Ron Wilson is quite a colorful character. The defeated Republican candidate for a South Carolina state Senate seat is perhaps best known for selling and praising anti-Semetic textbooks for homeschoolers — one of which touted the idea that Jews are working toward world domination. He’s also gained notoriety as the former commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
Now he has a new title: member of the South Carolina Board of Education.
Yes, the man that sold anti-Semetic textbooks for children will now have a say in which textbooks make into South Carolina’s public schools.
Indeed, Wilson’s “leadership” experience with Sons of Confederate Veterans, which helped him get the state education post, was marked by his desire for ideological purity.
While Wilson led the national Sons of Confederate Veterans from 2002 to 2004, he was accused of purging more than 300 politically moderate members.
“He led the attempted takeover of the SCV by extremists and is a very important player in the radicalization of that group,” said Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, which tracks racist groups.
The good news is, State Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum (D) is launching an effort to get Wilson off the board.
“This sends a message of intolerance,” Tenenbaum said. “We have someone who has dedicated his life to activities that are absolutely contrary to what we’re trying to teach children in our schools.”
In the meantime, Wilson has no intention of resigning.
Wilson said Thursday he is being unfairly branded a racist and anti-Semite, and he would fight any attempt to remove him from the board.
“Ain’t nobody gonna run me out of this now,” he said.
Maybe there’s just something wrong with the South Carolina Board of Education. One of my favorite projects that I ever worked on was in 1997 with a member of the same committee who was equally unbalanced.
A state Board of Education member, talking about displaying the Ten Commandments in public schools, had a ready suggestion for groups who might object to it, the Associated Press reports.
“Screw the Buddhists and kill the Muslims,” Dr. Henry Jordan said during the board’s finance and legislative committee meeting. “And put that in the minutes,” he said.
AP said that the remarks, which were expunged from the written minutes, were recorded on tape. The Columbia State obtained the tape under the Freedom of Information Act, the wire service said.
Jordan, a surgeon who failed in a bid to get the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor in 1994, told reporters that he thought the meeting was over and members were engaged in private conversation.
The tape, however, shows the committee proceeding to other items on the agenda.
Jordan said he plans to offer a proposal at the next board meeting to allow students to vote to display the commandments at their school and to pay for it with private money.
“What I want to do is promote Christianity as the only true religion,” he said. “This nation was founded to worship, honor and glorify Jesus Christ, not Mohammed, not Buddha.”
I guess we can call these incidents setbacks for the “new” South.