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1

"...lawmakers should be focused on actually teaching students to read, write and think for themselves."

I absolutely agree. That's why California needs a statute allowing public employees to be fired for being members of the Catholic church.

Posted by mattymatt | April 21, 2008 12:00 PM
2

"California lawmakers are eager to once again begin advancing a political ideology responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people..."

I think communism works about as well as a screen door on a submarine, but come on -- is there any form of government that has, without failure, never perpetrated or facilitated actions responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people?

Posted by Mike | April 21, 2008 12:08 PM
3

I verily disagree. I think that, instead of teaching students to read, write and think for themselves by letting them read Marx and decide for themselves whether communism is a good thing or a bad thing, lawmakers should be focused on banning ideas they disagree with from our schools. And for God's sake, don't let our precious children anywhere near a copy of The Port Huron Statement!

Posted by Jeff Stevens | April 21, 2008 12:08 PM
4

When you look for people who behave like the Politburo and the Communist Party - you find the neocons who infest DC.

Posted by Will in Seattle | April 21, 2008 12:10 PM
5

Teachers shouldn't be fired for their beliefs, but communism is the worst idea to come out of the 20th century. If Lena or Sven Jr were in a class with a commie teacher I would be very, very vigilant to make sure said teacher was not trying to indoctrinate my kids with their demonstrably-homicidal nonsense.

Posted by Big Sven | April 21, 2008 12:23 PM
6

@5: As someone who's been there - big, fat ditto.

Posted by zucchi | April 21, 2008 12:30 PM
7

A few weeks back I was at a party and a 20-something skater type informed me that he built a mountain bunker for the day when "Red Dawn" becomes reality... so I guess the red scare is still very real for some.

Posted by UNPAID BLOGGER | April 21, 2008 12:46 PM
8

Lots of people died under Soviet communism, 'tis true. However, something we don't hear a lot of in the West because it doesn't fit our self-serving narrative about the Cold War: many people starved to death in Russia after the fall of communism as well. The introduction of "market forces" (read: "selling off state assets to a handful of robber barons at fire-sale prices) as the sole guiding force in the Russian economy was by and large disastrous for the Russian people. By metrics like life expectancy, infant mortality and infectious disease rates, as well as unemployment and poverty figures, the quality of life for most Russians fell back to Czarist levels. The life expectancy of a Russian male aged sixteen from the generation born one hundred years ago, who lived through two world wars, the purges and the Gulag, was higher than his 1990's counterpart, with a 2% higher chance of reaching age 60.

We're always hearing about how disastrous Communism is for the people living under it, but for some reason we don't seem all that concerned about the similar disasters brought about by "free-market" capitalism.

Of course these are exactly the kinds of unpleasant facts about our own system that one must not speak of under any system that silences discussion of Commuism in honest terms. Now that the bugbear of global Communism is no longer as frightening as it once was, there is a whole generation that is at risk of evaluating their own system by some means other than comparing it to a demonized portrait of its opposing system. Kids today hearing about the ideas of Marx might start wondering aloud why their own government seems to have so little concern for the welfare of its own citizens.

We can't have that, can we?

Posted by flamingbanjo | April 21, 2008 1:06 PM
9

"is there any form of government that has, without failure, never perpetrated or facilitated actions responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people?"
Hmmm the questions is very qualified so as to equate all forms of government and this is very false and pernicious.

more democracy = less war.

democracies have the best record in history of not killing millions of others.

they don't kill millions of their own citizens.

they don't tend to kill millions of other "innocent people" without justification, either.

Granted: slave holding states by def. are not democracies. Granted: we are resp. for deaths of 600,000 or so in Iraq and are indirectly resp. for deaths of a few hundred thousand via S.Amer. coups, death squads, etc. Granted: we bombed millions in Japan and Dresden etc. in WW2, but I wouldn't call that unprovoked or unjustified.

If any of that makes us or the UK equal to Stalin's and Mao's and Hitler's aggression, purges, famines and genocides.....you just may be a moral relativist who is completely out of touch and full of fuzzy, dumb ideas like the idea that democracy = communism = fascism and hey it's all pretty much the same....


also this is not a very American idea isn't our nation built on democratic ideals? If they're not worth anything much why bother with getting rid of King George, ending slavery, expanding the vote to women, etc.?????


Posted by unPC | April 21, 2008 1:06 PM
10

@9... I assume you aren't considering US democracy Democracy... otherwise I believe killing innocent people for our own selfish gain is our forte.

Posted by SDizzle | April 21, 2008 1:16 PM
11

Communism is really more of an socio-economic system, not a political system. That is, the proleteriat or state controls the means of production. Whereas, in Capitalism, there is a free-market.

So, it is possible to have a communist Democracy. For instance, the French have traditionally had a large communist representation in their government.

That being said, Democracy and Capitalism seem to go hand in hand. There is somewhat of a debate as to what comes first.

So, communism didn't really kill all those Soviets, it was pretty much that crazy SOB Stalin.

Posted by Medina | April 21, 2008 1:23 PM
12

@7 - I would like to thank that 20-something sk8r type for building my bunker for me.

(grin)

Posted by Will in Seattle | April 21, 2008 1:36 PM
13

Right @9, I'm quite certain the estimated 2 - 15 million Native Americans who died between the birth of our democracy and the closing of the Western Frontier from mass displacement and outright murder, all either legally or at least tacitly approved by both state and federal governments, would no doubt agree with your assesment.

Posted by COMTE | April 21, 2008 2:24 PM
14
Posted by hyperlinker | April 21, 2008 3:17 PM
15

I was wandering around in the RCW recently and we too have a clearly unconstitutional statute that could use revokation.

RCW 9.86.030
Desecration of flag.

(1) No person shall knowingly cast contempt upon any flag, standard, color, ensign or shield, as defined in RCW 9.86.010, by publicly mutilating, defacing, defiling, burning, or trampling upon the flag, standard, color, ensign or shield.

(2) A violation of this section is a gross misdemeanor.

Posted by vooodooo84 | April 21, 2008 4:49 PM
16

"While of promoting freedom of speech and association in our schools, lawmakers should be focused on actually teaching students to read, write and think for themselves"

I fixed that to what the conservative movement ought to be saying. Then I'd agree with them.

Posted by Lee Gibson | April 21, 2008 5:36 PM
17

I always thought that the real threat of communism / marxism was the appeal and support for it that was growing by the turn of the 19th century. The threat it posed was basically a threat to the wealthy and powerful in the democratic system here. That's why a system of laws was set up to snuff it out.

Posted by Lloyd Clydesdale | April 21, 2008 5:40 PM

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