Send Dept of Ed. your thoughts about Buster/PBS - easy to do!

As many of you know, the new head of the Department of Education has pressured PBS to cancel an episode of a childrens' program that contains a family with two mothers.

You can complain directly to the Department of Education on their website.

They even have a nice pull-down menu that allows you to categorize your complaint as "discrimination".

My message to Margaret Spellings was:

"I'm deeply disturbed to learn that the Department of Education is promoting censorship and discrimination.  The episode of the PBS show 'Postcards from Buster' that includes a girl with two mothers is simply representing the diversity of American family life.  It is reprehensible that the Department of Education would try to convince PBS to cancel the episode. "

For background, the Boston Globe has a good article on the subject.

The Boston PBS affiliate that produced the show, WGBH, will air the episode and will make it available to other PBS stations.  Today, WGBH explained its decision:

> I'm sure you've heard or read that PBS has decided not to air an
> episode of Postcards from Buster called "Sugartime," produced by
> WGBH's Children's Programming department. WGBH will air the episode
> locally as scheduled, on March 23, 2005. We also will make it
> available to any local PBS station choosing to broadcast it.
>
> Because you'll no doubt be asked about this by friends and
> relatives--some perhaps applauding our decision, some disagreeing with
> it--I want to give you the facts.
>
> The episode is about Buster's visit to northern Vermont. Set against
> the background of mud season and sugartime, the program explores the
> wonders of Vermont--from sugar houses to dairy farms to nighttime
> bonfires.  As with many episodes, Buster meets real children (shown in
> documentary footage cleverly integrated with the animation) who
> introduce us to their family. In this case the children have two moms.
> The parents' lives are included only as a backdrop to the kids' lives;
> the focus is on Buster's visits to a sugar house and a dairy farm.
>
> We believe, as do the series' advisors, that the program is
> appropriate for our audience and fits the series' mission to introduce
> children to the rich and varied cultures that make up the United
> States, including kids living in a wide range of family structures.
>
> We consider it the responsibility of public television to give
> children and parents the resources they need to understand the world
> they inhabit--without excluding any segment of our society.
>
> As our children's programs often underscore, friends can disagree. And
> while we understand that there is a wide spectrum of opinion in this
> country on same-gender relationships, we at WGBH disagree with PBS's
> decision. That's why we will air the program here in Boston and
> distribute it to stations who decide to air it.
>
> The major goal of Postcards from Buster is to help kids understand the
> richness and complexity of American culture, and to support the
> language learning of children who are in the process of acquiring
> English. Over the course of the series we've featured more than 45
> different families, including Mormons in Utah, Hmong in Wisconsin, the
> Gullah culture in South Carolina, Orthodox Jews, and a Pentacostal
> Christian family. Postcards introduces young people from many ethnic
> backgrounds, explores the role of religion in their lives, and visits
> kids living in a variety of settings in cities, suburbs, and the
> country.
>
> Of the 40 Postcards episodes, this is the only one that visits with
> kids in this kind of family structure. The majority of episodes are
> with two-parent, male/female households; Buster also visits kids who
> live in single-parent households and extended family households. We
> included the Vermont family because significant numbers of children in
> the United States live in a similar family structure.
>
> We stand behind this production.