Pennsylvania Is Top Hate State in the Nation, Pennridge School District Needs New Leadership, And Some Critical Thoughts on Ukraine
“Fighting hate in Pennsylvania has never been more important."
Pennsylvania leads the country in white supremacist and anti-semitic propaganda, according to a new report by the Anti-Defamation League.
There were 473 instances of hateful propaganda posted in PA in 2021, eclipsing the next closest state by nearly 100 more instances. Keep in mind this is just what has been recorded and reported, so the number is likely much higher.
“Fighting hate in Pennsylvania has never been more important," Andrew Goretsky, regional director for ADL Philadelphia, told Lancaster Online.
Lancaster Online reporter Carter Walker also noted a dramatic spike in hate crimes last year in the commonwealth, with a total of 255 reported.
“Hate starts with white supremacist propaganda and hate propaganda, but it then escalates from there into more criminal behavior,” said Goretsky.
ALSO READ: Is Pennsylvania losing it? Hate groups proliferate as state GOP descends into MAGA paranoia
Friday I wrote a column for the Bucks County Beacon following up on Emily Rizzo’s reporting earlier in the week for WHYY News about Pennridge School District sanctioning a religious tutoring service pushing creationism on students. I talked to some local parents about what needs to happen moving forward to avoid (intentional?) mistakes like this from happening again. Read it here: Pennridge School District Must Acknowledge Creationism Is Not Science.
What really troubles me about this is that Superintendent David Bolton consistently talks out of both sides of his mouth, evades, and deflects. First he said the group had been vetted, but then he recently told a local parent via email that they don’t vet community resources like First Baptist Church of Perkasie’s Re:vivals Resource Center. Finally, he responded to another parent’s email by saying that he has no reports of students being taught religious-based instruction but refuses to acknowledge that a parent has an email where a member of Re:vivals offers to teach her daughter seeking AP Biology tutoring that “God created the world in six literal days, with great intention and design.” To be clear, this was not solicited by the parent.
Creationism is not science and it might be time to get Bolton and the school board to publicly acknowledge that, or try to dispute it if that is their position.
For more background on Pennridge check out last week’s column for the Beacon: Pennridge Diversity Meeting Meltdown Demonstrates Why DEI Is Desperately Needed
And some of my past reporting for the Bucks County Courier Times:
Pennridge School District dehumanizes LGBTQ+ parents, students
Bucks County youth must rise up to defend education
Is Turning Point USA a Trojan horse of right-wing extremism for Pennridge students?
Anti-Critical Race Theory hysteria revives McCarthyism, Klan politics
Finally, Ukraine.
As a Ukrainian-American, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked, illegal, and barbaric war on Ukraine has been on my mind, much like the rest of the world. I spoke with an old high school classmate and her family this week about how they are dealing with having relatives over there, some of whom are fleeing to Poland, while the able-bodied men stay behind to fight and defend the country.
Read it here: Bucks County family’s hearts ache for war-torn Ukraine
But the war and its coverage also provides us with an opportunity to reconsider and reflect on how we think about and treat refugees and migrants fleeing wars, natural disasters, etc. While it is heart-warming that so many countries are opening their borders to Ukrainians, has the same treatment been offered to Syrians, Afghans, Yemenis, Myanmarese, and Ethiopians?
The answer to this is a resounding “NO.”
Why is that? This is something I am going to explore for a future column.
It also brings up questions about how the media covers wars abroad. Are there worthy and unworthy victims where some warrant robust media attention, while others don’t. The coverage in Ukraine has been great thus far. I appreciate that. However, what about the 13 million Yemenis facing starvation because of the war there? Or the Ethiopians dying because of the war in their country? Or the Myanmar military’s war crimes, which include using civilians as human shields and massacring villages and burning the victims? Some of it is because of unequal geopolitical ramifications of the conflicts, I get that, but I still think we can do better.
Here is an interesting article to read on the subject: Not every war gets the same coverage as Russia's invasion — and that has consequences
Bravo, Cyril. Thank you for challenging every Bucks resident to dive deeper with what we're seeing (and not seeing) in the news