THE SENATE |
S.R. NO. |
76 |
TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2004 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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Condemning Secretary of Education Rod Paige's assertion that the National Education Association is a "terrorist organization."
WHEREAS, the United States Secretary of Education occupies the most sensitive and important position from which to enunciate federal policy with respect to public education; and
WHEREAS, the vast majority of public school educators in the United States have organized into education associations, as is their right in accordance with both federal and state laws; and
WHEREAS, 2.7 million educators belong to the National Education Association and invest their lives and their pride as well as their money to achieve their professional goals and those of their professional association; and
WHEREAS, the National Education Association is a leading voice across this nation on behalf of the interests of both public school educators and America's schoolchildren; and
WHEREAS, the Hawaii affiliate of the National Education Association and its more than 10,000 members are our friends, our neighbors, our family members, and the teachers of our children; and
WHEREAS, as one Hawaii State Teachers Association member puts it, the teachers of our children feed, clothe, hug, nurse, play with, listen to, discipline, teach, dance with, share time and thoughts and feelings with, accept, model, and teach acceptance and respect and demand the same, and love their students; and
WHEREAS, the current Secretary of Education has called the National Education Association, in public and utterly without justification, a "terrorist organization"; and
WHEREAS, the members of the National Education Association, its Hawaii affiliate, and the members of this Legislature know all too well what it means to be referred to as a terrorist organization while our nation wages real war against real terrorism; and
WHEREAS, labeling groups "terrorists" today is reminiscent of how some officials stooped to "red baiting" half a century ago; now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-Second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2004, that the Legislature:
(1) Condemns the use of the term "terrorist organization" to describe any American organization working for social change within the framework of law;
(2) Condemns the use of the term "terrorist organization" to describe any American organization devoted to the welfare of our children or of working people or, for that matter, of any underprivileged member of our society;
(3) Calls upon the President of the United States, George W. Bush, to repudiate this confoundingly inappropriate and inflammatory statement, unbefitting any Cabinet official, least of all his Secretary of Education, and to require Mr. Paige's resignation; and
(4) Calls upon Governor Linda Lingle to repudiate the use of such defamatory rhetoric from whatever source as not befitting a civil society; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, Hawaii's congressional delegation, the Governor of the State of Hawaii, and representatives of the Hawaii State Teachers Association and the National Education Association.
OFFERED BY: |
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Report Title:
Condemning Secretary of Education Rod Paige's assertion that the National Education Association is a "terrorist organization."