Again, I Wonder How Long Before Someone in the Buna Schools Goes Here?????

 So, the Grand Prairie ISD, near Dallas, cancelled the performance of " Little Shop of Horrors." 

It seems the lead male role was won by a female actor. And the school district  was afraid the production would be in violation of Texas Senate Bill 12. Which restricts so called " Drag Performances." 

Then, they added as sort of an afterthought that the musical's themes included an " abusive relationship." 

Good grief, do some of you actually know Shakespeare's plays?  

They include the following in which....

Women/girls dressing as males..... 

Twelfth Night-Viola disguises herself as a young page Cesario dressed as a female after being shipwrecked, which triggers a complex romantic triangle involving Duke Orsino and Countess Olivia.

As You Like It-  Rosalind flees to the Forest of Arden and disguises herself as a young man named Ganymede

Cymbeline-  Princess Imogen adopts the male persona Fidele to escape court life and survive a plot against her life.

 Two Gentlemen of Verona- Julia dresses as a male page to follow her unfaithful lover. 

And then, men dressing as women 

The Merry Wives of Windsor- In the play, Falstaff dresses as a fat woman to escape from a  mad husband.

On the actual Elizabethan stage where Shakespeare's works were premiered, all female roles were played by young male actors, meaning a boy actor was playing a female character (like Viola) who then disguised herself as a boy (Cesario) a double layer of gender-switching. 

What the actual cornbread feck? 

Did no one in the Texas Legislature read any Shakespeare? Or know anything about it? ( Answer....No.) Most are lawyers....

And I know Shakespeare was being sarcastic when he wrote about Dick the Butcher saying " The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." (Henry VI, Part II)  

But sometimes I wonder..... 

- Then and this is being lead by New Braunfels ISD, there are the what I call " Book Burners." 

Books like-

Canterbury Tales

To Kill a Mockingbird

Jane Eyre

Tom Sawyer 

Now, New Braunfels itself did not ban all 4 of the above, but there are  districts in this state who have banned at least 1, NBISD just leads the state in the number banned. Makes you wonder what is going on in that ISD?

And trust me, don't think there is so parent in Buna ISD who finds something wrong with a book, like something as " making their kid think." " Or a textbook that discusses the founding of Hinduism, or Islam." Never mind there are over a billion people in the world who follow each of those religions.( I got a phone call from a parent who got upset that I taught about Greek, Roman, Japanese religions in World History, saying, "When I had Coach XYZ, he didn't."  Well, Coach is no longer with the district. I told them call the Superintendent. of Schools. " Maybe they'll fire me"..I remember at the end of the call, I was ugly and told them, "I wish you would." I had my points at that stage and would have gone, happily, willingly....If she did call, I did not hear about it.)

No fooling, I wonder what this nation, this state is going to look like in 25 years.....I am sort of glad, my time on this rock is in the home stretch....