Justice Breyer Offers A Useful Dichotomy

The terms "liberal" and "conservative" seem silly and superficial these days, when liberals are more conservative than conservatives ever were, and conservatives believe in comprehensive government control over the minutiae of citizens' personal lives. The classic terminology fails us, it provides no insight into the true nature of the most important issues we concern ourselves with.

WTOP had a little story the other day about a talk Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer gave at the American Bar Association's annual meeting. One statement of his seems to shed some light on the situation, maybe this is a better dichotomy than the familiar ones:

After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Breyer said: "I began to see that the true division of importance in the world is not between different countries. The important division is between those who are committed to reason, to working out things, to understanding other people, to peaceful resolution of their differences ... and those who don't think that." Breyer Says Last Term Was Difficult

Our sex-ed controversy in Montgomery County has been, since the start, a battle over the process. The school district is managed by an elected board, and the organization has clear and effective ways for developing new curricula, with lots of community involvement, expert advice, it's all slow and steady and deliberate. But this time, in the middle of a routine Health curriculum revision, a handful of extremists decided they would agitate to recall the entire Board of Education, they would undermine and slime the whole process, because it wasn't coming out the way they wanted.

I talked about this a couple of years ago in a post about the third group, which was picked up and passed around the Internet a little bit at the time. There are, obviously, more conservative and more liberal views about what sex-ed should be. Some parents believe their children should be given the facts, should be told what the real consequences of various sexual behaviors are, and trust that when the time comes they will be able to make responsible choices. Other parents are concerned that their children will be exposed to too much too soon, they believe that sexuality is a personal matter that should be learned in the home more than the schools. In fact, all parents feel both ways to some extent. The trick here is to find a balance or compromise, a way to present the topic that satisfactorily meets both standards -- a vast majority of citizens everywhere agree that sex-ed belongs in the public schools, there's very little debate about that, the question is what to present, and how.

That means people have to be able to talk. "The liberal side" understands the concerns of a parent who worries about influences that might affect their child's values. "The conservative side" understands that things need to be talked about in school, and that sometimes their kids will learn things that make them uncomfortable. There's plenty of room there for discussion and adjustment.

Those two sides of the lower-level dialectic are one side of Breyer's dichotomy.

The other side believes they are absolutely, divinely right, that there's no need to talk about it, that discussion will only result in a dilution of their "truth." This group feels obligated to interrupt the dialogue in any way they can, they will only declare success when the process has been dragged to a standstill.

We have looked at the news about the next legal phase, as described on the Thomas More Law Center web site. Some of their complaints are pure fiction, and some simply insult your intelligence. The gist of it is that they don't like the new curriculum. That's a great back-fence talking point, it's fine when you're yakking with your friends, but it's not a legal argument. We have seen the Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, through a bogus web site (linked to from their home page), bragging about how much another lawsuit will cost the taxpayers, and all the good things the schools could have done with that money. It's a joke to them.

It's true, it will be expensive for the school district to defend itself. At some point, the anti-MCPS groups hope, they will wear the system down until the other side can't afford to fight any more: this is the great victory they dream of. As civilized people, we must prevent that outcome. "Those who are committed to reason, to working out things, to understanding other people, to peaceful resolution of their differences," must win this one.