AN OPEN LETTER EXPLAINING ELEMENTS OF OUR NEW, IMPROVED, AND DECIDEDLY UNWOKE CURRICULUM

by Dick Westheimer

Dear Parent,

 

We believe in children. We believe 

in padded playgrounds and unscuffed knees 

and helmets and a bubble wrapped curriculum 

lined with velvet and free from troubled ideas.

 

We believe our teachers should teach

that enslaved Africans got vocational skills

like painting and planting for their personal benefit,

that residents of Auschwitz knew the trick of how 

to lose weight and look so fit, that members 

of the Five Tribes, removed for their own good, 

got to “pursue happiness in their own way.”

 

We believe those seeking refuge (whose boats 

overturn) might learn to swim, that those 

with black-lung get to sit in front of their TVs

in their BarcaLoungers with their very own 

government issued oxygen tanks, that Catholic 

boys get personal tutoring in anatomy from 

respected men in their white collared shirts, 

that trafficked girls get to travel the world 

and meet new friends.

 

We believe children should learn nothing

about those pre-teens head-bent in sweatshops

sewing their shoes, or two-year-olds toddling 

in electronics junk yards recycling their PCs

or tweens armed and taught to harm their kin. 

 

We do this for you, dear parent 

because, we are committed to protect 

you from Judgement Day when 

Johnny or Susie asks what 

you could have done and why, 

dear parent, you didn’t. 

Dick Westheimer lives in rural southwest Ohio. He is a Rattle Poetry Prize finalist. His poems have recently appeared in Whale Road Review, Innisfree Journal, Gyroscope Review, Banyan Review, Rattle, Ritual Well, One Art, and Cutthroat. His chapbook A Sword in Both Hands: Poems Responding to Russia’s War on Ukraine is published by SheilaNaGig.

AC-CENT-TCHU-ATE THE POSITIVE

by George Salamon

Painting by Jonathan Harris. Signed and numbered copies available.

"After heavy criticism from Gov. Ron DeSantis, the College Board released on Wednesday an official curriculum for its new Advanced Placement course in African American Studies—stripped of much of the subject matter that had angered the governor and other conservatives.” —The New York Times, February 1, 2023

My country 'tis of thee, sweet 

land of hypocrisy, you cannot

make evil look good.

We had our own good try at a

Holocaust of the Indians, Black

slaves were privately owned

properties down home on the

plantation, young immigrant girls

were exploited in sweatshops in

Manhattan's garment district, coal

miners robbed of their meager

wages and their health, and our

bosses and Robber Barons hired

private dicks to beat up those

workers who dared to strike or

protest.

Nine decades ago our president

pushed through laws that brought

relief from capitalism's cruel rule, 

and he was called a traitor to his

class.

That class is back firmer in the

saddle than before, and the publican

politicians want keep our history washed

white of dark stains of blood, 

tears and despair

George Salamon does not think another FDR is waiting in the wings of our political theater, but he wishes one were there.