Hey, thanks for expressing your outrage on my behalf. I needed that!
No, my parents, who were too busy to cook dinner, were too busy to consider that maybe all was not right with the school.
My dad had the Old World values that school and teachers deserved the highest respect. Usually true, but not always.
So, if I were in trouble, well, it was all my fault, and to some extent they still feel this way, although I have been able to expose some of the problems with the school to them, and time has done the rest.
After all this was, oh, thirty years ago. Well behind me now. My mom has no trouble with racists, being one herself. What can I say? I don't think she sees herself as one, but she is, and I found white supremacey reading material in her bathroom, opened to a page, published I think in the 1940s. What's with that?
Your mom sounds like a wonderful person. Natural history is a terrific topic, fascinating. I am so happy for you that it all turned out well. Except in very small towns, my guess is that friendships from elementary schools don't survive all our moves and changes anyway, so you lost little and gained enormously!
I looked for that publication I found online years ago. I bet it's been yanked from the web. I wonder if this reverend has either changed his viewpoint or received so much flack he no longer wants to be though of in those lines.
He's still out there, making waves, just not as right-winged as before, just barely.
I won't publish his name here, since I can't document my previously posted opinion.