Petition comments re federal hate crimes legislation

[For a truly impressive piece of thorough and verbose cultural-religious paranoia, check out the comments to this post...]
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K. Aurencz Zethmayr has sent you an important action alert - read below for more info, and take action at: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/126365544

As you may or may not know, I have a few subscriptions to various 'action alerts' and petition topics -- and the latest one that I've weighed in on is this one supporting the addition of the Matthew Shepard Act to existing federal hate-crimes statutes. Here's what I said, and the link is below if you want to follow it and have your say:

'I believe that this is one of the most badly-needed pieces of civil rights legislation at this time in history, as a large number of criminal acts, both graphically notorious and generally unreported out of fear, are committed on the sole basis of hatred against those of different sexual orientations and genders. There is no excuse for that, regardless of the number of people who may share similar prejudices and thus seek to minimize or rationalize away such unwarranted and antisocial behaviours. Hate crimes are never justified, no matter who the aggressor is and who the victim is -- unfortunately, many people need this spelled out to them, both in the field of law enforcement and in the general population at large, and will continue to think that "queerbashing" is permissible because of their personal and/or religious views unless this category is specifically and prominently added to existing hate-crimes legislation.'

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/126365544

Thanks for the read, and pardon the inevitable crossposting -- feel free to pass this on if you like the way I phrased it, etc....

Aurey

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Children should not be raised on kiddie-tailored propaganda

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Publisher aims to teach kids right from left
A Torrance executive says he sees too many children's books with liberal views. His titles aim to tilt the shelves the other way.
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There's a radical concept that I'd like to put forward....

Instead of complaining about "liberal" bias and putting out rightwing children's books in the name of ideological balance/overbalance, why don't people focus on finding and conveying the truth, regardless of whose "agenda" it may seem to support? Afterall, especially when some of these books are being marketed as "nonfiction", shouldn't they actually be supported as 'not being fictions' set up just to argue a point of view?

If you're going to make a story for kids that's supposed to teach them about the real world and how it works (or doesn't), base it on something that has actually happened in reality, and in the same reality that you're setting it in. Don't take your lemonade-stand fable from a Communist milieu and call it typical American liberalism; maybe let your gay penguins have the non-happy ending and one dump the other for a wife (which is what actually happened). That's life -- if you're calling it realistic then stick to what's really there. Princes and fairytales are accepted as being of the realm of fantasy and metaphor, but don't sell contrived propaganda to 'impressionable young minds' and call it an honest perspective. You know what?--Heather really did have two mommies. And she's just as perfectly well-adjusted as (and possibly a lot moreso than) any kid raised in a standard mom-&-dad sex=gender dichotomous household. That's truth. It happens and has been happening for years now, it's real, it's as functional as anything. Same with little Buster Bunny's travels, 'cause that's really information too. Truth. Real people, real existences. You don't like it, then get out of the business of even pretending to have an objective viewpoint.

I feel very strongly about children's books and what they teach. I've read a wide range of literature aimed more-or-less didactically at kids, from Grimm's Fairytales to Tootles to The Chronicles of Narnia. You know, the first tome actually has more enduring worth in it than those more-modern examples, even with all the religious assumptions and violence and dubious magic and what-have-you. Those fairytales do less of the mental violence of being targeted at children to shape them as thoroughly as possible, and are far more psychologically realistic despite all their fantasy -- they're not even as sexist as C.S. Lewis comes across (ever read the Narnia books and gleaned his attitudes?).

In my opinion, kids deserve to have better than mere lessons and manipulations at every turn, and any author or publisher who sets out trying primarily to entrain them into an ideology -- regardless of the nominal agenda -- does not deserve to be in a position of reaching them via those words. At that age, I'd consider it child molestation -- just as I tend to consider formal religious instruction (as well as formal anti-religious instruction). Children deserve to be treated honestly and with respect, not just as future party members or mini-activists. If you can't manage that, I think censorship may be in order, and precisely where most people would never think to apply it.

(And just to be clear on my values, I also hated that "socialist" one with the beautiful fish giving away his shining rainbow scales just to be accepted by others. Bollocks. Self-betrayal is never a defensible virtue in my book.)