Steve Schafersman, Texas State Board of Education District 15

District 15 for the Texas State Board of Education covers 77 counties in Texas’s northern Panhandle.  It’s oil (Midland), cotton, Texas prairie and small towns, and lots of schools, and some surprisingly good colleges and universities.

Texas State Board of Education District 15, TFN image – “District Overview
District 15 is huge, covering all of northwestern Texas. It is also arguably the most Republican SBOE district, giving more than 74 percent of the vote to Sen. John McCain in the 2008 presidential election and more than 70 percent to Gov. Rick Perry in the 2010 gubernatorial race.”

It’s a district where science plays a big role, and should play a bigger one.  The 15th includes those lands in Texas where the Dust Bowl got started, where unwise plowing based on inaccurate readings of climate contributed to one of the greatest man-made natural resources disasters in all of history.  It’s the home of Texas Tech University, where members of the chemistry faculty created a wine industry based on the chemistry of grape selection and fermentation, and where geologists learn how to find oil.

This area leads Texas in wind power generation, a considerable factor in the state that leads the nation in wind power generation.

In short, science, engineering and other technical disciplines keep this area economically alive, and vital at times.

Of the two candidates, Democrat Steve Schafersman is a scientist, and a long-time, staunch defender of science education (what we now cutely call “STEM” subjects:  Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).  If the race were decided by a test in STEM subjects, Schafersman would be the winner.  Schafersman lives in Midland.

The GOP candidate in the race is religiously anti-science, Marty Rowley of Amarillo.  As a good-ol’-boy, former pastor, he’s got a lot of support from the usual suspects.  Rowley’s views on science, technology, engineering and mathematics run contrary to the business and farming interests of his entire district.  Do his supporters look to the future?

Do you vote in Midland, Lubbock, Amarillo, Dalhart, Abilene, San Angelo, Dallam County, Tom Greene County, Cooke County or Montague County?  You need to vote for Steve Shafersman.  Do your children a favor, do your schools a favor, and do your region of Texas a favor, and vote for the guy who works to make education good.

Shafersman is the better-qualified candidate, and probably among the top two or three people with experience making the SBOE work well, in the nation.  He deserves the seat, and Texas needs him.

More:

• Texas SBOE 2012 Election: Schafersman v. Rowley (sensuouscurmudgeon.wordpress.com)
• Texas Freedom Network Insider, “Texas Ed Board candidate advocates teaching creationism in science classrooms”
• Texas GOP candidates support creationism, posting of Ten Commandments in school rooms, contrary to law, science, and reality
• Shake-up possible for state board (mywesttexas.com)
• Evolution tops State Board of Education debate topics (amarillo.com)
• Providing accurate science, history information top priority for state education candidate (mywesttexas.com)
• Potential new faces on the Texas education board (star-telegram.com)
• Ideas for school vouchers are up in the air (gosanangelo.com)
• Democratic candidates Sadler, Schafersman in Abilene today (reporternews.com)
• Views vary for State Board of Education candidates (mywesttexas.com)

Steve Schafersman campaign flier:

Schafersman for Texas State Board of Education District 15 – click image for larger version

Woody Guthrie’s 100th birthday

Woody Guthrie singing, Smithsonian Folkways image – The sticker on Woody’s guitar reads, “This Machine Kills Fascists.”  Woody regarded music as a great tool of democracy and freedom.

July 14, 2012, marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Woody Guthrie, folksinger, union organizer, chronicler of American values, troubles and change.

We’re already more than halfway through Woody’s centennial year — and what celebration took place at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub?  History slips by so fast.

Much celebration remains.  Get out your calendar and figure out which events you can join in.

Poster for the 2012 Woody Guthrie Folk Festival in Okemah, Oklahoma

Wonderfully, a website celebrates Woody’s 100th:

• Don’t forget the always-available, official Woody Guthrie website
• Check out the Woody Guthrie Song of the Day (he wrote more than 1,000 songs, and there are only 365 days in most years, 366 in the odd, long one)
• Woody’s son, Arlo, will sing with a slew of other Guthrie family members in a celebration of Woody’s centennial, in Central Park, New York, July 15
• In Okemah, Oklahoma, two days remain on the 2012 Woody Guthrie Folk Music Festival (Associated Press story on the celebration in Oklahoma, via San Jose Mercury News)
  
• Several Centennial Concerts are planned, in conjunction with the Grammy Museum
• Here’s a more detailed calendar of events for Woody’s 100th celebrations

Perhaps fittingly, Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub hits the road again, today — off through Oklahoma.

In the interim, get out there, get the history, and join in the chorus!

• “Dustbowl Troubador,” at DemocracyNow.org
• Woody at PBS’s American Masters
• At the Library of Congress, Woody Guthrie and the Archive of American Folk Song
• NPR, in print and audio, “At 100, Woody Guthrie still resonates”
• NPR features Woody’s music at The Mix
• Fresh Air celebrates Woody Guthrie at 100
• How is Pete Seeger doing?  He just turned — what? — 93; will he be able to make many of these events?  (Book signing in New York, July 18 . . .)  (Let’s start the Pete Seeger Centennial a few years early, maybe — like now . . .)

More, Other Sources:

• Woody Guthrie: the return of a pariah | Billy Bragg (guardian.co.uk)
• ArtsBeat: John Mellencamp’s Poetic Tribute to Woody Guthrie (artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Country Joe McDonald will echo Woody Guthrie’s sound at Woodyfest (hooplanow.com)
• Woody Guthrie Centennial: Singer Joel Rafael Celebrates, Co-Writes With Woody (jack.radio.com)

Page from booklet of Woody Guthrie sheet music and lyrics (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A song for our times: Arlo and Pete sing Woody

In the late 1960s and the 1970s, conservatives made big displays of singing this song.  The Mormon Tabernacle Choir recorded one very popular version of it; it showed up often.  In those occasional complaints about the difficulty of singing “The Star-Spangled Banner,” this song’s suitability for national anthem status was always raised.

Today?  I haven’t heard it at a Republican gathering in long, long time.  I’m not saying that it’s completely disappeared from the conservative song book — among other things, I don’t attend Republican conventions as often as I once did, but I don’t think I’d hear it if I did.  I am saying that people finally started listening to the song, and it’s been largely dropped from conservative sing alongs for political reasons.

And that tells us a lot.

It would be good to hear this song a lot more; it would be good if more people sang it.

Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger leading the congregation in singing Woody Guthrie’s “The Land Is Your Land,” from a 1993 concert at Wolf Trap Farm Park in Virginia (one of my favorite venues for any music):

(Arlo’s got a new release this year, featuring this tune.)

More:

• NPR story on the history of “This Land Is Your Land,” from 2000
• Another history of the song, from Songfacts
• Arlo Guthrie’s web page