by Dr. Tracy Miller
I was surprised by the Williamson County School Board’s recent call for action to Governor Lee, especially in how it seems to differ with a resolution that the Williamson County Republican Party released weeks earlier. What is most apparent in the Covenant School tragedy is that another deranged assassin targeted what is essentially a gun free zone. We will never know what might have happened if willing teachers or administrators received proper training and were allowed to carry firearms to protect the children entrusted to their care. Clearly, the bias against the 2nd Amendment has cost us an incalculable price once again.
Regardless of the generic and “feel good” call to action, whether its labeled Red Flag or ERPO, why don’t they ask for something immediate and actionable—fund more SRO’s, provide for the training and equipping of teachers and administrators to protect the innocent? Again, I understand the lofty rhetoric, but what good are more laws and common sense solutions to the lawless and the insane?
Better yet, why aren’t they issuing a call to accomplish the things that are within their purview? A lot of our society’s moral and ethical decay began with the concerted effort to separate all things moral and ethical from the curriculum—removal of prayer, of referencing Judaeo-Christian ethics (love thy neighbor as thyself, do unto others, the Ten Commandments, etc.). But it wasn’t just an attack against religious underpinnings. Patriotism has been largely eliminated—what we believe as Americans, the Pledge of Allegiance, founding principles, God given rights, free speech, liberty, equality. And what about personal conduct? Back in the day we were instructed in a gentleman’s code—all people older were Ma’am or Sir, you never used vulgarity, you held doors, you protected the weak, you treated women with courtesy and deference. I could go on all day, but before I get derailed by the argument that a lot of this ethical training begins at home, and it does, it was also taught and reinforced in schools.
And if you want to hear real exasperation, lets talk about the age-inappropriate filth, the horrific perverted sexual violence that children are exposed to in some libraries, the undermining of their basic biological identities, the usurpation of parental knowledge and authority. And again, I am not suggesting that this is a teacher problem, it is institutional.
Let’s start small, Dave Ramsey style, and work our way out. Let’s move the books that corrupt their innocence, let’s remove the textbooks and curriculum that undermine and distort their identity, let’s replace the contemporary garbage with classical lessons and literature that teach critical values. If there is time to teach all the “woke” victimized propaganda, there is time to teach the basic values and morals that made this country unique in history. Again, starting small, we teach teachers and administrators to defend their schools. We fund more SRO’s. We better secure the facilities. This isn’t a hunker-down-and-pray-for-the-best scenario, although prayer is crucial, this is a take immediate security steps and start to correct the moral and spiritual decay that is the true heart of this issue.
Do parents need to step up and step between their children and this destructive culture? Do parents need to rebuild the traditional foundation that the schools reinforce? Yes!
This is not a war we win with fiery words or the stroke of a pen. Nor can we win this by willfully relinquishing our rights. We win this by truly engaging in the fight to reclaim and teach the timeless tenets we slowly abandoned.
We need a revival not red flags.
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Dr. Tracy Miller is chairman of the Williamson County Republican Party.
