Closing In

Do you get the feeling your freedoms are slipping away? The world is closing in and there's no place left to go.

I first felt this way growing up in Northern California in the early 1970's. Several specific instances follow.

I took a class at Fred C. Beyer High School in Modesto California in 1974 called "Rise of Red China". I was interested in history and there was (and is) a fairly high Asian segment of the population. Kung Fu was the hit on TV. A fair number of people were taking martial arts training and it wasn't unusual to see guys with numchuks whacking themselves in the 'nads during lunch hour.

Anyway, the teacher was Mr. Chan and he was even a fellow Mormon (though lapsed). He was personable and the subject seemed fun. I did well in the class, scored the highest grade in the class, did extra-credit news projects etc. One of the class handouts started something like "Mao Tse-tung came to power in China because he was exactly what the people wanted and needed."
One of the tests asked a question where this was the answer. I, however, wrote "Mao Tse-tung is the world's greatest mass murderer, being responsible for the death of over 100 million of his own people." So what if I missed the question, because there was no way I would fail. And Mr. Chan never gave one hint at his true self.

Well, when grades came out, I got an F. I went to Mr. Chan. He mumbled something about I had never turned in my tests. I was raised where pretty much anything they did at school was deserved. I never complained to my parents because if I got paddled at school (still done in those days) then I would just have got paddled at home if I complained. I had had a few teachers who treated me unfairly but that was just something kids had to put up with. But getting an F for the semester was different than being kept in after-school for "disrespect" for asking questions contrary to the current liberal line. This would affect college.

Eventually I complained to my parents after getting nowhere with Mr. Chan, the school office or my counselor. My father, a lone conservative voice at the Junior College where he taught, then went to the school board. Dad had a history with the local education nazi's. He had been instrumental in starting the first local teacher's union. He went on the radio occasionally and wrote guest editorials and the like for conservative causes. It was actually common to have a swastika spray-painted on our fence or garage by the local "more tolerance" crowd. I just thought that was normal living in California.

The grade was switched back to an A - probably because I had a notebook with the saved tests. No one ever asked me what happened. I never talked to an official. No one ever did the obvious thing - ask me about my knowledge of the course subject. The teacher was not disciplined. Nothing happened except there was a vague undercurrent of treating me like a leper. Friends would tell me of rants from teachers about "nuts like Baxter" (my Dad presumably.) Turns out that a lot of my F was due to my Dad - although I never knew it until then. I never once heard anyone defend me or my Dad. In my last year, there was one other teacher I got to know fairly well. (After the F, I was quite careful about saying anything to a teacher, and the teacher's were likewise careful not to be too friendly with me.) I took several history classes from him and he was new. (I won't use his name in case he's still around and might be punished by the nazi's who run California now.) One time while talking after class, the subject somehow came up and I told him the story (The only other person I ever shared most of the story with - until now. I never shared the whole story with my parents out of concern that my Father would lose his job, and I don't share the whole sordid story now to protect the innocent. And don't you think a 14 year old being scared to tell his parents how he was treated daily out of fear his father would lose his job says volumes about the state of liberty in the USA?) He didn't say a word, but transferred to another school that next year. I saw him once in a bookstore a few years later. He asked me a little about my college studies, seemed uncomfortable, and then moved on. Welcome to the future of America, where innocence is irrelevant, and anyone who stands out or up will be mercilessly crushed.

What I learned was that you had better not rock the boat. Keep your hand down and your mouth shut. The liberals were all powerful - so powerful that they didn't even bother to pretend that they were fair or had any concern with the truth. Useful lessons, learned the hard way.

Next blog: Part II Closing In - San Francisco and the meaning of tolerance.