Long overdue letter I am attempting to get published

 Letter to the Editor,

I do some of my best thinking when I'm in my garden pulling weeds. I'm sure a lot of you can relate. My thoughts today were about truth. That led me to write this long overdue letter since the school board election. Though I did not win a seat,  I received almost 4.300 votes, which is tremendous! I thank each of you for the trust relayed in those votes.

I am also writing this letter because I believe truth to be vitally important. During the course of campaigning there was much mudslinging as well as malicious and slanderous gossip thrown in my direction, most of it by people who have never spoken to me. I've always expressed my open door policy yet heard from none of those who supposedly shared erroneous information about me.

Regarding Paul DeChant, former science teacher at West Bend West: While my son attended East HS we saw firsthand there were many old, outdated ideas presented in science texts relating to evolution there were being taught as “evidence” for evolution. This brought us, as parents, to do a textbook review. For that review we brought in a highly respected biologist who taught at a prestigious medical school in the Midwest. During his presentation, a WBSD administrator slept while others treated him very rudely and subsequently ignored him. Surprised? I wasn't, but we must try and do our best for the sake of our posterity and good education. Following that issue, the curriculum coordinator for the WBSD told me that Paul Dechant wanted to bring a comparative religions class into the high schools. I told her I would work against it. DeChant told me he believed the monotheistic God was invented by tribal people after centuries of being animistic and polytheistic. I did not believe his approach to be appropriate for K-12 education and that it would confuse students. It was not brought up again. Pants on fire lie #1 is that I wanted to bring religion into the schools; in reality it was Paul Dechant whoattempted to do so.

The second lie that was told to a group at Cedar Ridge by one of my opponents who now sits on the WBSB. He also told the audience that I wanted religion taught in science class. When I confronted him about it and asked him to stay after the meeting so we could talk about it he agreed, but then quickly left. He and I never talked about his claim, and I will never understand why folks are afraid of discussing the truth before making unsubstantiated claims.

The third lie is one from Charlie Hillman. He wrote that in my fair booth I tell people fossils were placed around the world by the devil to fool people. Well, to my knowledge Charlie has never been to my booth, and if he ever did visit he certainly was never told such a ridiculous story.

I have collected some pretty neat fossils from all over the world, and display them with honor telling folks the best explanation for them is the watery judgment of the Biblical Flood in the Days of Noah. In fact, Jesus Himself talked of Noah and the Flood. Was he lying? Didn't He understand what He was saying? I think not. He was testifying to a historical event. We still see the evidences of that flood in the rapidly deposited sedimentary layers worldwide and the remains of plants and animals and even some humans in the form of fossils. Please check out my privately funded What's the Evidence blog and come visit us this summer at State Fair, Dane Co, Waukehsa Co and Sheboygan Co. Our booth has volunteers that include engineers, healthcare professionals, a biology researcher, teachers (both current and former), as well as many business professionals and leaders. We all love science, which is testable, repeatable, observable and measurable. Science is not the study of origins; that would be philosophy. Now if that bothers Charlie, too bad.

My true position: I believe parents are best left to teach origins and religion to their children. Unfortunately, religion is taught in schools. It is called Humanism, and it is taught at the expense of all of us.

I was willing to be a watchdog in the WBSD and bear the burden of advocating for real excellence in education, however, I will not be there. It is important now for every parent and community member to bear their own burden and be their own watchdog, holding elected officials accountable for the expensive education that we all know is failing many. Please do not be afraid. This is way too important. 

Mary Weigand