Parkersburg News and Sentinel Editorial: Culture War Backgrounds

Culture war battlegrounds

LOCAL COLUMNS

CHRISTINA MYER

Editor

cmyer@newsandsentinel.com

You
know the accusation that protesters and crisis actors are ferried around the
country to perform as the need changes? Doesn’t matter what the cause du jour,
these folks are there to stir the pot. Well, it turns out that may be the case
after all, though not for the liberal, progressive causes you might be
expecting. A slate of familiar actors are making their way into public
conversation again, here in the Mid-Ohio Valley, though some of the actors are
not actually from here, or as closely involved with those on whose behalf they
claim to speak as they’d like you to believe.

You
might know them from their railing against masks to prevent the spread of
COVID-19, or their actions in Washington, D.C., on and around Jan. 6, 2021.
Maybe you remember them from their fight against the phantom they created and
named “Critical Race Theory.” Now the enemy is
books.

You’ll
hear them say the target is books about sexuality and gender issues, but a look
at the list they’d like to ban in our schools and libraries reveals the aim is
broader than that. Keeping our kids from learning, and making sure those
children are groomed in a manner of which the book banners approve, rather than
exposing kids to many perspectives and teaching them about the whole of our
history and the diversity of human experience, seems to be the goal.

Well,
the goal this time. It’s frightening to wonder what they’ll take up next if it
lets them harass local governments and civic organizations and get a little
attention for themselves.

This
is, of course, exactly the kind of community and grassroots activism many of
these same people say they loathe, when it is being done on behalf of social
justice and politically “progressive” issues.
This is exactly the kind of attempt to mandate and control how we all learn and
live that they say they despise when the rules being implemented have different
socio-cultural goals.

These
are precisely the kinds of people who accuse others of being “snowflakes” and
use the word “woke” as an insult, while they quake with feigned rage at the
slightest perceived offense to what they say THEY value.

Watch
out for these people. Keep an eye on what they are attempting and the lengths
to which they are willing to go. Take a look at the politicians working with
them, rather than trying to fend them off. We already know what happens when we
think of crusaders like these as so fringe that they are harmless. Surely we’ve
learned our lesson on that one.

We’ve
got to take them seriously, but only to the degree that we let our policymakers
and elected representatives know we will support them in their effort to keep
these folks from doing any more harm. For goodness sake those we elected to
serve us MUST know they are more likely to keep their office if they do NOT
fall in with such as these.

And
those who have not only fallen in with but are working alongside the
troublemakers who hope to drive us backward as a culture must know they will
not win another chance to do so in November.

Christina
Myer is executive editor of The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. She can be
reached via e-mail at cmyer@newsandsentinel.com