Postcards from the Conservative Edge

Please excuse my political diversion, but I can't let the Secretary of Education's comments about the show "Postcards from Buster" pass without comment.

To fill you in, "Postcards from Buster" is a spin-off from "Arthur" and airs on PBS. Buster travels around the country with his father meeting families of different backgrounds and keeps a video diary of his travels.

An upcoming episode has Buster visiting a family in Vermont where they make maple syrup. It happens that the family he visits has two mommies.

This caused Education Secretary Margaret Spellings to write to the head of PBS, saying "Many parents would not want their young children exposed to the lifestyles portrayed in this episode."

PBS, being spineless and carefully watching the cultural compass in this increasingly conservative country, has said it wouldn't distribute the episode to its affiliates. Basically this just passes the buck, forcing affiliates to actively ask for the show, meaning that if people locally have a complaint, they'll go to the affiliates, not to PBS.

Regardless, I chose to write the following letter to Spellings:

I am a father of two young sons who regularly watch
PBS programming, specifically the "Postcards from
Buster" show that you decried recently.

Gay and lesbian parents are part of the existing
social fabric of American life. This is not a fringe
element, but people who are our friends, neighbors,
sons, daughters and loved ones.

My sons have many friends who have same-sex parents.
Their children are wonderful kids, they are wonderful
parents, and to my sons, the kids are kids. They
hardly notice that their friends' parents are of the
same sex, because it makes no real difference in their
lives.

If this show were about mixed-race couples, would you
decry that too? Of course not. I'm sure there are
people in this country who would not like to see
mixed-race couples on TV, but society would call them
narrow-minded bigots.

Frankly, because of your comments on the lesbian
couple, you fall in that category too.

If you haven't yet, I suggest you write her too. The only email address I received was usa.learn@ed.gov. If anyone has a better one please let me know.

I looked at her bio on the official Education Department Web site, and I can't find any background that qualifies her for the job. She implemented Bush's education policy in Texas, but that's about it. She's not, according to her bio, been a school teacher, nor does she have any education in education.

And the Senate approved this woman for a cabinet post?

Comments

[Jessica]

I think that it is the perogative of parents to decide how and when to introduce the subject of same-sex parents. While you live in someplace where this is common (not that there is anything wrong with it, as Seinfeld so aptly put it), and you seem to have "all the answers" as for how folks should discuss this subject with their children.
In other parts of the country, and among other ethnic, religious, and cultural groups, there are other points of view about same-sex couples.
One of the criticisms of liberals is that they all want us to say and think the same way, and do not appreciate divergent oppinions. Please, let parents decide for themselves how and when to discuss matters. You probably oppose homeschooling, too. No wonder my rants on the abortion topic "infuriated" you...There's no room for anybody to disagree. BTW, Palin Power is proof that there are strong, beautiful, pro-life, beautiful voices in the nation which have every right to be heard...

[Chuck Tanowitz]

You do know that this post is more than 3 years old, right?

In any case, I never claimed to have all the answers. But in a society in which same-sex couples can get married and also have civil unions (which people on both sides of the political spectrum support) then same-sex couples need to be treated with the same respect as couples during other times of transition in this country.

Are you saying that you want to take your time in introducing your children to interracial couples too? Is that something that needs special explanation?

Of course, you can simply change the channel if you don't want to watch the show. Why feel the need to silence it entirely?

As for being pro-choice. I would love for this world to be one in which no woman ever has to go through an abortion. It's tough physically and emotionally. But we don't live in that world, so I prefer they have the choice, just as Governor Palin and her daughter did. As Governor Palin acknowledge in her statement about her daughter, that she made a choice.

Governor Palin also supports abstinence-only education, something that has been shown not to work, including in her own home. Keep in mind, the same conservative talk-show hosts who blasted the Spears family for a teen aged mother want the world to leave the Palins alone.

Governor Palin has said publically that the war in Iraq is a mission from God. Does that mean she is going to follow God's will when it comes to policy decisions? Whose God? Jesus? Jehovah? Buddha? Allah? They are all part of the American fabric, but they are also supposed to be separate from American policy decisions.

Also, considering how you vote, am I correct in assuming that you were not going to vote for McCain because of his pro-choice stance, prior to him choosing Palin as his running mate? Since you have described yourself as a one-issue voter, how can you vote for McCain at all?

[Jessica Tinneny]

McCain had many votes opposing so called "abortion rights" (the right to kill "unwanted" preborn babies), it is erronious to say that he was "pro-choice". Also incorrect is that abstinance education doesn't work. Uganda is an example of the fact that it can and does teach people that their body is a temple and that they need to learn self control.

In the Catholic school at which I taught a few years ago, the 7th graders learned very accurate, scientific explanations for everything related to sexual behavior, including identifying different STD's, and then in 8th grade in Religion they learned morality and chastity, prudence and all of that. I don't know how the topic was breeched by younger children, but I certainly teach my (preschool-aged) children to respect their bodies.

I think that the idea that an unborn baby, held in the womb, is some sort of private property is not accurate, as well.

The choice that we make, as a society, is...do we condone the desctruction of unborn babies because their existence is inconvenient? Is this moral? And, if so, what, exactly, is morality for than to protect the disenfranches, those w/out voices. I do not think that this is settled law. Also, I think that people need to learn to talk about these issues w/out getting all bent out of shape. Seems to me that peace-loving people, everywhere, should decry the widely practiced procedure of mutilating pre-born humans in the womb. I am just saying...

As for the conversation about Postcards from Buster, at this point I think that it is probably time for me to explain to my (preschool-aged) boys that there are some children that have 2 mommies...It is a fact of life. However, I am not going to say that I think it is on equal footing to a man / woman parenting team. I don't look down on civil unions, but I also do not think that it is the prefered form of family. God made men and women differently (see Pope JJP's Theology of the Body for more detailed explanation) so that they can come together and be a family for the betterment of continuity, etc. I know that I am showing a bias, and we live in a bias-free society.

By the way, if I'm on the conservative edge, then you have never been to a red-neck gathering!

Jessica