2 Stories

By Rob Taft

These two stories put power in the hands and minds of you – teenagers. In school K-12 you are bombarded with Critical Race Theory and grooming or transgenderism every day. You are pressured to feel bad about yourself, forced to divide into artificial groups, see yourself as the “oppressor” or the “oppressed,” and question your sexuality well before you ever experience it. But these stories will show you the truth about many of the troubling issues you are subjected to. Thus they empower you to confront the stuff schools are infecting you with. These stories let you see the truth you will never get in school or other books. And they will enable you to argue these issues when confronted with the misinformation teachers tell you.
OPPORTUNITY – THE WAY BACK FROMCRITICAL RACE THEORY pits students, who are being tutored after hours by an African American lawyer and father of one of the students, against their history teacher. The dialog is full of facts and truths about slavery, Critical Race Theory ((CRT), diversity, inclusion and equity (DIE) and shows how minorities are particularly damaged by such instruction. In the end the students see the opportunities America offers them and shows the bogus crippling of students that CRT and DIE do.
CHOICES – THE WAY BACK FROM GROOMING The second story is about a 12 year-old who wants to star in track and decides to identify as a girl and compete on the girl’s team. It exposes the pressure put on students to transition, the lose-lose damage such a situation causes to the transgender and those around him or her – friends and family – and the bogus notoriety the school gets along with school administrators, teachers unions, and the medical industry. The story delves into actual experiences of transgenders, but has a tragic ending which could have been avoided.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 4, 2023
• ISBN: 9798369412107

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2 STORIES

Rob Taft

Copyright © 2023 by Rob Taft.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 11/29/2023

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

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CONTENTS

OPPORTUNITY

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

CHOICES

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

OPPORTUNITY

The Way Back From Critical Race Theory

CHAPTER 1

Twelve year-old Billy Hollister was in Ms. Randall’s seventh grade class in Evanton Middle School. His teacher’s lesson rattled him good so he went to see his best friend, Jason Richards, to talk about it with him. To apologize to him.

Evanton is a small but growing suburban town, twenty miles from the city. It used to know the number of residents in the town and bragged about it on the Welcome to Evanton sign. Population 964.

But the town had grown in recent years, enough to eliminate the population number. A diverse town, Evanton held its share of rich and poor and little ground separated them. But the COVID pandemic brought all parents together like never before. Closed schools and remote learning brought the classroom into homes and parents got to eavesdrop on class assignments and teaching.

Parents in growing numbers and louder voices objected to what their kids were being taught. Before heading to work, some dads dropped their kids off to the private school in Taylorville. Others, like Billy’s friend Jason, turned to homeschooling. Jason’s dad Horace was a successful black attorney who was able to do much of his work from home and proved to be an excellent teacher as well.

Most of Evanton’s kids still plowed into the K-12 public schools each day. Ms. Randall had taught seventh grade for nearly 21 years.

Apologize for what? Jason said as the two boys made their way to Jason’s room. Ol’ lady Randall must have been on a roll.

You wouldn’t believe it.

Try me.

She called me a white supremacist, Billy sputtered with an awkward chuckle. I don’t even know what that means. But she said white supremacists are racists, oppressors. Nothing good.

She’s white, his friend noted. She a white supremacist, too?

Billy shrugged. Not sure. She didn’t say.

Well, she sure is an oppressor, Jason declared, laughing. So glad my dad got me out of that school.

Billy smiled in agreement. She told all us white kids to go apologize to blacks. That’s why I’m here.

To apologize to me? Jason said in disbelief. Why would you do that?

Because I’m oppressing you.

Jason laughed again as he plopped down on his bed.

Billy said, You shoulda heard what she called guys like you.

Jason’s laughter stopped, turned to anger. What did she say?

Said you were inferior to whites because whites like me keep putting you down.

The claim was outrageous and Jason lightened up again. You’re kidding, right?

No way, Billy insisted. She said black guys like you – all minority guys – would always be second class citizens because it’s in your genes to be.

She did, did she?

Not only that. She said that’s what African Americans get for being trapped in a white country like the United States.

Trapped? Did she say trapped?

I’m not lying, Billy insisted. She called the United States a pit of systemic racism.

What’s that supposed to mean?

That Americans can’t escape racism, Billy replied. It’s in our past. Now. And forever. It’s what America is?

And you believe that trash?

It’s scary stuff. I’m supposed to hate my best friend.

Jason leapt up and paced the room as Billy looked at posters of baseball heroes on the wall. As he paced his way back, Jason picked up his baseball glove and hit the pocket hard with his fist.

If my dad were here, he’d.... Jason stopped. I’m gonna tell you something and I want you to listen good.

Tell me what?

All that nonsense Randall’s feeding you is crap, he said. It’s meant to come between us so guys like me can never be friends with guys like you.

Why would she do that?

To divide us. Make us weak, his friend told him. White people are so supposed to feel guilty about hurting black people. Dad calls it Critical Race Theory.

What theory?

Critical Race Theory. CRT.

Again it didn’t register with his friend.

See, Randall doesn’t even have the guts to name what she’s teaching, Jason told him. You’re not only supposed to feel sorry for me, but feel sorry for yourself for oppressing me so. What a crock.

Billy shook his head.

Well, isn’t it? Jason demanded. Look at you. You came in here all nervous like and why? To apologize to me.

Billy stammered but words didn’t come out.

And me. I’m supposed to feel...what? Inferior? Forever oppressed because I live in the freest nation on the planet? he snapped. What? I’m supposed to give up hope and accept that so I can grow old and fat and live off Uncle Sam?

He picked up a ball and slammed it into the mitt. Not me. He swung around to meet his friend eye to eye. Let me tell you something. Since time began, every society has been broken down into classes. Rich and poor. High class. Low class. Even the United Nations views countries as ‘developed’ or ‘developing’, first world or third world.

So?

So? Jason repeated. America was set up to stop that. In the 1600s when countries were run by kings and nations were kingdoms, there was this Scientific Revolution. Suddenly man could think for himself and didn’t have to be told what to do all the time. Science kind of made man whole. Then real smart men got together and began the Age of Enlightenment.

Why are you telling me this?

Because for once, the average man was important, Jason said. He could think for himself and learn and think even better. And when our Founding Fathers had had a belly-full of the King of England with all his taxes, they started a government for the average man. The individual, not the masses. And why? To let each person think, make choices. Thrive.

Billy was catching on and a smile crossed his face. Government of the people, for the people, and by the people.

Jason smiled. That’s right, the boy confirmed. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution gave man rights. Unalienable rights. Kings didn’t give us these rights and they never would. But God did and our Founding Fathers knew that.

What rights?

Things like liberty, equality. Representational government. Separation of the powers of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. Jason read the confusion on Billy’s face. Old lady Randall hasn’t talked about that yet?

Just about slaves? Billy challenged. She said our Founding Fathers thought a slave was only three-quarters of a person.

That was politics. Jason explained. There were so many slaves by 1776 that if they counted them all, the North thought the South who had the slaves would have too much power and control how the country went.

He and Billy thought about that. Sure the Founding Fathers, many of whom were southerners, believed all men were created equal, Jason went on. But if they counted all the slaves, who knows what this country would look like today if the South ran everything.

The two boys thought hard about that and didn’t say a word for a long while.

Forget that for now, Jason said to break the awkward silence. Think instead about human nature. Class divisions. The haves and the have-nots. The United States shattered government principles of the past. In the Bill of Rights, an addendum to the Constitution, the Founding Fathers said that the First Amendment ‘gets to the essence of what it is to be a human.’ They believed religion gave a person his appreciation for authority. Law and order. Morality, ethics, community living. The stuff that makes a man rational and good for society. Without these things, there would be anarchy and hell to pay.

We haven’t heard any of this.

You won’t because Randall doesn’t want you to know, Jason told him. She’s there to break you as an individual. Get you and guys like me to think alike. About everything.

Why?

Think about it, Jason said. If we all thought the same, hate they tell us would disappear. That’s what they tell us.

What’s your dad say?

They want to dummy us down so the government can control us. If we think and act like individuals with our own thoughts and dreams, Uncle Sam can’t control us or tell us what to do. Remember government of, for and by the people?

Billy nodded.

Where would that go? Jason asked. Out the window and we’d be back to a king and dictator? He looked at his friend. It’s all about control, Billy boy. Class division. The elite running the rest of us – the permanent underclass to do whatever the rich and government tells us to do."

So this is what your dad teaches you?

The truth, Jason responded. You see they want to make it about race. But it’s really about class. The elite – and that can include both black and white rich people – and the rest of us, black, white, Asian, whatever.

Billy nodded. "The way the world was before democracy got in the