I applaud you for publishing “Value Added” [May/June]. I enjoyed reading about the positive work of Gene Doxey. The reason I applaud you, however, is because within this article, you allowed to be printed a statement by Doxey to his students: “The day you were born—the day you were born!—there were 2,740 abortions. Thank God it wasn’t you.” This is not a statement that most supporters of abortion rights would appreciate.
In my 14 years of teaching, it would seem by looking at most education publications that good teachers support abortion rights and always vote the Democratic ticket and are tolerant of everything—except an opposing opinion. My union dues go in part to a national teachers’ union publication that endorses political viewpoints from only one side. In a local newspaper, an article stated that this teachers’ union was questioned about its supportof the recent abortion-rights rally in Washington, D.C. Hey, teachers’ unions—some of your teachers are anti-abortion,did not vote for Clinton orGore, and are registered Republicans. Aren’t you supposed to be supporting them also?
It bothers me that the majority of state public school systems and education publications hold political biases. Thank you for not being afraid of publishing the opinion of a teacher who may have opinions from the “dark side.” There are still a few teachers—actually, quite a lot—who have political views contrary to that of the unions and other education gods.
Mark Anderson
La Verne, California
