The Revisionaries Review
By David Kempler
Marching Backwards Through Time
If you are currently in school or you have a kid attending school, chances are that they are using textbooks being written by the powers that control the local school systems in Texas. I've known about this for a while, but what goes into the process of the final content of these textbooks was a fact I had never really thought about.
"The Revisionaries", Scott Thurman's documentary on this topic, examines the way the process unfolds and it plays like bad comedy. Thurman puts on display the people on both sides of the fight over what will serve as the interpretation of what will be taught nationwide. When you see who is pulling the strings, all you can do is shake your head at how without reason all of this business is being conducted.
In one corner is school board president Don McLeroy, a dentist and Sunday school teacher. He is a Christian fundamentalist to the core, adhering to and espousing to the idea that the planet is 10,000 years old and that men and women used to walk around with dinosaurs. His view is much like how life is presented in "The Flintstones". Whether he believes that the dinosaurs were as friendly as Fred's pet, Dino, is not addressed here. Fellow board member Cynthia Dunbar is an associate professor of law at Falwell's Liberty University. She is waiting desperately for God to invade our schools.
In the other corner is Kathy Miller, the head of the Texas Freedom Network. She holds the view that church and state must be handled separately. Assisting her as an expert witness at the hearings is Ron Wetherington an anthropology professor at Southern Methodist University. When he spoke at the hearings, I couldn't help but remember the way the scientific community was treated in the original version of "Inherit the Wind". He is not summarily dismissed, but it is clear he is talking to people who view him as a non-believer.
This is a documentary topic that I would have thought would have been more exciting. I was looking for it to be like a heavyweight prizefight. Instead, everyone is mild-mannered and cordial. There is no real tension despite the totally different opinions on display. McLeroy and Wetherington are quite amiable towards each other and I suppose that that should be thought of as a good thing that we can all get along. That's fine, but it makes for very bland entertainment. An important and contentious issue that currently rages throughout our country has been reduced to a tea party, where one side is actually comprised of members of the Tea Party. The anti-Tea Party faction in this doc has been reduced to total impotence. No conflict. No drama.
