Greens influence in schools deplored
Conservative author at forum cites aims of radical environmentalists
Radical environmentalists are using America’s public education system to advance their agenda, author Holly Swanson told a crowd in a packed Anne Basker Auditorium in Grants Pass Friday, June 22.
The lecture was part of a forum hosted by NewsWithViews.com.
Swanson, who wrote the book, Set Up & Sold Out: Find Out What Green Really Means, began her remarks by explaining what she called the hidden motives of the environmental movement.
“The goal is still world communism,” Swanson said.
Emotions, particularly fear, are being used and manipulated to slant the debate on issues such as global warming, Swanson said. Schoolchildren are unwillingly exposed to the environmental agenda through programs such as “education for sustainability.”
“It affects our future. It affects our kids,” according to Swanson.
She said that the regimes of Vladimir Lenin and Adolph Hitler deliberately indoctrinated children to build support for their ideologies and policies. Similar tactics are being used today by environmentalists, she said.
“We cannot allow the Greens to highjack public education in this country,” Swanson said.
She cited the “Green goals” --
*Redistribution of wealth.
*Abolition of private property.
*Diminishing the value of individual success.
*Forcing a 75 percent reduction in consumption.
Those goals are being achieved through the creation of “historic dishonor” for America’s existing culture, Swanson said, with the hope of creating a “global ethic” that transcends all other beliefs and values.
“This is the single most important issue of our time,” Swanson said.
Oregon in particular is being used as a breeding ground for environmental ideology, she said. According to Swanson, a group headed by Anthony Cortese, a leading advocate of Education for Sustainability, is headquartered in Portland. It is spreading its influence, she said, with students at Reed College in Portland, Lane Community College in Springfield, Portland Community College, the University of Oregon at Eugene, and Willamette University in Salem.
Swanson estimated that more than 92,000 Oregon students may have already been subjected to sustainability curriculum.
“There is a supreme violation of the public trust going on here,” she said.
Swanson discussed plans to replace the U.S. Constitution with the Earth Charter, a document co-authored by former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.
“That’s what brings this home as a constitutional issue,” Swanson said.
The Earth Charter is intended to guide the conduct of businesses, governments and individuals, Swanson said, and as such, it “has no business being in our schools.”
She added, “This curriculum is politically motivated. This is what these kids are being pressured to adopt.”
During a question-and-answer session, Swanson reiterated that “the goal of communism is control.” She suggested that parents become more aware of what their children are learning in school.
“We have to be politically active at every level,” Swanson said. “We need to unleash parent power.”
