Gotta love that subversion

Parents in Frederic, Wisconsin, are up in arms because a homeschooling parent was appointed to the school board by the other board members. I think parents who home school are making a mistake for a number of reasons, but what's wrong with having a dissident on the school board? I think it's wise to get someone like that up there to point out the things he takes issues with. And, truth be told, it is probably a clever way to co-opt the fundamentalist segment of the population without giving them any real control. At least, I hope so.

My basic philosophy, I'm relieved to discover, coincides with this statement by I.F. Stone, which I read today at lunch. This is from his collected works:

"There must be renewed recognition that societies are kept stable and healthy by reform, not by thought police; this means that there must be free play for so-called 'subversive' ideas--every idea 'subverts' the old to make way for the new. To shut off 'subversive' is to shut off peaceful progress and to invite revolution and war. American society has been healthy in the past because there has been a constant renovating 'subversion' of this kind. Had we operated on the bogeyman theory of history, America would have destroyed itself long ago."