Texas isn’t a lost cause for the left

AS A student of the Texas education system, I can sadly report that problems like these are not new ("The Texas school of falsification").

I have to take a "biblical literacy" test that requires students to understand the Bible as literature. The current history books already tell enough lies. And lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues cannot be positively portrayed in the classroom.

The left should not take this as a sign that organizing in this state is a lost cause. Rather, the right, which rode into the state in the conservative backlash of the late 1970s and 1980s is dying, with more and more questioning it each day, and this attitude is noticeable in people of my age group.

The conservatives know this, and they are trying to entrench and solidify their current role as the dominant ideological current in Texas. They have been using education policies to enforce their political views. And the media here, which used to be rather centrist, is starting to drift further and further to the right.

The Texan left--of which I am a proud part--needs to organize. It needs to not only protest the biased changes to Social Studies textbooks, but needs to provide an alternative: providing low-cost copies of A People's History of the United States would be a good example. And progressives should also start an alternative media project in the state to counteract the conservative and corporate media that dominates so many parts of the state.

Contrary to popular belief around the country, Texas has vibrant progressive and socialist movements. What they need to do is speak out and act on local issues, and Texans will finally reject the bigoted and narrow-minded political views of the rich minority that have been bashed into the populace for so long.
John Parsons, Hurst, Texas