School board elections for a newly opening seat in Pasco County are still a way off, but some candidates are already popping up. One of them is John Tracy, president of the Faith and Family Values Republican Club of Pasco County. Take a wild guess what some of his issues are.
Although he does not have a specific agenda to speak about yet, Tracy said voters could expect him to consider all issues from his world view — that of a Baptist pastor who believes in the Bible. He supports offering alternatives to teaching evolution in science, for instance, and he contends that the role of religion in U.S. history must be presented accurately.
His organization is here. His personal website is here. I couldn’t find mention of science education on either site, though. If you find it, please let me know.
Another Fudie bible thumper who thinks the world was puffed into being less than 10,000 years ago by a invisible man in the sky. Just what we need on the school board
A family values and conservative worldview deserves a fair representation, just like other views deserve fair representation. People seem to assume that because someone is a Christian, that means they will push their beliefs down the throats of those around them. Presidents can have close associations with former terrorists and anti-Semites or seduce interns in the Oval Office and people scold anyone who thinks that might affect their performance of their duties, but let a Christian announce that he is running for a school board position and the world is coming to an end. Did anyone else notice that the last seven of our presidents have all claimed to be Protestant Christians? Since when does believing the Bible preclude a person from holding office or engaging in reasonable debate?
Yeah, well , the problem isn’t with the religion itself. It’s with the denial of palpable, demonstrable, observable reality that such religious people often deny, criticize, and undermine. It is very important that voters understand both the science and the positions on science of our politicians. Our entire modern world is built on the accuracy of science. It is socially irresponsible to the USA to allow people with backwards thinking, often scientifically illiterate and apathetic in nature, to hold office. I would like to see this nation at the forefront of technology and science once again. If we let religious reality-deniers write the rules, we get watered down science, lack of critical and comparative thought, and our grandchildren will end up working menial jobs for foreign countries. That is why we need to keep science clean and accurate. The methodology has proven itself more than enough through versatility and accuracy. If that’s not enough, I don’t know what is.
I don’t think a lot of people here are going to be criticizing Tracy for his family/conservative values. The problem here is that Tracy has demonstrated that he does not understand the limits to where the influence and legitimacy of those values end, and where the cold hard facts of reality begins. Tracy has made statements on re-introducing the same lies and misinformation which make up these so-called “alternatives” to evolution theory back in to the science curriculum when it’s been repeatedly established that they have virtually no scientific nor legal validity whatsoever in a public school system. I don’t know if Tracy actually believes in all this psuedoscientific garbage, or is just taking advantage of a divisive issue to gain more support from the conservative base, but in either scenario, as a man who either doesn’t have a strong comprehension of the education system or is willing to play politics at the expense of a quality education for the children of Pasco county, neither belongs on that school board.