As a single mom teacher in a public institution, my job is no longer secure. Last night, Republican Jim DeMint was elected US sentator from my state of South Carolina.

For those of you who don't know what I am talking about, here is the info:

From the AP story at http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2394024

In a debate Sunday with Democrat Inez Tenenbaum DeMint said openly gay people should not be allowed to teach in the state's public schools.

DeMint defended that remark during an interview with the Aiken Standard on Tuesday and said he would feel the same way about single, pregnant women who lives with a boyfriend teaching a third grade child. He said teachers should be held to a higher moral standard.

From the Washington Post at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40620-2004Oct17.html

The Republican nominee in South Carolina's hard-fought U.S. Senate race apologized yesterday for saying gays and unmarried mothers should not teach in public schools, but he stopped short of retracting the statements.

Jim DeMint said he regretted the comments, made in a recent debate, because they distracted voters from "real issues" such as jobs and national security. Repeatedly asked on NBC's "Meet the Press" whether gays and single mothers should qualify as teachers, DeMint said local school boards should decide.

Here is his "apology" from http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2394024

In a prepared statement Wednesday afternoon DeMint said he was speaking as a parent who wants the best for children. On Wednesday he released this apology:

Those of us who are parents know that feeling in your gut -- every time you drop your child off at school, it’s an act of faith. You trust a group of people – the principal, the teachers, even the janitors, with the most precious thing in your life – your children. And you just want what’s best for them. So as my wife often reminds me, sometimes my heart disengages from my head and I say something I shouldn’t – and that’s what happened yesterday. I clearly said something as a dad that I just shouldn’t have said. And I apologize. As a Senate candidate, it is my responsibility to present ideas and to answer questions in a way that will let people know what I will do as their U.S. Senator. I did not do that in this instance.


You can see why I am concerned. Overall, he presents his apology (in this and other venues) by making a claim for himself that he doesn't allow for the gay and single mother teachers: that his public and private lives are separate. He presents his private role as "dad" who opposes "immoral" people teaching his grandchildren as separate from his public role as "candidate for senator." He argues that his private views will not affect his public life. He, as the public senator-hopeful, steps out of it, saying, "let the school boards decide," while as the private dad, claiming the statements as his own personal beliefs makes it clear that he will encourage school boards to follow his very public lead through his personal example. The sad part is that these statements probably helped him get elected in SC.

It's not that DeMint accidentally said something that didn't represent his beliefs. He accidentally said something that did. And it is the beliefs I have a problem with. The principle of natural rights says that I can continue on pursuing my beliefs, desires and dreams, acting as I wish with freedom--until my path impinges on another's right to do the same. Saying that single mothers can't pursue their professions because they are immoral is impinging on others' rights. In particular, mine. And it is illegal as well as immoral.

While I am not teaching 3rd grade, and I don't have a boyfriend living with me, I am still a single mom teaching in a public institution in the state of South Carolina. That my fellow South Carolinians would elect such a man to represent them in the Senate makes me wonder about my future in this state as a teacher.

I am an award winning teacher with ten years experience in higher education, but this senator-elect values my personal life over my work in the classroom, and, apparently, so do many of my neighbors. Wouldn't you think that they might be glad someone like me stays in the classroom? And stays in SC? But politics are more important than education, then individual lives and dignity, than loving your neighbor. Judging your neighbor has become more important.

Unethical southern politicians on both sides of the aisle have often focused on dividing voters into an "us" versus "them" mentality. Now that politicians have learned that they can't openly use the race card to win elections, they have chosen new scapegoats to rally the voters: gays and single mothers. I hate that this technique continues to work despite the claims for a "New South." We should be smarter than that. But we aren't. Really, there is no "New South"--just new ways of playing the same old game of bigotry.

I have to say, that as a southern single mom teacher, I am quite discouraged right now. I have battled throughout my life with my conflicting love and hate for the south. Yes, I know it is cliche for southern intellectuals to have this ambiguity, but it has become a cliche for a reason. Repetition.

We keep fighting the same battle over who counts under "all men are created equal." In the beginning of the US, only white men who owned land could vote and were considered "human." Later, white men who didn't own land were added to the legal definition that allows full participation in our society. Then non-white men. Then women. But we all know that this wasn't really practiced. So, the Civil Right movement of the 1960's and the Women's Rights movement of the 1970's worked to reaffirm those rights. So, now it is illegal and completely uncool to attack someone because who they are. Instead, the GOP claims to attack people for what they believe and how they act, using "morality" as a sword rather than as a lesson. But it is still attacking people for what they are--gays and single moms--and while they can cloak it in all the so-called morality they like, it is still bigotry.

So, I walked into my classes today, and though I have not yet this semester discussed politics, I told my college-age students that they were being taught by a single mom teacher and that if they wanted to leave my class for the fear that my immorality might affect them, I would let them. We then discussed DeMint's definitions of who can be a teacher in South Carolina public schools. And because they like me and also voted for DeMint, they battled with their own ambiguity. To get out of this quandry, I imagine many of them used the age-old southern mental trick of "you're an exception" to the larger rule that devalues your group, the same logical fallacy that has allowed some southerners for generations to love the individual black people they know but hate the race.

I am mad about it. If I had tenure, or even a tenure-track job, I might wear a tee-shirt that says, 'Single Mom Teacher" on the front and put a picture of handcuffs on the back. But, no, I won't. I don't have that kind of freedom of speech. I can't risk my job. After all, I am supporting my family.

Well, if DeMint gets his way, and I lose my job, hey, I can always go on welfare, and really become what he hates.