You want real medical care reform? You can’t HANDLE real medical care reform, and just to save you from yourself the politicians will side with big corporate insurance!
But the Times/CBS poll found 85 percent of respondents wanted major healthcare reforms and most would be willing to pay higher taxes to ensure everyone had health insurance.
(Wide support for government health plan: poll, LA Times, 06/21/09)
REMEMBER: This is not somebody else’s job! It is up to those of us who provide male role modeling to show non-violence is desirable, practical and efficacious. Step up dad … and do your part today.
The inspiriation for A Fathers’ Day for Peace comes from the Million Man March and Mothers’ Day (which originated as a Mothers Peace Day Observance).
“We will break up any protest that comes, because no protests have been allowed,” said the national police spokesman. (Boston Globe, 06/21/09)
No, we’re not talking about Iran at the moment (although the current protests in Iran do warrant a great amount of illumination, discussion and support). Look much closer to home, in the Caribbean, Haiti specifically.
Shortly after the British colonies became the United States, a second nation clawed and fought its’ way into independence from a European overlord. In 1803 Haiti dragged itself out from under the thumb of a then crumbling Napolean inspired French empire.
Unfortunately for Haiti, its’ revolution was one of slaves against slave master, and that was directly counter to the prevailing national mood in The United States. As a result the French, with backing from Thomas Jefferson that was designed to facilitate the Louisiana Purchase that same 1803, were able to force a huge financial reparation from the newly freed slaves.
Since those days, we have been feeding Haiti a steady diet of dominance enforced by periodic invasion. Even the 2004 coup against Aritide was fueled by US supplied weapons and training provided to corporate backed thugs and murderous faux revolutionaries headquartered in neighboring Dominican Republic. And it provided a perfect excuse for another invasion of Haiti.
Some other examples: U.S. Invasion and Occupation of Haiti, 1915-34 as presented by the US State Department. CIA collusion with outside invaders as presented by the CIA.
We’re not even touching on the multiple pro-corporate, anti-people economic acts that have been perpetrated in our names against the good folk of Haiti.
And the Haitians are still there, still being violated by the United States … we who were the first nation in the western hemisphere to throw off European dominance in pursuit of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” standing on the necks of the second nation to do so.
Not too long ago Vermont’s Commissioner of Education Armando Vilaseca wrote “Our children’s education is the message we send into the future, and we only get one chance to get it right.” (We get only one chance on education, Times Argus oped by Vilaseca, 2/15/09) And Mr. Vilaseca is now appearing before the legislature pushing that view by complaining about the number of schools we operate in Vermont. (Too many schools, too few students, Times Argus, 06/12/09)
While the first half of Vilaseca’s statement is certainly true under any circumstances, the second half is only true if we continue to demand more centralized control over fewer school districts and supervisory unions. Having one and only one chance is true if we follow his lead and put all our educational eggs in a single basket.
I do agree with Vilaseca’s contention that our current public educational model is obsolete. It was designed in the first part of the 20th century to provide a modicum of teaching to the ever increasing numbers of non-rural dwellers. The design itself was based upon one of the most efficacious processes available at the time: the assembly line.
Even now in the 21st century our kids are marched through learning factories. Like good Ford Model T components, these young folks are pushed to move from one point to another with the education system bolting on one piece of knowledge or another. These youth are moved along in factory like synchronicity from grade to grade … each child expected to be like the next with identical knowledge and skill sets defined by national and state mandated standards (most designed to help out corporate America, but that’s another story).
And, if the factory workers have all done their jobs, in the end we have an 18 year old with a diploma entitling this newly minted adult advancement into the military or college.
It is this assembly line factory paradigm that needs to go … not the schools. The buildings can disappear, but the local access to local educational resources needs to be maintained. We may be able to do with fewer superintendents, but we need to keep the school boards and empower them to seek out educational benchmarks (standards) that meet the needs and expectations of the local community.
We need diversity in our educational approach so our eggs aren’t all in one basket. We need de-centralization of our public education system so we will have many, many chances to get it right … instead of risking our message to the future with a singular approach … like that done way back in the twentieth century.
PS. I could go on about young kids spending ever increasing times being bussed to schools ever farther from their homes … but that too is another story.
Well worth the visit —> http://taggalaxy.de/
(draws photos from Flickr)
The document continued with eight “urgent immediate demands.” These were: the establishment of a new Iraqi Army; the disbanding of sectarian militias; the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the cities; the release of political prisoners; an end to interference in Iraqi affairs by neighboring countries; pressure on the Kurds to “cease the rhetoric of separation from Iraq”; a promise that the U.S. would stop describing insurgents as “terrorists”; and, finally, a pledge to “continue political dialogue between Iraqis and Americans.”
(Heads in the Sand, Vanity Fair, 05/12/09)
Or the real story of the “Sunni Awakening”.
is it the “Right Wing Whacko Minor Leagues”??
I’ll go with the latter.
And the following is a great illustration showing why progressives and liberals should be investing their time and lives in our military and police agencies.
The responding officers – eight teenage boys and girls, the youngest 14 – face tripwire, a thin cloud of poisonous gas and loud shots – BAM! BAM! – fired from behind a flimsy wall. They move quickly, pellet guns drawn and masks affixed.
(Scouts Train to Fight Terrorists, and More, NY Times, 05/13/09)
Yeah, this is about the Boy “We’re in it for the violence and excitement of it all” Scouts.
The Explorers program, a coeducational affiliate of the Boy Scouts of America that began 60 years ago, is training thousands of young people in skills used to confront terrorism, illegal immigration and escalating border violence – an intense ratcheting up of one of the group’s longtime missions to prepare youths for more traditional jobs as police officers and firefighters.
But not to worry .. it’s not all about violence directed to those who aren’t on the side of the Boy Scouts. There’s also “numerous cases” involving charges of sexual assault.
The above presents a horrible paradigm. A socially radically right wing organization like the Boy Scouts being groomed (ala the Hitler Youth) to be the ones who will exercise our various governments’ monopoly on legal violence.
What we need instead are folks who understand allegiance to people and freedom and cooperative living instead of radical causes … we need level headed progressives and liberals … those who are much less inclined to see violence as an acceptable … nay expected … response to any and everything.
We cannot afford to turn our military and police over to the radical right wing.
Obama doesn’t want to investigate torture and all the criminals that advanced and practiced it in our name.
Obama doesn’t want us to see photos of torture.
And to repeat myself .. FUCK YOU OBAMA! See the below link for just a small part of why I say that.
Hey now, hey now …
Anson Tebbetts: from WCAX to the guv’s office to WCAX. At least we’ll have consistency in CAX’s coverage.
The guv says
Governor Douglas also expressed his congratulations to Agency of Agriculture Deputy Secretary Anson Tebbetts who will leave the Agency and become News Director when Parsons retires. “Anson has been an invaluable member of my team,” said Douglas. “His knowledge, enthusiasm and commitment to Vermont agriculture will be sorely missed. I wish Anson well in his new endeavor.”
Don’t worry, Jim, Tebbett’ll still do ya’ proud.