundation have bamboozled the people of this state long enough. They are holding us back. Pretending that everything was better in some Never-never Land back in the days of real (white, straight) men like Daniel Boone and Davy Crocket is very romantic but not very helpful. I am an 8th generation Kentuckian of Appalachian descent and have forebears that came through the Cumberland Gap from Yancey County. My ancestors fought on both sides of the Civil War and my relatives are spread from Erlanger to Oneida. It's time for those of us that actually care about the future of the commonwealth to speak up and stop allowing people like Mr. Edmunds and the Family Foundation to blind us to the future.
That's the way to move Kentucky forward.
Whew! While I also question why tuition is getting so damn expensive (cutting off the dreams of those of us who would like to return) I seriously doubt Edmunds has found the reason. It reads like he's just trying to whip up a little anti-GLBT movement.
Posted by: Michele | June 12, 2008 at 04:15 PM