When a public education forum is really an indoctrination session
This week my daughter and I attended a meeting that was all about clean money campaigns and how “evil” corporate interests have conspired to rule and ruin our healthcare. At this informative meeting we were invited to view a movie entitled “Blood Money” and meet a panel of 6 experts invited to illuminate us by the League of Women Voters.
The meeting was scheduled to start at 7:00 PM, but by 7:20 PM barely 25 people had arrived and the meeting was called to order. While I waited for the meeting to start I watched as one of the panelists ran through her slides and found one slide of particular interest. The slide she had selected was a short movie that was labeled “undercover video” at a special interest fundraiser; and I waited for her to show a similar short movie showing the unions having their fundraisers and hob knobbing meet and greets which of course was never offered. Silly me I thought that one of the themes of this meeting was exposing all special interests that use their money and power to peddle their influence.
My concern about AB 583 (it is now a 2-year bill) and the Clean Money Campaign propaganda is that they use the selling point that it will level the political playing field. But, I’m not so sure that it does. In Arizona, the Clean Money poster child, the unions clearly did not have to play by the same rules as their competitors, business. Also, as a taxpayer do I want to see my tax dollars go to support a candidate whose philosophy is anathema to my own, such as a supporter of extreme beliefs like white supremacist, NAZI, or other hate group. I read the bill now sitting in our state legislature and it doesn’t appear to address the issue of a real-life extremist accessing these funds. At least in our flawed system of today you donate directly to the person you chose. Of course in the Progressive Democrat/Socialist’s way of thinking it makes sense that the taxpayer fund campaigns since the taxpayer is far too naïve to exercise good judgment on their own.
So here we were sitting in the Pasadena Community College Community Education Center attending a forum organized by the League of Women Voters (total nationwide membership of 140,000 including members, supporters and activists as per their 2006 annual report; that’s just about .5% of US residents) waiting for the meeting to start. A member of the League and a panelist introduces herself, and then the president of the Pasadena-League of Women Voters unit. She, of course, announces how the League is all about getting people involved and active in politics, and of course how they are non-partisan – which makes me wonder why they were hosting this event without providing a counterpoint. But the final straw was when they asked us all to stand and honor our Nation’s flag, the real shock came when only small handful of attendees including me and my daughter could bring themselves to utter the words “under God”. Most of the attendees, including most of the panelist refused to utter the entire Pledge of Allegiance. I’m not one that believes we need to say the pledge at every gathering, nor even display the flag; but if you are going to ask us to honor our Nation’s flag don’t make a mockery by modifying the Pledge. Now I know that there has been some ongoing challenge as to whether or not “under God” is allowable, as per our Constitution, but I think that until there is a final verdict by our Supreme Court we need to say the pledge as it is written.
And as the saying goes, I could stand no more … so I left. So beware the next time you are invited to a so-called educational forum, no matter who the organizer. If the panel is comprised of members who all espouse the same or similar point of view, such as the Oct. 17th meeting than you are probably attending an indoctrination or propaganda event and should not expect to hear a real debate of the facts. It’s very sad that a once venerable organization such as the League of Women Voters would stoop to such a low method, but then what can you expect of a group that represents less then one percent of US residents and has to pad its membership to include supporters and activists just to be able to say they had a base of 140,000.
