Gravity: It's Just a Theory

I read this on Huffington Post this morning. Excuse me while I bang my head on something.

This week in Federal Way schools, it got a lot more inconvenient to show one of the top-grossing documentaries in U.S. history, the global-warming alert "An Inconvenient Truth."

After a parent who supports the teaching of creationism and opposes sex education complained about the film, the Federal Way School Board on Tuesday placed what it labeled a moratorium on showing the film. The movie consists largely of a computer presentation by former Vice President Al Gore recounting scientists' findings.

"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."

Okay, so he believes the movie got it wrong. It's kind of like me getting irritated when Orlando Bloom snowboards on the oliphant in Lord of the Rings. It's not how Tolkien created the character Legolas. But come on, this is science. What a majority of scientists -- not just Al Gore -- believe is fact. Surely the school board won't act stupidly on this
matter ...

School Board members adopted a three-point policy that says teachers who want to show the movie must ensure that a "credible, legitimate opposing view will be presented," that they must get the OK of the principal and the superintendent, and that any teachers who have shown the film must now present an "opposing view."

Bang! Bang! Bang!

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.

Um, Mr. Barney? Have you stepped outside at all this winter?

But, I think I see his point. You know how drivers' ed classes purport that driving really fast late at night after having a six pack is dangerous? They present that as fact, but wouldn't you say that's really just the opinion of a bunch of fuddy duddy old people? I think they need to start presenting an opposing view, or at least let students know an opposing view is out there! Students should hear the views of safe driving skeptics and make up their own minds. Why, if my school district still could afford to offer drivers' ed, I'd be down there at the school board meeting this coming Monday evening, waving my copy of Rebel Without a Cause.

While the question of climate change has provoked intense argument in political circles in recent years, among scientists its basic tenets have become the subject of an increasingly stronger consensus.

"In the light of new evidence and taking into account the remaining uncertainties, most of the observed warming over the last 50 years is likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations," states a 2001 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which advises policymakers.

The basics of that position are backed by the American Meteorological Society, the American Geophysical Union, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academy of Sciences.

Yeah, they just want us to quit driving our cars so much. Don't they know that's what makes America great?

Laurie David, a co-producer of the movie, said that this is the first incident of its kind relating to the film.

"I am shocked that a school district would come to this decision," David said in a prepared statement. "There is no opposing view to science, which is fact, and the facts are clear that global warming is here, now."

And she's just another one of those Hollywood liberals, trying to recruit kids and make a buck on the side. I'll bet she's also gay.

Larson, the School Board member, said a pre-existing policy should have alerted teachers and principals that the movie must be counterbalanced.

The policy, titled "Controversial Issues, Teaching of," says in part, "It is the teacher's responsibility to present controversial issues that are free from prejudice and encourage students to form, hold and express their own opinions without personal prejudice or discrimination."

"The principal reason for that is to make sure that the public schools are not used for indoctrination," [school board member] Larson said.

And Mr. Larson, what is your opinion on having military recruiters in the high schools?

You can read the whole article here, minus the tres amusing commentary. I hate the way people in power, especially those who are caving in to extremists, use the argument of "counterbalance." It's not really about balance or equality. Look at the mainstream media!

This family has a right to religious freedom, a right to interpret the Bible as literally as they want to. They also have a right to exempt their children from seeing the movie. What they don't have a right to do is impose their religious beliefs on everybody else. It also pisses me off that the tone of the original article lends credibility to these people's demand. Yet you know if it was someone who -- gasp -- believed that 9/11 was an inside job, for example, the report would have been delivered with a knowing little smirk ( "Conspiracy theory!")

The mom's comment at the end about "Bad, bad America" gives me an idea though. Those climate change extremists (and you know I'm not one of them. I love to see forsythia blooming in January in Wisconsin, it brightens up the dreary landscape, especially since there is NO SNOW) need to start getting people on their side by promoting it as Good, Good America! YOU, and only you can save the earth! On second thought, that sounds a lot like imperialism. Scrap that.

Oy vay.

I just noticed something: The parent who brought the original complaint to the school board is named "Frosty". Oh, the irony.