I'm Grieving

 I'M GRIEVING

Representative Dunwell is grieving; and rightly so.  Consequently, Senate File 496, the recently enacted legislation requiring the banning of books in Iowa's public schools, was necessary.  The authority for this act, according to Representative Dunwell, is a short speech given by John Fletcher Moulton, Lord Moulton, a Cambridge mathematician and subsequently a London barrister.  The reference made to Lord Moulton was a short speech given at the Authors Club in London published as "Law and Manners" in 1924.

Accordingly, SF 496 addresses the vast area between the domain of "The Law" and the domain of "Free Choice".  Lord Moulton divided human behavior into three categories: (1) Those prescribed or prohibited "The Law", (2) Those allowed as "Free Choice", and (3) that huge area in between.  Lord Moulton called this  third area "Manners"; Representative Dunwell apparently calls it "Sin" which needs to be moved into category (1) "The Law".  The subject matter of Senate File 496 accordingly takes certain things out of the category of "In Between" and moves them to category 1: "The Law".  The area of "Free Choice" was apparently not considered, but that vast area in between "Law" and "Free Choice" now needs to be reviewed.  Hence, our legislature has moved the teaching of certain materials that currently (according to them) land in between the "The Law" and "Free Choice" into the land of "The Law".  I realize this is all somewhat confusing, but don't blame me.

Apparently, Lord Moulton thought that the manners of the public needed some correction and he thought possibly some Biblical references might do the trick.  As we can all see, it didn't.  Now Representative Dunwell has somehow come across this short speech of Lord Moulton now entitled "Obedience to the Unenforceable".  If one Googles it, it comes up numerous times and apparently is often quoted by current divines and others.  This appears to be the authority for SF 496.

I do find it interesting that Lord Moulton had a correspondence with Charles Darwin - - obviously the two were acquainted.  Lord Moulton didn't think much of Herbert Spenser's adoption of Mr. Darwin's biological theories to human society, such as the concept of "natural selection".  But it would seem that Lord Moulton actually accepted Darwin's work as an advancement in human knowledge. Oh woe is me to think that Representative Dunwell is referencing a man who considered Darwin's work as valid.  I think we need to rethink this entirely.  Lord Dunwell needs to retreat and reconsider his sources.

Richard E H Phelps II

Mingo