Sherman Alexie on Tucson student reading TEN LITTLE INDIANS

[Note: A chronological list of links to AICL's coverage of the shut-down of the Mexican American Studies Department at Tucson Unified School District is here. Information about the national Mexican American Studies Teach-in is here. The best source for daily updates out of Tucson is blogger David Abie Morales at Three Sonorans.]

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This is a screen grab from Sherman Alexie's website:

Do you know someone in a self-involved bubble that insulates them from the fact that our civil rights are under assault by well-funded conservative politicians? If so, tell them about what is happening in Tucson, where the conservative-power-elite wrote, passed, and enforced a law banning the perspectives of Mexican Americans...

Where that same conservative-power-elite is now trying to get a law passed (SB 1202) that prohibits teachers from teaching partisan documents like Barack Obama's 2004 DNC speech in social justice courses...

And where that same conservative-power-elite is also trying to pass a law that prohibits teachers from using words that violate the obscenity and profanity guidelines set up by the Federal Communications Commission. If passed, what will that mean for teachers who teach young adult literature that has the F-word in it?

Who is among that conservative-power-elite? The Chicago Tribune article points to Floyd Brown, the founding chairman of Citizens United. He complained to school administrators that a teacher used the F-word in class, but, he says, they didn't take him seriously. So he went to Klein, and now, that complaint is a bill that has passed one committee and will be voted on by the house and senate in Arizona...  The photo that accompanies the Trib article shows Brown and his now-home-schooled daughter, sitting before a pile of books that includes William J. Bennett's Our Sacred Honor: Words of Advice from the Founders in Stories, Letters, Poems, and Speeches. I wonder if that book would be in violation of the "partisan" documents bill?!

There are people who don't think either bill will pass. They might not, this first round. The Ethnic Studies law didn't pass the first two times it was considered. Third time? It passed and was signed into law by Jan Brewer.

We have to get people around us out of their bubbles of ignorance.

Update: Wednesday, February 22, 9:45 AM ET
Andrew Breitbart's "Big Government" website has a story on SB 1202. It references other states where "liberal agendas" are in place, including actions of teachers in Racine, Wisconsin, and Oakland, California.  The closing line is chilling:

Arizona’s SB 1202 is an encouraging sign that lawmakers are taking the indoctrination issue seriously. Hopefully, the discussion in Arizona will sparking similar public debates in statehouses across the country.

Repeating what I said above: We have to get people around us out of their bubbles of ignorance.