HILTON-O'BRIEN: The Feast of the Innocents

John Hilton-O’Brien is the Executive Director of Parents for Choice in Education.Today is the most difficult holiday. In the traditional calendar, December 28th marks the Feast of the Innocents:"When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi." (Matthew 2.16)Herod didn’t slaughter the Holy Innocents for the sake of slaughter. It was the act of a tyrant threatened with the loss of power. He feared the rise of a "new King" and responded cruelly. But it isn't an old story; it's also a new one. Consider this story, drawn from another article on this site:"A friend of mine watched three children walk down the street outside her home. A girl of about 14 was explaining to a younger boy what "pansexual" meant. An even younger girl followed them. Trying to get into the conversation, she loudly declared, "I am bi! Bi, bi, bi, bi, bi!"Same story, different time. Today’s children are also threatened: not by swords, but by ideologies that seek to harm them. Like metaphorical Herods, so-called "progressive" activists seek to expand their power and wealth at the expense of children. They may believe it sincerely — as anyone might believe a lie that profits them.Woke ideologies dominate governments, school boards, unions, universities, and large foundations. Why? They all make grants or provide jobs and contracts with little scrutiny over value for money. Activists in each organization use their grant-making capability to empower friends in others, expanding a closed system of woke influence.The largest source of funding for this machine lies in our school boards.The Alberta budget is $9 billion — big business. Based on classroom numbers, the average Alberta classroom costs around $340,000, and the average teacher collects $85,000. Some of the rest of the money feeds bureaucracy, and funds programs that prioritize ideological indoctrination over education.That money goes to union officials and activist teachers to promote woke education programs such as race-based math. That money lobbies the Minister of Education and Premier to force gay-straight alliances on Christian schools. It lobbies the government for grants to woke academics for bogus studies to further their agenda. It creates "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" departments that take money out of the pockets of front-line staff. And it pays activists to be well-paid speakers at conventions. Woke control over our school boards is the linchpin in the whole system.And our people’s children pay the price.In Matthew's Gospel, the Magi advise the Holy Family to flee to Egypt. They return home by another route and do not see Herod again.You and I don’t have those options. We need to stand up to Herod.We know we can. Sensible people have had tremendous success in standing up to Herod this year. I’ve even written that wokeness is burning itself out.However, that threatens the elites who use woke ideology for their own benefit. The truth is that we have sent far too many people to university, telling them that they will get well-paying, prestigious jobs. That was a lie: we don't really have so many elite jobs. Competition for elite positions is vicious. The woke agenda is just a way to get ahead: it may be said that “those who cannot do, teach,” but those who cannot teach run “diversity” programs. And now that woke is shutting down, that professional-managerial class is getting desperate — just like Herod.The Alberta Teachers' Association's plans to contest school board elections in 2025 are typical of what we can expect. They've announced that they will recruit and train candidates. They are running slates, regardless of the legalities. They have a full staff and don't seem averse to dirty tricks. They have money to burn on advertising: they spent over a million dollars during the last school board elections and weren't even trying.That's what Herod's court looks like today — and that's just one union among many. They didn't call him Herod the Great for nothing.Still, there’s hope. The Sunday after Christmas is traditionally celebrated as the Feast of the Holy Family. Jesus's parents escaped Herod's clutches, but they needed the Magi's help.I often hear people say they won’t participate in school board elections. They say that they don't have children, or that their children aren't in school. But this day reminds us that we all have a choice.It doesn’t matter if you have kids in school. Woke activists are a powerful network: money coming from the school boards ultimately empowers “diversity” departments everywhere. The least you can do is engage with candidates and vote. If you commit yourself, you can give money to a campaign, volunteer to help a candidate, or run yourself. Having a child in the system is no more necessary for you than it was for the Magi.We can stand with the Holy Family, or we can stand with Herod.On this day, on this Feast of the Innocents, I hope you will stand with Mary and Joseph.John Hilton-O’Brien is the Executive Director of Parents for Choice in Education, www/parentchoice.ca. He is also the author of the education chapter in Better Civics: A Guide to Canadian Civic Literacy.

HILTON-O'BRIEN: The Feast of the Innocents

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