Wrong words, or wrong ideas?

By ISAAC TAYLOR

Things That Matter

Right from the start, I want to clarify some points to avoid causing confusion, or worse – suspicion of my motives.

Most importantly, I do not speak on behalf of the other owners of the Hamilton County Reporter; I speak only for myself. Do not assume my opinions represent those of this newspaper, anyone else who owns it, writes for it, works with it, or has any other association with it.

Additionally, just so I’m not accused of being a leftist: I am a libertarian. However, I tend to vote Republican in local elections due to a usual lack of candidates who would better suit my actual political beliefs.

I don’t know everything. No one does. Sometimes it’s easy to assume we know what we’re talking about – after all, who doesn’t want to be right?

This time, however, I’m certain I’m right. That’s important because this column is about something said by a local state senator during a committee hearing on the now-dead Senate Bill 167.

By now, you’ve likely heard how Sen. Scott Baldwin said teachers must be “impartial” when teaching dark periods of history about Nazism, Marxism and fascism. After being called out by people across the globe for saying something so absurd, he backpedaled, saying in part, “Nazism, Marxism and fascism are a stain on our world history and should be regarded as such, and I failed to adequately articulate that in my comments …”

Hm.

Only someone who doesn’t place much value on carefully choosing his words would consider it a simple mistake to say the word “impartial” rather than calling Nazism a “stain on our world history.”

Granted, we all make mistakes when we talk, and logic dictates the more you talk, the more likely you are to make mistakes when you talk. Lord knows politicians are talkers.

I think this is worse than that.

This is like saying, “When I said we should be impartial on the idea of Soylent Green being people, what I meant to say was that I am appalled to find out that Soylent Green is people.”

I’ve tried imagining myself in Sen. Baldwin’s position in the Statehouse, holding a hearing on a bill that could have affected the future of education in this state for decades. There’s no doubt the bill had more provisions than requiring educators to impartially teach the history of Nazism in the classroom.

There’s also no doubt that a small number of teachers exist who use their positions to espouse certain political ideas to their students. I speak from experience – I had a teacher or two like that in high school more than 10 years ago. I didn’t realize at the time how unprofessional it is for a teacher to color his or her lessons with shades of their own political beliefs. Now I know better.

So no, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect teachers to keep their mainstream political beliefs out of the classroom. Young minds are like sponges, so it stands to reason that those minds should soak up only the highest quality academic ideas – and politics almost always devolves to the lowest common denominator.

But do you know what doesn’t fall under the category of mainstream political beliefs? Nazism, Marxism and fascism.

Sen. Baldwin, just as you wouldn’t tolerate a literal Nazi teaching your children, the same reasoning makes clear we can’t expect a good American citizen to take a neutral position on political ideologies unquestionably responsible for the dehumanization and merciless slaughter of millions of innocent people.

My grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great uncle didn’t fight for the preservation of American freedom in World War II so a misguided state senator could say we need to be “impartial” about teaching Nazism, Marxism and fascism.

Ultimately, I don’t care whether you meant what you said, Sen. Baldwin. The fact is: You said the words.

It’s not enough to say you didn’t choose your words carefully. You said the wrong words – and goodness, they were incredibly wrong words.

I only hope your voters don’t forget them.