You’re joking, right?
Pesky’Apostrophe points me to this news story that – if I didn’t know better – I would swear had to come from The Onion. Apparently, creationists in Federal Way have demanded that the schools stop showing An Inconvenient Truth, and are demanding that an opposing view now be presented to the kids who have already seen it.
“Condoms don’t belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He’s not a schoolteacher,” said Frosty Hardison, a parent of seven who also said that he believes the Earth is 14,000 years old. “The information that’s being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is. ... The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn’t in the DVD.”
Norse mythology claims the world will end in a final, brutal war. Some Germanic tribes held with the notion that the world would end in an all-encompassing blizzard that would continue until all the world became snow. So what’s your point? That we should spend the entire senior year of high school presenting theory after theory about how the world is going to end? Oh – wait. Conservative Christian creationist. They just want the Bible taught. Sorry – forgot who we were talking about for a second.
“From what I’ve seen (of the movie) and what my husband has expressed to me, if (the movie) is going to take the approach of ‘bad America, bad America,’ I don’t think it should be shown at all,” Gayle Hardison said. “If you’re going to come in and just say America is creating the rotten ruin of the world, I don’t think the video should be shown.”
I’ll admit that it’s been a long time since I saw the movie. But at least I have seen it. And from what I remember, Gore never actually suggests the “end of the world.” He suggests major crises that would change the way our world operates – but not necessarily the “end of the world.” Making the objection that Gore’s vision of the end of the world doesn’t match up with the Bible’s rather a moot point.
As for “Bad America, bad America,” We produce 25 percent of the greenhouse gases of the world. And we have the power to change that. I don’t think saying that qualifies as “Bad America, no biscuit.” But this is the sort of thing that happens when nobody actually pays attention to the movie, instead relying on—wait. Did she actually say she was basing it on “what my husband has expressed to me”?
Of course, this would be comical – if not for the fact that the School Board president got in on the act.
The requirement to represent another side follows district policy to represent both sides of a controversial issue, board President Ed Barney said.
“What is purported in this movie is, ‘This is what is happening. Period. That is fact,’ ” Barney said.
Students should hear the perspective of global-warming skeptics and then make up their minds, he said. After they do, “if they think driving around in cars is going to kill us all, that’s fine, that’s their choice.”
Again, it’s been a while since I saw the movie. Even so, one thing I clearly remember is that a major point of the lecture is that responsible stewardship of the Earth does not entail destroying the modern technological quality of life. It’s not a choice between driving around in cars or saving the Earth. It involves calling for cleaner fuels and alternative sources of energy. In the 21st century, it makes little to no sense to me that our society is still powered by the black ooze we pump up from beneath the Earth’s crust.
And as far as a “credible, legitimate opposing view,” let me know when you find one of those. I haven’t been impressed by any that I’ve seen or heard yet.