by Mike Pyatt
French philosopher Rene Descarte is known for this Latin proposition “Cogito ergo sum,” usually translated into English, “I think, therefore I am.” A fundamental element of Western philosophy, circa 1644, as it appeared in his Principles of Philosophy. Translated into French, “je sense, done je suit,” he asserted that the very act of considering one’s thought served, at a minimum, as proof of one’s own existence. In a similar vein, the Scriptures posited, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” The former is the existential validation of one’s self: The latter’s a validation of internal authenticity. It doesn’t mean, as one duped California junior college student described himself, “An overweight five-foot-two, white male. But today, I’m a six-foot-five, svelte female from Senegal.” Feelings and severely compromised intuition are prized over rational thought and biological facts. Modernity’s proposition, “I feel, therefore, I am.”
Deep thinkers expounding on existential, thought provoking issues, in yesteryear. Today, the emphasis is on subjectivity-how one feels, turning Descarte on his head. Feeling has supplanted logical thinking. Formerly, the Obama administration, under the “boot strap” tactics of the Department of Justice and Department of Education, issued a heavy handed letter to the states that public school students have the right to “feel their way” on any given day, permitted to use the rest room or locker room of choice, and imposed strangling regulations on federal funds. Texas rebuffed the Feds, declaring they didn’t need their filthy lucre. There’s no surcease to such subjective non-sense. The far left may’ve reached the apex of their lunacy-if that’s possible. President Trump and his gritty Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, in 2017, began to dismantle a host of Obama’s Department of Education guidelines on gender protection, harassment procedures, and campus sexual-assault policy, returning them to pre-2011 era guidelines, much to the Left’s vexation.
At issue for states who filed law suits is they’re convinced the Obama administration guidelines were demonstrably “outside the bounds of the constitution.” Title IX is a federal statute that prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender at educational institutions that receive federal funding. It doesn’t, however, have the force of law, though school districts risk losing federal dollars if they fail to comply. It was Texas Governor Greg Abbott who led the charge challenging the way in which Obama trampled upon the U.S. Constitution. He maintained that nearly 90% of our existing laws never passed through Congress.
Title IX, from its inception in 1972, the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, when President Nixon signed it into law, prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in federally funded education programs or activity. It primarily assured that colleges offered female athletes the equivalent as their male counterparts, regardless of financial considerations. It had absolutely nothing to do with “gender preference.” Gender meant male or female. Back then no one with an ounce of sense knew that “male or female,” meant nothing else. Legions of LGBTQ advocates now claim, ignoring all DNA scientific data, there’s not less than “39 possible genders.” In it’s origin, Title IX had no bearing on male and female students sharing bathrooms or locker room. Or gaining special privilege in either facility. It’s a subversive onslaught of long standing Judeo-Christian principles, attempting to redefine our culture, masquerading as “educational equality.” Advocates for “transgender students” created support, ex-nihilo, from the original Title IX. It wasn’t until 2014, the Department of Education guidelines instructed public schools to treat transgender students consistent with gender identity-how they “sincerely felt.”
Some recall the landmark 1984, Supreme Court, Grove City v. Bell, with Grove City College prevailing, regarding Title IX funds to students. There are suffocating demands attached to federal highjacking of individual rights versus this elitist protected classes. The feds followed up with the 1988, Civil Rights Restoration Act, to bridge the gap lost in the Grove City decision. Federal agencies are intoxicated with raw power, trampling on our Constitutional rights, imposing further draconian regulations, that would otherwise be inviable. Our 45th President has put the brakes on many of Obama’s reckless, improvident regulations and executive orders.
Informed parents understand “gender intrusion” is more than occasional “straying” into the wrong bathroom by some malcontent, irascible youth. We’re patronized to be tolerant when, for example, one’s 11 year old daughter is exposed to sharing the shower or locker room with a “boy who feels like a girl,” on any given day. Must we ignore her privacy and innocence? In 2016, the Charlotte City Council, who ignited this melee, imposed upon us, “just like the civil rights movement with blacks,” we must get comfortable with “inconvenient change.” They’re charging us with misoneism. Those who’ve unwittingly, though willingly, digested this bitter root of numerous genders, can’t fathom how acrid will be its viperous ending. According to the Daily Caller, a “female” teacher was awarded 60K dollars, as the result of a suit against an Oregon school district, claiming she suffered from “discriminatory treatment and harassment,” after other faculty members refused to use “proper pronouns.” “She”wanted to be addressed as a “they” rather than a “she or he.” “They” changed “its” name after a double mastectomy, and “gender identity change.” Confused? It’s a circuitous route to disrupt historic social order, and remove the mainspring from our Judeo-Christian timepiece. Leftists prefer a secular stop watch.
President Trump’s our “speed bump” to expanding federal mischief. Our focus must be on individual action, demanding local school boards, and legislators reject such obtrusive, invidious federal action, encouraging our next Wyoming Governor join in subsequent law suits as a co-belligerent, opposing further federal intrusion. Someone observed, “Feelings are easy. Facts are hard and sobering.” C.S. Lewis warned in Mere Christianity, the loss of Biblical moorings threaten to erode Truth, when feeling and emotion supersede facts. Anyone feel like you won the lottery this week? What do you think?
Mike Pyatt’s a Natrona County resident. His email’s roderickstj@yahoo.com
Well written, thank you.