Proposed diversity group will give hatemongers something to rally them

There may be something forming in Howell Public Schools that may divert the HPS school board member and head teabagger Wendy Day from her petition drive to deny life-saving health care insurance to millions of Michigan residents.

The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus is reporting that a small group of administrators, teachers and students is forming a diversity group at Howell High School with the mission of promoting diversity within the district.

Apparently, they participated in a U.S. Department of Justice diversity program last fall.“The group's goal is for the entire district — and its image to those outside the county — to become focused on an environment that respects all people, regardless of race,ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and other differences that traditionally separate people.”

That decision to include “sexual orientation” may draw the attention of Day and other like-minded bigots.

Apparently, “the U.S. Department of Justice and Howell Public Schools came together this school year in response to an April incident in which two students were suspended for using school computers to create an Internet hate group” on Facebook. The group “included 30-plus members, most of whom were Howell High School students. The group's Web page displayed racial slurs and a picture of the Confederate flag.”

Livingston County has a history of intolerance and racism, primarily because former Klan Grand Dragon Robert E. Miles lived in Cohoctah Township, just outside of Howell, until he died in 1992. That perceived racism has been reinforced with things like the appearance of hatemongers like Ann Coulter and the popularity of Astroturf “tea parties” in the county.

It was diversity that plagued the county with Day and brought her to prominence. Day is a founding member of a defunct anti-gay hate group called the LOVE (Livingston Organization for Values in Education) PAC that sprang up in the spring of 2006 in response to a diversity flag they mistakenly claimed was a gay pride flag that “promotes and endorses homosexuality.” The so-called “LOVE group claims it wanted to bring traditional values back to the schools, but their traditional values turned out to be code words for intolerance, discrimination and fear.

The group bit off more than it could chew when it tried unsuccessfully to ban books, but it did get Day elected to the school board.

It remains to be seen if this will draw the same attention as the diversity flag.