Jerry Goodnight: “…when we are complicit in the failures of our country, we have made the choice for our children to inherit a world less than what they deserve.”

Silence begets silence. In our political and educational landscape, there are more “buzz words” that trigger extreme responses than ever before.

In our state (and even in our area), attempts are being made to prevent your students, your children, from truly learning. In America today, our political and economic landscape serve as major manipulative factors.

School boards, ransacked by political extremism, resort to banning books and removing key words like “systemic” to whitewash a historical narrative that might provide insight into the dangerous world we have built for our posterity. We cannot pick and choose what history to teach, what narratives to tell, or what rights to honor. 

It is no longer good enough to fight against bias — we must be actively objective when we can.

It is no longer good enough to not be racist — we must be actively anti-racist. 

It is no longer good enough to not use hateful language — we must be actively anti-hate. 

It is no longer good enough to be accepting of the LGBT community — we must be actively pro-LGBT and actively against their close-minded detractors.

As parents or teachers, we spend time wrestling with our personal convictions as it relates to the young people under our charge. Our convictions must direct us to counter hate and ignorance in all of its manifestations. 

Ignoring this problem, silence in the face of hate, whitewashing, and conservative, unyielding traditionalism constitute a moral failure that amounts to complicity. And when we are complicit in the failures of our country, we have made the choice for our children to inherit a world less than what they deserve.

Jerry Goodnight