Thanks, Jim, for a piece that is only called “fear mongering” by those who think there should be no questioning of our public policies. Public policies should always be questioned and calling it “fear mongering” is just a way the Left has of shutting down reasonable discourse.
Nine years ago, when I first moved back to Santa Barbara where I grew up, I couldn't believe how many people I met talked about the need for more diversity in this city - in the very first conversation we had. They'd say how much it bothers them to live here. Sure, the weather is great, the city is surrounded by ocean and mountains, but they couldn't enjoy their life here because it just isn't diverse enough. At a dinner party I was seated next to a woman who went on and on, complaining bitterly about “the lack of diversity” here and finally I asked, “So why don't you move to Memphis? Or Baltimore?” She acted shocked by my question. “Because this is where I need to be, to fight for diversity.” It turned out she was working in the diversity section of some public non-profit here. Being paid nicely, I'm sure.
Then there was the head of Santa Barbara Botanical Garden who sent out an offensive email during the BLM summer saying he would not tolerate racism at The Garden. I wrote him back and said I've been going to The Garden since I was a kid and I have never seen non-white people turned away at the gate or harassed on the trails. He said, “It happens.” I replied “It happens that as much as I love The Garden you are never going to get another donation from me until you apologize for this insulting nonsense.” He didn't of course, and I'm not a member any longer.
So, let's stop this charade. DEI people are here because they DON'T want to live in a diverse city. They do not want to spend their days and nights actually doing something for non-white people, like being a paramedic on the South Side of Chicago. They just want to morally grandstand and do yoga on the beach and feel good about being complete hypocrites.
Polly, we too dropped our SB Botanic Garden membership, but mainly because their newsletter was over-saturated with gratuitous and unfounded "climate change" harangues, and slim on actual practical information about our local flora. Shame, because the bones of this operation are very good, until their newsletter writers got so darn preachy instead of informative. Classic, go woke and go broke. We voted with our check book.
J., it broke my heart. I love that Garden. That was the place I went to as a teen, when I was troubled or just wanting to connect with the spirits I always felt present when I was there. And I also went with friends. One was a black man who was a friend of my family. This was the early 70s. He was flamboyantly gay and wore a dashiki and huge afro. I relayed this to the current director and said that no one was anything but warm and friendly, the staff, fellow visitors. As they have never been anything but warm and friendly no matter what race the people I brought were. He wasn't interested because, you see, there are all these micro-aggressions that they discovered non-white staff and visitors had been subjected to. They'd had some stupid group session after George Floyd. I said to him, “What a waste of time and money and beauty. Instead of asking them about an animal or plant discovery they'd recently made, you asked them to find some way to feel resentful and victimized rather at one with nature.” This current Garden administration is as toxic as Roundup. I saw that after racism, they were onto climate change. People need to leave their baggage behind when they run a Botanical Garden. White guilt has no place in nature.
You couldn't stand the fact that the Botanical Gardens were informing guests about climate change and encouraging an inclusive community so you dropped your membership? Sorry, that sounds a lot like whining to me :/
“Climate change” not a valid scientifically proven fact. It is a theory that is being used by the Green Industrial Complex to gain power and make money with top-down radical changes in transportation and lifestyle that have not been proven to do anything for climate change - if it exists other than as a trendy moral high ground. As for inclusion: perhaps you, Claire, need the Botanic Garden director to scold you not to base friendship or the sharing of trails or courtesy on racial or sexual differences, but I don't. I've always based friendship, sharing trails, and courtesy on eternal principles that if you, Claire, were in touch with the Higher Power (whatever name you give to it) you would know and you would be more genuinely inclusive, like right now to other points of view.
I’ve been visiting the same spot on the SB coast for decades. The waves and tides come no further up the beach now than they did 35 years ago.
Give Steve Koonin’s book “Unsettled” a read. He’s a scientist, a liberal in the general sense, a man of good will, and he was an Obama appointee, so you won’t even have to hold your nose as you read.
What Koonin does is 1) look at the science and the studies — how solid are they, what are they really saying, etc? And 2) look at how the press represents the science and the studies. Surprise surprise: the science is much less certain and settled than we often think, and the press exaggerates and hypes the “science” very irresponsibly.
After you’ve read the book you’ll be a lot less alarmed about “climate change” than many people seem to be these days. Yes, the climate is changing, but the climate is always changing — the climate in 1930 was different than the climate in 2010. Nature adjusts. C’est la vie.
Claire, I challenge you to tell me how much Co2 is in our atmosphere and the percentage that humans contribute to it, and then to answer the question "if man produce zero Co2, what impact would that have on the earth's atmosphere?" I will give you a hint, the answer is almost nothing at all, so insignificant that it really wouldn't make any difference at all. You are not just whining, you are propagating victim ideologies and the climate agenda, both of which have no legitimate basis in reality.
Steven, as a career scientist, I could tell you exactly how much CO2 humans contribute to the atmosphere, and I could also tell you how human activity has been shaping our climate since the industrial revolution, but so could every 5th grader in the USA. It's not insignificant, but I'll let you go on living in ignorance. I challenge you to look into who profits from misinformation regarding climate change.
Claire, C02 is plant food. I also turn blue when I stop exhaling. There is that too.
There is NO science to support the global warming hoax. None, there can't be. You are just making up things and measuring meaningless surrogates. Sorry someone might be paying you to do this as a "scientist"- on a government grant or taxpayer salary? (No need to answer this, but always the right question to ask.)
Clair is like a 5th grader science bully, when a few people stand up to the fake bravado, she disappears. She had nothing real to say in the first place except that she promotes the racist ideology and the climate hoax. She forgot to read the room.
Please do tell me what percentage of the atmosphere is Co2 and what percentage of that total humans contribute, as a scientist this is a teaching moment for you, and please do tell me the numbers since the industrial revolution. I know for a fact not every 5th grader in the land could do that, most adults have no idea. Please do alleviate me from my ignorance on this. The argument about who profits from misinformation goes both ways. Misinformation hides in the shadows, if you are really a scientist, enlighten us, if you are a charlatan hide behind 5th graders and oil tycoons.
It sounds like you have already poured over the numbers yourself, Steven, and have deemed them insignificant. I'm sensing some hostility in your tone, so what's the point? Most 5th graders can indeed illustrate anthropogenic climate change, its one of the many benefits of a secular public education! Indeed, if you are curious, it is just a quick google search away.
Really? Not everyone can afford private school or to home school their children.
That’s a dismal statement. And not helpful.
The teachers and administration or a result of parents not being involved. A result of no one showing up at school board meetings. a result of no parent caring enough to learn what’s going on.
The result of people who do not have children, nor any experience with the schools denying what’s going on and saying parents are wrong.
What percentage of parents in SBUSD today can even legally participate in the school board election processes? 13 years of free school and two free meals a day may be as far as many parent's interests go. Harsh, I know so spare me the scolding. Just talking about the current K-12 realities, in this state of vastly lowered K-12 educational expectations.
JL - you raise the question Santa Barbara refuses to address: the majority of parents are totally uninvolved with their K-12 student(s), are not informed, and if they care, fear that they cannot legally vote (no one has told them every adult can vote in CA. I’ve never heard of a conviction for voting.). Fact: citizenship is a federal Constitutional requirement to vote for federal officials. There’s no voting accountability as we all know. From observation, it seems locally we select versus elect school officials. Few who are qualified are willing to run; plus, the cost to run is prohibitive unless a DEM. The local Democrats have a war chest plus organization to deliver seats to their hand picked candidates. GOP is broke.
We parents are responsible for educating our children. It’s true that not enough parents care about their children’s education, and that’s a shame. The ones who do, however, make it a priority to do whatever it takes to ensure their children aren’t turned over to these Leftists. Government schools are run by the teacher unions and are nothing more than government indoctrination centers for Leftists. Sending children to these institutions is tantamount to child abuse.
C.Schmidt: “child abuse?” You’re so wrong. Our local public schools need more taxpayers, retired, and parents to get involved, to be on campus, to work with teachers. SBUSD has some exceptional, exemplary faculty who provide outstanding academic instruction, and are accessible to both students and parents. The problem are the elected progressive, political TRUSTEES and their chosen Superintendent and District administrators. Get involved! Classes needed more adult support. Discipline is a huge concern at the secondary level only because some students not prepared at elementary level. The few weak teachers don’t know how deficient they are or are unaware of how to improve until privately informed to discuss. Teachers rarely have mentors, or master teacher oversight. These weak teachers only get feedback from
Parents or those like you and me sitting in on a class or two. I’ve sat in on many SBUSD classes. We’ve many outstanding instructors!
I stand by my comments. I don’t live in California, and I have experienced my local government schools long enough to wake the hell up and get out. I’m all for trying to change things, but my children won’t be attending any government school ever. The quality of education is a joke, and the Leftist agenda prevalent in them all is not something I am going to allow. My children will be raised with my values, not some woke “educator’s.”
Thank you Brian! You summed up local reality. Those attacking our public schools simply choose to avoid rather than work to FIX what’s broken! Parents and taxpayers need to join forces to FIX our public K-14 schools the WE OWN! Running away to privates or to homeschooling fails to FIX what’s need to ensure prepared citizens and future voters.
Some where in my memory comes the comment "when good men do nothing."
What is the time taken for the seats? 2 or 3 days a month and of course reading up on agendas?
Mr. Buckley is right. This is an issue of where "others" depend on someone else to do the right thing.
It used to be considered an honor to take those few days a month to serve. When the radical opposition decided to make these seats a "killing ground" to assassinate any and everyone who would express a different position (you know like opening with the pledge of allegiance to the nation giving them their right to be jerks) good men did nothing.
"Cultural Creep"??? More like a tidal wave and we now see communities drowning as a result.
Over a decade ago there was a highly organized partisan coup to take over every elected public office they could find, primarily to protect public pensions. Government pension reform was on the table at that time, since their unsustainable projections were staring everyone in the face.
Two voter-generated pension reform ballot initiatives were also to be decided at that time. That is when the teachers unions and SEIU sprang into action to take over school boards and protect their pension rights. Ironically, it was AG Kamala Harris who helped SEIU and the teachers unions shoot down these pension reform measures by re-writing the short ballot synopsis to ensure they would both fail.
Consequently, schools now struggle fiscally just to meet greater numbers of dollars going off the top to their shortfall pension funds, with more tax burden now foisted on property owners to keep the whole thing together.
Current SBCC bond initiative on the 2024 ballot is a classic case in point. Unchecked and bloated expenses finally out-stripped revenues after this partisan takeover of the SBCC board of trustees.. So now they want to hand this burden over to the property owner to tax themselves to cover this decade-long SBCC elected board fiscal irresponsibility.
A good definition of "fear mongering" is intentionally trying to mislead people into fearing something when there is nothing to be feared. Your article certainly does not fall into that category as one of your commenters claimed. Whether the writer believed you were making things up or was content to have the government pretty much run our private lives is not clear. Either way, it is time for more people to wake up. DEI is an insult to the people the government think need the help. All it seems to say is "you're not good enough to make it on your own" and is being implemented to cause division between the races. Thankfully more and more people see what is going on. Thank you, Jim, for the good article.
Yet another example of the “Nanny State.” Government coming between us and our children, claiming to know what’s best for us and our family. It should be shocking to all that many mandates nowadays are implemented by bureaucrats who are non-elected officials. They answer to no one, except the regulatory state.
Education and our children are the latest battle in the culture wars. How and when did this happen? Specifically, the battle in our schools seems to be centered around reproductive rights and gender identity. Yet, school nurses are unable to give so much as an aspirin without parental consent. Now, in some schools kids can have a surgical procedure such as an abortion or gender transition without even so much as parental consent!
We see the problem in that, there are multiple elected positions, such as School Board, which are either uncontested or unfilled. Who would want to take the time and expense in running for office only to face a hostile, woke mob? It takes courageous people to face the probability in running for office whereby, your entire life will be examined and scrutinized by unscrupulous people!
Indeed, it is the liberal left, unions and the LBGQT lobby which targets ANYONE who dares to question their group think. Yes, anyone with a Christian, traditional values point of view need not apply.
These groups are vocal, volatile and confrontational. Some videos of school board meetings, often result in free for all, whereby parents are being arrested and jailed!
As far as DEI is concerned, it is no more than a confidence game which guarantees outcomes for marginal applicants. That’s right, filling critical positions such as commercial pilot or surgeon with individuals because of race or sexual preference and NOT achievement.
Hopefully, things will change in the next election cycle, if not we are in big trouble and the inmates will continue to be running the proverbial asylum!
when governing principles are not applied consistently (need parental authorization for aspirin, yet not for gender affirming mental manipulation by unlicensed personnel), then you can smell the rot of manipulation. very sad indeed
ACLU- Rights of minors to obtain an abortion and their protected confidential relationship with their school for their excused medical absence, including no requirement to inform the parents:
This ACLU link confirms that minors have the right to have an abortion in California and that schools do not have the right to release private medical information about students, even to their parents in some cases. Sounds a lot like policies that have been pushed for by anti-vaxxers, no? It's las if private medical history only matters when it suits your freedoms, but not the freedom of others. Nice try, but my question still stands, name one school where a minor can receive that kind of care without parental consent.
You did not read the entire link, Claire. Keep reading but take your ideological blinders off.
Are you claiming the procedures must be available on an actual campus when you ask us to "name one school" where this kind of care can be delivered?
Access and excused absences without parental notifications for "confidential medical care" are minors rights in this state, according to this ACLU link.
Yes, I am specifically addressing the quote: "Now, in some schools kids can have a surgical procedure such as an abortion or gender transition without even so much as parental consent!" above. This is simply not true. California has confidentiality policies such as these to protect minors from unstable situations. If your kids trust you enough, they'd tell you themselves about their medical needs. It seems to only be in instances of abuse and neglect that minors are forced to make these hard decisions on their own in private.
Clare- like you, I know of no CA K-14 public school that does surgical procedures on campus. The student seeking help is typically referred out to their school counselor, trusted other (parent/ friend), or to a local medical clinic.
Seriously Claire, check your self righteous indignation. You seem to espouse the same old, tired liberal vibe. Belittle Christian beliefs as having “racist or homophobic” overtones . You mention Catholic Priests as
“Molesters,” as if the acts of priests which are criminals represent our beliefs as a faith. As a Catholic I find that offensive and bigoted. In fact, that is outrageous as saying “most criminals are black.” The reality is most people have no issue with Gay Rights as it relates to civil rights which we all enjoy. But no, liberals such as yourself have to take it to the next level. Sorry, most people ask why do we have to bring “Drag Hour” into our schools?
You mention you went to private school, where is your enlightenment? You also claim to have lived abroad, really? Where? Ever been to the Middle East? I have. How do you think Transgenderism goes over in Tunisia? Trust me, not well.
So, I suggest you take a more open mind in regards to understanding conflicting views and get over the fact that not everyone agrees with you.
Clare, I suspect the author meant to post kids ‘can access information to have a surgical procedures’ rather than ‘can have a surgical procedure …’. . “In some schools kids can have a surgical procedure such as an abortion or gender transition without even so much as parental consent!" K-14 CA public schools typically don’t do surgeries on campus. Schools. I
I hope many true patriots and those with common sense sign up to serve on school boards, but in my experience, working in the trenches like that is like trying to duck dive a tsunami- still, it is virtuous to try. I think of more importance is for us parents and grandparents to take the charge of protecting our children's innocence much more seriously. We will not triumph by getting control of the external forces that are corrupted but by changing the hearts and minds of our children, to have them put on the armor of virtue, form the intellect to converge with reality and cultivate the free will to choose what is objectively good. We must take our children back. That picture above is perfect.
I look around and I don't recognize our world of today. Every little piece given.....over and over and over, suddenly creates a GIANT abyss of Sodom and Gommorrah mentalities.
I read this good article by Mr. Buckley titled "Cultural Creep Spurred by Cultural Creeps"
that touches on the MAIN Problem in America with a New Title that should read.....
"The Destruction of the American Family & It's Children" and I quote Mr. Buckley
"Have you ever wondered why or how our or your American culture has drifted so far from where it was, say, thirty years ago or more?"
One of our Countries MAJOR Problems are "School Shooters" and they are typically young Disturbed
Kids whose Parents long ago left them. Was there a potential "School Shooter" in Santa Barbara and was he prevented from shooting Alot of People here? Better thank God that some real people were/are here preventing MAJOR Threats in our Community because the So-Called-Leaders of Santa Barbara are the direct cause of these MAJOR Threats.
From the second weblink study "In terms of past trauma, 31% of persons who perpetrated mass shootings were found to have experiences of severe childhood trauma, and over 80% were in crisis. Trauma was a common element of the backgrounds of those committing mass shooting, both in the database and the qualitative studies." How does family trauma start from families in "Conflict" many from Divorces across America.
Anne-Marie Castleberg, let me spell it out. Before children are even thinking about sexuality they are "introduced" to homosexuality and transgenderism. They read about same sex love stories and are read to by men dressed as women. They are taught that gender is fluid and a choice. Children mimic what their teachers and other adults say and do. A six year old child gets attention and special treatment when questioning their birth gender or orientation. Children love attention. Maybe coerced is a better word than convinced but they are unnaturally manipulated to have these thoughts and parents are told to support the process out of love for the child. That the child might commit suicide if this whim is not indulged. This is bullshit. Transgender and homosexual children are less happy and more likely to take their own life. They are however now members of a marginalized group with a loving home in the Democrat party.
we call it grooming. it's a very subtle, subversive process. The nazis knew that demoralizing a society was key to taking it over. This is all part of the demoralization process. I'm sure you have all seen this already?
What is your child’s experience? Do they tell yiu about the questionnaires?
In my children’s SBUSD classes they talk about gender in math, English, Spanish, environmental science.
They have the kids fill out forms in these classes asking if they are gay, asking if they are comfortable in their bodies, how their parents influence how they feel, how their household income influences their gender.
The questions go on
But why are they pushing these in math, science, English, Spanish class?
No winder our schools are ranked in the bottom 10% of the country.
No wonder teen suicide is at its highest rate in history, spiking upward starting with COVID torment , peer pressure and bullying
Data mining. The student completed questionnaires that include private family info on sex, debt, drugs them goes over to UCSB. Parents don’t seem to know or to care to opt out their student.
Not correct Anne-Marie- the least offensive is the pusillanimous teacher who does nothing while the schools perpetrate this evil on our children, but many teachers support, promote and encourage the gender identity confusion as a matter of virtue signaling-
Anne, to correct someone is not to punish them, it is to help them understand. No human is the arbiter of reality, we can only discover what is true, not make it so. There is no such reality as a boy born in a girls body or vice versa.
Thank you James. Jonathan Abboud, SBCC Trustee, stated “There is no amount of money that is too much to spend on Anti-Racism” when I confronted him about the millions they have spent on DEIA under his leadership. Now they are out of money and asking for a bond to repair crumbling buildings.
Great column, Jim. So much good sense in it that I suspect Mayorkas and Garland will be knocking at your door any day now. When they do be sure to whip out the iPhone and record it on video.
Funny how prone the U.S. is to getting swept up in fads and hysterias, isn’t it? I often wonder why that’s the case. DEI, seriously? Satanic ritual abuse in day-care centers? Recovered-memory syndrome? Trans baloney? It’s one after another, with hardly any time in between to let us calm down. Eventually they all seem to go away, thank heavens — but we also never seem to learn from our mistakes. How I wish we did.
A couple of things: anyone curious about the trans fad owes it to him/herself to read or at least explore a few interviews with Abigail Shrier. Here’s a good interview:
I second Jim’s recommendation of James Lindsay on DEI. He’s been amazingly good (and solid) on the Marxist (and often frankly Commie) roots of CRT and DEI. Both are nothing but old-fashioned Marxism with race and “gender” put in the place economic class used to occupy in the Marxist scheme of things. And it’s all *intended* to upend bad bad bourgeois society.
And a basic note about diversity and Santa Barbara. The city is plenty diverse: roughly 52% white and nearly 40% Hispanic. What we don’t have is a whole lot of black people. So if someone’s complaining that SB isn’t diverse enough what they’re apparently noticing is that we don’t have many blacks. “Diversity” in their minds=“black people.” They just aren’t noticing and acknowledging how many Hispanics we have, or they aren’t thinking about them as adding to our ethnic diversity. Interesting. What to make of it?
And btw: SB County is even more extreme. SB County is about 41% white and 47% Hispanic. That’s one pretty diverse county.
I had to laugh and then wrote about it when I was informed that Cleveland Elementary was the "most diverse" campus in the Santa Barbara school system because it was 91% Hispanic. So, I'm guessing it would be even more "diverse" if that percentage was 100%?
Ever wonder why there is no DEI programs in the Olympics, NBA, NFL or Navy Seals?
Simply because it would require LOWERING the bar, resulting in adversely affecting the mission!
Some of the comments made by “Childless Cat Ladies” who identify as liberal, woke are truly comical. Yes, there is definitely a liberal local mindset here, many of whom have NEVER left the comfort of their SB bubble!
They continually whine about the “lack of diversity” but refuse to leave for other more “diverse”hellscapes like Oakland or SF…go figure! Yes, the sense of entitlement is truly narcissistic. Talk about diversity, I vividly remember in my younger days, working at USC/LA County Medical Center, when a shootout erupted in the ER, resulting in the death of a physician and the hospital was in total lockdown affecting the care of hundreds of patients. Or later, during the LA riots, when I looked out the window on the 10th floor and people were shooting at LAPD helicopters, trying to bring it down. It was like being in a movie or living in Beirut. Talk about working under fire! Many liberals living here have NO clue about adversity or diversity, and are clueless about the cause and effect of a Godless/lawless society.
Choosing to see the growing influence of DEI initiatives and the acceptance of transgender identities as problematic is evidently based on misinformation and a refusal to acknowledge the real struggles faced by marginalized communities. No, your children, family, and students are not being indoctrinated. The local Santa Barbara school districts are doing their best to cultivate a safe and inclusive learning environment for all students, not just those who are privileged enough to not have to worry about their rights being limited by conservative politicians. Make no mistake, expanding rights for marginalized groups does not diminish the rights of others. I'm more worried about the public policies in states such as Kansas, where anti-trans bills are opening the door for genital inspections of students before sports games, that sounds a lot like government overreach to me (such matters are not about fairness in sports but about perpetuating a culture war that distracts from more pressing issues). Or, more locally, when a charter school teacher was caught filming his students in the changing spaces without their knowledge, I thought private schools were safer? What about Santa Barbara church leaders who are steadily spreading racist and misogynistic ideologies, not to mention the several accounts of child molestation at the hand of these local priests. Suffice to say, the call is coming from inside the house! As a product of both public and private schools in Santa Barbara County and abroad, I can say that I have greatly benefitted from a diverse community of teachers and mentors. I have witnessed the beautiful acceptance of my LGBTQ+ peers who have been punched down on their whole lives, as well as watching them fear for their safety after reading posts like this and seeing all of the ignorant comments. My suggestion? Go out into the world, burst your own bubble and engage with people who are different from you. It's difficult to unlearn the racism and transphobia you have been spoon-fed and scared into believing, and its even easier to seek affirmations in an echo chamber like this one. Educated discussions on race, gender, and sexuality are not the problem, the problem lies in the policies and attitudes that seek to marginalize and harm them under the guise of protecting traditional values.
Clare: "Make no mistake, expanding rights for marginalized groups does not diminish the rights of others." You are wrong. Allowing some dude who calls himself a girl into the girls' changing room diminishes the rights of all the other real girls.
You lost me Claire, after your first unfounded, polarized whine: ............ "not just those who are privileged enough to not have to worry about their rights being limited by conservative politicians"........
Im sorry to hear that that sentence was so confusing for you, let me rephrase it. Upper middle class white students, such as myself, have not faced the same reality as lower class marginalized students.
I believe the proper phrase is "white savior complex" and it has nothing to do with me voicing the opinions, just like you are, on political blogs posts like this one.
Just another fear mongering piece celebrating what you imagine life was 30 years ago. I'm a small business owner with outside HR and payroll and I have never had DEI training. Please explain why DEI and CRT are bad. That's the essay I want to read. However, I think the real poison in our society is social media, and yet here I am...
Big corporations are finally seeing the light and closing their DEIA programs. Progressive School Boards will be the last to change because they are protected by loyal low-info voters and the radical state legislature. Our local colleges have even brought back segregated graduations and spaces on campus. Martin Luther King would be sad to see this as he famously stated that all are created equal.
I have had access to a recent study of employees in a state agency that asked questions about various training programs, and the one that was least liked was DEI training. Only 18 percent thought it worthwhile. Interestingly, many of this employees come from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds.
Also, I have a granddaughter who just finished her freshman year at a UC campus and she told us, her grandparents, that she enjoyed all her classes, except the required DEI two-quarter course. She said it was boring and a waste of time. This stuff is being jammed down throats all across the state, but the good news is that it is being rejected as garbage by apparently many of those who are being subjected to this propaganda.
I don’t know about all this DEI, skin color, religion, woke crap etc. All I know is I like and want to hang out with my guys. Same background, think the same, (used to) chase the girls the same way, have the same love for surf and nature etc., in other words talk the same language! Why is that so hard to understand? It’s not that I dislike different folks, it's just that I have to work too hard to connect !
Thanks, Jim, for a piece that is only called “fear mongering” by those who think there should be no questioning of our public policies. Public policies should always be questioned and calling it “fear mongering” is just a way the Left has of shutting down reasonable discourse.
Nine years ago, when I first moved back to Santa Barbara where I grew up, I couldn't believe how many people I met talked about the need for more diversity in this city - in the very first conversation we had. They'd say how much it bothers them to live here. Sure, the weather is great, the city is surrounded by ocean and mountains, but they couldn't enjoy their life here because it just isn't diverse enough. At a dinner party I was seated next to a woman who went on and on, complaining bitterly about “the lack of diversity” here and finally I asked, “So why don't you move to Memphis? Or Baltimore?” She acted shocked by my question. “Because this is where I need to be, to fight for diversity.” It turned out she was working in the diversity section of some public non-profit here. Being paid nicely, I'm sure.
Then there was the head of Santa Barbara Botanical Garden who sent out an offensive email during the BLM summer saying he would not tolerate racism at The Garden. I wrote him back and said I've been going to The Garden since I was a kid and I have never seen non-white people turned away at the gate or harassed on the trails. He said, “It happens.” I replied “It happens that as much as I love The Garden you are never going to get another donation from me until you apologize for this insulting nonsense.” He didn't of course, and I'm not a member any longer.
So, let's stop this charade. DEI people are here because they DON'T want to live in a diverse city. They do not want to spend their days and nights actually doing something for non-white people, like being a paramedic on the South Side of Chicago. They just want to morally grandstand and do yoga on the beach and feel good about being complete hypocrites.
Polly, we too dropped our SB Botanic Garden membership, but mainly because their newsletter was over-saturated with gratuitous and unfounded "climate change" harangues, and slim on actual practical information about our local flora. Shame, because the bones of this operation are very good, until their newsletter writers got so darn preachy instead of informative. Classic, go woke and go broke. We voted with our check book.
J., it broke my heart. I love that Garden. That was the place I went to as a teen, when I was troubled or just wanting to connect with the spirits I always felt present when I was there. And I also went with friends. One was a black man who was a friend of my family. This was the early 70s. He was flamboyantly gay and wore a dashiki and huge afro. I relayed this to the current director and said that no one was anything but warm and friendly, the staff, fellow visitors. As they have never been anything but warm and friendly no matter what race the people I brought were. He wasn't interested because, you see, there are all these micro-aggressions that they discovered non-white staff and visitors had been subjected to. They'd had some stupid group session after George Floyd. I said to him, “What a waste of time and money and beauty. Instead of asking them about an animal or plant discovery they'd recently made, you asked them to find some way to feel resentful and victimized rather at one with nature.” This current Garden administration is as toxic as Roundup. I saw that after racism, they were onto climate change. People need to leave their baggage behind when they run a Botanical Garden. White guilt has no place in nature.
You couldn't stand the fact that the Botanical Gardens were informing guests about climate change and encouraging an inclusive community so you dropped your membership? Sorry, that sounds a lot like whining to me :/
“Climate change” not a valid scientifically proven fact. It is a theory that is being used by the Green Industrial Complex to gain power and make money with top-down radical changes in transportation and lifestyle that have not been proven to do anything for climate change - if it exists other than as a trendy moral high ground. As for inclusion: perhaps you, Claire, need the Botanic Garden director to scold you not to base friendship or the sharing of trails or courtesy on racial or sexual differences, but I don't. I've always based friendship, sharing trails, and courtesy on eternal principles that if you, Claire, were in touch with the Higher Power (whatever name you give to it) you would know and you would be more genuinely inclusive, like right now to other points of view.
👏👏
I’ve been visiting the same spot on the SB coast for decades. The waves and tides come no further up the beach now than they did 35 years ago.
Give Steve Koonin’s book “Unsettled” a read. He’s a scientist, a liberal in the general sense, a man of good will, and he was an Obama appointee, so you won’t even have to hold your nose as you read.
What Koonin does is 1) look at the science and the studies — how solid are they, what are they really saying, etc? And 2) look at how the press represents the science and the studies. Surprise surprise: the science is much less certain and settled than we often think, and the press exaggerates and hypes the “science” very irresponsibly.
After you’ve read the book you’ll be a lot less alarmed about “climate change” than many people seem to be these days. Yes, the climate is changing, but the climate is always changing — the climate in 1930 was different than the climate in 2010. Nature adjusts. C’est la vie.
We’ll get by somehow.
Claire, I challenge you to tell me how much Co2 is in our atmosphere and the percentage that humans contribute to it, and then to answer the question "if man produce zero Co2, what impact would that have on the earth's atmosphere?" I will give you a hint, the answer is almost nothing at all, so insignificant that it really wouldn't make any difference at all. You are not just whining, you are propagating victim ideologies and the climate agenda, both of which have no legitimate basis in reality.
👏👏
Steven, as a career scientist, I could tell you exactly how much CO2 humans contribute to the atmosphere, and I could also tell you how human activity has been shaping our climate since the industrial revolution, but so could every 5th grader in the USA. It's not insignificant, but I'll let you go on living in ignorance. I challenge you to look into who profits from misinformation regarding climate change.
Claire, C02 is plant food. I also turn blue when I stop exhaling. There is that too.
There is NO science to support the global warming hoax. None, there can't be. You are just making up things and measuring meaningless surrogates. Sorry someone might be paying you to do this as a "scientist"- on a government grant or taxpayer salary? (No need to answer this, but always the right question to ask.)
Clair is like a 5th grader science bully, when a few people stand up to the fake bravado, she disappears. She had nothing real to say in the first place except that she promotes the racist ideology and the climate hoax. She forgot to read the room.
Hi Claire,
Please do tell me what percentage of the atmosphere is Co2 and what percentage of that total humans contribute, as a scientist this is a teaching moment for you, and please do tell me the numbers since the industrial revolution. I know for a fact not every 5th grader in the land could do that, most adults have no idea. Please do alleviate me from my ignorance on this. The argument about who profits from misinformation goes both ways. Misinformation hides in the shadows, if you are really a scientist, enlighten us, if you are a charlatan hide behind 5th graders and oil tycoons.
It sounds like you have already poured over the numbers yourself, Steven, and have deemed them insignificant. I'm sensing some hostility in your tone, so what's the point? Most 5th graders can indeed illustrate anthropogenic climate change, its one of the many benefits of a secular public education! Indeed, if you are curious, it is just a quick google search away.
Claire, what is your science field and your career in it?
Claire, It sounds like free enterprise to me.
Clare I’d like answers. You post you’re an educator, and you made statements . I’m ignorant with a grad degree. I’d like to be informed.
Anyone who sends their children to a government school deserves what they get.
Really? Not everyone can afford private school or to home school their children.
That’s a dismal statement. And not helpful.
The teachers and administration or a result of parents not being involved. A result of no one showing up at school board meetings. a result of no parent caring enough to learn what’s going on.
The result of people who do not have children, nor any experience with the schools denying what’s going on and saying parents are wrong.
What percentage of parents in SBUSD today can even legally participate in the school board election processes? 13 years of free school and two free meals a day may be as far as many parent's interests go. Harsh, I know so spare me the scolding. Just talking about the current K-12 realities, in this state of vastly lowered K-12 educational expectations.
JL - you raise the question Santa Barbara refuses to address: the majority of parents are totally uninvolved with their K-12 student(s), are not informed, and if they care, fear that they cannot legally vote (no one has told them every adult can vote in CA. I’ve never heard of a conviction for voting.). Fact: citizenship is a federal Constitutional requirement to vote for federal officials. There’s no voting accountability as we all know. From observation, it seems locally we select versus elect school officials. Few who are qualified are willing to run; plus, the cost to run is prohibitive unless a DEM. The local Democrats have a war chest plus organization to deliver seats to their hand picked candidates. GOP is broke.
We parents are responsible for educating our children. It’s true that not enough parents care about their children’s education, and that’s a shame. The ones who do, however, make it a priority to do whatever it takes to ensure their children aren’t turned over to these Leftists. Government schools are run by the teacher unions and are nothing more than government indoctrination centers for Leftists. Sending children to these institutions is tantamount to child abuse.
C.Schmidt: “child abuse?” You’re so wrong. Our local public schools need more taxpayers, retired, and parents to get involved, to be on campus, to work with teachers. SBUSD has some exceptional, exemplary faculty who provide outstanding academic instruction, and are accessible to both students and parents. The problem are the elected progressive, political TRUSTEES and their chosen Superintendent and District administrators. Get involved! Classes needed more adult support. Discipline is a huge concern at the secondary level only because some students not prepared at elementary level. The few weak teachers don’t know how deficient they are or are unaware of how to improve until privately informed to discuss. Teachers rarely have mentors, or master teacher oversight. These weak teachers only get feedback from
Parents or those like you and me sitting in on a class or two. I’ve sat in on many SBUSD classes. We’ve many outstanding instructors!
I stand by my comments. I don’t live in California, and I have experienced my local government schools long enough to wake the hell up and get out. I’m all for trying to change things, but my children won’t be attending any government school ever. The quality of education is a joke, and the Leftist agenda prevalent in them all is not something I am going to allow. My children will be raised with my values, not some woke “educator’s.”
CSchmidt : good to know you’re from out of state. Every state is different, school requirements differ as we all know.
Thank you Brian! You summed up local reality. Those attacking our public schools simply choose to avoid rather than work to FIX what’s broken! Parents and taxpayers need to join forces to FIX our public K-14 schools the WE OWN! Running away to privates or to homeschooling fails to FIX what’s need to ensure prepared citizens and future voters.
Some where in my memory comes the comment "when good men do nothing."
What is the time taken for the seats? 2 or 3 days a month and of course reading up on agendas?
Mr. Buckley is right. This is an issue of where "others" depend on someone else to do the right thing.
It used to be considered an honor to take those few days a month to serve. When the radical opposition decided to make these seats a "killing ground" to assassinate any and everyone who would express a different position (you know like opening with the pledge of allegiance to the nation giving them their right to be jerks) good men did nothing.
"Cultural Creep"??? More like a tidal wave and we now see communities drowning as a result.
Over a decade ago there was a highly organized partisan coup to take over every elected public office they could find, primarily to protect public pensions. Government pension reform was on the table at that time, since their unsustainable projections were staring everyone in the face.
Two voter-generated pension reform ballot initiatives were also to be decided at that time. That is when the teachers unions and SEIU sprang into action to take over school boards and protect their pension rights. Ironically, it was AG Kamala Harris who helped SEIU and the teachers unions shoot down these pension reform measures by re-writing the short ballot synopsis to ensure they would both fail.
Consequently, schools now struggle fiscally just to meet greater numbers of dollars going off the top to their shortfall pension funds, with more tax burden now foisted on property owners to keep the whole thing together.
Current SBCC bond initiative on the 2024 ballot is a classic case in point. Unchecked and bloated expenses finally out-stripped revenues after this partisan takeover of the SBCC board of trustees.. So now they want to hand this burden over to the property owner to tax themselves to cover this decade-long SBCC elected board fiscal irresponsibility.
God bless you for keeping up with this stuff. It’s super-important but puts me right to sleep. My failure!
This is shocking and a complete failure of fiduciary responsibility. Seems to me a Grand Jury ought to open an investigation?
Why a Grand Jury? Nothing happens. The GJ investigates; the status quo remains.
A good definition of "fear mongering" is intentionally trying to mislead people into fearing something when there is nothing to be feared. Your article certainly does not fall into that category as one of your commenters claimed. Whether the writer believed you were making things up or was content to have the government pretty much run our private lives is not clear. Either way, it is time for more people to wake up. DEI is an insult to the people the government think need the help. All it seems to say is "you're not good enough to make it on your own" and is being implemented to cause division between the races. Thankfully more and more people see what is going on. Thank you, Jim, for the good article.
Yet another example of the “Nanny State.” Government coming between us and our children, claiming to know what’s best for us and our family. It should be shocking to all that many mandates nowadays are implemented by bureaucrats who are non-elected officials. They answer to no one, except the regulatory state.
Education and our children are the latest battle in the culture wars. How and when did this happen? Specifically, the battle in our schools seems to be centered around reproductive rights and gender identity. Yet, school nurses are unable to give so much as an aspirin without parental consent. Now, in some schools kids can have a surgical procedure such as an abortion or gender transition without even so much as parental consent!
We see the problem in that, there are multiple elected positions, such as School Board, which are either uncontested or unfilled. Who would want to take the time and expense in running for office only to face a hostile, woke mob? It takes courageous people to face the probability in running for office whereby, your entire life will be examined and scrutinized by unscrupulous people!
Indeed, it is the liberal left, unions and the LBGQT lobby which targets ANYONE who dares to question their group think. Yes, anyone with a Christian, traditional values point of view need not apply.
These groups are vocal, volatile and confrontational. Some videos of school board meetings, often result in free for all, whereby parents are being arrested and jailed!
As far as DEI is concerned, it is no more than a confidence game which guarantees outcomes for marginal applicants. That’s right, filling critical positions such as commercial pilot or surgeon with individuals because of race or sexual preference and NOT achievement.
Hopefully, things will change in the next election cycle, if not we are in big trouble and the inmates will continue to be running the proverbial asylum!
when governing principles are not applied consistently (need parental authorization for aspirin, yet not for gender affirming mental manipulation by unlicensed personnel), then you can smell the rot of manipulation. very sad indeed
Name one school where a minor can receive an abortion or gender affirming care without the consent of the parent.
ACLU- Rights of minors to obtain an abortion and their protected confidential relationship with their school for their excused medical absence, including no requirement to inform the parents:
https://www.aclunc.org/our-work/know-your-rights/know-your-rights-abortion-access-california#item-2962
This ACLU link confirms that minors have the right to have an abortion in California and that schools do not have the right to release private medical information about students, even to their parents in some cases. Sounds a lot like policies that have been pushed for by anti-vaxxers, no? It's las if private medical history only matters when it suits your freedoms, but not the freedom of others. Nice try, but my question still stands, name one school where a minor can receive that kind of care without parental consent.
You did not read the entire link, Claire. Keep reading but take your ideological blinders off.
Are you claiming the procedures must be available on an actual campus when you ask us to "name one school" where this kind of care can be delivered?
Access and excused absences without parental notifications for "confidential medical care" are minors rights in this state, according to this ACLU link.
Yes, I am specifically addressing the quote: "Now, in some schools kids can have a surgical procedure such as an abortion or gender transition without even so much as parental consent!" above. This is simply not true. California has confidentiality policies such as these to protect minors from unstable situations. If your kids trust you enough, they'd tell you themselves about their medical needs. It seems to only be in instances of abuse and neglect that minors are forced to make these hard decisions on their own in private.
Clare- like you, I know of no CA K-14 public school that does surgical procedures on campus. The student seeking help is typically referred out to their school counselor, trusted other (parent/ friend), or to a local medical clinic.
Seriously Claire, check your self righteous indignation. You seem to espouse the same old, tired liberal vibe. Belittle Christian beliefs as having “racist or homophobic” overtones . You mention Catholic Priests as
“Molesters,” as if the acts of priests which are criminals represent our beliefs as a faith. As a Catholic I find that offensive and bigoted. In fact, that is outrageous as saying “most criminals are black.” The reality is most people have no issue with Gay Rights as it relates to civil rights which we all enjoy. But no, liberals such as yourself have to take it to the next level. Sorry, most people ask why do we have to bring “Drag Hour” into our schools?
You mention you went to private school, where is your enlightenment? You also claim to have lived abroad, really? Where? Ever been to the Middle East? I have. How do you think Transgenderism goes over in Tunisia? Trust me, not well.
So, I suggest you take a more open mind in regards to understanding conflicting views and get over the fact that not everyone agrees with you.
Clare, I suspect the author meant to post kids ‘can access information to have a surgical procedures’ rather than ‘can have a surgical procedure …’. . “In some schools kids can have a surgical procedure such as an abortion or gender transition without even so much as parental consent!" K-14 CA public schools typically don’t do surgeries on campus. Schools. I
Excellent article Mr. Buckley!
I hope many true patriots and those with common sense sign up to serve on school boards, but in my experience, working in the trenches like that is like trying to duck dive a tsunami- still, it is virtuous to try. I think of more importance is for us parents and grandparents to take the charge of protecting our children's innocence much more seriously. We will not triumph by getting control of the external forces that are corrupted but by changing the hearts and minds of our children, to have them put on the armor of virtue, form the intellect to converge with reality and cultivate the free will to choose what is objectively good. We must take our children back. That picture above is perfect.
I look around and I don't recognize our world of today. Every little piece given.....over and over and over, suddenly creates a GIANT abyss of Sodom and Gommorrah mentalities.
I read this good article by Mr. Buckley titled "Cultural Creep Spurred by Cultural Creeps"
that touches on the MAIN Problem in America with a New Title that should read.....
"The Destruction of the American Family & It's Children" and I quote Mr. Buckley
"Have you ever wondered why or how our or your American culture has drifted so far from where it was, say, thirty years ago or more?"
One of our Countries MAJOR Problems are "School Shooters" and they are typically young Disturbed
Kids whose Parents long ago left them. Was there a potential "School Shooter" in Santa Barbara and was he prevented from shooting Alot of People here? Better thank God that some real people were/are here preventing MAJOR Threats in our Community because the So-Called-Leaders of Santa Barbara are the direct cause of these MAJOR Threats.
https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/public-mass-shootings-database-amasses-details-half-century-us-mass-shootings
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/10/18/about-a-third-of-k-12-parents-are-very-or-extremely-worried-a-shooting-could-happen-at-their-childrens-school/
Howard Walther, member of a Military Family
From the second weblink study "In terms of past trauma, 31% of persons who perpetrated mass shootings were found to have experiences of severe childhood trauma, and over 80% were in crisis. Trauma was a common element of the backgrounds of those committing mass shooting, both in the database and the qualitative studies." How does family trauma start from families in "Conflict" many from Divorces across America.
H
It’s ridiculous to suggest teachers or other school personnel “ convince” a child they were born in the wrong body. Why on earth would they.
It’s probably fairer and more accurate to say they don’t punish the child, or shame the child that exhibits signs of identity confusion.
Well, maybe so, but any teacher's or nurse's first response should be to tell the parents!
Anne-Marie Castleberg, let me spell it out. Before children are even thinking about sexuality they are "introduced" to homosexuality and transgenderism. They read about same sex love stories and are read to by men dressed as women. They are taught that gender is fluid and a choice. Children mimic what their teachers and other adults say and do. A six year old child gets attention and special treatment when questioning their birth gender or orientation. Children love attention. Maybe coerced is a better word than convinced but they are unnaturally manipulated to have these thoughts and parents are told to support the process out of love for the child. That the child might commit suicide if this whim is not indulged. This is bullshit. Transgender and homosexual children are less happy and more likely to take their own life. They are however now members of a marginalized group with a loving home in the Democrat party.
we call it grooming. it's a very subtle, subversive process. The nazis knew that demoralizing a society was key to taking it over. This is all part of the demoralization process. I'm sure you have all seen this already?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQPsKvG6WMI
Definitely not the experience of my friends who teach Spanish at SB High.
It is happening all around us in our schools. Denying it won't make it go away.
Anne, do you have kids in our public schools?
What is your child’s experience? Do they tell yiu about the questionnaires?
In my children’s SBUSD classes they talk about gender in math, English, Spanish, environmental science.
They have the kids fill out forms in these classes asking if they are gay, asking if they are comfortable in their bodies, how their parents influence how they feel, how their household income influences their gender.
The questions go on
But why are they pushing these in math, science, English, Spanish class?
No winder our schools are ranked in the bottom 10% of the country.
No wonder teen suicide is at its highest rate in history, spiking upward starting with COVID torment , peer pressure and bullying
Data mining. The student completed questionnaires that include private family info on sex, debt, drugs them goes over to UCSB. Parents don’t seem to know or to care to opt out their student.
Not correct Anne-Marie- the least offensive is the pusillanimous teacher who does nothing while the schools perpetrate this evil on our children, but many teachers support, promote and encourage the gender identity confusion as a matter of virtue signaling-
Anne, to correct someone is not to punish them, it is to help them understand. No human is the arbiter of reality, we can only discover what is true, not make it so. There is no such reality as a boy born in a girls body or vice versa.
Thank you James. Jonathan Abboud, SBCC Trustee, stated “There is no amount of money that is too much to spend on Anti-Racism” when I confronted him about the millions they have spent on DEIA under his leadership. Now they are out of money and asking for a bond to repair crumbling buildings.
Reminder -SBCC total compensation packages: 2022 - costs to taxpayers. Failure to report 2023. https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2022/santa-barbara-city-college/
By way of reference - cost to taxpayers: US POTUS $450K; US VP $350K.
Thanks for this link. Direct proof of bloated administration.
Not just administration - there are productivity concerns as well.
Great column, Jim. So much good sense in it that I suspect Mayorkas and Garland will be knocking at your door any day now. When they do be sure to whip out the iPhone and record it on video.
Funny how prone the U.S. is to getting swept up in fads and hysterias, isn’t it? I often wonder why that’s the case. DEI, seriously? Satanic ritual abuse in day-care centers? Recovered-memory syndrome? Trans baloney? It’s one after another, with hardly any time in between to let us calm down. Eventually they all seem to go away, thank heavens — but we also never seem to learn from our mistakes. How I wish we did.
A couple of things: anyone curious about the trans fad owes it to him/herself to read or at least explore a few interviews with Abigail Shrier. Here’s a good interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uqht5dcJAI
Here’s her very interesting book:
https://www.amazon.com/Irreversible-Damage-Transgender-Seducing-Daughters/dp/168451228X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Rjxwl-V8OtUSQUb6-5pe8dpUjV5OR_LOtMy6WhPtd1FxNTn7pTogOlSudQ3NMdDM8khH8XHbvyo93IJzEoSAoj4_19CxH2j51QN7rt9bAriCmE6kYBgFT07QqXefDi1WMgKRn94vQrS_1TLW0vhrQSgV_rTs8a8hSlox46iokgGOuYUAGgZBbkUZgZ96CiVGyw1ohccu7INPvV32o6FUFGHbbg-JlJ4u7NM45wVa8Z0.OXxqzdjjJXB86h7dxU4zmTXrOLL306YS5XTEEcJVhzw&qid=1723141425&sr=8-1
I second Jim’s recommendation of James Lindsay on DEI. He’s been amazingly good (and solid) on the Marxist (and often frankly Commie) roots of CRT and DEI. Both are nothing but old-fashioned Marxism with race and “gender” put in the place economic class used to occupy in the Marxist scheme of things. And it’s all *intended* to upend bad bad bourgeois society.
And a basic note about diversity and Santa Barbara. The city is plenty diverse: roughly 52% white and nearly 40% Hispanic. What we don’t have is a whole lot of black people. So if someone’s complaining that SB isn’t diverse enough what they’re apparently noticing is that we don’t have many blacks. “Diversity” in their minds=“black people.” They just aren’t noticing and acknowledging how many Hispanics we have, or they aren’t thinking about them as adding to our ethnic diversity. Interesting. What to make of it?
And btw: SB County is even more extreme. SB County is about 41% white and 47% Hispanic. That’s one pretty diverse county.
I had to laugh and then wrote about it when I was informed that Cleveland Elementary was the "most diverse" campus in the Santa Barbara school system because it was 91% Hispanic. So, I'm guessing it would be even more "diverse" if that percentage was 100%?
Ever wonder why there is no DEI programs in the Olympics, NBA, NFL or Navy Seals?
Simply because it would require LOWERING the bar, resulting in adversely affecting the mission!
Some of the comments made by “Childless Cat Ladies” who identify as liberal, woke are truly comical. Yes, there is definitely a liberal local mindset here, many of whom have NEVER left the comfort of their SB bubble!
They continually whine about the “lack of diversity” but refuse to leave for other more “diverse”hellscapes like Oakland or SF…go figure! Yes, the sense of entitlement is truly narcissistic. Talk about diversity, I vividly remember in my younger days, working at USC/LA County Medical Center, when a shootout erupted in the ER, resulting in the death of a physician and the hospital was in total lockdown affecting the care of hundreds of patients. Or later, during the LA riots, when I looked out the window on the 10th floor and people were shooting at LAPD helicopters, trying to bring it down. It was like being in a movie or living in Beirut. Talk about working under fire! Many liberals living here have NO clue about adversity or diversity, and are clueless about the cause and effect of a Godless/lawless society.
Choosing to see the growing influence of DEI initiatives and the acceptance of transgender identities as problematic is evidently based on misinformation and a refusal to acknowledge the real struggles faced by marginalized communities. No, your children, family, and students are not being indoctrinated. The local Santa Barbara school districts are doing their best to cultivate a safe and inclusive learning environment for all students, not just those who are privileged enough to not have to worry about their rights being limited by conservative politicians. Make no mistake, expanding rights for marginalized groups does not diminish the rights of others. I'm more worried about the public policies in states such as Kansas, where anti-trans bills are opening the door for genital inspections of students before sports games, that sounds a lot like government overreach to me (such matters are not about fairness in sports but about perpetuating a culture war that distracts from more pressing issues). Or, more locally, when a charter school teacher was caught filming his students in the changing spaces without their knowledge, I thought private schools were safer? What about Santa Barbara church leaders who are steadily spreading racist and misogynistic ideologies, not to mention the several accounts of child molestation at the hand of these local priests. Suffice to say, the call is coming from inside the house! As a product of both public and private schools in Santa Barbara County and abroad, I can say that I have greatly benefitted from a diverse community of teachers and mentors. I have witnessed the beautiful acceptance of my LGBTQ+ peers who have been punched down on their whole lives, as well as watching them fear for their safety after reading posts like this and seeing all of the ignorant comments. My suggestion? Go out into the world, burst your own bubble and engage with people who are different from you. It's difficult to unlearn the racism and transphobia you have been spoon-fed and scared into believing, and its even easier to seek affirmations in an echo chamber like this one. Educated discussions on race, gender, and sexuality are not the problem, the problem lies in the policies and attitudes that seek to marginalize and harm them under the guise of protecting traditional values.
That Harvard has nearly as many DEI "administrators" as students should tell you all you need to know about the influence of DEI.
Clare: "Make no mistake, expanding rights for marginalized groups does not diminish the rights of others." You are wrong. Allowing some dude who calls himself a girl into the girls' changing room diminishes the rights of all the other real girls.
You lost me Claire, after your first unfounded, polarized whine: ............ "not just those who are privileged enough to not have to worry about their rights being limited by conservative politicians"........
Im sorry to hear that that sentence was so confusing for you, let me rephrase it. Upper middle class white students, such as myself, have not faced the same reality as lower class marginalized students.
Check your white rescue complex, Claire.
I believe the proper phrase is "white savior complex" and it has nothing to do with me voicing the opinions, just like you are, on political blogs posts like this one.
Goodness, the "proper phrase" .... shades of pure Saul Alinksy - own the language. Indeed, this forum is for give and take.
You are thoroughly brainwashed Claire, but very bright for a 5th grader! Still.........
Just another fear mongering piece celebrating what you imagine life was 30 years ago. I'm a small business owner with outside HR and payroll and I have never had DEI training. Please explain why DEI and CRT are bad. That's the essay I want to read. However, I think the real poison in our society is social media, and yet here I am...
Hello Justin, here is a start. https://newdiscourses.com/2020/06/reasons-critical-race-theory-terrible-dealing-racism/
Big corporations are finally seeing the light and closing their DEIA programs. Progressive School Boards will be the last to change because they are protected by loyal low-info voters and the radical state legislature. Our local colleges have even brought back segregated graduations and spaces on campus. Martin Luther King would be sad to see this as he famously stated that all are created equal.
CRT and DEI are evil and I am writing a few articles to explain why.
Social media is a technological means and by its nature can't be evil, it is the human heart that broadcasts evil that is the problem.
I have had access to a recent study of employees in a state agency that asked questions about various training programs, and the one that was least liked was DEI training. Only 18 percent thought it worthwhile. Interestingly, many of this employees come from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds.
Also, I have a granddaughter who just finished her freshman year at a UC campus and she told us, her grandparents, that she enjoyed all her classes, except the required DEI two-quarter course. She said it was boring and a waste of time. This stuff is being jammed down throats all across the state, but the good news is that it is being rejected as garbage by apparently many of those who are being subjected to this propaganda.
I don’t know about all this DEI, skin color, religion, woke crap etc. All I know is I like and want to hang out with my guys. Same background, think the same, (used to) chase the girls the same way, have the same love for surf and nature etc., in other words talk the same language! Why is that so hard to understand? It’s not that I dislike different folks, it's just that I have to work too hard to connect !
If by "DEI" you mean "Don Jr., Eric & Ivanka" I'm all for abolishing it!
If by "DEI" you mean "Don Jr., Eric & Ivanka" I'm all for abolishing it!
Actually I meant Democrat Embarrassment and Ineptitude