By Bill Britt
Alabama Political Reporter
As the second half of the 2012 Legislative Session reconvenes Governor Bentley and the GOP-led Legislature will begin the process of bringing school choice to Alabama.
The governor has made a strong commitment to bringing more choice for the education of Alabama’s children by personally standing for “Education Options Act of 2012.”
“Public charter schools are about choice,” Governor Bentley said. “They give parents and students the ability to choose a new option if they are dissatisfied with their local schools. Additionally, public charter schools allow teachers to customize education based on the needs of the students in their classrooms.”
Governor Bentley is committed, so are President Pro Tem of the Senate Del Marsh and Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard.
On the other side of the issue stands the Alabama Education Association and a few others, the most powerful by far is the AEA.
The head of the AEA, Henry Mabry, has vowed he would do anything to defeat charter schools in Alabama.
Mr. Mabry may just be betting his personal future on stopping school choice at least those are the whispers heard around the Capitol.
In the best of worlds, politics should be a battle of ideas, a set of policies that maximize good without doing harm, debated in an open forum for all to see and hear.
But that is not what politics is in reality; modern politics is warfare by other means, and there are those who believe that there are no boundaries that should not be breached in the waging of this war.
There are those who believe that all is fair in war even lies and personal destruction.
The first public salvo in the war of charter schools has come perhaps innocuously in the form of internet ads primarily being run on social media such as Facebook.
These can be categorized under the headline, “Coming to a school district near you Gay/Lesbian/Muslim Charter Schools of Alabama.”
If you believe the advertising on Facebook, Gay/Lesbian and Muslim matriculation will be what Alabama parents have to look forward to if the Education Options Act of 2012 becomes law.
This seems silly on its face but it is nevertheless effective in inciting fear and prejudice.
Paid political operatives are on the attack and they are determined to use every political dirty trick to defeat charter schools in Alabama.
The first ad points out that Turkey is the country with the most charter schools and that those schools are run by Muslims, that most terrorist are Muslim therefore if we allow charter schools in Alabama we will have terrorist in Alabama.
The second states that “Gay and lesbian kids in Alabama face daily bullying in schools. We can protect them. Support Charter Schools — for safe LGBT kids.”
The message here is bring charter schools to Alabama and they will be a safe haven for homosexuals.
The third ad reads, “Coming to Alabama soon: Barack Obama Charter Schools. Support our President and Charter Schools.” The message is if you like Obama you are going to love charter schools.
I am not sure of the statistic but Muslims, homosexuals and the current President are not among the most popular folks in Alabama.
But the lie here is that you should be against school choice not because it is a bad idea but because people you don’t like are for it or might benefit from it.
These “Dogs of war” do not want to fight on facts they had rather pray on alarm, intolerance and ignorance.
Their weapon of war, the systematic lie. Their mouths like an open grave welcome the decay of the human spirit, their tongues poison thoughts with loathing and animus.
In an ad that is currently circulating, Emily Schultz, an advisor to Governor Bentley on education, is a target of character assassination. In the ad supposedly sponsored by, “The Tea Party Network” (a nonexistent group) Schultz is associated with, democrats, gays and abortionist. Schultz, was hired as a consultant on school reform, all of her actions and reports have been concerning that assignment. Schultz has shown professionalism and skill in her dealings. There has been no hint of left-wing agenda on her part. This is pure political execution of the most vile kind, guilty by association and innuendo not fact. This is the most heinous type of lie.
There are many types of lies, the kind that these people employ is not a lie of sin or vice but in their minds born of duty.
They believe that because of their class, race or position that they are the ones who know what is best for humble people and therefore to persuade the masses they lie.
These so-called-leaders follow Machiavelli, Marx and Nietzsche, in believing that to retain power the lie is more useful than truth.
From misleading ads and robo-calls making false claim, to outright attempts at character assassination these operatives believe they have a sacred duty. Pervert, destroy and defame anything and anyone who stands in the way of their power.
It is a righteous lie that they tell because the means is justified by the ends.
They do not want to stop school choice on the merits but because charter schools will diminish their personal power. It is the union elite who know what is best for the people of Alabama.
This is not about schools, children or Alabama it is about one thing and one thing only– power.
“Der Wille zur Macht,” German for The Will to Power, is at the heart of their belief.
Put forward by Friedrich Nietzsche, the will to power he believed was the driving force in human nature, achievement, ambition, the striving to reach the highest possible position in life; these are all manifestations of the will to power according to Nietzsche. That, coupled with the notion that they alone are the emperors over all they survey, gives them immunity from conscience because they alone are right and know what is best.
In his work “Beyond Good and Evil” (1886), Nietzsche wrote “…not from any morality or immorality but because it is living and because life simply is will to power.”
These men and women who will lie to gain or retain power are not under a vail of morality but under a higher law, that of nature according to Nietzsche.
But I believe a higher truth than nature applies to these elites, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do… for he is a liar, and the father of it.”
Jesus said, “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free,” this not only applies to the Gospel but to life.
Unmasking of the lie, is the duty of all good people. According to Edmund Burke, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
These people who peddle lies to keep control over our children’s future will not stop. Defeating charter schools is but a tool toward regaining total power over government in Alabama.
Charter schools are a small step in a bigger picture of education reform for Alabama. That powerful unions and their paid minions are fighting to prevent charter schools is perhaps the best argument that these schools are needed.
Many smart women and men from Alabama and around the country have worked tirelessly to craft a charter school program for the state.
It is time to give charter schools a chance. No one will die, no child will suffer and the world as we know it will not come to an end.
The only thing that may die as a result of charter schools is the unbridled power of the lying elite and their will to power at any cost.
It is amazing that a thing as simple as school choice may play out in Alabama as a heroic struggle for the freedom of the spirit. A struggle to ensure that every man, woman and child in our state has a brighter future and better life.
