Editor: One aspect that I haven’t heard brought up nearly enough in the ongoing SOGI debate, is that of big government interfering or supplanting family rights to teach their own kids values.
I will refrain from taking sides here as best I can, it should worry us all when government encroaches on traditionally family taught ethical and moral areas, especially ones that surround an ever-evolving social science.
This program of supposed inclusion, which I’m sure is being implemented by the vast majority of teaching professionals with good and honest intentions, may not have the desired effects they are claiming it will produce.
If we look at the track record of government achievements we consistently find it lacking. For example, the war on drugs has cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars of the last few decades with absolutely nothing to show for it.
Here we saw nothing but good intentions from legislators and a willingness to dip into a bottomless pit of taxpayer money to throw at the problem.
Yet it has been an abysmal project, time and time again, with the death tolls climbing higher than ever.
There are lots more examples of government ineptitude to choose from. I think we could all think of many off the top of our head and if not, it won’t take you long to find some egregious waste of resources by policy makers, but specifically this year in the local elementary and high schools would be a most recent example of this incompetence.
My eldest son, along with many other students around the district, didn’t have a teacher or a classroom for a month and a half. Some are still without. Now these same administrators and educators who were responsible for that are trying to reassure parents who have legitimate concerns about what their children are being taught and at what age, that the schools know what’s best.
Also, If you disagree with them, you are wrong and obviously a backwards bigot and their right to teach inclusiveness and diversity supersedes your rights as a parent.
I, for one, am sick of being told by people who don’t know me or my kids, or anything about us, frankly, that they know what’s best for society, and what is in my heart.
That goes for the superintendent of schools in Langley, to newspaper editors in Chilliwack, all the way to the halls of parliament in Victoria.
They frame the debate so that if you aren’t for implementing SOGI whole heartedly, you are for bullying and the harassment of this minority community and how dare you.
I am not willing to give the moral high ground so easily. I can see the government bureaucracies and certain parent groups have good intentions with this program, I really do, yet the feeling isn’t reciprocated even though I care about all kids and their mental health just as much.
Let’s do a better job as a society to promote families raising their kids to be decent human beings and not let some government officials or well intentioned persons with delusions of a Utopia and a bent for social engineering tell us how wrong and hateful we are if we don’t agree with them.
I feel for these kids, I really do, but government isn’t always the answer and the sooner we realize that as a society, we are going to be better off for it.
Zak Graham
Langley