Christmas Morn

I awake at 4:45 a.m. this Christmas morning, adrenalin pumping as in days long passed.  Coffee made as a prerequisite to the smell of sizzling bacon, tree lights and house lights on, the house still quiet before the awakening, and the packages it took hours to wrap will soon be unwrapped in mere seconds converting the den to a trash heap.  There will be the laughter and wonder of little kids, but I am not one of them, nor are my children, but the children of my children.  Now, I cannot wait to see joy as others discover what I have in the name of Santa purchased and wrapped for them.  That anticipation of the giving – not receiving, has triggered my adrenalin rush.  And as the kids scurry to play post-present opening, I await that next quiet moment, alone, cup of coffee clasped in both hands, surveying the wreckage of Christmas morning, and feeling the love transmitted and received here.  Family brought close is the greatest gift, institutionalized by a father gifting his son 2,000 years ago.  Bring on the laughter and the trash!  

Merry Christmas all.

Indoctrinate Your Kids!

Parents in Augusta County, Virginia have made a remarkable discovery that should be duplicated everywhere!  Child rearing will never be the same and raising well mannered, well educated, Christian American kids is now easier than ever.  All you have to do is to ask your high school aged child to write the following, either by hand or on a computer:

• I am a Christian.  I believe in God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  I am allowed to pick and choose which of the Christian beliefs I will actually follow based on how they align with my other beliefs.
• I am an American.  I believe in the freedoms outlined in the Constitution and the right of the people to rule via the ballot box.  Those freedoms are mostly reserved for the affluent Anglo and we are not obligated to extend those freedoms to people who may be citizens but are otherwise not entitled.
• I am a heterosexual and am only sexually attracted to the opposite gender.  Any other sexual attraction is a damnable abomination.
• I am a white, affluent person and as such am privileged.  More children should choose their parents as wisely as I did.
• I am intolerant of any other religious beliefs or sexual orientations and will persecute those who subscribe to something different than my beliefs as outlined above.  The same may be true for political beliefs, depending on alignment with my own.
• I will be an honorable, honest, well-mannered person who respects others and my elders as long as they subscribe to the above belief statements.

There!  You are done!  Write it once and your values become the values of your children!  No need to model.  No need to discuss or explain.  No need to think, explore, consider, evaluate, compare or contrast.  All a parent has to do is have their child write the above statements and they will be so indoctrinated that schools should close if those schools attempt to have your child write something contrary to the above. 

Given this discovery, it is more than understandable why such parents are so upset by the requirement that their children attempt to copy an Islamic belief statement in Arabic.  Makes perfect sense to me.

Sure wish my parents had known that.  All this thinking for myself is exhausting.

Knowledge Gets Trumped

We went out to eat last night.  We didn’t mean to, but my wife works late and I was wrapped up in a project at home and suddenly it was almost 7:00, dark, and neither of us had thought about supper.  We agreed to meet at one of our favorite restaurants where the crowd tends to be younger, hipper, noisier and more “country” than we are.  Big screens around the bar have a variety of sporting events broadcasting, and the bar is well stocked with a variety of cold brews.  We are comfortable here, and on a Thursday night there were few other patrons vying for booths with peanuts, though the noise level always seems the same.  I arrived first and settled in a booth when a cute, perky brunette plopped in the bench across from me, introduced herself as Courtney (not her real name), and asked what I’d have to drink.  She bounced out of the chair to fetch my St. Arnold’s Lawnmower.  Three sips down, my wife arrived and engaged in that shorthand small talk I assume all couples of long-standing use to summarize our days for each other. 

Our summary may be somewhat different from most.  As a teacher she talked of kids, peers, and administration both local and central, and a general sense of panic that seems inexorably linked to school this season.  Too much to do, too little time, decisions made on behalf of others but motivated by self-aggrandizement.  I empathized, and sipped more beer.  My summary began with a quick rundown of the day’s events gleaned from reading CNN, MSNBC, Fox, and Yahoo news summaries on line.  It is my task as the retired person to keep us connected to current events.  Is was in the midst of bemoaning Trump’s latest solution for terrorism when Courtney arrived to solicit solid food orders, the liquid already at hand.  She surprised me, approaching innocently from my blind side.  I did not see her until my Trump stump was near complete.  I turned to her to find a look of real surprise on her face.

We dutifully recited our orders not once looking at the menus.  After scribbling on her pad she turned to me and said, “I take it you do not like Donald Trump.”

“It scares me to death that such an un-American person is running for the Presidency.”  I said.  Shock replaced surprise.

“Well, I do not keep up with politics.  My roommate works for a conservative Republican and I just thought that is how everyone around here thinks.  But I like Trump and hate Obama and Hillary.”

“Courtney, my dear girl, is this the first time you have ever actually talked with a liberal?” I asked.

“Yes, I guess it is.  I don’t know any.” 

And that is the scariest thing I have heard all year.  There may be a book in me describing my liberal beliefs.  I shall resist here.  I will say that accepting and even promoting diversity is a core tenant.  If Courtney had never heard conservative perspectives I would be equally upset.  Issues are issues because there are at least two sides, and unless we know both sides we are unlikely to resolve the issue with any hope of satisfaction.  Therefore, the best hope for our future is the education of everyone on every side of every issue.  Especially in a nation where we say “everyone” rules.

But that so sadly is not the case.  Courtney’s hatred of national figures was the result of a contagious attitude that seems to become fact when no opposing thoughts are offered.  If Fox news hates Obama and says so 3 times an hour, then it must not only be true, but justified to convey such hate.  I heard a fellow church goer lament that as his kids went to college they became more liberal, and for that reason he opposes higher education.  I have heard parents storm the school board because they perceived the “other side,” a.k.a., liberal, was identified and discussed in class.  I have actually heard school board members state they were elected to support community values, clearly implying they oppose any values other than their own narrowly defined values, and values that in no way reflect the entire community.  I have seen politicians with no less stature than our own Lt. Governor wage war on a curriculum that might introduce new ways of thinking about events in ways other than those around which his mind has been firmly closed.  I have seen textbook critics argue that some topics simply should not be taught, especially if they are based on science, not faith.  I have heard a GOP front runner declare that all people of a certain religious belief should be barred from entering our country.  I am horrified.  I am scared.  1984 has arrived and there is an official “right think” with the accompanying punishment for those who think otherwise.

Since when as a nation did we become so fearful of dialog, so fearful of fact, so fearful of knowledge?  When did we decide that diversity is not a strength but a communicable disease that must be eradicated?  Since when as a people did we decide there was only the conservative way and any other way is blasphemous?  Why are we so afraid and so angry that we see the solutions to problems as arming more citizens and stomping out all other ways of thought?  Have we gone crazy?  Have we forgotten, no matter who authored the quotation, “"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"?

It appears to me that we have entered an era of anti-intellectualism the likes of which I have never seen in my lifetime.  Despite ever increasing data to the contrary, people still fervently believe that giving more guns to citizens with virtually no restrictions is really OK; that foregoing a college degree is really OK; that burning fossil fuels is really OK; that discrimination by gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religious belief, etc., is really OK; that allowing a small percentage of people to control most of the wealth while many are poor and hungry is OK; that hating our neighbors is really OK; that censoring conflicting ideas and thoughts is really OK.  One cannot honestly look at data and scientific research and support these beliefs.  Worse, if a person does not support these facts, they feel free to not only block the immigration of others, they feel free to block the voices who raise the questions.  It is as though they want to lynch the young boy who pointed out that the emperor is naked.

Liberals will likely always lose debates because we believe in the debate.  My conservative friends are very uncomfortable with the fact that other views not only exist, some of them are likely correct.  Liberals will defend alternative views and fight censorship.  Conservatives will not.  Liberals will act as good Samaritans, not good Nazis.  Liberals will celebrate and promote diversity, not initiate witch hunts.  Liberals recognize that our Constitution is a secular document, not a sacred religious text.

And I look up into Courtney’s eyes, a twenty-something year-old young woman attending a major university, and at first my jaw drops.  Somehow she has never met a liberal.  She has never heard the other side.  She looks at me as though I am an alien.  I do not know where to begin, sitting in this building of happy noise and free flowing alcohol, boots, country music and testosterone.  So I put on my wane mask of acceptance and weep at the risk to our democracy and the risk to our learning if we continue in these ways.  And I simply say,

“You have met one now.  I am not evil.  I am not stupid.  I read, write, think and care very much for America.  Perhaps you should seek to find others of my ilk.” 

That said, I tipped heavily and sauntered out to my pick-up truck hoping she would search for knowledge for a change, though such knowledge, such thinking, may change her life.  If not, then knowledge has been trumped by fear and closed minds, never a good thing in a democracy.  Always a good thing in an oligarchy or other totalitarian forms of government.  No one who chooses to censor people by belief, attribute, or thought can possibly promote democracy.  That’s right, I think Hobby Lobby, Chic Fil-A, Citizens United, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson and Donald Trump are un-American, not models to emulate.  Surely we will regain our senses and recognize that truth before it is too late.  Education is the cure for ignorance.  Let’s stamp out ignorance, not education.

What is it about a Dog?

What is it about a dog?  Furry mammals, lower on the food chain, but companions and friends and family members none the less.  Our dog is a boxer named Buffy, so named after that great female warrior, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  She is by my side as I type, her large head on my thigh.  When she wants to be pet, she nudges my right hand up and off the keyboard or mouse to receive a scratch behind the ears.  She forgives me when I am gone and always welcomes me home wagging her entire tailless butt.  She jumps for joy at the thought of her daily walk.  She barks at folks passing behind our fence, and squirrels. Buffy welcomes all once invited inside our home, and hundreds of friends and colleagues and family members have grown to know her and vice-versa.  While I watch TV reclined she will bring me a toy so that we can play tug of war.  Or, she used to.

Buffy has lung cancer and this morning I will take her to the vet where she will sleep forever.  She will trust me until the very end.  I’ll return to an empty house and put away all the food and water bowls, pack up her toys, and de-Buffy our home.  I will cry.  I miss her already. 

And I’ll wonder what it is about a dog.

Thanks-Giving

It is not enough to be thankful.  I must be thanks-giving.  I look back over my life from my current perspective, ever mindful that 100 years ago Einstein told us time was one of the 4 dimensions, and I see a life stream with peaks and valleys, people I loved still here, people I loved who chose to take themselves out of my life stream, and people I loved whose life simply ended.  I am so thankful for the people I loved who are still with me on this journey.  I am blessed by your love, even if we go years without talking.  I know there is love because we resume right where we left off. I feel regret for those who chose another path, I miss them, I mourn for them, but I did not make that choice.

I am thankful that physical things are not a source of everyday concern for me.  What a gift.  I do not worry about food, shelter, clothing.  I have all I need and my Christmas list is blank.  I am so lucky.  More than that, I am thankful that it is loved ones who trigger my deepest thanks, not things.  Take my house, my car, my computer and leave me loved ones and I will continue to be full of thanks.

More, it is the loss of loved ones that has always triggered the valleys.  Never the loss of things. Guess I'm just wired like that as I see no way around it save through it, and the "through its" have about killed me.

But I am here.  I am alive.  I am thankful.  I am thanks-giving.  Thank you.

Learning and Zip Codes

I am inspired (ignited?) to write regarding two recent incidents.  The first was a robot phone survey I responded to last night regarding education, and the second is an article in CNN Money entitled, “You probably cannot afford to live near good schools.”  http://money.cnn.com/2015/11/19/real_estate/neighborhoods-good-schools-affordable/index.html.  The impact of these two incidents has left me pulling out my hair and running screaming down the street.  Good Lord, when will we learn?

The phone survey asked me if I supported school choice using tax credits for K-12 students, did I think big labor unions were pouring millions into Texas to block the school choice movement, and who did I have a favorable perception about from a list of elected politicians, mostly the fringe right wing.  Unbelievable.  Should the group who conducted this survey ever use the results for a political issue we must all stand up and say the survey was so dramatically skewed that the results are meaningless.  For instance, nowhere in the first question is it mentioned that such tax credits are to pay tuition for rich kids to attend private schools.  It does not mention that only parents who are currently sending their kids to private schools will benefit from such a policy.  It does not mention that there are nowhere near enough private-school seats to serve parents who might choose such a setting for their children.  It does not mention that public schools are performing as well if not better than private schools when income is accounted for.  It does not mention that such a tax credit will reduce public school funding.  Amazing.  Clearly the question is worded to get respondents to select “I support.” 

The second question is equally slanted.  What big unions are there in Texas?  We have a right-to-work state so there are no big unions.  Why would UAW or Teamsters pour money into Texas when they are fighting the same issue in their home states?  The real truth is that an organization called ALEC is funneling millions of dollars into the campaign coffers of our elected representatives so that they will support charter schools, vouchers, increased testing, teacher accountability, etc.  No “liberal” groups are spending much money here because Texas is seen as lost cause for progressive thinking.  It is the ultra-conservative billionaires and their front-man organizations who are shaping public school policy.  We should scream “Enough Already!

And hell no you cannot afford to live near a “good school.”  The data replicated dozens and dozens of times concludes student performance is most influenced and predictable based on the wealth of the parents.  The wealthier the parents, the more likely students are to be successful.  The poorer the parents the more likely students will perform poorly.  This is very old news.  But it appears that even modern day reporters do not know this.  Yep, wealthy conclaves have good schools because they have wealthy kids and wealthy parents.  Yep, poor performing schools serve poor families.  The entire right-wing agenda has been to punish the schools that serve the poorest kids via standardized testing, and robbing what little money they have with private sector get-rich strategies like charter schools and vouchers.  If conservatives were truly interested in promoting student success in poor schools they would support student and family social services.  They oppose that as well.

Bottom line, in our country there is a clear correlation between wealth and academic success.  The more wealth, the more success.  That wealth tends to congregate in certain zip codes.  So, though every state constitution I am aware of declares that there will be free public education for all children, the reality is learning is tied to zip code.  Want to improve your scores?  Move to another zip code and/or increase your wealth.  “Choice” does not improve outcomes for kids.  Charter schools do not improve outcomes for kids, but they do improve the profit of private sector charter school groups.  Vouchers do not improve outcomes for kids, but they do give wealthy parents who send kids to private schools a tax break...  Standardized tests do not improve outcomes for kids, but they do allow conservatives to identify and hammer on poor schools rather than support them.  Tougher teacher evaluations do not improve outcomes for kids, they simply add stress to the noblest profession on the planet, and help serve to break up teacher unions so that teacher managers have more authority.  The motives for all these so-called school reforms are so blatantly obvious, why do we continue to support such un-democratic notions?

Ah, the answer to that may lie in your zip code. 

Or, you are middle class or poor and drank the Kool Aide prepared for you by the wealthiest of citizens and corporations.

When the Aliens Arrive

The price of gas at the pump continues to drop.  The Islamic State (IS) commits multiple acts of terror in Paris against non-combatant humans.  The French retaliate with bombing sorties in Syria likely to kill non-combatant humans.  Global temperatures are rising, not over thousands of years as they have before as part of a natural cycle, but suddenly over just 100 years clearly due to human behavior.  The population on planet earth is growing exponentially creating huge shortfalls in food and water.  I go to church and see a man wearing a T-shirt that says, “I am a good guy with a gun.”  Religious fundamentalists are seeking control of the US government and the Syrian and Iraqi governments.  The current thinking on education is that in order to improve the performance of poor kids we must test more and take money away from the schools teaching these kids to fund private sector efforts that are no better than public schools. 

There is more, much more, but I feel depressed just listing the above.  So I imagine a different scenario, a day when we suddenly realize what is important, a day when we finally see the big picture:

Extraterrestrial life exists as we have long suspected but could not prove.  Eventually contact will be made.  Our orientation to the universe will dramatically shift.  We are not alone.  We are but one of many intelligent life forms.  And the aliens send an ambassador for a first meeting with our world leaders.  I would love to hear such a discussion and imagine how it would go. 

World leaders will be overly concerned with the motives of the aliens and why they waited so long to contact us.  We would want their technology.  We would want treaties.  On and on.  But the aliens – and these are truly undocumented aliens because they are not humans of planet earth – have questions of their own.  They remain baffled by our behavior and they ask the following:

“If you know that burning fossil fuels and deforestation is destroying your atmosphere and threatening human life on this planet, why do you continue to do so?

Is increasing the personal wealth of some worth more than saving your planet?

Is increasing the personal wealth of some worth the starvation and suffering of so many more?

Why do you see each other as so different?  Men and women, Christians and Muslims, light complected and dark complected, etc.?  From space all humans look the same.

Is warfare and terrorism your solution to overpopulation?  There are many more effective, humane ways.

Is warfare and terrorism your strategy to get what you want at the expense of so many others?  Such ignorance baffles us.

Why must you compete with each other when collaboration is the model that yields the best results?

Why do you allow entertainers and athletes to prosper while your teachers of the young live in near poverty?

Why do you dream of going to some heaven and then fight to avoid dying?  Why is death such a source of fear for you when you know everyone alive now will die?

Why do you believe you are alone, you are special and you have a deity to turn to?  No other species we know is so arrogant.

If you would like to join an intergalactic group of sentient beings, you must answer these questions and address your own shortcomings.  If you do not mature as a species we will simply isolate you and allow all your self-destructive behaviors whether they are economic, political or religious to destroy your once beautiful planet.  We will not intervene or assist you.  We will monitor your progress or your self-destruction.  We wish you the best.  Goodbye.”

And they leave us as they found us.

The Samaritan Extinction

The war in Syria rages.  Out of that war IS emerges as a large, organized terrorist operation.  They believe that anyone who is not with them must die so they have no reluctance taking human non-Sunni lives.  They just did so in Paris.

But the Paris attacks, as awful and horrendous and inhumane as they were, demonstrates clearly why so many are leaving their homes in Syria and Iraq and elsewhere close by and are fleeing wherever they can go to be safe.

27 Governors in the US have now announced that their states will not allow any Syrian refugees to flee to them.  More than half our states.  I am so deeply sad that my state is one of the 27.  Of the 27 governors, only one is a Democrat.

It is my hunch that these governors campaigned on family values, Christianity in particular.  None of these governors claimed to be atheists or Muslim.   And I wonder if those most fundamental of Christians have in fact read the New Testament and understood the big picture.

If states are fools, do we not have a county or a city who will stand and say let them come unto us and we will give them peace?  We will not sort by religion.  We will not sort by ethnicity.  If we follow the notion of only allowing people succor who are “good”, who will ever qualify for admission? 

There are candidates for the Presidency who would rather bomb IS knowing they will kill innocent people.  There are candidates who would send American troops to the region, or at least Iraq.  Have we learned nothing from Korea, Viet Nam, Iraq, and Afghanistan?  Are we not yet beyond an eye for an eye and international bullying?  No air strike will return the dead in Paris.  Will we ever be able to turn the other cheek and respond rationally?

My Christian heritage taught me it is the Samaritan who is blessed.  The enemy who responds to another human who is suffering and in need is the model to emulate. 

Have we no more Samaritans?  Are they now extinct?  Do we have a new interpretation of the New Testament that requires service to self and safety first and no obligation to our fellow humans?

I find that cowardly and blasphemous.

Friday the 13th

It is with some trepidation that I enter the realm of religious beliefs.  But it weighs on my mind.  Please forgive me if my ramblings offend you.

Today is a Friday the 13th.  I am not superstitious.  Seems to me that if one is superstitious one would have to believe there are predetermined performance based plans at work behind the scenes and free will is a myth.  In other words, if I walk under a ladder, break a mirror, etc., then negative forces behind the scenes will punish me.  The opposite would also be true as in throwing spilled salt over the shoulder, knocking on wood, a rabbit’s foot, etc., would automatically trigger the good forces behind the scenes to reward me.  In such scenarios I am a puppet of fate.  And to that I say poppycock.  But it has got me thinking about whether random luck or a comprehensive plan is at work here.

The Houston Texans and the Dallas Cowboys are having tough years.  Sports commentators in both cities as well as nationally, (sitting around glitzy tables adorned in pin stripes, checkered shirts and stripped ties – who dresses these guys?) announce, “It just wasn’t meant to be.”

The same is true for every team that will not make the playoffs, and for every team except the winner of the Super Bowl.  One winner.  For all the rest, it wasn’t meant to be.  Is Tony Romo’s broken collarbone and Andrew Luck’s lacerated liver part of a plan?

A Georgia high school football player collapsed at football practice on September 22.  He died Monday, October 5^th.  His coach told the media that they had all been praying for his return, but “it wasn’t meant to be.” 

There have now been 7 high school football players who died this fall.  Kids who went out to play a sport and never came back.  For each of those families, watching their sons grow up was “not meant to be.”  Or was it?

Jeb Bush like Forest Gump before him tells us, “Stuff happens,” implying life is random and death is inevitable.  How can random “stuff” be a plan?

So, which is it?  Is it a grand plan that we remain ignorant of until we see a sudden and unpredictable wicked twist in the plan?  If so, then such outcomes are designed and everything is meant to be.  Or is it all just random, some live, some die, some win, some lose.  Life is hard and then you die.  It is all about luck, good luck, and bad luck.  Or, is it a weird combination of the two wherein there is a quasi-plan, but there is a supernatural observer who can intervene in the stuff that happens and may make a plan for which only some benefit?  (Always amazing to me is that those who benefit seem so often to be scoundrels.  Good guys finish last?)  Sure would be nice to know which way it goes.  I use the word “know” here as opposed to “believe.”  I believe most operate on one of the two belief systems.  No one really knows.

And in the wee small hours of the morning when we find ourselves on our knees calling out, “Why him, Lord?  Why her, Lord?  Why me, Lord?” what we are really saying is, “If this is Your plan why are You being so mean and why don’t You change it, or if it is not Your plan why don’t You intervene?  If it is all just random what am I doing on my knees?”

My thinking may be juvenile and superficial on this topic.  Great minds and renowned scholars have pondered the issue of determinism and predestination as well as chaos theory and free-floating radicals.  I have read much from each camp, but still have a hard time deciding where to pitch my tent.  Will I learn where I’ll camp via logic or emotion?  Faith or facts?  If I knew, I would be building a campfire and inviting others over for S’mores.

Here is where I am, not that it really matters to the universe.  If there is a plan it is mean-spirited.  Too many die too young.  Too many are suffering.  Groups of well-meaning folks gather in prayer for the sick and injured.  Some recover and we say, “Miracle!”  Some die, and we say it was not meant to be, that is, the grand plan ordained their death.  Seems mean.

In some cases it feels like negligent homicide.  If God can intervene and is capable of intervening and chooses not to do so, then that sounds like negligent homicide to me.  When the co-pilot stole control of the Germanwings jet and intentionally nose-dived into the French Alps, passengers on board had 9 minutes to pray and surely they did!  Can God save a jet doomed for destruction like Supergirl and Superman?  If He made heaven and earth and all within, snatching a plane from the jaws of destruction should be a piece of cake.  If I can save lives and choose not to we call that negligent homicide and I go to jail.  God did not intervene.  All died.  I should not be too surprised.  We say that His greatest gift of love was to allow His own son to die for each of us.  Wow.  If one looks at that from the other side of the coin, what would we say of parents who allow their child to die so that generations of strangers can go to heaven when those parents could easily stop it?  I cannot fathom that.  If He had to die to save us, why not make a new plan where that was not the caveat?  I don’t get it.  Is considering such in and of itself blasphemy? 

And that, of course, is the rebuttal.  I am just a guy at a keyboard.  God is so far beyond me I am but a grain of sand on the beach.  There is a plan and though I was formed in God’s image, I am not smart enough to get it.  I am not meant to get it.  It is after all God’s plan.  When times are tough I should just “Job” my way through it.  But my plan would look different.

Of course if it is all random then this discussion has no purpose.  We live.  We die.  Some are lucky, some are not.  Stuff happens and we are all superstitious.  But declaring stuff happens seems to me to be an ungodly position.  And, if the “stuff” is part of a plan we should pray for a new plan so that all tragedies are not “meant to be”.  Happy Friday the 13^th.

Bye Arne

Arne Duncan is resigning as Secretary of Education.  I shed no tears.  His appointment and Obama’s support of him is the most confusing aspect of the Obama administration.  Duncan thought like a Republican and almost singlehandedly ended the debate about school reform from a policy-making perspective.

George Bush took the Texas accountability model to Washington and we got No Child Left Behind as a new moniker for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.  This was Republican legislation.  It was disastrous.  It included labeling schools, high stakes testing, etc. etc.  No one in Texas was surprised with what we got at the federal level.  My hope in 2008 was that Obama would fix NCLB.

He didn’t.  I was at first excited by Duncan’s nomination.  He was a school superintendent, after all.  Surely he knew better than to believe in NCLB. But Obama had named an anti-union school reformer to the position of Secretary of Education.  Obama might as well have named George Bush.  Duncan not only supported most of NCLB, he exacerbated the worst of the legislative philosophy with Race to the Top.  Make no mistake, Arne Duncan was a friend to reformers and not to educators or public education.  He drank the Bill Gates, Eli Broad, and ALEC Kool-Aide without a single burp.

Duncan’s appointment left no debate of substance at the federal level.  If Republicans backed the accountability components of NCLB and the newly elected Democratic President appointed a pro-reformer Secretary of Education, where was the debate?  There was none of substance.  Suddenly, Democrats and Republicans seemed to agree on only one issue:  education.  They agreed on standardized tests, they agreed on labeling schools, they agreed on new teacher evaluation systems to bust unions, they agreed on a national curriculum, etc., etc.  It was embarrassing.  The Obama administration sold out, or at least he was bum fuddled by his old Chicago bud Arne Duncan. 

Obama should have named Diane Ravitch as Secretary of Education.  We would have a very different public education system now, a much better system.

No, I won’t miss Arne Duncan any more than I miss George Bush.  Both waged unnecessary war on public education.  They won, kids and teachers lost.

Rational Thoughts on Gun Control, Climate Change and Abortion

More horrific shootings, more debate about abortion, more debate about climate change and energy sources.  Are we all crazy?  Are only half of us crazy?  Are we stupid or are we misled?  Why is consensus around these issues so difficult to achieve?

I believe the answer is really fairly simple.  Many of us base our positions on what we know to be true, what we know has been observed and documented and scientifically validated.  Others of us base our positions on what we perceive to be true, what we want to be true, what we believe to be true regardless of the evidence to the contrary.  When a rational position abuts a perceptual position sparks fly on both sides, tempers flare, anger is evoked.  And when that happens, even the rational become irrational. 

I have a set of beliefs.  I have perceptions.  And yet I choose to make decisions that impact others based on rational thought, not perceptual beliefs.  I do not perceive it to be moral for me to insist that my beliefs, my perceptions, should be followed by all.  ISIS believes that.  If one does not believe like a member of ISIS believes then ISIS feels free to rape, imprison, and/or behead that person.  That is the epitome of immoral human behavior in my book.  I may be frustrated by those who believe differently than I do, but I have never been frustrated by someone’s rational perspective that is grounded in research and logic and arrives at a position different from mine.  Perhaps because I have never encountered such a person.

Before I proceed let me offer a warning to the perceivers out there reading this:  Rational thought may really upset you.  I would hope that if so, you recognize your response and initiate some research and thinking on your own.  I would also say if you are rational and disagree with me that is great!  Bring it on!  Share your knowledge and logic so that I can learn from you.

I shall start with the simplest issue:  climate change.  Is our climate changing?  Absolutely and the evidence is overwhelming.  Is our current climate change part of a historical cycle of climate change observed over millennia on earth?  Absolutely NOT and the evidence is overwhelming.  Is our current climate change due to human fossil fuel emissions and the deforestation of rain forests?  Absolutely and the evidence is over-whelming.  Is a continuation of global warming in our best interest on this planet?  Absolutely NOT and the evidence is overwhelming.  Regardless of what political action one wishes to follow, it is abundantly clear that our current global warming has been triggered by human behavior.  The only arguments against such a position come from the perceivers who do not want this to be true, and from the economic forces that will suffer if we actually change our habits.  There is no other rational position.  To argue with a climate denier is just like Copernicus trying to convince the early Christians that earth orbited the sun and not vice-versa.  One will be labeled a heretic and tortured.

Next easiest is gun control.  Somehow the perceivers have been able to cast this issue in terms of civil rights, particularly the Second Amendment.  This is not a civil rights issue at all.  We have already agreed that owning a gun is not for everyone.  If we believed that everyone should own a gun as part of our civil liberties we would issue guns to everyone.  We do not give guns to 3 year-olds or blind people or paraplegics.  No, we know not everyone should have a gun and that ends the debate about limiting the 2^nd amendment.  We already do so.  Now the debate becomes more rational.  Is there a correlation between the number of weapons owned by a given population and the number of deaths and injuries attributed to weapons, i.e., high gun ownership equals high death count; low gun ownership equals low death count?  Absolutely and the evidence is overwhelming.  Is there evidence that strict controls that limit who can own a weapon results in fewer deaths and injuries?  Absolutely and the evidence is overwhelming.  Amazing to me is that the people who own guns and enjoy hunting or skeet shooting are the very people who would most likely be approved as gun owners.  The angry and the dysfunctional do not scream for protection from the Second Amendment, they simply get guns and kill people.  I also find it interesting that there are very stiff requirements concerning owning and operating a car and the automakers are not screaming that limiting who can own a car or drive a car is a violation of their rights.  No, they set about making cars as safe as possible.  Arguing that gun ownership should not carry some limitations is not rational.  I think prior to purchase and use of a firearm one must take a course, pass a test and carry a license to own and operate the firearm much as we require for driving an automobile.  I think gun owners should be required to carry insurance that would pay in the event that their firearm destroyed property, injured or killed someone much as we require for driving cars.  There are really no rational arguments against such policies except for those who claim gun ownership is somehow an unlimited civil liberty, which it is not.

Most difficult is the abortion issue.  I see this as most difficult because so many of our laws are grounded in the Judeo-Christian belief system:  thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not covet, and thou shalt not kill.  Given that, it seems to me to be irrational to say we should not enact our religious belief systems as we already have.  The issue revolves around whose belief system do we enact, whose interpretation do we follow?  Just like ISIS, there are some so committed to the notion that human life begins at conception that they are willing to destroy property, kill, or even shut down the government based on their perceived beliefs.  My thinking goes like this:  There are many prohibitions in the Bible, but it seems we are really good at simply ignoring many of them if it suits us.  Or, to put it another way, if secular reason provides better answers than dogma.  That is why divorce is legal and polygamy is not.  So, what is a rational, non-religious based position regarding abortion?  For me it is that a woman, alive, here, grown, sentient should have more control of her body than a zygote.  Or an embryo, or a fetus.  More, I am disturbed that religious groups insist that their view of this be enacted into law, and if not, they are willing to shut down the government to have their way.  There is no such thing as religious belief serving as rationale.  By definition, beliefs are not rational.  I have several suggestions about how to end this conflict.

First, is to make it clear that a mother has rights that a zygote, embryo or fetus does not have.  This is logical.  A pre-birth growth in the uterus of a woman cannot be reasonably argued to have more rights than an adult human being.  Especially when there is a minority of believers in this country who perceive that conception determines the initiation of human beings.  Let’s say that human rights begin at birth and move on.  Elsewise we are stuck in the ludicrous position of prosecuting women who miscarry.

Second, we must re-think the establishment clause in the first amendment.  Current interpretation is that the government cannot recognize, support, promote any religious belief system over another.  Those who have very strong belief systems hate this because they very much want their own belief system to be the law of the land.  It is because of such a desire and the experiences of our founding fathers that we have such a stringent anti-support of religion clause in our constitution.  That bad news for religious fundamentalists is that the US of A was not established to be a Christian nation.  In fact, it was established to avoid at all costs any effort to allow a belief system to lay claim to our policies and laws.  To my way of thinking, anyone who would promote shutting down our government to ensure that their beliefs are enacted are committing not only an anti-American act, they could easily be declared terrorists.

Along with this recognition, we should be able to withdraw the separation of church and state benefits if the church crosses the line to influence the government.  It is one thing for a pastor to say to his or her congregation that he or she opposes abortion, same-sex marriage, etc.  It is entirely a different thing if a church solicits donations, forms political action committees, holds conferences, etc., for the sole purpose of changing government policy to align with their belief systems.  Should a pastor say to a congregation, “vote for this guy, no that guy; support this legislation, not that legislation; donate money to this cause or this organization, and/or the government is by our definition corrupt because they do not think as we think,” then that church has violated the separation of church and state as outlined in the establishment clause.  As such, they should lose their tax exempt status.  Period.  It is irrational to say there must be a separation of church and state, the government will not intervene in belief systems, but it is OK for belief systems to lobby and interact with the government for their own purposes.  If they do so, tax them.  As in all other conflicts I believe this to be a rational position.

One caveat:  I do not uniformly oppose action based on purely perception and beliefs.  In fact, to have a family, provide for that family, seek a comfortable retirement and perhaps accrue wealth, I should never have become an educator.  I did so irrationally and have never regretted it.  I acted on my belief that there is nothing more noble, nothing more likely to positively influence the future than to work in public education with folks of like mind, good hearts, and the children of my community.

Most amazing to me in calm rational moments is the number of people around me who believe they love this country and are really good Americans while simultaneously arguing that their own religious belief systems should be the law of the land, their willingness to attack the government that is in fact the essence of our country, and their absolute opposition to diversity in belief systems, race, gender, sexual preference, etc.  Many of these people believe that the most “American” thing they can do is insist that everyone think like they think.  So sad that such a perception is the antithesis of the true nature of a free nation with protected civil rights and majority rule.  I see myself as a deep, loyal American patriot.  My sense of what makes this nation great is very different from such folks described above.  I pray for them.  I pray for me when I am with them.

I think such prayers are rational.

They Didn't Think He Had a Bomb

As a retired school administrator this post on the Daily Kos really caught my attention.  Arguments ring very true from a school professional's point of view.  I have copied and pasted the post below as food for thought:

Daily Kos, Thu Sep 17, 2015 at 03:17 PM PDT

"They didn't think he had a bomb."

By BSSanders

Great Post Sent to Me Today

I said: it's sad they thought that kid had a bomb.

She said: they didn't think he had a bomb. 

I said: yes, they thought he made a bomb and even called the police. 

She said: They just wanted to humiliate a little Muslim boy. They didn't think he had a bomb. 

I said: Don't be a conspiracy theorist. They might be a little prejudiced, but I'm sure they thought he had a bomb. 

She said: OK. 

But they didn't evacuate the school, like you do when there's a bomb. 

They didn't call a bomb squad - like you do when there's a bomb. 

They didn't get as far away from him as possible, like you do when there's a bomb. 

Then they put him and the clock in an office: not like you do when there's a bomb 

Then they waited with him for the police to arrive, and then they put the clock in the same car as the police. 

Then they took pictures of it. 

I said: Damn.....They never thought he had a bomb. 

Political Update

OK, now we know Walker is not a runner.  Other updates include:

Perry has winkled out.

We continue to hear Trumpettes.

Huckabees are really Huck-a-wasps.

Cruz control does not maintain speed.

Graham is a cracker.

Paul is not the former Saul.

Bush is a son-of-a-bush.

Marco continues self-promotion, others keep saying, “Polo?”

Santorum merits sanitarium.

Jindal is jaded.

Dr. Carson is a real operator.

Christie has lost some of his Corpus and most of his Cerebrum.

Fiorina is a rising favarita.

Other Republicans are IrrElephants.

Wake me up in November of 2016.