The Future is the Past

We thought it was bad enough that the MAGA’s wanted to take us back to the 1950’s. After all, that was when America was great wasn’t it? That was when America was king and when men were men, and women and “Negroes” knew their places. That, we thought was what MAGA wanted. 

Oh, baby, we had no idea.

If you want to see where MAGA really wants to take us, examine the case argued at the Supreme Court this week. It’s a case called, “Mahmoud v. Taylor.” It comes out of a dispute between some parents in Virginia and their local school board. The Board had a rule that parents could choose to have their children opt out of particular classroom teaching that was contrary to their religious teaching. That rule became unworkable in a number of practical ways, so the School Board dropped it. 

That got the litigation juices flowing. The parents sued. They claimed that dropping the rule violated their “religious freedom” under the free exercise clause of the First Amendment. They pointed particularly to books that included such horrendously destructive moral figures as gay people. They said the Constitution protects their kids from these dark ideas. One particularly offensive book, for example, tells the story of a girl attending the same-sex wedding of her uncle. Heaven forbid. Literally.

If this sounds as dangerously foolish to you as it does to me, well, get ready for this. According to most of those who observed the arguments, it appears that the majority of the Supreme Court is siding with the parents. They are prepared to rule that a person’s religious freedom allows them to prevent their children from being exposed to certain ideas. 

What does that remind you of? A guy named “Scopes”? A trial in Tennessee in the 1920’s? Wasn’t that trial all about how religious beliefs shouldn’t control what is taught in public schools? Of course, Scopes lost that case, but I thought that we had since moved on. I thought that we now saw the error in imposing faith upon education. I thought we had come to the point where we understood that education was the opposite of faith, that it was about thought, about reason, about the very exposure to different ideas – the exposure that the Supreme Court is getting ready to suppress.

I thought all that, but I didn’t count on MAGA. They now want to turn us back further than the 1950’s. The MAGA Court will now take us back to the 1920’s.

So, folks, start taking Charleston lessons. Get ready to start dancing to the melodies of the past.