A Missouri nonprofit has been ferociously attacked in liberal media, and its executive director threatened with his life, for its website that maps instances of “woke” behavior around the state.
Liberty Alliance, a 501(c)(4) formed in 2019 to promote conservative principles and Missouri values and to fight the growth of socialism, launched its “Woke Heat Map” May 19 to catalog instances of Critical Race Theory teaching and “grooming toddlers with sexually explicit books.”
“We’re trying to help parents,” says Liberty Alliance Executive Director Spencer Bone, “because we understand that, when these kids go to school, they’re in school for eight-plus hours a day. And what goes on in there matters a great deal. We want parents to have the transparency that they deserve.
“These are the people that are to be the next presidents of the United States, people who sit on the Supreme Court, local leaders, business owners, etc. What happens in these schools and universities matters a great deal to the future of our country. So, things are happening that are frankly out of line, and we want to bring people’s attention to it.
“We’re here to bring accountability and transparency.”
Besides instances of over-the-top “antiracist” teaching that seeks to race-blame young white students, Bone says Liberty Alliance has cataloged events on college campuses such as the defacing of a pro-life exhibit and the literal trashing of American flags at a 9-11 memorial.
If such actions can be inventoried in a beet-red state such as Missouri, what’s happening in purple and blue states? “I can’t even imagine,” Bone says. “If this is happening here, I think it speaks volumes about what’s happening elsewhere.”
Yet, a May 30 article in the liberal HuffPost branded Liberty Alliance as “far-right” and described the woke spot map as “chilling” and “disturbing.” The article, republished by Yahoo! News and followed by a similar article in Business Insider, doesn’t indicate how the cataloging of extreme politically correct activity is “chilling,” or what makes Liberty Alliance “far-right.”
Contrary to the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center, which actually brands conservative Christian organizations as hate groups in its “Hate Map” – including Alliance Defending Freedom, the Family Research Council and the American College of Pediatricians – the Liberty Alliance page makes no such assertions about liberal groups.
Moreover, the HuffPost article inexplicably ties the Woke Heat Map to “America’s mounting toll of school mass shootings” – despite the fact that none of the mass shootings have had anything to do with ideological debates over such things as school curricula. Nor does the Liberty Alliance map express any opinions or calls for action; it’s merely a hub for links to existing stories of woke activity in Missouri, Bone says.
Fact is, he argues, the overreaction to the site and the hyperbole in the HuffPost piece has infinitely more potential to incite violence.
Indeed, Bone says he can’t count the number of death threats he’s been the target of, among the “hundreds and hundreds of hateful, disgusting and disturbing messages” the organization has received since the HuffPost article was published.
One message told Bone he should record his suicide on YouTube, and added that would give the sender sexual gratification. Another message said the site has been reported to the FBI, adding, “Get f—-d, rednecks.”
“They’re the ones saying that we’re dangerous, which is crazy because they’re the ones who are threatening us,” Bone says.
Will the ugly backlash intimidate Liberty Alliance into doing something different?
“No,” Bone says adamantly. “I think this just shows exactly why this is necessary. I think it validates everything that we’re doing.
“I think we’re on the right side of this.”
