Central Bucks School Board

Reading out of context

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Across America School Board meetings have become contentious environments, where extremist groups express their bigotry against marginalized people, be it their race, ethnicity, gender identity or religion. One active and well entrenched group in Bucks County is—

Woke Pennsylvania:

“a grass roots organization working to reclaim our schools”.

This group planned to read sexually explicit passages at the March 8 Central Bucks School Board Meeting. The passages, lifted from LGBTQ published books—can be found on the woke website. Public comments limited to 3 minutes, are scheduled at the top of the meeting’s agenda.

“The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, Nobel Laurate and recipient of numerous literary honors, is one of the books on the Woke website. I decided to attend and read a selection from this her first novel, published in 1970. Three of her novels and one of her nonfiction books snuggle on my bookshelf. “The Bluest Eye” isn’t among my four; however, a dear friend lent me her copy.

Morrison’s words sing across the page. When reading the sentences, I’m in awe of the story she weaves. I settled on a passage from the first few pages where words always entice a reader to turn the pages until reaching The End.

Thirty-eight people registered to speak. The room was full. I recognized the usual suspects—attendees from the previous four meetings. As each strode to the dais, they announced the title then filled with indignation, read the excerpt. Then they demanded the book “… be removed from the school library”.

While waiting my turn, I scanned the room, wondering how many of this vociferous crowd had ever voted prior to the 2021 school board elections. The crowd is also displeased with some of the sitting board members, calling out their names demanding they resign.  A speaker from an extremist political action committee—Back to School PA—furiously waved a glossy 4-page document, exclaiming that ‘dark money!’ helped elect 3 Democrats to the board.

(If you visit the Central Bucks School District website, there is a link to a recording of the February 8 meeting. The public comments begin at 30.00 minutes.)

There were speakers advocating for the Library Bill of Rights—American Library Association policies for school libraries as well as several others who opposed removing books from school libraries. A retired teacher—Speaker #16 and recorded at 1.17.15–spoke eloquently how books help some children “… make sense of their lives”.

I remember when a handful of people would attend these meetings. The Covid virus along with decisions to open or close schools and policies regarding masked or no masked students, pushed any concerns about education to the back of the room. Now, the book banners are in Bucks County and stealing all the oxygen out of the air.

The next Central Bucks School Board at 70 Weldon Drive, Doylestown, is scheduled Tuesday, April 12, at 7 pm.

Climate Change is real

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Since 2005 I’ve been a committee volunteer with the Maasai Cultural Exchange Project (MCEP), a non-profit group under the umbrella of Frog Pond Productions, a  501(c)(3) educational organization in Point Pleasant, Bucks County. We advocate for a Maasai tribe located in Kenya, East Africa. They receive support from Americans in Bucks County and surrounding areas who sponsor children’s education and donate funds for water well projects. This success is due to MCEP’s partnership with an NGO in Kenya: The Simba Maasai Outreach Organization (SIMOO).

In February 2015 I traveled to Kenya with two other volunteers for a fact-finding tour. One of the sites on our itinerary was a trip to the Oloshobor Dam, shown above. Every day herders brought their livestock to drink the water. On this particular day we sat along the bank above the dam. With the sound of livestock splashing in the water, we cherished this time watching herders as they took turns leading their goats and cows to quench their thirst.

The Maasai is an indigenous tribe that from one generation to the next passes down  awareness of their environment. They live with a “Dry season” and a “Rainy season”. In conversations with them they are most concerned about the fluctuations that have occurred to these two seasons. The “Dry” season is extending by months; the “Rainy” season has almost ceased to happen.

Two weeks ago we received an email describing the dire situations brought about from this extended drought. In this newspaper article from February 2017 this parched land on which they are gathered is a similar dam to the one I photographed in 2015. Both of these dams are now dry.maasai-on-dry-dam-soilFortunately MCEP’s seven wells sited across their village, have quenched the thirst of 5,000 people and their livestock. Funds from donors also helped to install pipelines at the wells that snake across the terrain to cisterns located throughout the village. As the land dries from the drought, these seven wells with potable, disease-free are saving lives.

The Maasai attribute these extended droughts to climate change. Water has become so precious that an emergency decision was put in place. Water for the most vulnerable is the priority. As important as livestock is to the Maasai, they’ve made the decision that the elderly and the youngest will have priority for water.

Many areas of the African continent have already morphed into desert-like landscapes because  weather patterns are no longer “normal” to what many of these countries experienced in the past.  Populations in other parts of Africa are dying because there is a lack of potable water. In Kenya’s Rift Valley the people are eating poisonous plants and their livestock are dying.

This severe change in Africa’s weather cycle is happening around the globe, even here in America. As I write this the United States Senate is debating whether or not to place Scott Pruitt as Secretary of the Environmental Protection Agency. Pruitt does not believe in climate change.

Earlier this week Doylestown citizens packed the regular meeting of the Central Bucks School Board after learning the board was considering adjustments to text books regarding “climate change”. I am a product of the Central Bucks school system from Grade One through Twelve. I thrived in an atmosphere that encouraged the pursuit of knowledge. I’m disappointed that the  Central Bucks School Board may have members elected to that body who dismiss science and/or climate change from the curriculum.

The tinkering of  climate change is not exclusive to the Central Bucks district. Across America elected school board members approve text books with suppressed or altered facts related to science, culture, history, geography and others. School boards have the power to shape our children’s minds. Yet when election cycles for school board candidates are scheduled, the voter is MIA at the polls. Who is running for school board in your community?

Climate Change is real.