Insects :: Incredible and Inspirational

2009 Articles, Letters and Op-Eds Urging Folks to Rescue Their Children (Plus some miscellaneous articles of interest to truth and enlightenment seekers.)

1. Typos are fixed when found.
2. Some hyper-links were added on this page after article were published.
3. Be sure to see the reports of West Virginia public school test performance look for "Report of West Virginia public school test performance" on individual WV News pages (not all pages have the data).

THEY WON Charleston Gazette 10-23-09
(The Gazette headline was “ Liberals won textbook fight -- and our public schools”.)

The recent Textbook War Forum was set up very professionally by the Kanawha Valley Historical and Preservation Society and moderated expertly by Hoppy Kerchival. Journalist Trey Kay did an excellent job as the impetus behind the event. Mr. Kay called for less polarization between the two sides. Everyone there should have observed that would be like asking WVU to always allow PITT to tie the game. The pro-book and protester sides both are fighting to win.

Alice Moore was as articulate and charming as ever. A roomful of pro-book liberals would not stand a chance in a debate with her. Unfortunately the forum was not a debate. However, it was a microcosm of the contest of worldviews that continues to rage nationwide.

I am a competitor in that war. I was an athlete who hated to lose, so it is not easy for me to admit defeat in a battle.

Today, I admit something about the people who opposed the textbook protesters in 1974.

The protesters tried to stop the downfall of the “public” schools, but we did not succeed.

The public schools are now the result of the victory won by the pro-book people in 1974.

At the forum the pro-bookers proved that they are as adamant as ever to control the public schools.

A pro-book leader (an Episcopal pastor) admitted that he would censor textbooks that conflicted with his values. That was the point of the protest. His truth is not our Truth. “A” cannot equal “B”.

A prominent atheist stated that the “bottom-line” of the protest was that the protesters were basically narrow-minded bigots. At least that man does not try to disguise his bias with the superficial conciliatory tone of the Episcopal pastor. The forum proved that the values of the two sides have not changed. There was no room for compromise in 1974 and there is no room now.

One of the issues stressed by pro-bookers was the so-called marriage of the religious and political right wings. They fail to see that religious liberalism and left-wing politics have been shacked up for much longer than any relationship of conservative entities.

The public schools are controlled by pro-bookers and their cohorts--the ACLU, teacher unions, and other left-wing extremists. This makes public schools detrimental, even dangerous, to all children--especially Christian children.

Christians are wasting time and resources because public schools cannot be redeemed.

Conservatives and Christians must learn from history, and do what needs to be done.

Our only hope is to remove our children from the public schools and raise a generation of uncompromised citizens.

Public schools belong to the pro-book crowd. They won that battle, but they must not win the war for the hearts, minds, and souls of America’s children.

Protest leader Avis Hill closed his forum comments with a reminder of how bad the schools have become and concluded with a warning from the Word of God: “For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind”.

PROUD PROTESTERS Charleston Gazette August 31, 2009
(The Gazette headline was “ Educated, peaceful textbook protesters should be proud”.)

In 1974 an event occurred in Kanawha County that has been called “the first shot in the cultural war”. Fundamentalist Christians and their conservative allies, objecting to anti-Christian and anti-American textbooks shut down West Virginia’s largest school system along with many major businesses and garnered intense national attention. This year is the 35th anniversary of that event and it is time the true story is revealed.

The folks who formed the grassroots textbook protest were not wild-eyed ignoramuses and some were as educated as the snobs who mocked them. The protesters were good people—the kind of folks most people would want to have as neighbors. The overwhelming majority of them were peaceful and their actions were honorable. Unfortunately, the miniscule minority who were violence prone are the ones who receive nearly all of the attention. There was violence directed toward the protesters. I’d rather have a single patriotic protester as a friend than any ten from the cocktail crowd that opposed them.

During a recent evolution battle I received clandestine legal assistance from an elderly retired attorney who was a liberal evolutionist. He had some doubts about evolution and was a fair-minded man who felt that I deserved legal counsel. He told me that he felt the textbook protesters had good points and were poorly treated by the elite "intelligentsia".

Some believe the Kanawha County Textbook War (TBW) launched the conservative movement that brought conservative professing politicians into power nationwide. Unfortunately, by 1977 most of the protesters’ noble efforts had been nullified by a system that was built upon a humanistic (i. e. atheistic) foundation.

The TBW was the first call for Christians to rescue their children and now Exodus Mandate is sounding what could be the last call. The TBW was about religion (even though there were academic and philosophical issues)--our religion AND their religion. There cannot be any compromise between the two diametrically opposed belief systems.

Those textbooks were the spearhead for lower academic standards and much more detrimental public school problems. Illegal drug use, student pregnancies swept into Kanawha County Schools after 1974.

Reporting of the TBW has been obviously slanted against the protesters. A typical "history" of the TBW takes facts that only focus on the violence and other "extreme" events and ignores the overwhelming opposing occurrences. Media coverage of the protest often featured quotes from hot-headed foul mouthed protesters. It would not have been difficult to find plenty of soft-spoken articulate folks on the protest lines.

Other Main Stream Media cohorts (academic researchers, liberal clergy, and left-wing organizations) have also contributed a biased view of that historical event. There are few sources that provide reasonably objective report.

In 1978 newspaper columnist Rex Woodford wrote, “Well, I stood with them (Kanawha County book protesters) one evening and felt that I was taking my life in my own hands to do it (they didn’t cotton to outsiders), but I learned that they weren't so dumb after all. They got me to think and to read some of the books in question, books that I’m convinced many of them knew little of except for choice, damaging passages. Nevertheless, they had some good points indeed.” Woolford, obviously still sneering at the 1974 protesters, was bemoaning how bad some books were in 1978.

History has proven, beyond the shadow of a doubt, the protesters were right. Proof fills the headlines of West Virginia news (see my webpage) from 1975 forward. The folks who protested for righteousness and America in 1974, and their offspring, should hold their heads high.

Karl Priest was a West Virginia educator for 34 years in including four years as a principal. In 1974 he was the chair of the Teacher Chapter of the protest group The Business and Professional People’s Alliance for Better Textbooks. Karl is currently the State Coordinator for Exodus Mandate

How to De-Program Yourself (From all of the Blasphemous Ideas You Learned in Public School)

Hansen, Buddy. How to De-Program Yourself. Tuscaloosa, AL: The Hansen Group, 2009

Every pastor and Christian leader should read this book and recommend it to their flocks—perhaps as a resource for a special group study.

Mr. Hansen has organized the book around 50 questions regarding worldviews. Those questions are discussed in Part One (the first five chapters). Each of the Part One chapters represent strings that are attached to many Christians causing them to perform as puppets guided by the thoughts of the Natural (rather than Spiritual) Man.

Part Two (the last five chapters continue the author’s clever string analogy, but now each string is a part of a stringed musical instrument that will allow Christians to play “Sanctified soul music by incorporating biblical ethics into daily decision making.”

Woven throughout the book are concepts (mainly sports references) that will appeal to men, but not overwhelm the ladies.

The “First Cut” is “Education” and includes questions 1-17. The questions lead the reader through a logical sequence concluding with #17: “Is it a sin to submit our children to programs and policies of non-Christians, and/or to join with non-Christians in business ventures? As a man who has firmly answered that question for myself with a firm “Yes” I especially liked how Mr. Hansen (in question 16) handled typical objections to why Christians should exit the government school system. He breaks all of the excuses into five categories:

2. “We can’t afford Christian Schools, Besides Our Child is Being ‘Salt and Light’ by Evangelizing Non-Christian Friends.”

To close out a solid argument for cutting the string of government schooling Mr. Hanson has (pg. 163) a list of five solutions for “Education our Children”. The fifth solution is an elaboration of the ways Christian education can be supported.

Other strings that Christians must cut in order to free their lives and testimonies are Civil Government; Worldview and Lifestyle; Decision Making; and Rationalization and Pragmatism. Even mature Christians can benefit from analyzing their thought processes while reading this book

Once a Christian is freed of the puppet strings he/she can now put together musical strings which make their lives harmonious with God’s plan. I label these strings in the categories of thinking, living, making decisions, and serving. Then a fifth string is a detailed guide for separating a Christina worldview from that of a conservative. Mr. Hansen does an excellent job of explaining these “strings” in detail.

A careful study of How to De-Program Yourself will lead the reader to a life with “no strings attached”.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) issues a Report Card on American Education. ALEC is a non-religious conservative group that feels government schools can be salvaged. Although, I disagree, the report provides some eye-opening objective data.

The forward to the report provides an excellent explanation of the serious situation in American education.

“…a now-famous report, A Nation at Risk (1983). The authors asserted that had a foreign power attempted to impose such mediocrity on our schools and students “we might well have viewed it as an act of war.”

“…the education “establishment” has insisted that all we need to cure our educational ills are more money and more resources … The data show this is, simply, wrong.

“… in 2006, 15-year-old American students placed 25th out of 30 developed nations in mathematics… For 12th-graders it gets worse: U.S. students placed 19th out of 21 developed nations in math and 16th out of 21 in science, …In 2005, only 35 percent of 12th-graders were “proficient” in reading.

“More and more incoming college students are taking remedial courses, costing taxpayers almost $1 billion annually.”

The report reveals state results of taxpayer efforts to improve public education.

West Virginia invests $9,457 per student and ranks 19th on per pupil expenditures.

The result is that West Virginia 8th graders rank 45th on National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Math scores. The average 8th grade NAEP reading scores put West Virginia at 42rd nationally. The math and reading ratings for 4th graders are 37th and 40 th respectively. Both math and reading show a trend downward for the past several years. West Virginia college entrance scores are also dismal. The ACT ranking is 36 (2008) and the SAT is 35.

ALEC is an advocate of School Choice. It is ironic that the liberals who control taxpayer funds favor “choice” in just about anything except schools. I have warned citizens of West Virginia, in several articles, that their hard earned money is being wasted and their only logical choice is to take control of the education of their own children.

West Virginia plans to spend $218 million of its “stimulus” money on 39 categories with education as the second priority.

This means productive tax-payers have to pay for “public” education that produces products that have to be supported by welfare programs that require more tax money.

West Virginia citizens should consider the findings reported in Private Education is Good for the Poor which reveals that private schools are better and less expensive than government schools.

Educational freedom would benefit every parent, no matter what creed they follow, and is the only hope for American education.

A review of Slaughter of the Dissidents: The Shocking Truth About Killing the Careers of Darwin Doubters

By Karl C. Priest February 2, 2009

Bergman, Jerry. Slaughter of the Dissidents. Southworth, WA: Leaf Cutter Press, 2008

Available at Answers in Genesis, Creation Ministries International, Creation Research Society, Institute for Creation Research, and Amazon.com.

Slaughter of the Dissidents is the first of a multi-volume series that reveals a coordinated attack upon a particular religious faith. Depending on your personal bias, if one is honest, reading this book will cause emotions of either anger or shame. It is likely to bring tears to your eyes.

Dr. Bergman's book is crammed full of anecdotal and (mainly) documented evidence of the fanatical efforts by true-believers to protect their dogma. The history of man is rife with misguided attempts to stifle (using any means) dissenters of the state approved religion whether that religion is theistic or (in the case of Communism) atheistic. Now, as Slaughter of the Dissidents quite dramatically discloses, the state religion of America is scientism which is de facto evolutionism and, whatever tag is attached to this extremist sect, it is undeniably springing up from atheism.

The Darwinian disciples (Eugenie Scott, Richard Dawkins, and other prominent evolutionist extremists listed at Life Science Prize are unable to face, on a level field, those whom they think are heretics, so they resort to a modern version of the Inquisition.

If anyone even hints that evolution is not true there are thousands of Inquisitors who will accuse that individual of blasphemy and set out to destroy the doubter professionally, politically, and personally. Just take a look at the comments posted below my article "Darwin is Dead (Leave Him in the Grave)"

The victims of this vicious, vindictive, and aggressive effort to shut down academic freedom and prohibit religious expression range from high school teachers (Roger DeHart, Rodney LeVake, and Larry Booher) to world class scientists (Raymond Damadian and Guillermo Gonzalez). Dr. Bergman describes the literal tribunals and intellectual executions of these and many others.

Chapter 14 of Bergman's book discusses some "Darwin Doubters" who survived the dangers of "Darwin Defenders". By God's Grace, I barely fit (by the skin of my teeth-Job 19:20) into that category as I relate in the history of my personal efforts to challenge evolutionism. (See http://www.insectman.us/testimony/testimony.htm.) Evolutionists called me a liar, buffoon, stooge, and idiot. Anonymous letters and phone calls were placed to my colleagues and administrators attempting to ruin me professionally. I was even threatened with arrest for exposing an evolutionist who would not debate Dr. Joseph Mastropaolo.

Survivors are the exception. The hatred by evolutionists toward Christians in general and creationists in particular is only exceeded by the most violent of religionists. Instead of beheadings or being burned at the stake, Dr. Bergman documents scientists and teachers who have suffered derogatory comments, denial of admittance to graduate programs, denial of degrees, denial of deserved promotions, censorship of publications, demotions, denial of tenure, firings, threats and personal intimidations.

Slaughter of the Dissidents closes with Dr. Bergman's suggestions for "What Can Be Done" to counter this crisis in freedom. Unfortunately, due to the public schools producing millions of brain-washed citizens, I see little hope for a solution unless Christian, and other fair-minded non-Christian, parents remove their children from the atheist cathedrals called local schools. That is the goal Exodus Mandate.

Please take a few minutes to view the brief Exodus Mandate video "Call to Dunkirk". Christian children remaining in public schools will experience more and more discrimination if they express any doubt about Darwinism. That persecution (no matter how "mild") is enough, in itself, to motivate parents to rescue their children. Also, unless parents take quick action to raise a godly generation that is able to think logically and serve America with the same foundation upon which our fore-fathers stood, the slaughter of dissidents of atheism (including students in grades K-12) will continue and ultimately bring down America.

Slaughter of the Dissidents is endorsed by the late (and great) Dr. D. James Kennedy) and I encourage you to read the book and do more than just weep.

This review was distributed widely on email news lists and published at http://ednews.org/articles/33846/1/Slaughter-of-the-Dissidents--The-Shocking-Truth-About-Killing-the-Careers-of-Darwin-Doubters/Page1.html.

By Karl Priest

Darwin is dead and his unscientificracist ideas should to be buried also.

Led by the atheistic and misnamed National Center for Science Education and enabled by the main-stream media, colleges, museums, and public schools have launched a last ditch effort to salvage Darwinism. The theme is a yearlong celebration based upon Darwin's 200^th birthday on February 12 and the 150^th anniversary of the publication of his famous book (see blow) on November 24. In my state, West Virginia University has already placed a newspaper add listing events WVU will use to honor Darwin.Revealing consummate hypocrisy is the fact that WVU evolutionist professors are exposed as Debate Dodgers at http://www.lifescienceprize.org/.

Universities and, museums, if public funded, are using tax-payer money to celebrate a man whose ideas have led to the destruction of untold numbers of human lives. What is even more objectionable is that it is a certainty that the public schools, nationwide, will be a focus of this avalanche of propaganda.As a recently retired public school teacher, I find that thought quite disturbing.

For the last five years of my full-time career, with the full knowledge (and dismay) of state and county school officials, as well as the ACLU, I demonstrated to my students that mathematics proves beyond the shadow of doubt that evolutionism is nonsense. The students saw that the evidence clearly shows that every item associated with humans, animals and plants are Intelligent Designs and Intelligent Design is science. I always let the students figure it out for themselves and allowed them to believe what they chose, but at least they were exposed to the scientific facts that extremists want to censor from the minds of public school students.

Few teachers will dare do what I did, especially with today's political situation. Therefore, public school students remain brain-washing subjects for atheists who use cowardly or uninformed educators to propagate their dogma of evolutionism.

Evolutionists use a "bait-and-switch" method of hood-winking gullible children as well as adult products of public schools. Depending on the success of public school brain-washing and the tendency of public school graduates to be too lazy to investigate the facts for themselves, evolutionists mix the term "evolution" with real scientific facts that have nothing to do with the evolution from a particle to a president.

While they put on a good show, behind the scenes* evolutionists are scurrying to find a way to explain life without Darwinian references.

Darwinism is all a facade. Darwin's icons (such as the finch beaks) are shams and his disciples want to censor scientific facts about those icons from students. Even the famous Miller-Urey experiment was scientifically debunked years ago.Public school students will not see that in their textbooks or hear that from their teachers.

Public school students are being misled by the imaginative art and wishful thinking of Darwin devotees. A small (25 page) booklet, Biology for the 21^st Century (Mastropaolo, 2005. Available from the author at Mastropaolo@surfside.net.) clearly exposes the forgeries and frauds that have accompanied evolutionism throughout history. Bio21C also points out that the exact opposite of evolution is scientific because "billions of people for thousands of years have seen…that all things, viable and nonviable alike, are ravaged by time and that process is found with absolute consistency throughout the universe and is called, devolution." (pg.3) Also, "from trillions of observations by billions of observers for thousands of years, all life forms are fixed…" (pg. 20)In other words, evolution is the exact opposite of reality.

This article began by declaring that Darwin's ideas were racist. The complete title of Darwin's book is On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. There is ample proof that evil men, following what Darwin believed, have committed atrocities upon humans. Even the liberal Washington Post recently ran an article on this subject (Basest Instinct,January 3, 2009; Page C01.Available on line.)

Amazingly, many Christian (in name) churches are being willingly recruited to align themselves with Unitarians, atheists, and other left-wing true-believers in Saint Darwin. The NCSE knows that one "collar" is worth ten Ph. D.'s in persuading the people in the pews that Darwinism is compatible with biblical beliefs. To counter the propaganda pastors are encouraged to sign the Creation Letter at http://kcsg.wordpress.com/. Also, churches are encouraged to invite speakers from local Creation Science groups and have a Creation Sunday.

To celebrate the life of a theology student (Darwin) in the public schools is equivalent to endorsing an "inverted-fantasy religion taught in the public schools in violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America" (Mastropaolo). Someone said: "Evolution isbad science, bad thinking, bad logic, and certainlybad theology". Society and public schools would be much better served by celebrating the real scientists such as Louis Pasteur orFrancesco Redi.

Let's dump Darwin's beliefs and leave his memory buried with him in the English churchyard.

*The "behind the scenes" link is "Altenberg 16: An Expose of the Evolution Industry" by Suzan Mazur (July 6, 2008) at http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0807/S00053.htm.

Published January 26, 2009
http://ednews.org/articles/33215/1/DARWIN-IS-DEAD-Leave-Him-in-the-Grave/Page1.html

Also published in the St. Louis Metro Voice Vol. 19, No. 3, March 2009 http://www.metrovoice.net/www.metrovoice.net/2009/0309_stlweb/0309_articles/darwin_is_dead.html

by Karl Priest

The state of Hawaii is currently embroiled in a debate over random drug testing for teachers. The teacher union has reneged upon a contract that included a pay raise and the drug test. Despite a six month period where six educators were arrested for drug offenses, the union claims there is no drug problem with teachers. The Hawaii Labor Relations Board will rule on the matter.

Nationwide, approximately a half dozen school districts allow for random drug testing for teachers.

West Virginia may be the site of where the issue will be settled via the federal court system. Ultimately, it is likely the U. S. Supreme Court will determine if teachers may be required to submit to what the unions call "suspicionless" drug tests.

On December 29, 2008 a federal judge blocked West Virginia's largest school district, Kanawha County, from implementing random drug testing for teachers. The ruling was in the form of a temporary injunction and the school board plans to "pursue this to the end."

"We've got a problem", said long time Kanawha County School Board member Pete Thaw*. Other board members, the public, and most individual teachers know there is a problem. The only ones who do not see the elephant in the room are teacher union leaders and the Anti Christian Liberties Union (ACLU). Neither group is known for their keen moral eyesight.

Teacher unions and the ACLU cried that Constitutional rights would be violated by random drug testing. It is ironic that both groups cannot see that evolution is an "inverted-fantasy religion" taught in the public schools in violation of the First Amendment and that Kanawha County schools actively established a sect of the Hindu religion by allowing Yogaism into the schools.

Thaw cited eight instances of teacher drug use last year. How many instances would the teacher unions and the ACLU need to qualify as a problem? How about just one incident like that in November 2008 when a female Florida elementary teacher was arrested for selling heroin and crack cocaine? Or, the December Wisconsin incident of a 25 year veteran high school teacher who not only sold drugs, but hosted drug parties for former students? Maybe the July conviction of a special education teacher who sold drugs to her current students at school will be a Road to Damascus experience for the teacher unions and ACLU.

Even if all teachers are drug free, the schools have serious drug problems with students. Parents should ask their local middle or high school to show them there discipline records. Also, there is plenty of proof that the "Bible Belt" state of West Virginia has serious drug problems in the public schools. See my website (www.insectman.us/exodus-mandate-wv) under the "WV News" section for 2008.

Although the drug problem is serious enough, there is a much more important issue of addiction that parents need to face. That is the addiction to the failed and dangerous public schools themselves. People who would not allow the government to cloth, house, or feed their children succumb to the opiate of a "free" education" and willingly allow the government to shape their children's minds.

Parents would never allow their children to go into a house where there is 100% certainty the children will experience exposure to illegal drug use. Yet, with judgment impaired due to public school addiction, these same parents allow their precious children into public school buildings where those things are certain to happen.

As this lawsuit runs its course, no matter which side wins, the public schools will remain a narcotic that is seriously impairing our nation.

Parents should make a New Year's resolution to attain the sobriety of home and truly Christian education.

Published January 7, 2009 at EdNews on the Internet.
http://ednews.org/articles/32599/1/Kick-the-Public-School-Addiction/Page1.html

The following version was in by the Charleston Gazette on January 13, 2009 (pg. 4A).

"We've got a problem," said longtime Kanawha County school board member Pete Thaw.

Other board members, the public, and most individual teachers know there is a problem.

The only ones who do not see the elephant in the room are teacher union leaders and the Anti-Christian Liberties Union, neither group known for keen moral eyesight.

Teacher unions and the ACLU cried that constitutional rights would be violated by random drug testing.

It is ironic that both groups cannot see that evolution is an "inverted-fantasy religion" taught in the public schools in violation of the First Amendment and that Kanawha County schools actively established a sect of the Hindu religion by allowing yogaism into the schools.

Thaw cited eight instances of teacher drug use last year. How many instances would the teacher unions and the ACLU need for it to qualify as a problem?

How about just one incident like that in November 2008 when a female Florida elementary teacher was arrested for selling heroin and crack cocaine?

Or the December Wisconsin incident of a 25-year veteran high school teacher who not only sold drugs, but hosted drug parties for former students?

Maybe the July conviction of a special-education teacher who sold drugs to her current students at school will be a Road to Damascus experience for the teacher unions and ACLU.

Even if all teachers are drug-free, the schools have serious drug problems with students. Parents should ask their local middle or high school to show them their discipline records.

Also, there is plenty of proof at my Web site, www.insectman.us/ exodus-mandate-wv, under "WV News."

Although the drug problem is serious enough, there is a much more important issue of addiction that parents need to face.

People who would not allow the government to clothe, house or feed their children succumb to the opiate of a "free" education and willingly allow the government to shape their children's minds.

Parents would never allow their children to go into a house where there is 100 percent certainty the children will experience illegal drug or dangerous sexual exposure.

Yet, with judgment impaired due to public school addiction, these same parents allow their precious children into public school buildings where those things are certain to happen.

As this lawsuit runs its course, no matter which side wins, the public schools will remain a narcotic that is seriously impairing our nation.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This letter was originally published in the Charleston Daily Mail on September 19, 2007. In December 2008 Teach First went bankrupt after milking the county for 1.1 million dollars. (http://www.dailymail.com/News/Kanawha/200812180245 )

During more than 30 years as an educator, I saw dozens of highfalutin' "final solutions" to the problems in the public schools. Most of them cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. None of them worked, but they all had fancy words like "collaboration," "frameworks" and "research-based." The public was pacified and the central office had something to do.

Now, another "final solution" is upon us. Kanawha County has spent nearly a million dollars to force teachers in 57 schools to participate in another fad pushed by education bureaucrats from their ivory towers. This time it's called "Teach First," and the superintendent says it is an "attempt to move the district where it needs to be" and "we can't afford to spend 10, 15, 20 years getting there." He admits Kanawha County is subpar. It's just another con game to separate taxpayers from their money.