Op-Ed: As America's Parents Are Demonized, We Have Only 1 Hope for the Future
According to a familiar phrase, you can tell a lot about a man by his enemies.
That was never more true than it is about a brave father who has been fighting against moral corruption and intellectual degradation in the public school system in Downers Grove, Illinois.
If we gauge Terry Newsome, president of Illinois Parents Involved in Education, by his enemies, then Newsome will indeed seem heroic, resisting the invasion of drag queen bingo and grooming books in the library like “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” with its graphic sexual representations and extremely inappropriate content.
Like Terry, many parents originally sent their children to public school in good faith, thinking their children were in the care of honorable teachers who would instill the necessary academic skills for becoming self-sufficient adults who can think for themselves.
And like some of those parents, Terry was in for a shock when he learned the schools were contradicting and undermining the values and mindset he and his wife were teaching their children at home. He was appalled to learn that education leaders didn’t care if parents objected to the systematic manipulation of young minds toward accepting shocking sexual practices.
In 2021, when Newsome spoke up at a school board meeting with concerns shared by parents across the country about “Gender Queer,” he was attacked by a Twitter account called Antifascist Rumor Mill, and later he was added to the most notorious list used by Marxist agitators to identify their targets.
If that weren’t enough, Terry has been contacted by concerned representatives in the new Congress who have shown great interest in Terry’s interactions with the Downers Grove School District.
Why? Terry has been potentially libeled in posts by an alleged antifa associate on the site of the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC added Terry to its “Hatewatch” list for being a concerned parent. This list is widely understood to be used by violent Marxists to find targets to harass, intimidate and damage any way they can.
When did parents become the enemy?
As John Stossel reported on the SPLC a few years ago, when something is labeled a “hate group,” it becomes the target. The SPLC lists the Family Research Council. Stossel said, “One man was so enraged by what the center said about the Family Research Council he went to their headquarters to kill people.”
“He told the judge that he was there to kill as many of us as possible,” said Gen. Jerry Boykin, executive vice president of the FRC — all because the SPLC had put the FRC on its hate list.
The SPLC lists “people like Ben Carson, Laura Ingraham and Jeannie Pirro as extremists. But it doesn’t list antifa, the hate group that beats up people on the right,” Stossel said.
Parents are being framed as villains when the reality is that no single person or entity can care for, nurture and raise a child better than that child’s parents.
The government and left-wing corporations are attempting to sweep parental rights under the rug while they indoctrinate innocent children with their lies. Those who are bold enough to stand up for their God-given rights (as Terry Newsome did) are demonized, labeled “domestic terrorists” and ostracized from society.
Parents are the only legitimate option when it comes to raising children, and part of raising children is defending and fighting for what is best for them. Placing a parent like Terry on the SPLC hate list jeopardizes his and his family’s safety.
Stories of parents fighting for the rights of their children are powerful and serve as a beacon to all of us. More parents need to be informed and empowered to stand up for their children — it’s the only hope we have for the future of America.
The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website. If you are interested in contributing an Op-Ed to The Western Journal, you can learn about our submission guidelines and process here.
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