3 posts from 2009

The problem is not that these extremes exist, the problem is that these extreme segments of both of the major parties are dominating our politics at every turn.  A never-ending assault of scary statements and end of the world “if we support this” or “don’t support that” prophecies and on and on. 

I  have been wondering, in this era of so much media and information, how this could be so effective and not repulsive to most.  Then I realized, that there is a large portion of the country that is elderly and concerned (for example) about health care who tend not to use as much internet etc. and would only have the words of someone they trust to believe as the facts.  This gloom and doom, it’s the end of the world greatly impacts that group and any others that may not be as apt or able to do more research beyond what someone they perceive as an expert says.  So there are really people who believe our Hanitys and Moores are the gospel (depending on which lunatic extreme is more comfortable to you)

There is so much childishness going on that is becoming stupid.  This weird thing where people are being told to just disrupt town hall meetings with random yelling etc. talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.  All any smart politician would do in the future is simply record a message, control who is in the crowd, or just not have them at all.  Does one party not think if you do it now, they will do the same thing later.

The real trouble is that terribly ill informed people are believing things that are not factual and starting fist fights at political events and ultimately completely dividing the country.

To some this division is desirable, but for those of us who live in California we know there are only two possibilities.

A one party system where the lunatic fringe of that party can easily overtake our politics or a system where both parties get so angry at the other that everyone drifts toward their lunatic fringe and refuses to compromise on anything which in the end means absolutely nothing can ever get done.  Everything ends in a stalemate.

The whole idea of our government is that there are different sides that negotiate and agree at some point on any issue that comes up even if that means that sometimes they agree to just put off an issue here and an issue there.

Now, whenever a politician says he or she will make a compromise with the other party that person is a traitor, and is punished in the media, by his or her party, and by voters and constituents who are told this person sold them out.  If compromise is punished on either side, how is anything supposed to get done?  This is the mindset and techniques used by the extremes of our party system that are gaining more and more control of our country and media. 

As far as I am concerned I have a new term for this.  Accidental terrorism.  This is an inadvertent attempt to destroy or entire political system just to prove a few idealistic points. 

The politicians are not the ones who will be punished when this all plays out.  The so called experts on television and in our media will not be the ones who suffer.  The people who make over $200k or over $250k who are so concerned about paying more taxes are not the ones who are going to suffer.  It is the average person who although gullible when it comes to this sort of information, we all just want to live peaceful lives with the opportunity to support our families and better ourselves with hard work. 

I attached a link to a clip that I hope you can access.  It is not to say that one party is better than the other, it is to show how stupid the whole thing is.

This childish war to have one or the other extreme’s way is really a war against democracy and more specifically the average middle class person. 

Everyone knows (for example) that there is a terrible health care problem.  One side is fighting any sort of solution saying things should stay the way they are (Einstein – Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting the same results) and the other side is coming up with a plan to insure everyone while secretly using it as a Trojan Horse to sneak in a bunch of stuff such as money for abortions.  In the meantime the American people suffer and pick a side to protest with while still losing healthcare by the thousands daily. 

Ask yourself, if you were a terrorist who wanted to destroy America would your money be better spent on blowing up some airplane here or there or on some politicians on the lunatic extremes who will invest that money and the money of other Americans to make sure our entire government is in a stalemate. 

I know all of us have our deep personal commitments, but there has to be some kind of compromises for our system to work.  We have to get the lunatic fringes out of power and elect people with our individual values who know how to compromise and when to so that our government will not get stalemated.  Especially since in the last election one party almost gook over completely.  NO!   Everything will not be perfect and everything will not go your way (no matter which party you prefer).  But, the truth is this country will never get everyone to agree on anything and if you are waiting for your party to take over so you can have your way, you are really a part of the problem.  An involuntary tool of those who wish to destroy our political system and our government!

Imagine you have little money and you are renting a room in a house.  You pay most of your income to rent, but the people who own the house are not good with money.  The people that own the house get 3 months behind on the mortgage and the house is in foreclosure.  They suddenly get an offer for a credit card that will cover a part of the mortgage and save the house you are living in at least for a while longer.  They decide to ask you if they should get the card to save the house and inform you that if they use this to save the house, they will have to raise the rent and if they do not they will lose the house and you will be evicted.  WHAT CHOICE CAN YOU MAKE?  You cannot afford more rent, you cannot be homeless, and you cannot imagine them suddenly getting any better with money even if they save the house and you will probably be in the same boat soon anyway.

This is how I see today’s vote in California.  It is a lose, lose proposition with doom and gloom being preached by both sides of the argument.  We are doomed if we vote yes, we are doomed if we vote no, and we are doomed if we don’t vote.

The only thing that is clear is that the government in California as it is has absolutely no ability to fix the problems here and the people are so divided that at either extreme that it will be this way for a long time.

I am about to vote, but what a crock all of this is.  Vote yes and they get the credit card that will cover some of the debt, but also makes more and inevitably robs from something else to pay for it.  This also means raised taxes in several areas. 

Vote no and it’s the end of the world for our economy in California and we will be without fire fighters, and police etc. (according to the commercials). 

We all must vote and have our voice, but what a choice.

Welcome to sunny California, world renowned for its tall palm trees, beautiful beaches, wineries, movie studios and one the worst Elementary, middle, and high school systems on the face of planet earth.  The reason:  playing politics and weird experimentation with the children has overridden any care for the education of them.

Every one of us who lives here (particularly those of us with children) have heard stories of large numbers of people graduating who cannot read or pass simple exit exams on what they were supposed to have learned and on and on.  I remember on story I heard years ago where the children in one area were failing a pretty standard high school exit exam miserably so the proposed solution………..make the test easier?

A quick story to help you understand my disgust: 

After I graduated high school I left for military service and went to travel the world.  I came back on leave to visit my old high school and the coaches and teachers who I had built a bond with.  I arrived at the school to find that all of the teachers I had considered (and still consider) to have been the good teachers had left the school.  There were no coaches as the school which had n illustrious sports history had eliminated all sports.

The weirdest part about walking the campus was that while I was wandering the campus confused many if not most of the students seemed to be wandering the campus looking just as confused as I was.  This was midday in the middle of the school year.  I heard different bells ring and saw some of the kids going to classrooms.  In the classrooms there were small pockets of teenagers who seemed to be doing there own thing while some person in front 9I assume to be a teacher) lectured.

I finally asked one of the students what was going on.  The answer was ridiculous.  The school was an experiment to see if children learn better in an environment where they have no books, no mandatory class attendance, no homework, no sports, and very few tests.  I asked if this was working and in the words of one kid, “It was cool at first, but this really sucks.  I want to transfer.” 

As a side note, I have a relative who graduated from the same high school, who has a diploma that looks just like mine, who could not read or write any better than the average kindergartener until as an adult his wife taught him.

This brings me to my point.  In Alameda California there is a controversial proposal creating a huge disruption among the parents.  The proposal is to add curriculum about sexual orientation and gender identification to the curriculum.

So let me get this straight:  the school systems in California can’t get reading, writing, English, math and science right, but now they are qualified to teach my child sexuality.  That ought to turn out well.  I told you that little story a above to set the stage for one key point I think is being missed.  I PAY TAXES AND SEND MY CHILDREN TO SCHOOL TO LEARN TO READ, WRITE, GET EDUCATED, AND PREPARED FOR COLLEGE IF YOU CANNOT DO THAT RIGHT YOU HAVE NO BUSINESS TRYING TO ADD A WHOLE BUNCH OF OTHER STUFF OF ANY KIND.

All over California strange experiments have been done for years with our children and all kinds of weird ideas have been voiced al because our school systems and our teacher’s unions want to use our children as political ping pong balls instead of just doing what we (I) pay them to do.   STOP EXPERIMENTING WITH OUR CHILDREN AND JUST TEACH THEM ENGLISH, MATH, SCIENCE, AND SO ON.

There is this ongoing list of things that they always want to add that clearly are politically motivated and that would be a discussion if we already had reasonable results.  The California school system is the laughing stock of the whole planet.  HOW DARE YOU TELL ME YOU ARE BETTER QUALIFIED TO DO MY JOB AS A PARENT WHEN YOU ARE FAILING AT YOUR JOBS AS TEACHERS?

The entire reasoning for this addition to the curriculum has been defined as an attempt to stop bullying through a gained understanding of sexual orientation and gender identification.

Another short story, my son was new to one of California’s illustrious public schools and was stabbed in the forehead with metal scissors by an angry 9 year old.  As far as I or anyone know my son is not homosexual or transgender and was only guilty of being the new kid having an encounter with what turned out to be the class bully.  The school investigated and discovered several such incidents with this bully and other children that had gone unnoticed until now.

I was obviously concerned and spoke to the principal whose response was that they had spoken to the parents of the child.  SPOKEN TO THE PARENTS, WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?  I suggested possibly separating the child from the other children for a while to undergo some kind of counseling until such a time it was safe for the rest of the children and then reintroducing the child to the school as I thought that was the least that should be done in light of all of the children that have been wandering into schools and killing everyone.

I tell this story to illustrate that the school system has no clue about what to do about bullies.  Those of us who experienced bullies in elementary, middle and high school (or possibly were the bullies) have a pretty good idea that lack of information and understanding was not the problem.  Usually the problems are far deeper than education about one group or other would solve.  I am also quite sure that information about sexual orientation and gender identification would not have saved any of the children from this bully because as far as anyone can tell at this age, none of the children were bullied for this reason.  The problem with bullying lies in the inability of the schools to properly deal with the bullies until after the bullets (or scissors) are flying and the bloody bodies of our children are being carried away.

All this to say to our governments, including school boards and our teachers:  I DON’T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT ANYTHING BUT HOW WE ARE IMPROVING MATH, SCIENCE, ENGLISH ETC. UNTIL YOU GET THOSE SUBJECTS RIGHT.  I UNDERSTAND THERE ARE BAD PARENTS OUT THERE THAT ARE NOT DOING THEIR JOB, BUT DON’T NEGLECT YOURS TO DO OURS.  SPEND ALL THAT POLITICAL ENERGY TRYING TO REFORM THE AGENCIES THAT ARE SUPPOSED TO BE HOLDING THE PARENTS ACCOUNTABLE TO DOING THEIR JOB AND STICK TO YOURS!