Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Laurie Cardoza-Moore from Proclaiming Justice to the Nations to the newsmakers line to give updates on the Critical Race Theory curriculum that has been found in K-12 schools and recent legislation against it.
Leahy: We are joined on our newsmaker line now by our good friend Laurie Cardoza- Moore, the founder and President of Proclaiming Justice to the Nations. Good morning, Laurie.
Moore: Good morning, Michael! It’s great to be back on the show.
Leahy: Every time we turn around, there’s some other craziness going on in the world. We, of course, have the problem of Critical Race Theory that you became aware of quite a while ago when you discovered anti-semitic, anti-Christian, and anti-American content in the textbooks for your kids.
You were aware of this some time ago. Now we see school systems around the country that have been trying to promote Critical Race Theory. In Florida, they passed a law to stop that. There’s one pending here in Tennessee. Tell us what the latest is on the Critical Race Theory battle here in Tennessee and around the country.
Moore: Yes. Absolutely. I am so proud of our state legislature for dealing with this issue because these are lies. This is all fraudulent. Hitler said that if you repeat a lie often enough and long enough people will believe the lie. And this is exactly what they’re doing.
I am hearing from parents all over the country who are sending me images of what their children are being taught. Children are coming home as young as Elementary age, crying in tears. They hate the fact that they are White. We have another situation in Middle Tennessee that I’ve been made aware of a biracial child who comes from a biracial family.
And he said he hates the of his White side of his identity. This is outrageous that this is being tolerated. So kudos to all of our legislators who are taking this battle on. For Governor DeSantis for coming out and publicly saying no wacko theories in Florida.
And that’s exactly what every governor, every state legislature, and every Department of Education should be adopting. This is propaganda, pure and simple. It’s been around, Michael, for quite some time. We’re actually in the process of doing a report and compiling the data to show where this thought process originated.
And unfortunately, it happened in the South. In South Carolina, there’s a professor…but we’re going to be releasing that report soon. It’s outrageous that this is going on. We see Critical Race Theory even in Holocaust education.
We’ve got an issue in Florida where we submitted by recommendation of the Department of Education in Florida standard K-12 a Holocaust standard to teach the children in Florida from kindergarten through their senior year about anti-Semitism and the propaganda that, of course, the propaganda war that Hitler waged.
And we see this happening also. But they’re using Holocaust studies now. They’re using the death of six million men, women, and children to push Critical Race Theory ideology through Holocaust education. And we will not tolerate it.
Leahy: That’s crazy.
Moore: It absolutely is Michael. You’ve got the Critical Race Theory and there they’re using buzzwords in talking about the Holocaust. You’ll find all of these buzzwords like equity, tolerance, all of these words. And then they try to associate the Holocaust.
And what happened, the murder of 6 million men, women, and children, systemic murder of 6 million men, women, and children and they’re trying to use these words to incorporate other genocides. No, the Holocaust is central to the death and the target of Jews. This is what the Holocaust was.
They were targeting the Jews for annihilation. And to try to bring any other type of genocide or racism into this narrative is trying to water it down and to minimize it. When Hitler established his final solution, it was the final solution to the Jewish question. It wasn’t the final solution to the Gypsy question.
It wasn’t the final solution to the Communist question. It was the final solution to the Jewish question and anybody who tries to water that down is guilty of trying to revise the Holocaust. We see Holocaust revisionism, which is out of control. It is unacceptable.
And the fact that in Florida, Governor DeSantis passed the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, which is the definition of antisemitism. We can’t seem to get that passed here in Tennessee. But I’m not giving up. But it basically states that anyone who says that the Jews have no rights to their ancient homeland, that is anti-Semitic.
And we see even that verbiage and that language in the attempt to try to remove our K-12 Holocaust standards. Our standards start with K-5. We introduce children to their Jewish classmates and their Jewish neighbors.
We teach them about their culture, the holidays, and things like that that young children can grasp. So when they start learning about the horrors of the Holocaust in middle school and high school, they will be as shocked as you and I were when we learned about the Holocaust ourselves.
Leahy: Laurie, we have a story at The Tennessee Star today. I haven’t seen it elsewhere, but I’ll just share this with you. And this is a group probably that could benefit from the work that you’re doing in the report you’re about to release.
Headline. Group Seeks to Share Personal Stories of Critical Race Theory. The Center for Renewing America is seeking to share stories of Critical Race Theory in action across the U.S. The group is working with America First Legal legal. A legal group, created by Stephen Miller and other Trump administration officials.
The two organizations share the goal of fighting critical race theory in various formats across the country. And so that group, you’re probably ahead of them. You could probably help them out.
Moore: Yes. There are more and more groups that are starting to rise up and to challenge this and as well, it should. We’re not going to fight this battle, Michael. We’re not going to go to war on a battlefield as we’ve done in past. This is the war of ideology and the war in the mind.
And they are trying to take the minds of the next generation to distort what you and I know to be factually accurate history. And we should not tolerate it. Parents need to look at the content. Parents that are sending their kids to school need to be asking questions of their children.
Are you being taught this? Are you being taught this Critical Race Theory, ideology? Are you being taught that because your White you happen to be promoting White privilege, and you are guilty because you happen to be born White you’re guilty of racism?
This is outrageous and should not be accepted anywhere. This country has brought people from different races, nationalities, and religious faith. We have lived in this country together, and it wasn’t until Obama came along and started pushing a narrative that wasn’t true.
He opened up an old wound and now these people, what we’re witnessing today, they’re trying to highlight this and trying to push this false narrative. And we again, as Patriots and as Americans have to fight for our history.
Why do you think, Michael, that the last year and a half, we saw young people destroying our monuments, tearing down our historical monuments? Those monuments are significant because they tell us they tell the story of our past. And if we eliminate these monuments, then we are removing the things in history that we can point to that remind us of who we were and who we are today.
Leahy: Laurie Cardoza-Moore, Founder, and President of Proclaiming Justice to the Nations on the web at PJTN.org. thanks so much for joining us this morning and come back in the near future, maybe come in studio someday. We’ll have a longer conversation.
Moore: Absolutely. Go to the website and sign the petition. God bless.
Listen to the full second hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Laurie Cardoza-Moore” by Proclaiming Justice to the Nations.
Live from Music Row Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Laurie Cardoza-Moore from Proclaiming Justice to the Nations to the newsmakers line to talk about California’s anti-Semitic school curriculum and her recent appointment to the Tennessee Textbook Commission.
Leahy: We are joined this morning by our good friend, president, and founder of Proclaiming Justice to the Nation. Laurie Cardoza-Moore. Good morning, Laurie.
Cardoza-Moore: Good morning, Michael. How are you?
Leahy: I’m great. I think California is not so great. Tell us about what they just did out there.
Cardoza-Moore: Well, they just enacted the Ethnic Studies Model curriculum. More propaganda and more disinformation for California students. But Michael, actually it’s very similar to the curriculum and content that we’re seeing being adopted across the country. They just have a different name. And so the school board decided to adopt this curriculum. Again, I think it was over 100,000 emails and phone calls requesting that they not adopt the curriculum because of the propaganda in it, because it’s discriminatory, and because of the way they portrayed Jews.
It’s absolutely outrageous. And now their legislature is getting ready to vote on whether it is going to be mandatory, because currently, right now, that curriculum is not required for all students to take in order to graduate. But they are looking at a piece of legislation that is working its way through their legislature to make this ethnic studies program a requirement for students to graduate.
Leahy: So it’s a 900-page curriculum. Is this anti-Semitic? This Ethnic Studies Model curriculum?
Cardoza-Moore: Absolutely. Absolutely. When they started with the first draft, it’s gone through four iterations. When they started with the first draft, they had people who were tied to the anti-Semitic Black Lives Matter who helped to draft the curriculum. Of course, we know that the Black Lives Matter group when they launched their program last June in California in Los Angeles’s Fairfax District, which is a heavily populated Orthodox Jewish community, the leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement, who are all about Marxism, never apologized, and never condemned the desecration of synagogues, or the spray painting on the Beverly Hills sign, kill Jews.
And these are the same people who were asked to be involved in drafting this. Now, in this fourth iteration, they’ve incorporated the Mizrahi Jews, which is an Arab community, a Jewish community that is minimal. I’m still trying to research to see the anti-Semitic attacks that have happened against them that are separate from the anti-Semitic incidents that have occurred like in the Orthodox Fairfax District of Los Angeles because this community is an Eastern European Jew. They are white.
And, of course, this whole agenda that they’ve drafted is part of their White privilege initiative. They’re separating the Jews out. Basically keeping the white European Jews who are Ashkenazi as part of the white privilege. But, oh, the is Mizrahi Jews, they’re pitting the community against itself. It’s out of control. It’s unacceptable. And the parents and the citizens have spoken out. And there’s plenty more in the curriculum as well that is problematic.
Leahy: Yeah. Well, here’s the thing about that. California is run by crazy people. And the State Board of Education now has approved this curriculum. I’ve not read it, but I’ll take you at your word that it’s anti-Semitic. And now it’s going to go to the state legislature to mandate it. What do you think is going to happen there? It’s like a supermajority of crazy, insane leftist Democrats in both their state Senate and state Assembly. It seems to me they’re going to pass it, right?
Cardoza-Moore: Yes. Michael, it looks like they’re going to end up passing it unless the people can start recalling their state legislators. I don’t know. It’s the craziest thing that we’ve seen happen.
Leahy: Well, do you think California is lost?
Cardoza-Moore: No, I don’t. And let me tell you why Michael. Because look at the movement that happened with the recall of Governor Newsom. They had over two million signatures that they were able to garner to recall him. That is unprecedented. We are out there and we’re working to help educate and activate the citizens because our mission is more grassroots.
It’s more local dealing with the local control issues that we have within our local and state government. But the people are starting to rise up and they’re saying enough is enough. And I think it’s been because of the whole COVID crisis that people have lost businesses. They can’t keep a roof over their family’s heads. They can’t keep food on the table. Their kids are not in school, although that could be a good thing.
I keep telling people, just homeschool your kids. Even with your kids being home, why would you subject them to propaganda like the public education curriculum and not use a good curriculum? Just tell the schools to forget it. Take my kid off the list. I’ll homeschool my child thank you very much. I can do much better. So I think the people are waking up and that’s what we’re doing.
That’s why we’re coming in now because people are fed up with their government. I think too often many Californians have been sitting back and they’ve been laid back. They’ve allowed a small, loud minority to govern their affairs. And it’s Democrats and it’s Republicans. This is not just Republicans throughout the state of California. It’s Democrats, too, that are saying enough is enough. There are people leaving. Businesses are leaving Los Angeles. Families are moving out of the state of California. They don’t want it anymore.
Leahy: Back here in the Tennessee movement yesterday, you have been nominated by Speaker of the House Cam Sexton to serve on the Textbook Committee. On Wednesday I guess the House Education Committee approved you, and it’s going to go on to the approval by the floor of the House. That’s good news, isn’t it?
Cardoza-Moore: Absolutely. And of course, it’s also the Senate who is going to take it up next Wednesday in their Senate Education Committee. It’s very good news. And I have to tell you, Michael, I’m quite honored that the Speaker would nominate me for this position. I am grateful to all the legislators. I heard Representative Sparks on earlier before I came on, and he was very gracious and very supportive yesterday in the committee.
We have a major problem with curriculum in our schools, and it’s not just here in Tennessee. It is across this country. We, as parents and citizens of our state, of our counties, of our school districts must take back control of our communities. We have to take control back from our schools. These school board members run and I say that for the most part, because there are a small minority of school board members in different school boards across the country who are trying to make a difference.
But they are outnumbered because of the progressives who sit on these education boards. It’s very dangerous what is happening. Michael, I always refer back to what’s happened over the last year. We wonder what’s happened. Like in civics education, our children are being indoctrinated with propaganda to hate America, not to love America. Well, if you look at what’s happened in our country over the last year since the whole COVID crisis, we see Portland ablaze, Seattle ablaze, and Kenosha, Wisconsin ablaze.
And what are these local elected officials doing or the governors of these states? They’re telling their law enforcement to stand down while people’s businesses and livelihoods are being destroyed. We didn’t grow up this way, and there’s a reason. We were taught accurately about our country. We were taught to love America. We were taught an accurate perspective of our history, good and bad. That’s what makes the United States of America so unique. And it makes this country the country that other people esteem and want to come to and live in.
Leahy: When you get on the commission, put in a good word for our own book, the supplementary text Guide to the Constitution and Bill of Rights for Secondary School Students. We have a Constitution Bee based on that every year where we give out educational scholarships. We’ve had a difficult time having public schools actually embrace that. A few have but most are not paying a lot of attention to it. So put in a good word for us, if you would. Laurie Cardoza-Moore, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it.
Visit Proclaiming Justice to the Nation at PJTN.org.
Listen to the full second hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Laurie Cardoza-Moore” by Proclaiming Justice to the Nations.
Live from Music Row Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Laurie Cardoza-Moore from Proclaiming Justice to the Nations to the newsmakers line to discuss and celebrate that PJTN has been relieved of their hate status from the Southern Poverty Law Center after five years turmoil.
Leahy: We are joined on our newsmaker line now by our good friend Laurie Cardoza-Moore. She’s the founder and president of Proclaiming Justice to the Nations. This is a group that educates, advocates, and moves to activate Christians, Jews, and all people of conscience in building a global community of action and prayer. In support of Jews and Israel Laurie, welcome back. You have some news for us. Good morning.
Moore: Good morning Michael. Great to be back.
Leahy: Well, apparently the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center in my view, a very vile nasty negative group that goes around smearing groups, has taken back some things that they’ve said about Proclaiming Justice to the Nations.
Moore: Yes, Michael, finally. And this has been an issue that we really have been trying to address for several years. But it’s been over the last year that we finally got some traction and we finally got an audience with them through our legal team to discuss the accusations formed against PJTN that are not based in fact at all. In fact, it’s really appalling that they would even say what they did say about the organization because we have been involved for almost 20 years in fighting the oldest hatred, and that’s anti-Semitism.
I had served as you know on the United Nations World Council of Independent Christian Churches. I have participated in two conferences with Muslim women who came to the UN to ask Western women to assist them in obtaining their freedoms in their countries. So across the board as well as Christians and their rights.
So no, this was falsely attributed to us. It has cost us. We have been blacklisted by Amazon Prime. They’ve removed us from their list. We’ve lost opportunities to serve in other capacities for appointments like the school board in Williamson County. There are numerous things that have happened to us as a result of this designation.
And we finally after evaluating our activity admitted that we’re not a hate group and they are removing us from the list. And the list gets updated. Just so you know, Michael the list gets updated at the end of January every year. They review all the organizations. They reviewed ours. And the hate designation is coming off finally.
Leahy: So when did they first call you incorrectly a hate group? How do they become the arbiter of what is and what is not hate?
Moore: Well, they think they are. They think they know they’re the experts. And of course, this has been going on for almost five years now.
Leahy: So five years ago they put you on this list?
Moore: That is correct.
Leahy: And what was their reasoning? Is it because you exercise freedom of speech and you supported Israel? Is that basically it?
Moore: Well, it’s interesting because a couple of years ago the Jewish community had the SPLC former founder came and spoke to the community and I was there. And one of our supporters in the audience from the Jewish community asked why PJTN was designated on a hit list as being a hate group. And the gentleman pulled up a piece of paper off of his table and he said we have a long list of things. He refused to say what those things were and when somebody challenged him to debate me right there and then that evening he said no, that’s for another program. I was ready and willing because they have misrepresented our organization and our mission.
Leahy: It’s a common tale with those groups and other groups on the left to misrepresent what conservatives stand for. We hear it all the time. And when we come back Laurie, we want to talk not only about what this means for your group going forward but also the other battles you’re engaged in with the textbook commission here in the state of Tennessee.
(Commercial break)
Leahy: Laurie, what does it mean for your group that at the end of this month coming you are off the Southern Poverty Law Center hate group list?
Moore: Even though we’ve lost some support and appointments Michael most people and all of our supporters around the globe because yes, we have chapters in other countries as well, but most people around the world understand that what we were accused of was not true. It was factually inaccurate and so it hasn’t affected us.
In fact, I have been working with state legislators across the country with regards to textbooks and reviewing textbooks and what’s happening in education, especially with civics and Holocaust studies. That’s been our primary focus, but it really hasn’t affected us. In fact, it’s really helped us because people like you and I who are concerned about the misrepresentation and the lives and the smears against legitimate organizations, like PJTN we get it.
We know we’re going to be the target, the bullseye that they’re going to try to remove and discredit. And I have to tell you I so appreciate our Speaker Cameron Sexton for having the leadership to appoint me to represent the citizens and the parents across this state on that textbook commission. And this is an extremely important role for me to play right now, especially in light of what is happening to our country.
Our children are not being properly educated. We’re using propaganda to educate our children now, especially as it relates to civics. We’re omitting important parts of the Jewish community and their role that they played in helping to establish our Judeo-Christian nation. So I am so grateful to the Speaker to take the initiative to appoint me for this position. And now it’s time for us.
I’m going to be sitting on that commission not as the president of PJTN but as a citizen of this state. And I am calling to action as well the citizens that almost a decade ago when we found that anti-Semitic textbook as we dug deeper in Williamson County mind you. As we dug deeper, we found that the textbook was anti-American, anti-Judeo Christian values, anti-history, and pro-China. This content was being peddled to our children.
And I said almost a decade ago. If we do not remove these textbooks, this curriculum from our children’s schools and Common Core our children are going to turn against this country because they’re being indoctrinated and fed lies about our history. And look at what has happened Michael. Look at this last year. We have had young people who have torn down monuments. That have murdered police officers and innocent citizens. They have attacked people.
Beaten people up. Elderly people in the street. This is all gone on in our country and our local government stood by in Portland, in Seattle, and Kenosha and allowed this chaos to erupt. And they didn’t stop it. If we don’t change the direction of education, we have to get rid of Common Core, Governor Lee said he was going to get rid of Common Core when he came into office and it was supposed to be gone by the end of 2019. The end of summer he said. It’s still here.
Leahy: Let me ask you a question about this Laurie. When does it meet next?
Moore: Well, we are waiting to get the final dates. We’re all going through the process of being briefed on how to go through this. So we still got one more meeting coming up this coming Thursday and then we will wait to see. It shouldn’t be too much longer after that. And of course, I will have to go through the commission hearing process with the House and the Senate education committees. So that will be coming up as well. So I expect within the next couple of weeks. But again Michael we’re going to need citizens because the of this state and the parents of this state have an opportunity as well to sit in and review these instructional materials in the textbooks.
Leahy: What is the purpose of that meeting when you’re meeting with the education committees of the Tennessee General Assembly?
Moore: Well, basically our role is to prepare and recommend a list of textbooks for approval. And of course, it will be used in all the public schools across the state. And of course, we will be involved in the bidding and contracting process of the textbooks and the publishing companies. We will also oversee the review of programs and the bid process for them. So it’s very detailed. We are going to be focused on ELA standards this year.
Leahy: ELA meaning English language arts.
Moore: English language arts, yes.
Leahy: So you’re not hitting Civics and history this year right?
Moore: Well, not yet. I have recommended to several state legislators to follow the lead of other states like Florida to review our civic standards in an emergency session. To call and review the civic standard to make sure that we are not misrepresenting this country to our children in our classrooms.
Leahy: My sense of that Laurie and I’d like to get your reaction right now. You know we do this Constitution Bee and we go to the public schools all the time. And my sense is in our interaction is here even in Tennessee the majority of public schools are actually now promoting an anti-American view of the world. That’s my sense of it. Would you agree with that?
Moore: Absolutely. You are spot on Michael. And that’s why we have the chaos that’s erupting. And that has to change. Our legislature has to take action to review the civics. Look at what just happened with President Biden with just revoking the executive order by President Trump for the 1776 Report.
Leahy: This is basically the American standard history and they’re replacing it with a version of The 1619 Project. America’s bad and has been racist from the beginning. That’s what they’re replacing it with.
Moore: Michael the problem with that is that information is The 1619 Project is factually and historically inaccurate.
Leahy: Oh come on now Laurie. Little things like factual inaccuracy, why should that matter? (Chuckles)
Moore: Well, we have a responsibility and a duty as citizens of the United States of America to pass the baton Michael to the next generation of this constitutional Republic.
Leahy: Are we doing that now? Are we doing that?
Moore: No, we’re not doing it. No. That’s why we’re a mess. And that has to change. and it’s not going to change Michael until We the People contact our elected officials and say look we’re watching you. We’re paying attention to your decisions. We cannot use respected historians called out The 1619 Project content and The New York Times admitted it. Okay, it’s not right. It’s not true. It’s not historically accurate. But that wasn’t our intention.
Leahy: I just saw that the new Deputy Secretary of Education nominated by Joe Biden comes from San Diego. He’s been a big big supporter of The 1619 Project in the claims of systemic racism throughout America’s founding in history. Now, they’re going to be sending requirements to the state government here. How do you think our state ought to react to that?
Moore: The state should reject anything that comes from anyone that is historically and factually inaccurate. We should not be approving content that fills our children’s minds with lies and disinformation. This will destroy our country. Look at our country! And until we reverse the course and start making sure that the curriculum that we use, the textbooks, the instructional materials, and the supplemental materials that are being used to teach our children are actually accurate, unbiased, and reflect the values of our community we will not be able to restore this Republic.
Listen to the full second hour here:
– – –
Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Laurie Cardoza-Moore” by Proclaiming Justice to the Nations.
