At 08:38 PM 7/24/96 PDT, you wrote:
>I suppose it's fun to go off on an occasional rant like this, but tell me:
Is
>there anyone here who truly believes that the Department of Education might
>actually ban Huck Finn?
Perhaps I have read It Can't Happen Here too many times, but yes, my friend,
I do think the Department of Education, as an arm of our government, might
be capable of just about anything but educating. (Remember, the Goals 2000
deal or what others called Outcome-Based Education? Those standards were not
written by the USDOE, to its credit, but by the Department of Labor. Hence
my point about DOE not being able to educate.) Have you seen the proposed
history standards everyone is so upset (or enthused) about?
The suggestion that an agency might perform an act is enough to cause alarm;
when that suggestion comes from the agency itself, in the form of
investigators or grand inquisitors or whatever, we need to lock the doors.
The cows and sheep who follow the advice of government are many; they see
governmental suggestion as law and act accordingly. Examples of this can be
seen in nearly every public school administration.
At any rate, I ramble. But yes, sir, I do believe any government agency is
capable of doing just about anything. And no, sir, I do not believe in a
whole slew (slough?) of conspiracy theories.

Regards
Marcus W. Koechig