While Marxist intimidation is not new, it has descended to a new low in recent months, as an increasingly hostile, anti-family bigotry emerges in the form of an institutionalized intimidation of children in some of our public schools. In particular, we call attention to a program known as a “Day of Silence,” in which school officials promote a variety of peer pressures to coerce students into publicly respecting “gay marriages.” Below we provide a real life, anecdotal example of such a policy, which has been brought to our attention.
Such “Day of Silence” programs may assume various dimensions, depending on the local customs and the personalities of those charged with implementing the agenda. Still, in its basic outline, it is coercive, in that it seeks to mold children into viewing a relatively new and perverse innovation like “gay marriage” as synonymous with traditional marriage. In so doing, it seeks to rob them of that cultural heritage, which has sustained every past and present day culture, and which has been instrumental in passing on a legacy of freedom in our own Republic.
What is that cultural heritage? It is the understanding, as realized in human nature and as reaffirmed in the example that every generation passes on to the next, that marriage first and foremost is about the conceiving and raising of children. It is not, first and foremost, about two or more people “loving” one another; and even less so is it about the legal and economic benefits that the government may provide for such unions.
Yes, people may marry and never have children, for one reason or another. Furthermore, successful marriages can and should arise and be sustained because of deep love between people; and legal and economic benefits invariably influence why people marry and, even more so, why they stay married. Still, what makes a traditional marriage culturally unique and important is its clear association with a husband and a wife putting aside all others, in the goal of maintaining a stable home life for the next generation.
This is important, because it means that culturally the conceiving and raising of children, in the context of traditional marriage, allows for families to supersede the state. Children born into stable families first identify themselves as members of that family, before they know themselves to be members of a state or a nation. This identification with the family homestead breeds a taste for personal freedom, which will not be there, if instead they are taught by their culture to see themselves as wards of the state. Destroy this identification of marriage with child rearing, by making marriage no more culturally significant than an “alternative lifestyle,” and children will learn that their own families indeed are no more culturally significant than any other cultural institution. Children learn from the traditions or innovations of their culture; change a most basic tradition like marriage, and we may be certain that children will learn a very different lesson than their ancestors about what it means to be faithful and free.
If this sounds outrageous, then consider what has happened in Sweden, where changes in marriage laws there have bred a new generation, which has much less of an appreciation for family than its predecessor, and which as such is more inclined to accept a loss of its own freedoms, in return for the “benefits” of a nanny state. The fact is we do not need to speculate as to the “brave, new world,” which will emerge when we throw out our legal and cultural preference for traditional marriage.
Regardless of how they express themselves, Marxists today want what they have wanted since they first came upon our political scene: to rob people, including children, of their self-identity as free and instead to make them see themselves as wards of a welfare state. That is the real reason for the assault on traditional marriage. Thus, regardless of how the “Day of Silence” may be done, it is coercive for that very reason.
Here is the anecdotal example given to us. We urge you to read and to reflect upon it, as we have no doubt that similar stories may be found across our Nation. Even more so, we urge you to act, in your local arena, to prevent this coercion from prevailing in your own community.
At Jordan Middle School in Palo Alto, CA, teachers passed out stickers to the children that read "A Day of Silence." There was no prior advance notice to parents of this event. Wearing the sticker indicated that the child was in favor of gay rights and same-sex marriage and would be silent for the entire day. If a child refused the sticker, he/she was labeled a "racist." Very few children refused the sticker. My grandson, age 12, refused. He reminded his teachers that California voters voted against same-sex marriage. The teachers responded: "well, that's going to change." As many of you know I was a high school principal, and I decry the manipulation of children to advance educators' political agendas. My daughter and son-in-law intend to pursue this matter with the Palo Alto School Board but do not hold much hope. This is an outrage. I am extremely proud of my grandson for standing up for his beliefs. Please let others know what is happening. I fear for our future.
