High school teacher says he would rather bury his own child than admit that people have the right to use guns for self-defense
(Note: I’ve been had, by a very skillful satire. See discussion below.)
He also opposes allowing children to run and escape a school during a school shooting rather than having a lockdown of the school, because the former “unfairly rewards resourceful children who move to safety off-site more shrewdly and efficiently than others.” Equality means that all children must have an equal chance of being killed.
The teacher, whose name is Doug Van Gorder, makes his remarks in a reader’s comment at the Boston Globe:
Guns, teachers, and self-defense
December 28, 2009
I am a math teacher at Brockton High School, the site of a school shooting earlier this month.
Current school security procedures lock down school populations in the event of armed assault. Some advocate abandoning this practice as it holds everyone in place, allowing a shooter easily to find victims.
An alternative to lockdown is immediate exodus via announcement. Although this removes potential hostages and makes it nearly impossible for the shooter to acquire preselected targets, it unfairly rewards resourceful children who move to safety off-site more shrewdly and efficiently than others.
Schools should level playing fields, not intrinsically reward those more resourceful. A level barrel is fair to all fish.
Some propose overturning laws that made schools gun-free zones even for teachers who may be licensed to securely carry concealed firearms elsewhere. They argue that barring licensed-carry only ensures a defenseless, target-rich environment.
But as a progressive, I would sooner lay my child to rest than succumb to the belief that the use of a gun for self-defense is somehow not in itself a gun crime.
DOUG VAN GORDER
Quincy
I’ve been talking a lot about liberal gnosticism lately, and this is perhaps the purest expression of it I’ve seen. The writer would prefer that his child be killed, than admit that the liberal dream world is wrong.
- end of initial entry -
Mike writes:
I’m pretty sure that’s satire. “A level barrel is fair to all fish”? No one would seriously advocate a policy by noting that it makes schoolchildren like fish in a barrel.
John L. writes:
Perhaps Van Gorder is actually on our side and he’s employing the reductio ad absurdum to parody liberals? If so, he’s very, very good at it. In this article it’s very subtle.
However, see this letter by Van Gorder in another Massachusetts paper, where he clearly seems to be parodying liberals:
YOUR OPINION: Our nation’s diversity an asset
The Patriot Ledger
Posted Nov 20, 2009 @ 04:00 AM
QUINCY—
Immediately after the shootings at Fort Hood, the Army’s top officer, Gen. George Casey , said, “As horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse.”
The general is spot-on. There is no more precious national cause than the continued creation and veneration of diversity. Diversity trumps the safety and lives of our soldiers, ourselves and our children.
The death of 13 brave men and women is a tragic loss, but we can take comfort in knowing that their lives were given in the name of protecting Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan’s right to remain a member in good standing of the American military.
It is entirely appropriate that the Army never acted upon suspicions raised by Hasan’s earlier, perhaps troubling to some, behavior. It is appropriate because—and we must continually restate this as almost a mantra until progressivism sets our collective heart in the right place—he is an American whose very presence completes our national identity.
And although we deplore the acts of violence Major Hasan allegedly committed, we deeply cherish his contribution to America’s diversity.
DOUG VAN GORDER
Quincy
LA replies:
Great work, you’re right. Yes, it’s obviously tongue in cheek, which means that his later letter to the Boston Globe is also tongue in cheek. He turns out to be one of us.
John L. writes:
In this letter, Mr. van Gorder is more obviously absurd. He speaks of rights being “thinly spread,” like peanut butter.
YOUR OPINION: Better to spread rights than to hoard them
The Patriot Ledger
Posted Dec 21, 2009 @ 05:00 AM
QUINCY—
Trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in civilian court signals America both strives for global approval and recognizes equality among all citizens of the world.
Should evidence from waterboarding be excluded at trial, some fear the accused may be found not guilty and freed to commit further attacks.
But threat of attack is much diminished now due to America’s increased global approval, approval that is a virtual security blanket President Obama has knitted from hope, change and powerful supplications before the world.
Should evidence from waterboarding not be excluded—admittedly setting a precedent permitting torture of citizens too—it will be worth the loss of our protections from such tactics in order to redistribute our rights to all humanity.
Better to spread rights, slightly thinned, than to hoard them even for our own children. Thankfully, our president values global equality, underscored each time he rightfully bows before world leaders in symbolic atonement for our disproportionate quality of life.
DOUG VAN GORDER
Quincy
LA writes:
Mike wrote:
I’m pretty sure that’s satire. “A level barrel is fair to all fish”? No one would seriously advocate a policy by noting that it makes schoolchildren like fish in a barrel.
I have to say, that that line by itself would not have convinced me that it was a satire, because, as extreme as it is, it struck me as expressing where many liberals ultimately come from. Even his line that children should be put in a lockdown during a school shooting rather than being allowed to run, because allowing them to run “unfairly rewards resourceful children who move to safety off-site more shrewdly and efficiently than others,” didn’t tell me that it was a satire, because, again, he seemed to be stating, though in extreme form, the way many liberals really think. Also, his opening paragraphs are entirely straight. So I was truly fooled by it.
James P. writes:
I am not convinced this is satire. It is a published letter to the editor, not just an online reader comment. Also, here is a story about the letter—van Gorder actually exists, really is a teacher at that high school, and refused to say anything about the letter to the reporter (“the letter speaks for itself”). In addition, the reporter talked to other officials at the school, and surely they would have said something if van Gorder were not actually a “progressive” as he claims.
Whether or not the comment is satire, “Schools should level playing fields, not intrinsically reward those more resourceful” is precisely what liberals think about schools from an intellectual standpoint. Everyone must proceed at the pace of the absolute slowest. Schools must be level playing fields intellectually, and never reward the intellectually resourceful.
LA writes:
It’s all very strange. We live in a world where every day people are making the most extreme and unsettling statements that make us feel that much of mankind has gone mad, and those statements are not satires. Consider Richard Hoste’s remark (discussed in this VFR entry) that
If we had had a a 9/11 every two years, it would cause 1,500 deaths a year. It would still be an insignificant problem compared to street crime and motor accidents.
… [Terrorism] is simply not a significant problem, even if you consider a 9/11 or so a year a worst case scenario …
When we are constantly being confronted by statements that are, as the saying goes, “beyond parody,” the very concept of parody becomes muddied.
Here’s the
article James P. linked:
Brockton teacher’s letter about shooting creates discussion
By Elaine Allegrini
GateHouse News Service
Dec 31, 2009
BROCKTON—
A letter written by a Brockton High School teacher in the wake of a shooting outside the school stirred a firestorm of responses this week.
Doug Van Gorder of Quincy, a math teacher at Brockton High School for 12 years, wrote the letter, which has been called “confusing” and “off the wall” and is being discussed on national blogs.
“It seems like he’s debating with himself the procedures for dealing with violence in schools,” said Brockton High School Principal Susan Szachowicz.
The letter, which appeared in The Boston Globe on Monday, discussed procedures taken during a violent incident—lock-down versus exodus—and the pros and cons of teachers licensed to carry concealed firearms in schools.
“But as a progressive, I would sooner lay my child to rest than succumb to the belief that the use of a gun for self-defense is somehow not in itself a gun crime,” Van Gorder wrote.
Szachowicz said she read that sentence 10 times and was still confused. She said she is not sure of the purpose of the letter.
“It’s kind of vague,” she said. “To me, if you’re writing a letter you have a strong, clear opinion. I had a hard time determining what his opinion was.
“Certainly, he is not in any way speaking for me, for Brockton High School or Brockton public schools,” she said. “The letter was written as an individual. It seems to come out of the blue.”
She said the after-school shooting outside the school earlier this month was discussed the next day with students and staff, but not since.
The victim was a former student shot after a confrontation that started in the gym during sports activity and ended outside on the stairs with the shooting. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment. The shooter has not been arrested.
School officials say Van Gorder is entitled to his opinion.
“Freedom of speech,” said School Committee Vice Chairman Richard Bath. “You can comment as long as you don’t yell ‘fire’ in a closed theater.”
Van Gorder would not offer an explanation or respond to the comments.
“The letter speaks for itself,” he said when reached by phone at his Quincy home Tuesday.
He declined to say anything else.
Superintendent Matthew Malone said through a spokesperson that freedom of expression is one of the most important lessons taught in Brockton schools.
“It’s his opinion,” the spokesperson said.
School Committee member Thomas Minichiello of Ward 1 said, “Everyone has their right to an opinion on current situations in society, including Brockton. We, as a School Committee, are not ignoring the situation.
“If he has strong beliefs, he is welcome to share them with the superintendent of the School Committee,” said Minichiello. “We’d be happy to listen to all things to make sure the school environment is safe.”
A review of school security policies is under way by the superintendent in concert with a consultant, incoming Mayor Linda Balzotti and others, according to city officials.
The teacher’s letter is the subject of blogs on many national Web sites and on inbrockton.com, a local Web site.
“I don’t know what to think of it,” said inbrockton.com Administrator David Heidke.
[end of article]
Jonathan W. writes:
In the article, “Brockton teacher’s letter about shooting creates discussion,” “various School Committee officials are quoted:
“Freedom of speech,” said School Committee Vice Chairman Richard Bath. “You can comment as long as you don’t yell ‘fire’ in a closed theater.” …
Superintendent Matthew Malone said through a spokesperson that freedom of expression is one of the most important lessons taught in Brockton schools….
School Committee member Thomas Minichiello of Ward 1 said, “Everyone has their right to an opinion on current situations in society, including Brockton. We, as a School Committee, are not ignoring the situation.”
I suspect that these three might not be so tolerant of a teacher’s opinion if he wrote that blacks as a group have a lower average IQ and that is why the school’s efforts to equalize the racial test gap is doomed to fail. Liberals only use abstract notions of freedom of speech to defend their own. Several years ago, when a radical left-wing professor, Ward Churchill of the University of Colorado, proclaimed employees working in the World Trace Center to be “little Eichmanns,” many liberals were quick to defend his right to free speech. But in general, when immigration restrictionists such as Jim Gilchrist of the Minuteman Project speak, the same liberals denounce such speech as “hate speech” outside the protection of the 1st Amendment.
Snouk Hurgronje (here is his
blog) writes from the Netherlands:
You quoted the high school teacher stating: “An alternative to lockdown is immediate exodus via announcement. Although this removes potential hostages and makes it nearly impossible for the shooter to acquire preselected targets, it unfairly rewards resourceful children who move to safety off-site more shrewdly and efficiently than others.Schools should level playing fields, not intrinsically reward those more resourceful. A level barrel is fair to all fish. “
I read a book on the former President of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew, who was a member of the Fabian Society, one of the founding groups of the British Labour Party. In the chapter “The nature of Human Society,” about racial differences between Chinese and Malay Singaporeans, he says: “They (Fabian schoolteachers) faced the same problem: the gap did not close although opportunities were equal. And they said, well, all the more reason why the best teachers should have the least able [students] to make up the difference and the good students should have the less able teachers because they do not require the able teachers…. After that I cancelled my subscription because they had gone mad!”
This illustrates how the Liberal urge at its core seeks to end the evil of inequality by dragging the better performers down to the level of the lower performers.
The interesting thing is that the Singaporees managed to turn back and aim for a society founded on knowledge of the real world rather than a dream world.
LA replies:
Your last paragraph is relevant to a statement by Voegelin in 1952 about the prospects of the both the Western world and the non-European world (though he’s completel;y inconclusive about the latter) resisting gnosticism that I was planning to post.
I’ve just posted it.
John L. replies to LA:
I can’t take any credit; I saw the article a day or two ago and someone in the comments had already pointed out the other articles. Credit goes to Mike for picking up on the fish-in-a-barrel metaphor within the article itself.
I believed this one at first, too. Living in a society densely populated by gnostic lunatics makes it hard to spot the satires, doesn’t it?
Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 07, 2010 11:02 AM | Send