This week, our leading outrageous story is the ongoing saga of N.C. state Auditor Beth Wood and a holiday party gone wrong. For those who aren’t aware, the Council of State Democrat was involved in a hit-and-run accident (allegedly as the hitter and runner) and was arraigned on charges associated with the incident.
Now extra details have emerged, after video uncovered by WRAL showed Wood’s car almost entirely on top of another car and Wood being ushered away from the scene into the law office of former N.C. Secretary of State Rufus Edmisten, another prominent Democrat. Edmisten happened to be having a holiday party on the same corner where the accident happened.
All sorts of internet sleuthing began, some of it by the crack-team at Carolina Journal. We wondered, for example, who the people were who ushered her inside. But without a clear look at them through the office glass, we instead directed our attention towards the only one shown clearly in the video — a man in red shoes who can be seen kicking Wood’s car. Was he a shaken-up passenger, the owner of the destroyed car (turns out not this option), a guest at Edmisten’s party, another top Democrat, more than one of the above?
Veteran Carolina Journal reporter David Bass then found a picture on social media of a man in a Grinch costume wearing red shoes and with his arm around Edmisten at the holiday party. Could this be the mysterious car kicker? Others pointed out there was a size difference between the two red-shoed men, so probably not. As my wife says, don’t you hate it when you go to a party and someone else is wearing the same shoes?
Another outrageous news story that emerged this week in N.C. was a video of a daycare worker using a non-binary puppet named Nash to teach 4 and 5 year olds that gender is much more complicated than we’ve been led to believe. The puppet, for example, asks to be referred to using “they/them” pronouns. And, coincidentally, the daycare worker also has transcended gender and wants to be called they/them as well. She can be heard correcting the students who “misgender” the doll. It was seen as a success though when one student brings up non-binary identities unprompted, because it was “a huge testament to how much we’ve been talking about it in the classroom,” where “it’s constantly in conversation.”
This would be bad enough if it were just one teacher attempting to confuse one classroom of children, but it turns out the video was from a documentary called “Reflecting on Anti-bias Education in Action: The Early Years,” which is used by the N.C. Association for the Education of Young Children (NCAEYC) to train daycare owners on proper indoctrination, I mean, teaching methods.
According to their website, the NCAEYC has 3,000 members in North Carolina. Think about that. There are 3,000 daycare owners and other related childhood educators being given this as some kind of best practices.
Well, the shock and anger did not stay contained to the state. Many national outlets covered the story. My own frustration was even quoted in Newsweek.
But enough about me. Seeing as this is National School Choice Week, we can use the story as an opportunity to make the usual point about pluralism and decentralizing our institutions. If America’s institutions are going to go completely mad with obvious nonsense about gender being a social construct (while also simultaneously saying it’s so ingrained that one only has to peer within to find their true genderself), people need to have an easy opt-out. That way they can form their own institutions — like, say, a new N.C. daycare association.