Stop Texas from Rewriting History

As a retired Philadelphia Public School teacher and member of a family blessed with European/Latina/African/Navajo/Chinese ethnicity, I find omitting historical facts related to any human being of any ancestry totally unacceptable. Therefore, I am outraged that the Texas State Board of Education is even considering taking a vote on January 13 that would, for all intents and purposes, erase Cesar Chavez and all Latino historical figures from the state’s public school textbooks.

Since most public school students in Texas will soon be Latino, this is a particularly egregious omission. We are not educating children if we are indoctrinating them with a very biased set of partial facts. It was Hitler who did that in Europe, and the beauty of American democracy is that we try not to do that with our children. It is important that our children learn about all historical figures, European, Latino, Native American, Asian, African and more.

My grandfather migrated from Austria-Hungary in a region now part of Poland. He joined the union of John Lewis and worked in the coal mines as well as maintaining his own business as a huckster of fruits and vegetables. He supported a family of six children, all of whom rose to upper middle class American society through hard work and education. I would not like to see John Lewis removed from text books. Neither would I like to see Cesar Chavez removed. It is totally false for ignorant, racist extremists to say that he "lacks the stature...and contributions of so many others" and should not be "held up to our children as someone worthy of emulation," as claimed by one of the "experts" advising the Texas Board of Education.

Texas should not let its status as a powerful state in this great United States be diminished by a few radicals who want to rewrite history.

For more information, see: http://newsjunkiepost.com/2010/01/10/texas-conservatives-closer-to-banning-cesar-chavez-from-school-textbooks/

http://action.ufw.org/page/speakout/cectxjan10