Letter to the Editor: Some Putnam Parents Deceived By Anti-Critical Race Theory Zealots
By now, almost everyone has heard of Critical Race Theory (CRT), and most have at least a vague understanding that it has become the latest political divider, like immigration and police brutality and election fraud before it. But not as many have delved very far into the national origins of the debate or the local people driving it here in Putnam County.
As someone who does not have children and is concerned about the issue on a more macro level, I think it’s important that we consider these questions. This is not just something for parents, students, teachers and candidates for local office to be keyed into; every voter, every member of the human race, should be worried when a plot that was transparently concocted out of thin air by an uncredentialled filmmaker and failed local politician (Christopher Rufo), and then harnessed and disseminated by a proud member of a Nazi sympathizer group (Sebastian Gorka, who publicly boasts his ties to the Nazi-linked group the Vitezi Rend, and who made our local “anti-CRT hero” famous by retweeting her), is so easily and enthusiastically embraced by parents and local elected officials.
The proud local leader of the anti-CRT movement, Tatiana Ibrahim, long before any such debates existed, stood in front of the courthouse in Carmel baselessly calling Democrats “communists,” accusing them of violence and vowing to act as Trump’s army if necessary, while the chair of the Putnam County Legislature, Toni Addonizio, emphatically cheered.
Then, we have Assemblyman Kevin Byrne, who recently was shown smiling for a group photo in a post for Save Our Schools for Westchester Children – Lakeland Chapter, which is seemingly a branch of the shadowy national movement behind the CRT debacle, Save Our Schools. It does not explain on its website who founded it or runs it. Instead, it features only the following floating quote by Black conservative Thomas Sowell: “Not since the days of the Hitler Youth have young people been subjected to more propaganda on more politically correct issues.”
Score one for gaslighting when a movement being propelled by documented anti-Semites like Gorka calls people who favor diversity and inclusion curricula in schools “the Hitler Youth.”
These are the laughable and inane ideas to which hoodwinked suburban parents now cling at our local Board of Education meetings. Our Republican elected leaders, rather than researching and educating themselves and their constituents, are falling for it hook, line and sinker in hopes it will win them votes. No matter that it’s at the expense of intelligent life everywhere.
Eileen McDermott,
Brewster
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