We attended the Texas Democratic Party’s state convention
last week in Houston.
This year, because the primary was held so late, the Dems and Repubs held their
conventions at the same time (difference cities) and the contract couldn’t have been more marked. This is the first time I recall the Democratic Platform actually standing up to what we've long said we believe. I'm a proponent of us standing up for what we believe, even if it isn't popular in some places. I like people who know what they believe, and who stand for it, no matter if there is opposition to some of it. Show our backbone- it is about time!
At our convention, we passed the most progressive platform
ever in Texas
and among the most progressive in the nation. We didn’t do it because we’re
"radicals," but because these “planks” were the right things to support-they are "
doing justice." On the
other hand, while the Repubs did take out “illegals” word, they still have
a basically regressive platform. They seem to think that by replacing “illegals”
with “undocumented persons” they can wipe away the memory of the hateful
legislation that they passed this past year that discriminated against brown
people.They do havea plank that calls for not allowing
noncitizen children with undocumented parents to attend public school (in
spite of a Supreme Court ruling that says states can’t deny them and in spite
of the fact that having these kids educated helps us, rather than puts even
more uneducated people here who will need more and more social services.)
By contrast, the Democratic platform calls for an end to the
death penalty, not because we’re “soft on crime”, but because there is evidence
that we’ve executed innocent people, and the fact that the death penalty costs
millions, whereas life without parole is an effective way to punish someone who
has committed an awful crime and keeps them out of society permanently.
We’ve passed a plank to decriminalize marijuana, not because
we like drugs, but because we’ve seen this “war on drugs” draining resources
for over 40 years at a cost of over a billion dollars, yet the violence from
drug cartels has only increased as their profit has grown. As long as America has a
hunger for drugs, the cartels will find a way to get them to us- whether by
bribing or murdering. Even
Fox “News” knows it has been a failure. If marijuana is decriminalized, then it
will be treated like alcohol- highly regulated and taxed. The money from the
taxes can be used for treatment centers, for those who have gone to harder
drugs and need to get off of them. Prohibition didn’t work and the war on drugs
is a joke. I’ll be honest and say that, as much as I hate drugs, I think they
should all be decriminalized, highly regulated and highly taxed. Thousands of
people have died in South & Central America, as well as in Mexico, because
of the drug cartels. If drugs are legalized, then the profit motive is gone,
and we can cut the cartels off at the knees. For now, I’d like to see an
education program that shows school students that when they use drugs, they’re often accessories to murder-truly vicious murder, because their drug use does fuel
those murders. IF we can get the drug use down, legalize and regulate it, then
we can help to do away with the biggest motive for the violence- profit.
Marriage equality is one of the planks of which I’m most
proud that got passed. At the State Democratic Executive Committee (SDEC)
meeting, they didn’t pass it, because some were too scared to vote for it. At
the County Conventions, many counties passed the
resolution. Our local Dem club had passed it and sent it on to our county.
Between County Conventions and the State Convention,
President Obama said he believed in marriage equality, and the opposition
melted away. Since then, the NAACP has come out in favor of marriage equality.
While I respect someone’s right to believe that marriage
should only be between a man and woman if they believe that from their religious
standpoint, I will also remind that someone that we are a country where
religion is NOT supposed to make our laws-that would be Iran, folks! You can believe in the Easter Bunny and Santa or not, but same gender couples do exist, and "not believing" in them doesn't make them go away. In countries
and US states where marriage equality has passed, the sky hasn’t fallen,
the world hasn’t ended, it has just allowed two committed adults who love each
other, and who have often lived together for decades, to have the legal
commitment that my husband and I enjoy because we were able to go to the courthouse,
pay a fee, and get a legal document (marriage license) that gave us not only
legal rights, but many obligations as well. Why should any two adults be denied
this legal protection? If we realize that marriage, at its heart, is a legal
arrangement, then the opposition to marriage equality should go away. We don’t
deny LGBT folks any other legal contract- they can buy homes with a mortgage,
they can sue people, they can have any other legal contract we have, but we’ve
denied them this marriage contract on the basis of some people’s religious beliefs. With marriage
equality, these families (and many do include children) receive the
legal protection that our family enjoys. There is nothing that forces any religious
leader to perform a religious marriage, only the legal right to the civil
contract of marriage. IF the couple is religious and they are part of a
religious body that supports same gender marriage, then they can also have a
religious ceremony, but no one is forced to do this. Consider the Catholic
Church-currently if one of the couple has been divorced, unless they go through
a Catholic Church annulment, or if one of the couple is not Christian, they cannot get
married in the Catholic Church, and they’re not considered married by the
Catholic Church, even if they have a legal ceremony in another church or venue,
or a civil ceremony. They are still legally married, but that church just doesn't "recognize" it. No one forces the Catholic Church to recognize those
weddings, and that is how it will be with marriage equality. My guess is that
LGBT folks will migrate away from the Catholic Church if they continue to deny them as full members, but that will be a matter of choice. With
marriage equality, there are obligations that come- one partner can’t just walk
away at the drop of a hat, they’ll have the legal right to visit each other in
the hospital and the other partner’s bio family can’t deny them that right
(which has happened.) They’ll have the right of inheritance, as will their children. If our friends who are same gender couples can legally marry in our state, it in no way impacts my marriage
negatively. It simply helps their family be stronger.
Our platform includes language against the high stakes
testing in public schools, and the need to move to another system, for the
betterment of our children’s education. It isn’t there because of teachers, it
is there because many of us parents got this resolution passed at the local
level and sent it on. Hundreds of
school districts and now
PTA’s have passed
the resolution, or will be passing it once school starts this fall. Did you
hear the report that to “pass” Algebra I part of the new “STARR” test, a
student needs only 31% rating to pass- that’s right- a 31%- in other words, a
low F, yet, it is “passing” yet only 83% of students did that! If you didn’t
realize that something is wrong with this system, that should be an awakening
call.
I encourage you to check out the platforms of both parties (note that it may take a week or so for both to be posted)
and for my friends who are people of faith, see which one actually more closely
resembles the tenets of your faith, which ones calls for "doing justice and loving mercy," which one "does to the least of these" what we'd want to do for our Lord. If you look at them like that, I think some of you may be surprised.
Now comes yet another study, saying that employers don't just want folks who can do math, but folks who can creatively figure ways to use that math. What is being said now is that, instead of just STEM, we need STEAM- adding fine arts back into our schools as an important part of the school day. That creativity doesn't come from doing page after page of math problems, it comes from having creative arts in the curriculum- music, art, drama. The Waldorf Schools probably do the best job of this, as Waldorf education incorporates music and/or art in just about all lessons in some shape or form. The creativity in Waldorf schools is off the scale and it is really exciting to take a tour of a Waldorf School & see what the students are doing. In my daughter's 5th grade class last year, she got music once a week and art once a week, for about 30 minutes- not exactly enough time for the teachers to even begin to teach all that the State of Texas says students should be able to learn in their classes and certainly not enough time to teach any child music who didn't already know it. Our daughter has taken piano for years, starting in Kindermusik at age 3, and then gradually transitioning to all keyboard. By age 5 they were almost entirely on piano and now, at age 11, she plays better than I did in college. She is no prodigy, but she practices every day and loves her music. It is a part of our lives, yet many public schools, driven by "No Child Left Behind" and State Legislative mandates, cut fine arts to the bone. This year in our school district, because of budget cuts, 6th graders only get 1 elective, so instead of being able to take band and drama, as our daughter wanted, she will only be able to take band. I must admit, too, I'm beginning to question how much "creativity" our kid are getting in band these days with all the emphasis on contests, rather than on teaching music and exposing children to many different pieces of music, but that's another blog.