Pennridge school board member Ricki Chaikin has stated that the goal of the Pennridge school board is “that every kid who leaves Pennridge loves this country and understands our own constitution.” In order to achieve this goal, the board narrowly voted to hire Vermillion Education, a Christian-based consulting firm, as consultants to review the district’s curriculum. What does Ricki Chaikin really mean by “loves this country?” What country does Chaikin envision that all Pennridge students should so obsequiously love? Is that the country where books are banned and history is whitewashed? Is that the country shaped by Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito who has no qualms citing rulings from the 17th and 18th centuries in his search to justify that his own conservative, restrictive personal beliefs should be the rule of law? Is it the country shaped by Matthew Kascmaryk, who draws upon the Comstock Act of 1873 as justification to deny 20 years of modern science and outlaw women’s access to Mifepristone? Is it the country that is imperiled by conservative Republicans in 19 states who have enacted voting restrictions to make voting harder for Americans? Is it the country where Ohio can change the rules, using its gerry-mandered super majority to ram through a new 60% threshold to pass future state constitutional amendments?
I love my family. But that love is not blind. My family members have faults, as do I. We make mistakes. We do stupid things. We learn from them, we fix them, and we change. We are ever growing. I love my country. But just as with family, this country has faults. This country makes mistakes. We should be able to fix them. Chaikin’s “love of country” is one that would stifle that ability and willingness to change for the good. Her “love of country” is blind, deaf and dumb. I can love my country, and as of now I can still criticize and fight against actions and laws that are unjust, that target too many of my fellow Americans, stripping them of freedom, autonomy, knowledge and choice. Chaikin’s “love of country” is a Trojan Horse. Once it is let inside the gates, it will unleash its conservative, Christian, mono way of thinking and doing;; banning books, controlling which and what historical events can be studied, denying dignity and respect to anyone who is different: different beliefs, different sexual orientation, different skin color. That is not love of country. That is love of a political agenda that Chaikin and her cohorts would impose upon the rest of us. It is un-American. Because we are not all white, we are not all cis-gender, we are not all conservative and we are not all Christian. But we are all American. And our politics, our government, our schools, should reflect what we truly are as a country, not as what some threatened, fearful, insecure white conservative Christian minority would have be so.