A nation that now embraces ignorance

I’m a Black child of the 60’s, so a lot of the civil rights movement ethos is still very much a part of me.

One of the things I remember so crystal clearly growing up during that period is the extraordinary focus on education that leaders like Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others in my community emphasized. 

“Education and learning have become tools for shaping the future, and not devices of privilege for an exclusive few,” he once said.

My mother heard the call, and spent what would have been our "buying-a new-house" money on sending me to private parochial schools, instead of saving her money and condemning me, her only child, to what were then lackluster but free NY city public schools, for the formative years of my life, to ensure that I would get the best, and safest education possible. 

Dr. King believed that the power of education could literally help change this racially troubled society to create a better future for little Black boys like me. 

         The great equalizer.

“Through education we seek to change attitudes...Through education we seek to change internal feelings (prejudice, hate, etc.)... Through education we seek to break down the spiritual barriers to integration; through legislation and court orders we seek to break down the physical barriers to integration.”

“One method is not a substitute for the other, but a meaningful and necessary supplement.”

And make no mistake, all of you mindless DEI critics, when it came to Black people and opportunity, Dr. King - an accomplished alumnus of Morehouse College and Boston University - stressed only one standard.

Excellence.

“In the new age, we Negroes will be forced to compete with people of all races and nationalities. Therefore, we cannot aim merely to be good Negro teachers, good Negro doctors, good Negro ministers, good Negro skilled laborers. We must set out to do a good job, irrespective of race, and do it so well that nobody could do it better.”

  Dr. King’s educational prescription for Black people to achieve their equality and freedom in this country became a popular and pervasive mantra in my community, leaving no room for anything less than maximum effort for excellence by subsequent generations of educated young people of color, who would later serve this country proudly, and with distinction, as teachers, scientists, military leaders, lawyers, journalists, artists, scholars, political leaders, ministers, medical professionals, businesspeople, cultural icons and yes, even president and vice president of the United States.

I can’t tell you how much pride I’m still filled with when I meet or learn of someone who looks like me who has risen to the apex of their noble and respected profession, thanks to the educational doors opened, and once insurmountable barriers conquered for them, by Dr. King decades ago.

Now if you’re white reading this, understand that this brief history lesson I’ve just given you is deeply engrained in my DNA. But it’s a history lesson so many others of my generation share.

Work hard, but just don’t get a job to pay the bills. Cultivate your mind and spirit so that you are indeed a fully functioning, fully contributing member of this society, I was taught by my community as a young Black man coming up. And take advantage of every opportunity you can to be the best that you can be, for yourself, your family and your country.

That’s my orientation as an American citizen of African origin. And I’m damned proud that my dearly departed mother insisted on, and sacrificed for my education, and that commitment is something I’ve intently passed onto my two children.

My oldest graduated from a prestigious university with her MBA several years ago. Today she has a family, and is gainfully employed.

My youngest is graduating Yale University in just a few weeks.

Dr. King’s prophetic words on education and excellence still live in my community today as a vital beacon for those who seek the challenge of purpose, and the achievement of economic self-determination.

So it’s no accident that I’ve taken up a lot of space and ink here establishing my high regard for, and absolute commitment to the institution of education, to sadly state the following - what our so-called president of 34 felony convictions and counting has, and shamefully is doing to the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) in this country, may be his greatest crime of all.

Now I’m not going to sit here and swear that the DOE is, or ever has been an immaculate institution throughout the years, because, in fact, it hasn’t. But when it comes to providing much needed resources to help educate at-risk or special needs children; or help set a national teaching standard so that our young people are able to adequately compete on the world stage; or provide much needed federal student loans and grants; or Title 1 funding for low-income K-12 students; or creating meaningful learning programs students and communities can participate in; or IDEA funding for students with disabilities; or operate a civil rights office to ensure that all students are treated fairly, equitably and constitutionally; or enforce Title IX that protects against gender-based discrimination; or a host of many other ways the DOE helps to improve education in this country, it shocks me to the core that we are allowing a confirmed and convicted criminal to burn it all down to the ground with lies and ignorance.

“I signed an executive order banning public schools from indoctrinating our children with transgender ideology…,” critical race theory or radical indoctrination in K-12 schooling, Trump has proclaimed.

Well guess what, King Liar. In 2015, Congress passed the Every Student Succeeds Act, which forbids federal interference in the curriculums and teaching materials of local school systems. So if any public school districts are teaching about the crazy stuff you’re lying about, they've decided to do so on their own. DOE had nothing to do with it.

Keep in mind that Republicans, even before Trump, have always wanted to get rid of DOE, believing that the federal government should have nothing to do with local education. All King Trump has done is pick up the GOP torch, and slither away with it.

Once again it should be stated that it will take an act of Congress to legally abolish the U.S. Department of Education, but apparently it doesn’t take a whole lot for a deranged despot to fire every committed soul among the over 4,000 who served, on the whim that it makes him out to be some kind of “leader” or "hero."

Let’s state it again in plain language in case you haven’t gotten the gist of what I’m saying by now - Donald Trump is destroying the U.S. Department of Education because he is out of his pathetic and evil mind!

His apparent goal is to so control the direction of this country even long after he’s gone, that he feels the need to eradicate any vestige of truth telling, or truth teaching. So destroying literally ANYTHING that could possibly exist that would honestly document  the truth about America’s racial past, or reflect America’s commitment to atoning for the sins of that racial history today through programs promoting diversity, equity and inclusion, is King Trump’s top priority.

        The Washington Post reports Trump's Defense Dept. has even scrubbed the website for Arlington National Cemetery, where our honored military from the nation's past wars are laid to rest, of any information spotlighting Black and Hispanic military figures of color, as well as females, to insidiously "cleanse" the national cemetery's history of any taint of DEI.

        Men and women who proudly gave their lives to serve this country...their histories removed, all because a shameless, dastardly white supremacist dog who used bone spurs as his reason for not serving, wants it that way.

        I could scream. How could the American people stand for this?!!!

Right now, what little of DOE that's left is threatening Duke University, and at least 50 other private and public universities across the nation, with federal investigations for allegedly violating the civil rights of white and Asian students, all because those institutions participated in a program whose goal is diversifying the business world, according to published reports. 

        Duke, a private institution, could lose millions in federal funding for programs and research, a la Columbia University.

Per its website, Congress established DOE in May 1980, with a mission to assure access to equal educational opportunity for every student; supplement and complement the efforts of state and local school systems, the private sector, public and private nonprofit educational research institutions, community-based organizations, parents and students to improve education; and also encourage the increased involvement of the public, parents and students in federal education programs, among other mission goals.

In recent years, one of those other mission goals has been helping to making American students more competitive in the global educational arena.

The US Dept.of Education, on average, supplements roughly 10% of any local school system’s annual budget. Trust me, as much as they may complain about the strings attached, those locals are happy to have the money.

        And given the financial trouble many school systems find themselves in routinely, it's doubtful they would just takeover the mission of DOE, even with federal block grants that, from what I read, would phase out in ten years.

So in my book, DOE has tremendous value. It’s easy to be flippant and say let the states and local communities control their own education. Well guess what? The states and local communities are controlling their own education. All the feds are making sure happens is that local education is equally available to every child, and be of equal standard where possible.

After all, can you assure me that rural kids in Montana are getting the same education as city kids in New Jersey, if left to the states? Urban kids in Chicago the same as suburban students in California? Is the quality of teachers the same across the country? Would states allocate the same resources to educate all children, regardless of where they live or what they look like? Would disabled kids be afforded the same educational opportunities as other youngsters?

Is Mississippi or Alabama teaching their kids at the same standard as Connecticut or even North Carolina?

Many an attorney has gone to the bank over the obvious answers to those questions, and based on what Trump is pulling now, those lawyers will soon be feasting again.

Republicans live by the mantra of picking winners and losers, shamefully even with our children.

Already, the workforce of the DOE has been slashed in half by newly minted Education Secretary Linda McMahon. On Fox recently, McMahon - whose prior educational claim to fame is co-founding World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. -  bragged about taking “the first step of eliminating what I think is bureaucratic bloat,” shaving a workforce of 4,133 down to 2,183. 

Until it’s completely shut down by Congress, DOE will still administer student loans, Pell Grants, competitive grant making and funding for special needs students. Some of the other functions will be pawned off to other federal agencies (assuming they’re still in business) we’re told.

The new chair of the Democratic National Committee, Ken Martin, put it bluntly.

“Donald Trump holds the future of 50 million public school students across America in his hands, and today he told those kids and their parents he doesn’t give a damn about them."

“Defunding public education doesn’t put America first—it all but guarantees that we will be last for generations to come,” Martin added. “Trump and the billionaire megadonor he installed as Education Secretary are pickpocketing our public schools, which will lead to ballooning class sizes, fewer teachers and aides, and a lower quality of education for our kids.”

By destroying DOE for personal and political reasons, in addition to ripping away hundreds of millions of dollars for crucial scientific research at our top universities, outlawing DEI policies and practices, and firing thousands of federal employees, King Trump is assuring that educational advancement in this country will be crippled for at least a generation.

In effect, under Trump, our nation is now embracing ignorance. He is deciding what our intellectual diet should be. That’s what dictatorships do.

Want a preview of what King Trump’s ignorant America looks like tomorrow, pay close attention to what his MAGA crowd does and says today.

All they know…all they want to know, is that they’re getting “their” country back thanks to Donald Trump, and soon, it will be “great” again, just like in the days before Dr. King began making trouble.

I am profoundly saddened by what we have become, and what we are on our way to further becoming, America. Unless Democrats can get it together, all I can do is pray for Almighty GOD’s mercies, because this is NOT the country I raised my children to live in.

        And it's certainly NOT the country Dr. King died to save!