-By Warner Todd Huston
I hate it when the Old Media gets all mad at me, and stuff. But, here is the vaunted AP scolding me for “skewering” a grade school over the story of the canceled cross-dressing day that was to be held at the Maude Wilkins School in New Jersey.
On the morning of April 12 I came across a story posted on my FaceBook page by an incensed mother of a grade school boy from the Maude Wilkins grade school. She was upset that her school had planned an event for women’s history month wherein students would come to school dressed as a famous woman from history, or dressed in representative historical women’s fashion from American history… yes, they even expected the boys to dress as women.
Later that day I wrote my treatment of the event and off to the races we went. As it happened it wasn’t long before the pressure that the school felt over the ridiculous cross-dressing day caused Principal Beth F. Norica to cancel the event.
I duly posted an update and also posted the images of the two letters from the school, the one announcing the day and the one canceling the day.
But, the AP got all miffed at me because I “skewered the school.”
Janine Giandomenico, a mother of a boy in the class and a frequent user of online social networks, posted a complaint on Facebook. By Monday, her concerns had worked their way to Warner Todd Huston, an opinion writer and editor of the Publius’ Forum site.
He skewered the school and suggested that the timing of the event, scheduled for Friday, was designed to coincide with a national “Day of Silence” to protest harassment of gays.
“Pushing the gay agenda while feminizing our young boys through a cross-dressing day? This isn’t your parent’s grade school celebration, for sure,” he wrote.
Dang that rotten old Warner Todd Huston, anyways!
Still, the AP did report that the initial letter home was easily “misunderstood.” Or at least the AP quoted Superintendent Michael Livengood to that effect.
“In hindsight,” Superintendent Michael Livengood said Wednesday, “maybe a different activity could have been chosen that was a little bit more relevant to history.”
… Livengood, who leads the Maple Shade Township school district, acknowledged that the initial letter could be misunderstood.
Me, I still maintain that it wasn’t easy to “misunderstand.” It seems pretty clear that they intended to have boys dress up as women, too. There is nothing in the letter excluding boys from the dress-up day. But, you read this letter (see below) and you tell me.
It is also a bit amusing that the school claimed not to know of the “day of silence” being pushed by the gay advocacy group GLSEN. But, it is what it is. All I can say is that this was a nationally known effort that many schools across the country are observing.
The good thing is that all the pressure got the school to cancel the cross-dressing day. That is the important thing here.
Finally, I’d like to point out how this illustrates the power of speaking up in this day and age. My posts and the voices of a few parents were able to alter a bad policy. This shows the efficacy of speaking out. The left has known this truth for decades and only now are the folks of the American center-right, the great bulk of our American polity, coming to understand the power of this simple, but important tool.
Move over Saul Alinsky, conservatives have learned your methods.
____________
“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, TheRealityCheck.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, and the New Media Journal, among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. Warner is also the editor of the Cook County Page for RedCounty.com.
He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
Fair Use: This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material available in my efforts to advance understanding of political, human rights, economic, democracy, and social justice issues, etc. I believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research, educational, or satirical purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site/blog for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
And I am sure you are just quaking in your boots and repenting in sackcloth and ashes…NOT!
Maybe if they were the watchdogs they think they are, they would have done the job for you? But then, I’m certainly not holding my breath on that one! That would have required common sense on their part.
I say, well done, amen, and yea, verily, and soc et tuum (a Latin phrase meaning sock it to them…sort of…maybe…).
Dang it, Interface, ya found me out! LOL