BUSING, WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING

  There was a recent Democrat debate in which Kamala Harris came out in support of forced busing and supposedly made Joe Biden look pretty bad defending his position of when he opposed it back in the day. Because of push back, I understand Harris has now softened her position and is saying that busing should now be an option but not mandated. Personally, I think busing has been one of the biggest factors in the deterioration of public education in America.

  When I was a child growing up on White Bridge Road, and later in Charlotte Park subdivision in West Nashville, there was no Metropolitan government. That didn't come along until 1963. The schools in Nashville were divided into Nashville city schools and Davidson County schools. We lived in the county. I lived at Brookside Court Annex and walked to the all White Martha Vaught elementary. Later, after moving to Charlotte Park subdivision in 1959, I had to be bussed to Martha Vaught for my fifth grade year, but that was only because there was no elementary school close by. Charlotte Park elementary, another all White school, was finally opened in the early 1960's. There I attended sixth grade and I walked to school after that. For a month or so I was bussed to the all White Hillwood Junior High, but again, only because there was no Junior High school close by. When my mother transferred me to the all White Bailey Junior High in East Nashville, later that Fall, I never had to ride a bus again after that. Unless it was to go on a field trip or something. I emphasize all White schools because in those days Southern schools were segregated. The thought of going to school with Black children never bothered me. I was always open to the idea of integration. The decision on whether or not I attended school with Black children was above my maturity level and pay grade. I had been in close contact with Black people virtually all of my life. This was due to the fact that my fathers drugstores had a predominately Black clientele. This prepared me for the day that Nashville high schools would finally desegregate in the Fall of 1965 when I was fifteen.

Segregation never made much sense to me even back then. Especially when I saw the city government of Nashville close down perfectly good public swimming pools. They were closed for years just because they didn't want me to share the same pool with Black people. I realize that because bigotry was so entrenched in our culture drastic action was called for to end segregation. Busing wasn't the answer, however. The unintended consequences of it has been the destruction of our public school system and White flight from inner city neighborhoods. .

I will use East Nashville Junior and Senior high schools as an example of how integration should have been conducted. There was a Black neighborhood just to the west of these schools and there were predominately White areas to the south, east, and north. Someone in government could have drawn a 360 degree circle around the schools and if you lived in the radius of that circle you would attend East Jr. High or East High, regardless of skin color. If there were no minorities near your school, such as an all White School, or all Black school, then so what. It wouldn't be the end of the world. People would get the chance to rub shoulders with Whites and Blacks when they entered the military, colleges, and the workplace.

Lets be honest. One unspoken fear that White people in the United States, and especially in the South have had, when it came to integration, was the taboo of miscegenation. They were terrified at the thought of their little girl sitting next to a Black boy in a classroom, or on a bus. The next thing you know they would be dating, having sex, having babies and marrying each other. Not necessarily in that order. I can honestly say that I have never opposed interracial dating or marriage.That is not to say that I have necessarily encouraged it. Relationships are difficult enough between people who are of the same race and from a similar culture. Relationships between bi-racial couples or people with radically different religious beliefs are faced with even greater challenges. When my children were young I would tell them that I would rather see them date or marry a decent Black man or woman than to see them with an horrible White person that might mistreat them. Or in the case of my daughters, verbally or physically abuse them. This attitude has not made me popular in some circles but I don't care. Because of integration the fear of many White parents has been realized. Biracial relationships have become much more numerous since the 1960's and 1970's and that's okay.

I was always in favor of integration but very much against busing. I believe there were many Americans like myself. People who opposed it on pragmatic grounds rather than for any ulterior racist motives. It just made no sense to me. Black people had been bussed past perfectly good White schools for years during segregation, in order to keep the races separate, and that made no sense either. Busing was brought home to me when my son Robbie was bused during his sixth grade school year of 1978. Prior to that he had been going to Cole elementary in south Nashville. Cole was a neighborhood school within walking distance of our house. I can't remember the name of the school now, that he was bused to, but it was close to the intersection of Nolensville Road and Thompson Lane. Although busing wasn't the primary reason that we moved to Rutherford County in 1979, it was a factor in our decision. Robbie was supposed to be bused from our house in Antioch to Cameron Jr. High, which was in a high crime area of downtown Nashville. 

The negative consequences of busing have been many. First of all there has been White flight from the public school systems. The money and resources of White parents & in many cases, Black people, who also want the best for their children, has been channeled from public to private schools and home schooling. For those White and Black parents that are economically unable to send their children to private schools, or to provide home schooling, are in many cases not able to be involved in their child's school activities because of the distances involved. There is also the increased costs of buying new buses, fuel, and the upkeep on buses that are racking up extra mileage. These costs take away from teachers salaries and the upkeep of schools. Busing cannot totally be blamed for the deterioration of our schools, but it is a huge factor. For the rest we have to blame the teachers unions and changes in curriculum that emphasize leftist indoctrination at the expense of learning the fundamentals of reading, writing, math, English grammar, and American history. Even the man who came up with the concept of busing later admitted that he had made a mistake. The fact that Democrat candidates are even discussing this issue is a good indication of how out of touch the left is with the American people.