A Liberal Dose, November 22, 2023 "Tennessee Wants to Reject 1.8 Billion Dollars in Education Funding"

 

A Liberal Dose

November 22, 2023

Troy D. Smith

“Tennessee Wants to Reject $1.8 Billion of Education Funding”

 

 

Tennessee -where we’re always the first to jump out of the plane, because we skip the line where they’re handing out parachutes. This time we are -once again -in the news because of education. Our legislature has spent two weeks discussing the possibility of rejecting almost 2 billion dollars of federal education funding, which would make us the first state to ever do so -because federal money comes with “burdensome stipulations” such as paperwork. When educators brought before the panel were questioned about which stipulations felt burdensome to them, they couldn’t think of any. They did say that education needs more money, not less. About ten percent of students are directly affected by the federal funds under discussion, mostly low-income kids and students with disabilities. It is worth noting that no parents or local advocacy groups were allowed to speak… but two out-of-state conservative groups were.

One argument is that Tennessee has a pretty sizable treasury surplus, and could make up the difference in much of the federal funding lost if this goes through. This raises the question: what could the state accomplish if they used part of that surplus on top of the federal funding to improve education? They could pay teachers more, provide incentives for people to become teachers in the first place (which is increasingly hard to convince people in red states to do nowadays, as teachers are treated like third-class citizens), replace some of the state funding withdrawn from higher education over the last couple of decades, or maybe even replace some of the classroom libraries our laws have bullied and intimidated teachers into removing. I don’t know about you, but if I were a public-school teacher I would feel far more burdened by the oppressive and ridiculous education laws passed by our state legislature the last few years than I would by any federal mandates. Public school teachers I’ve talked to are terrified to breathe funny for fear it might hurt someone’s feelings and get them fired.

Could it be that the “burdensome stipulations” of the federal government includes things like diversity programs, academic freedom, and education standards that reflect the truth of our history (and our present) and recognizes that there are a lot of different kinds of people in America and that’s all right, rather than the politicized, propagandistic, majority wishful thinking that our Republican legislators prefer? Could it be that many Republican politicians would like to have even more power to control what teachers teach and how they teach it, and what kinds of people are benefited by various educational programs, without the federal government being able to interfere -and they’re willing to shoot themselves (and all of us, and our kids) in the foot to do so? And what happens when there is an economic downturn in Tennessee (no bubble lasts forever) and all that surplus disappears? That is a second barrel waiting to shoot their (and our) other foot.

Notice that it is not educators asking for this to be done. Educators’ voices, in fact, are being ignored -as they always are. I’ll keep saying it as long as I have breath left in my lungs: leave teachers alone and let them to their jobs, which they are trained to do (and you are not), and give them all the financial support they need to do that job effectively. Because it is the single most important job in this country -our whole future depends on it. For all the folks out there who want one political party to have absolute control of what your kids are exposed to, for fear it may be something you don’t like, consider this: one day those kids will be applying to colleges, grad schools, or jobs in other states with more opportunities… and they’ll be woefully unprepared to compete against kids from states where the teachers are supported and students are allowed to learn.

--Troy D. Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech and serves on the executive committee of the Tennessee Democratic Party. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.

Buy the book A Liberal Dose: Communiques from the Holler by Troy D. Smith HERE

You can find all previous entries in this weekly column HERE

A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE

Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com

The author's historical lectures on youtube can be found HERE

 

A Liberal Dose, November 16, 2023 "Civic Virtue, Duty, and Honor: The Sad Decline of the Republican Party"

 

A Liberal Dose

November 16, 2023

Troy D. Smith

“Civic Virtue, Duty, and Honor: The Sad Decline of the Republican Party”

 

I write this the day after Veterans Day -and, for various reasons, service has been on my mind lately. Last week, I co-taught a class on facilitating civil discussion with visiting retired Major-General Edward Dornan, a 1983 graduate of Tennessee Tech. He asked how many of the students present had considered pursuing public service, and pointed out that there were many ways to do so without donning a military uniform. There was one half-raised hand. This motivated me to talk briefly about a subject dear to my heart, republicanism, a theme I will return to soon.

Another service-related thing that got me thinking was seeing a Nashville news station interview with my dear friend Jim Sutcliffe (age 101), decorated WWII veteran and German POW camp survivor. Jim’s story, which many of you know, is inspiring. It made me think of several other WWII vets I’ve been privileged to know and whom we’ve lost in the past few years. These were men (and there were plenty of women, too) who were willing to put their lives on hold for years, and to risk losing those lives or suffering horrible injury, to protect democracy from the threat of fascism.

My father and all three of his brothers served in uniform during the Vietnam era. They all survived, but the two who saw combat were deeply scarred by it. I myself did not follow that tradition (though many of my good friends from high school did); when I was a senior my goal was to do preaching and mission work. And I did, full-time, for three years -a little of it here in White County, but also in South Florida and New York City, serving in French-speaking congregations and working with Haitian immigrants. Neither South Florida nor New York City were very safe places in the ‘80s (heck, for that matter, neither was White County). Despite the fact I was carrying a Bible instead of a gun, my life was legitimately threatened on several occasions. I’ve stared down the barrels of guns multiple times. I’ve walked into drug deals and stumbled onto murder scenes. I did it out of a sense of duty to God and love for neighbor. So, though I did not serve in uniform, I served… and am much the better for it.

Back to republicanism, with a small “r.” That is the principle espoused by the founding generation -that a representative democratic republic cannot survive unless its citizens have civic virtue -unless they are willing to shoulder burdens that are onerous to them, but which must be done, for the greater good of the community. To provide for the general defense and promote the general welfare… in order to form a more perfect union.

And then I think of the man many Americans chose to be their president, and are seeking to return to that office, Donald Trump -a man who has never done anything that did not immediately and profoundly benefit himself. A man who has referred to our honored military dead as losers, to those who have served in uniform as saps. Who did not want to have grievously wounded veterans messing up his photo ops and making him look bad. Who did not want to honor fallen WWII heroes because of a little rain and pouted about it. And I wonder what has happened to the Republican Party.

I never fully agreed with many of the precepts of conservatism -but there were conservative politicians I respected, and trusted to be good people, and to have the greater good of the country foremost in mind, even if I disagreed with them about how. But it is now the Party of Trump -of selfishness, ego, and vanity. They never encourage you to help people -only to jealously guard your own benefit. They barely even give lip service anymore to Jesus and all the things he said were important.

 

--Troy D. Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech and serves on the executive committee of the Tennessee Democratic Party. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.

Buy the book A Liberal Dose: Communiques from the Holler by Troy D. Smith HERE

You can find all previous entries in this weekly column HERE

A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE

Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com

The author's historical lectures on youtube can be found HERE

A Liberal Dose, November 9, 2023 "The Republican Party Is Eating Itself Alive"

 

A Liberal Dose

November 9, 2023

Troy D. Smith

“The Republican Party Is Eating Itself Alive”

 

Before I go to my main topic, I want to commend John Gottlied for his article last week about depression. I have dealt with depression and anxiety issues for most of my life, and I know many people who struggle quietly and privately. It is on all of us to make such people feel safe in being human without judgment.

Now let’s talk about how jacked up the Republican Party is.

Man. The Republican Party is jacked up.

I’m serious. House Republicans tossed out their own speaker, which has never been done before, and it took them three weeks and several candidates to pick a new one. Three weeks without a Speaker -so, effectively, three weeks without a House of Representatives or any kind of funding bills, at a time when we are facing multiple crises overseas. Nothing like this has ever happened in American history. Will Rogers famously said, “I’m not a member of any organized political party -I’m a Democrat.” That was funny because it was true. For way over a century, it was Democrats who had trouble rallying together, whereas Republicans presented a united front. The sad part is, I don’t think Democrats have gotten any more organized -they just look like it when compared to the mess Republicans have devolved into.

And what a cast of characters: Matt Gaetz, implicated in sex-trafficking and, so far as I know, still under investigation for sexual misconduct; Lauren Boebert, last seen drunkenly engaging in sexual behavior at a family performance of Beetlejuice; and George Santos, who probably couldn’t even tell the truth about what day it is. Perhaps the most shocking part of it all is the fact that Republican Congressmen standing for the Speaker position were receiving death threats to their families -from Republicans who supported one of the other people for the spot. This demonstrates how badly things have devolved -after several years of promoting hatefulness and encouraging, directly or tacitly, political violence against liberals, Republicans are now receiving threats of violence from supporters of their own party.

Then you have the U.S. Senate. Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville has single-handedly kneecapped the entire U.S. military power structure at a time when, again, we are facing multiple military issues around the globe. Why? To force the military to change their insurance coverage for things he does not personally approve of. This is not to even mention all the suffering he is inflicting on military families who are losing money that should be theirs, with officers forced to do the work of two or more people until they are stretched so thin their health is threatened.

And then there is the presidential campaign. Hooboy. I can’t even keep track of all the trials and criminal charges Donald Trump is involved in -and I’m a historian! Yet he is the overwhelming choice of the Republican electorate to be their presidential candidate. Yes. The same party that castigated Bill Clinton’s sexual impropriety because “ethics matter” is continuing to support a man already found liable for sexual assault and massive fraud. A man who, as I heard someone say recently, handles a Bible like he thinks it will burn him. Their biggest arguments are that the 2020 election was rigged (which has been proven to be untrue multiple times) and… Joe Biden is old. They’re practically the same age! Trump can’t keep straight what state he’s in, or for that matter finish a thought. As Bill Barr said (and this is an understatement), “his verbal skills are limited.”

The whole apparatus seems totally incapable of solving any problems or even offering any plans to do so. The whole party has become a massive clown show, with each individual throwing their country and even their party to the winds in order to out-Trump Trump and get as much attention (and raise as much money) as possible.

Maybe it’s time for some of y’all to switch sides.

--Troy D. Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.

Buy the book A Liberal Dose: Communiques from the Holler by Troy D. Smith HERE

You can find all previous entries in this weekly column HERE

A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE

Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com

The author's historical lectures on youtube can be found HERE

A Liberal Dose, November 2, 2023 "Why the True History of Slavery and Race Matters Today"

 

A Liberal Dose

November 2, 2023

Troy D. Smith

“Why the True History of Slavery and Race Matters Today”

 

I have been talking about the origins of slavery in America. In part, I’ve been doing so because there is a lot about that subject that most people don’t know -and our current political climate, especially in red states like ours, suppresses honest discussion and true understanding of the subject. You can’t understand the present without understanding the past, nor can you effectively build the future, and some people would rather you not do any of those things. Their strategy for controlling the present and shaping the future is controlling your ability to know the past.

That said. For roughly the first century of the English colonies, labor in the South was done by three groups: African slaves, white indentured servants, and American Indian slaves. For reasons discussed last week, by about 1720 it had become exclusively the task of African slaves. Southern colonies started passing laws to keep even free blacks separate from poor whites, the better to control them both and avoid a replay of Bacon’s Rebellion.

Those laws became, in fits and spurts, more and more restrictive as the eighteenth century progressed. Every time there was a failed slave revolt, or word was leaked of a planned one, Southern colonial legislatures passed more laws exerting ever more control over the black population, free and slave alike. Free blacks lost most of the rights they had possessed the previous century, and slavery became harsher and harsher. This continued after the Revolution and into the nineteenth century. Race was simultaneously defined by LAW, and shaped by custom. This was a way for the planter class -who controlled the economy and the politics -to tell poor white workers and farmers, “Hey, you may not have any money or access to education or many opportunities in life, but you are white like us and we are all on the same side. You are not like those OTHER people... so stop hanging around with them. They are inferior to US.” This was a way to both delude the white “lower classes” and keep them from turning on the powers that be, and to protect the institution of slavery which was making the elites rich.

I’ll return to the cookie analogy I’ve used often. Picture three guys sitting around a table: a black guy, a poor white guy, and a rich white guy. There are ten cookies at the table. The rich guy has eight and the other two each have one. The rich guy tells the poor white guy, “You’d better watch that black guy, he wants to steal your cookie.” And while the poor white guy and the black guy are watching each other, neither notices that the rich guy now has ALL the cookies. Or, as Lyndon Johnson put it, “If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."

This was done to maintain the social status quo, and keep the empowered in power. And it worked. Thousands and thousands of poor white Southerners who had never owned a slave and never would fought and died to protect the institution that only benefited the people at the top. And when that war ended slavery in America, the same economic/political class leaned in heavier than ever on reinforcing racism in order to hold on to that control -and that worked, too.

Today many Americans -95% or more of them white, I would guess -want to gloss over all the history I have laid out these last few weeks, because they think it makes America look bad… and because they want people to stop complaining about racial injustice, because doing so is a “divisive concept.” “Let’s forget it and move on.” But “forgetting” it (or never learning it in the first place) only further cements it.

 

--Troy D. Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.

Buy the book A Liberal Dose: Communiques from the Holler by Troy D. Smith HERE

You can find all previous entries in this weekly column HERE

A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE

Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com

The author's historical lectures on youtube can be found HERE