Keelan: Stop using our children as pawns

By Don Keelan

At what point does the far left stop using our children in elementary and high schools to promote its agenda? The foremost user is the Vermont Public Interest Research Group.

In a recent email, VPIRG declared, “TAKE ACTION: Call House Speaker Mitzi Johnson TODAY … to let her know you support the youth Climate Strike and want to see bold climate legislation rise to the top of the agenda.”

Don Keelan

Never mind the fact that the Legislature should be wrestling with some difficult issues — an opiate epidemic, the closing of private colleges, a major decline in our state’s workforce, healthcare, education and pension issues.

VPIRG’s latest use of the “youth brigade” was to have the brigade call attention to the curse imposed upon Vermont by plastic bags. School children appeared before town meetings to state their case requesting towns to adopt an ordinance to prohibit stores from supplying plastic bags.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t end with the plastic bag scare. On March 15, Montpelier witnessed several hundred children cut class in order to be part of the march to combat climate change. To read VPIRG’s version, there were “some protesting in their towns and some storming the Capitol in Montpelier.” Storming? Really?

There will be more in climate regulations from VPIRG. Before there is an outright condemnation for using a gas engine, there will be a confiscatory tax added to the price of a gallon of gas — possibly a dollar or more. And, once a year, the vehicle owner will be given a computer print-out euphemistically referred to as an annual automobile safety inspection.

I predict that within three years, a home heated with oil or propane will face stringent rules. Here are a few examples: all homes will be monitored to see if the heat temperature being called for is reasonable and not excessive, and any repairs to the heating system will only be done once a permit is issued by the state. The homeowner must provide a carbon offset or pay a fee into the Carbon Offset Bank (quite similar to what developers pay into the Land Bank for encroaching on Prime Agricultural Lands). An excise tax will surely be assessed here as well.

It will only get worse. When it comes to having to replace a home oil heating system, a detailed mitigation plan must be filed with the state to determine if non-fossil-fuel systems were considered. If not, the excise tax on the replacement with an oil-based system will be equal to 10 percent of the cost of the replacement.

It there are any readers wondering if this could happen, just look at how a home or business owner is treated by the state when it comes to replacing and or repairing their septic system. It is no longer a local matter, but under the jurisdiction of Montpelier.

Yes, the world is experiencing some form of climate change and it should be addressed. But for Vermont to attempt to be at the forefront and impose costly and stringent regulations on its citizens is ludicrous. With the state being 80 percent forest, we are, in fact, a carbon neutral state.

The state’s carbon footprint surely must be improving each day. The Manchester Journal recently noted that each year more people are dying in Vermont than are born. Furthermore, between 2010 and 2018, a net 10,000-plus residents have left the state. Now add to this the fact that, in recent months, three private colleges have closed, with possibly more to come. This must surely help with the carbon footprint issue. Instead, let’s focus on plastic bags.

VPIRG should not use our children to advance their message on carbon issues. Will the nonprofit organization use them to lobby the legislature to place a quota on the number of tourists entering the state? Surely the millions that do come each year have a mammoth carbon footprint.

Don Keelan writes a bi-weekly column and lives in Arlington, Vermont.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Becker

12 thoughts on “Keelan: Stop using our children as pawns

  1. Every education option teaches a worldview. That 40% of Millennials would like to try what Venezuela tried in the U.S should be enough to make clear what worldview is taught in government-funded state education in the U.S. It seems insane, but young people are very trainable. As the wise king and author of most of Proverbs puts it: “Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.” (22:6). This works for any set of ideas, sound or unsound.

    There is only one way to control the education your children get and that is to pay for 100% of it. The only question each parent has to answer is are your children worth that investment? Either money or time or some mix. With online options these days, there really is no excuse for a parent to put their child on a public school bus to get their head twisted. None.

  2. Vermonts left starts the indoctrination process at a very young age. I thought schools were supposed to be a place to learn, not a place to be brainwashed by a particular political party.

    • Surely you jest Matt….:) I love how we’ve got other flags flying in our schools with the American flag. My bet is if you went into our schools you would be able to hear all sorts of information about the Black Lives Matter flag, but how many could say the pledge of allegiance?

      How may students could tell you what type of government do we have? What is the difference between a democracy and a constitutional republic?

      The answers would inform you how well the indoctrination is working and how our school system is an abject failure.

  3. For loving to call everyone on the right Nazi’s the left sure implements the theology of the German Social Democrat party to a tee. From indoctrination in the skools to ownership of speech on the media Propaganda wing back to dividing people into warring groups. Mein Kamph ain’t got nuttin on
    the leftards of today..The big question is what do we call the “Hitler Youth” now?

  4. List of U.S. states by carbon dioxide emissions
    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    Jump to navigationJump to search

    CO2 emission per capita per year per state (2011 data).
    This is a list of U.S. states by carbon dioxide emissions due to human activity. The data presented below from the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Energy Information Administration corresponds to emissions in 2014.[1]

    Contents
    1 Table
    2 See also
    3 Notes
    4 References
    5 External links
    Table
    Rank Jurisdiction Annual CO2 emissions
    (in millions of metric tons)[2] Percentage
    of total
    emissions Population
    (estimate in 2014)[3] Percentage
    of total
    population CO2 emissions
    per capita
    (in metric tons)
    – States Total 5,434 100.00% 318,857,056 100.00% 17.04
    1 Texas 709 13.04% 26,956,958 8.45% 26.29
    2 California 359 6.61% 38,802,500 12.17% 9.26
    3 Pennsylvania 242 4.46% 12,787,209 4.01% 18.94
    4 Illinois 233 4.29% 12,880,580 4.04% 18.12
    5 Ohio 229 4.21% 11,594,163 3.64% 19.75
    6 Florida 227 4.18% 19,893,297 6.24% 11.41
    7 Louisiana 207 3.81% 4,649,676 1.46% 44.50
    8 Indiana 203 3.74% 6,596,855 2.07% 30.81
    9 New York 170 3.13% 19,746,227 6.19% 8.61
    10 Michigan 162 2.97% 9,909,877 3.11% 16.31
    11 Georgia 139 2.56% 10,097,343 3.17% 13.76
    12 Kentucky 138 2.53% 4,413,457 1.38% 31.19
    13 Missouri 131 2.42% 6,063,589 1.90% 21.66
    14 North Carolina 126 2.31% 9,943,964 3.12% 12.64
    15 Alabama 121 2.24% 4,849,377 1.52% 25.05
    16 New Jersey 114 2.10% 8,938,175 2.80% 12.78
    17 Oklahoma 104 1.92% 3,878,051 1.22% 26.92
    18 Virginia 103 1.90% 8,326,289 2.61% 12.42
    19 Tennessee 103 1.89% 6,549,352 2.05% 15.69
    20 Wisconsin 101 1.85% 5,757,564 1.81% 17.47
    21 West Virginia 97 1.79% 1,850,326 0.58% 52.47
    22 Minnesota 94 1.73% 5,457,173 1.71% 17.24
    23 Arizona 93 1.71% 6,731,484 2.11% 13.79
    24 Colorado 91 1.67% 5,355,866 1.68% 16.95
    25 Iowa 83 1.53% 3,107,126 0.97% 26.78
    26 South Carolina 74 1.37% 4,832,482 1.52% 15.39
    27 Washington 73 1.35% 7,061,530 2.21% 10.40
    28 Kansas 70 1.28% 2,904,021 0.91% 23.97
    29 Arkansas 69 1.26% 2,966,369 0.93% 23.13
    30 Wyoming 65 1.20% 584,153 0.18% 111.55
    31 Utah 64 1.19% 2,942,902 0.92% 21.90
    32 Massachusetts 64 1.18% 6,745,408 2.12% 9.49
    33 Mississippi 64 1.17% 2,994,079 0.94% 21.28
    34 Maryland 62 1.14% 5,976,407 1.87% 10.38
    35 North Dakota 55 1.02% 739,482 0.23% 74.81
    36 Nebraska 52 0.95% 1,881,503 0.59% 27.51
    37 New Mexico 50 0.92% 2,085,572 0.65% 24.07
    38 Oregon 38 0.70% 3,970,239 1.25% 9.56
    39 Nevada 37 0.68% 2,839,099 0.89% 13.02
    40 Connecticut 35 0.65% 3,596,677 1.13% 9.77
    41 Alaska 35 0.64% 736,732 0.23% 47.17
    42 Montana 32 0.59% 1,023,579 0.32% 31.51
    43 Hawaii 18 0.33% 1,419,561 0.45% 12.82
    44 Maine 17 0.31% 1,330,089 0.42% 12.52
    45 Idaho 17 0.31% 1,634,464 0.51% 10.18
    46 South Dakota 15 0.28% 853,175 0.27% 17.91
    47 New Hampshire 15 0.27% 1,326,813 0.42% 11.25
    48 Delaware 13 0.25% 935,614 0.29% 14.24
    49 Rhode Island 11 0.20% 1,055,173 0.33% 10.08
    50 Vermont 6 0.11% 626,562 0.20% 9.38
    51 District of Columbia 3 0.06% 658,893 0.21% 4.55
    Looks like Vermont is dead last of 50 States for carbon emissions. Since the State took the advice of Howard Dean and failed to fund the Teachers Annuity for ten years because he said, our invested monies at an interest of 7.5% the State won’t need to, it looks to be a sure bet that we can hold off at reducing cabon emissions while waiting for the market to provide cheaper innovations sure to come.

    • Too busy. It’s in ENTIRE curriculum. We’ve taken our kids out. Best decision ever. Days were spent listening to lectures (first grade) from recycling companies vs reading writing arithmetic. They know more about how evil straws bags and big cars are than they know about anything else. Unreal. I hope more and more take their kids out of the govt schools

  5. Teaching isn’t that profession any longer, year after year they turn out kids with some of
    the lowest test scores in the basics Math, Reading, pretty appalling

    But they are very knowledgable LGBTQ, BLM, and other Liberal agenda, it’s pretty shameful
    when you need kids to promote your agenda.

    Kids should be kids, not a puppet for your endeavors !!

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