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Today Detroit – Tomorrow, Every City in America
If Milton Friedman, father of the free market, were alive today, I imagine he would be jumping with joy at the prospect of the abandonment of public education for private, for-profit charter schools.
Back in 2005, following the devastation of hurricane Katrina, Friedman wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal where he said “This is a tragedy. It is also an opportunity to radically reform the educational system.” Soon after, Friedmonites rushed into New Orleans for the chance to implement what Friedman had long envisioned. With the help of the Bush administration, they dissolved the public school system and in its place built a network of publicly funded charters run, not by educators, but by private entities that made their own rules.
At the time, New Orleans residents alerted the rest of the country, that what was happening to their city was only the beginning and it wouldn’t be long before it spread to our neighborhoods. In 2006, Bill Quigley, a local lawyer and activist warned:
We know that what is happening in New Orleans is just a more concentrated, more graphic version of what is going on all over our country. Every city in our country has some serious similarities to New Orleans. Every city has some abandoned neighborhoods. Every city in our country has abandoned some public education, public housing, public healthcare, and criminal justice. Those who do not support public education, healthcare, and housing will continue to turn all of our country into the Lower Ninth Ward unless we stop them. Why do we allow this?
If only we had listened. Soon after New Orleans came the drastic transformation of the Chicago school system by Obama’s Labor Secretary Arne Duncan, New York City schools by Mayor Bloomberg, and Washington DC schools by Michelle Rhee. Which brings us to Detroit.
Following the passage of Michigan Republican Gov. Rick Snyder’s “Financial Martial Law,” Emergency Financial Manager (EFM) of Detroit Public Schools (DPS) Robert Bobb is closing 8 schools and selling 45 to charter companies. DPS is currently preparing a charter school board through training sessions provided by the National Charter Schools Institute, which had more than 70 charter operators and entrepreneurs in attendance just this month. In addition, DPS has hired the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) to review applications. NACSA’s president, Greg Richmond, worked with charter schools set up in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and claims “The system opened up to the people of New Orleans in a way it hadn’t before…Now there are dozens of opportunities to get involved.”
In sharp contrast to the lingering unemployment that plagues Detroit, the auctioning off of Detroit’s schools is taking place with breathtaking speed. Gov. Snyder is on a mission to reinvent public education. He is calling for more measurements of student and teacher performance, while at the same time proposing deregulation and more teacher autonomy. He says “We have to put much more emphasis on proficiency, on growth, on measurements and results than we have had in the past” and “Michigan’s public schools need to more rigorously measure students’ academic growth, but with fewer state rules to make that happen.”
Detroit residents have already started protesting. Just last week, eight students, along with their children and some faculty members of the Catherine Ferguson Academy of Detroit, began a sit-in at the end of the school day in protest of EFM Robert Bobb’s announcement to close the school. About a dozen or so were arrested by Detroit police for refusing to leave. The school is specifically designed for pregnant and teen parents and their children, and has a 90% graduation rate and 100% college and higher education acceptance upon graduation.
Gov. Snyder recently said his focus is a holistic approach to education from pre-natal to life-long learning. He says early childhood education is important and should involve “a public and private partnership.” If shutting down an award-winning school and arresting, rather than listening to the students he claims to care so much about, is his idea of a holistic approach, then Detroit is in for a treat.
Shanta Driver, National Chairperson of By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), in an interview with Voice of Detroit at the sit-in, said it best:
The massive school closures that have been carried out in DPS since 2004 have led to the depopulation of Detroit and to the deepening financial crisis of the district. Public schools are being closed to make way for charters and are part of the national attack on public education. Today Detroit – tomorrow, every city in America. The parents and students of Catherine Ferguson are fighting to maintain the right of every student in our nation to a free, quality public education. Every supporter of public education should do everything possible to support their fight and make sure they succeed
Driver is warning us, as did the people of New Orleans in 2006. This corporately funded education reform movement that praises standardised tests, non-union teachers, and private management as the solution to the budget woes of Detroit’s education system is a threat to us all.
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74 Comments so far
Show All“a public and private partnership.”
No, no, no!!!
Private partnerships in education is a bunch of BS. Code for "My political supporters want to make money off of education".
Education must be free, credible and accessible to all.
I Second that, all heartedly. WE CANNOT ALLOW BP TO SEA THE FUTURE 4 HUMANITY.
IT'S VISION IS AS BLEAK AS THE COLOR OF IT'S CRUDES .
BP LIKE MANY OTHER CORPORATIONS ARE INVOLVED IN CHANGING THE REASON D'ETRE OF EDUCATION IN UNIVERSITIES, not without an objective.
If we are to juxtapose their role in EDUCATION & POLITICS worldwide WE SEA DIRECT COUP D'ETAT PLOTTED & WITH THE HELP OF CIA, NSA , in Iran the first corporation to step in in Iraq after the rape their role in Africa, Latin America, Asia. That's valid 4 most corporations, oil, banking....I could go on but I won't, I think everyone knows the tune by now. It s mind control on a different but collective level @ a VERY early stage. This is simply preparing society for a world ruled completely & utterly by CORPORATION, some will say WE ALREADY R, of course WE R, but if U think this is the worst, THINK AGAIN.
I am certain we can all elaborate how things could get a lot worst, perhaps we could work so it does not happen Nixon cheney, bush, indeed they are a nasty piece of work but in the words of Chomsky we ALL know who it is, we must point the finger @. CORPORATIONS THE ONLY JOBS THEY CREATE ARE JOBS WITH A UNIFORM.
They simply must not have access to schools, the same way they have gained access to politics, lOOk what they have done to elections & politics"citizens assholes"
A school is the next stage after the mother womb it's fragile & it's SACRED , U don't throw in a hundred dollars note TO MULTIPLY, with an abject objective
THEY, TEMPER with the very make up of our CONSCIOUSNESS.
No Terror No Torture Just Truth.
"The states with union teachers seem to be failing so perhaps they are correct?" Citations please.
"New Orleans kids are doing better than they were, so what is the complaint?" Again, evidence in support of this assertion?
"Whats wrong with some stasndardized [sic] tests per se? And why the resistence to teacher evaluation?" Read the literature. Critiques of standardized tests are available, as are explanations of "resistence" to teacher evaluation. Don't expect a single article ("thin whine") to explain the complete ("complicated") context of an issue. You did spell "per se" correctly, though, so you get a butter cookie.
"These whines without solution's [sic] are tiresome." You should understand "tiresome" since that aptly describes your every comment. Too bad you don't understand how to spell, how to keyboard/type, or how to use apostrophes. Maybe if you'd shown a little less "resistence" to your "stasndardized test's" matters would be different...
Likeitornot doesn't have a clue. NJ's teachers are unionized and NJ's traditional public schools regularly score in the top tier of the nation's schools. NJ has amongst the best schools in the country and that's with teacher unions. In fact, many of the states with weak or gutted teachers' unions score more poorly than the unionized states such as Mass., NJ and CT.
The problem with this over emphasis on testing is that it distorts the educational process and forces teachers to spend an inordinate amount of time on test preparation. The kids and the teachers are being tested to death. Teachers are being evaluated every day; if the teachers are not being properly evaluated then that is the administrator's or principal's fault. The new teachers should be getting constant evaluations and the tenured teachers are evaluated at least twice a year and often more. Many principals do unannounced observations (evaluations) between the regular observations. The countries with highly rated school systems also have a unionized teaching force. The teachers are unionized in Finland, Germany, Sweden and Japan.
JERZY: Excellent post.
I would take your points one step further. If teachers are expected to satisfy massive accountability standards, then why stop there? Isn't it time that similar accountability standards were universally applied to:
1. The medical field. Heck, medical malpractice is among the top ten reasons for premature deaths of citizens.
2. The military: Heck, they get to "lose" billions here and there, and are never expected to "pick up the slack." And they haven't WON a war in how many decades for all the boasts of battle-field brilliance?
3. Politicians: They promise voters one thing, then often reverse and vote for the opposite policy. When do THEY get graded?
4. Industrialists:
A. Coal--When do they get held to accountability standards for all the lands destroyed, streams polluted, and human illnesses that followed?
B. Oil--When do the owners of the offshore oil drilling boats get TRULY held to account for the massive ecocide that's taken place on their watch, not to mention the slow impacts on overall human health in exposed regions?
C. Nuclear--When will owners be held to account, and compelled to invest in necessary safety upgrades to their plants BEFORE the next "big one?"
5. Wall Street/Banksters: When will those who wrecked the US (and much of the global) economy be held to account? When will all the mistaken theories they managed to "sell" to the regulators be replaced with the firewall that would insure that no more PUBLIC money will get used again to back their bad bets.
6. Big Agri: When will a company like Monsanto be held to account for its polluting so much of the world's natural seed stock?
7. Big Auto: When will the automakers be held to account for their decision to build fuel-inefficient behemoths that could not compete with Japan's far more fuel efficient models?
8. Big Media: Selling lies and willful distortions, it played the role of Accessory to the crime The Geneva Conventions cite as THE crime that trumps all others: Aggressive war. Where's the big mea culpa, or God forbid, any trace of accountability?
9. Big telecons: When Ma Bell reliably spied on citizens before law was bent to lend them retroactive immunity, where was any accountability for this massive betrayal of citizens' rights?
10. Duopoly conspiracy: As "both" political parties begin the dance moves that are intended to eviscerate Social Security and Medicare, where is the accountability to the public, to those who worked long hours presuming their investment would remain solid, if not sacrosanct?
"Let he who is without sin among you, cast the first stone!"
Others can be placed on this list. The choice to target teachers is an attack on unions as well as women, since public ed is largely populated by female teachers. Modeled after attacks on "illegal" aliens, Acorn, and the poor... these rancid global corporate conscience-lacking capitalists love to aim at the lowest hanging fruit. Those without political muscle constitute the perfect "game," and as these groups are stripped of their rights to assemble, form unions, or protest effectively... it becomes another win for those who are the real culprits. It's chiefly their doing that's worsening life for so many in the U.S. So watching as they stand in judgment of others, while themselves so merrily "sinning," is the great moral irony (and Catch 22) of our era.
Apart from weapons, Hollywood films, and drugs for every imagined purpose, I think the other major export these days is BALONEY served on a big shit sandwich to the hungry masses.
Amazing comment... Thanks..
Thank you. It's nice to be appreciated. Besides, it's important to speak truthfully about all the awful things that are being done in our names, that is with our presumed/alleged/forced consent! Democracy at domestic bayonet point!
We agree!
F'n a+ rant. Very well said.
Excellent . Thank you. Let's hear it for come ACCOUNTABILITY !
But since when are our public schools anything to "write home" about? Catherine Ferguson is obviously an exception but let's face it: public school education fluctuates with the local income bracket. And even the BEST public schools do not educate the whole person: We're missing social responsibility, environmental awareness, artistic sensibility, the ability to think freely and the confidence in our ability to solve problems, just to name a few. If you want good education, you have to pay for it. And if education were all private, then enrollment would be a "vote" for that school and the bad schools would have to shut down, or the bad teachers would have to go, for lack of support. If you want to see a great school, check out the Detroit Waldorf School in Indian Village. See what they do on a very low budget. We should all receive "education vouchers" and let each one choose the school which serves them best. There are very good things about private education!
At only a cost of $11,000 per year. How many can afford that? A self selecting school which does not have to "deal with" IEP's, homeless/malnourished children, etc. . . .
NO, vouchers do not work as these schools do not have to "educate" all children. You can't compare a school like DWS with a public school. Sorry, but that just doesn't cut it.
Same ol' "let the market decide" philosophy of the regressive right talking points.
Oye,
We can't let little things like reality cloud our rosy vision of sandcastles in the sky. Learn to think "x-ray vision" to see past all that stuff. That way, we too, can relish the feeling of ubermenschen as the strains of Wagner from teeny-tiny violins soundtrack in our "beautiful minds".
I know, they think you and I are made to order, because we'd rather die first. Well, Empire, I won't, not without a whomping struggle. Some of them aren't going to get past us to hurt the "least of these". Thank you for your knowledge and your service. minnow
NJ is a wealthy state. Doesn't that factor into outcomes?
NJ looks like a wealthy state to most outsiders but once you're in and you find out about the costs of living, then it's not the same.
Ranks # 2
The other two unionized States rank 1 Conn, 3 Mass
http://www.census.gov/statab/ranks/rank29.html
Good schools are a result of wealth not unions.
"Good schools are a result of wealth not unions."
As a guy who went to private school and had to get supplemental help from great sources in public libraries and community colleges, I can testify against that statement. Wealth is just a weapon used to abuse or rig. Look outside the country. Schools that aren't so costly aren't doing bad and some of them can whack their private competitors as far as intelligent kids is concerned.
How do you think those states got to be in the wealthy ranks? That's right, unions. Unionism helps keep the wages of workers higher and makes the quality of life better for those workers and their families through other benefits. There is definitely a correlation between the least unionized teachers and poor standardized test results for pupils as well as a high correlation between the best union backed teaching jobs and student test performance.
http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ617440&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ617440
NJ top schools??????????? Bawhahahahahah! Now I've heard everything!
>^^<
Education and Power for the Elite.
Propaganda and Poverty for the rest.
Like It Or Not.
Wrong. States with strong unions have better education. Its just another right-wing lie.
So better education is the result of strong unions only,not a result of population with a high percentage of college educated parents with high expectations of their children.
Good schools are in fact, a result of college educated parents who have high expectations for their parents, high property taxes to fund the schools, good unions with attractive benefits to lure the best teachers, and enough money left over for quality early childhood education.
I don't believe anyone in this post would be arguing that money has nothing to do with quality education. Nor do I think you can argue that strong unions don't attract better teachers. The problem with education is the way it is funded. Children with uneducated parents, also live in impoverished neighborhoods that get very little funding due to lower property taxes, many times those parents lack the educational capacity to educate their children at an early age, and they can't afford to pay for preschool, this, along with a multitude of other factors is what is causing the collapse of the education system in America. I don't think its any secret that racism plays a big factor in the amount of money that is appropriated to failing schools and the lack of reform in the way that schools are funded. Privatization will help nothing. There is plenty of data out there showing that charter schools, on average, are no better at educating our youth than public schools. At the end of the day, until this free-market, trickle-down bs, economic theory is banished from the planet forever, and we start taxing the rich to pay for things like education, we will continue to see its decline.
P.s. nice job playing the antagonist!
It was my pleasure
I don't believe just tossing money at the problem is the answer. A friend who just retired from teaching in a school of lower class students (NJ) summed it up: "You can't make chicken soup from chicken poop".
Teachers aren't miracle workers. The most important element in education isn't the teacher, IMO, but the parents -- if the parents don't instill in their kids an appreciation for learning, if the parents don't make sure that their kids do their homework, if the parents don't turn off the Wii or the TV, then the kids already have two strikes against them, regardless of how good a teacher they have.
Yes, poor kids start with lots of disadvantages, but that is no reason to add the additional disadvantage of crumbling underfunded schools. Fully funding public education for all is not tossing money at the problem. To construct it hat way reveals your own classist right wing bias.
Comparing poor kids to chicken poop is a vulgar, classist and racist statement.
Without a culture that values education fully funding PE will fail. According to this article DC spends almost $25,000 per student:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/04/AR2008040402921.html
Graduation rate 48.8%
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/08/AR2009060803996.html
They must just need more money!
>^^<
dreamjoehill,
If anyone is treating some students as chicken-poop, it is the parents via their value system including their values regarding education. Neither the private nor the public education system is capable of making up for shoddy parents. It is difficult and takes a special child to overcome shoddy parents.
Outstanding and spot on!
Thank You
BProgress, parents who care about their children do not require a college education. Another remark designed to devide. Much of our primary education is weighted heavily with organizational priorities and financial concerns. Children are statistical abstracts in cookie cutter classrooms where many teachers are afraid to tell the truth.
Creative learning occurs in spite of public/private education. Our three children homeschooled for much of their early education and do very well, thank you. Two things they understand: we need to take care of planet Earth, and debt is a heavy burden to be avoided.
Hello philiphoko
I'm sure I would completely disagree with you regarding solutions, but you are so spot on with regards to problems within the process.
Thank You and Good luck!
Echo.
What's the problem?!
Corporatization of everything is the probem. Its called the commodification of education; soon to be traded on Wall St!
The corporate overlords see a chance to loot another public institution and spead corporate propaganda.
It's crisis capitalism in a nutshell.
You make claims about children "doing better" and unions causing educational failure, and you don't even have the respect to provide a source for this reactionary and outlandish propaganda.
Your comment is the thin whine and a nasty attempt to make union busting, racism and corporate totalitarianism seem reasonable and good for children.
Rania,
I am sure you are a sincere and energetic young person, but, BUT, if you think the average American cares about children in New Orleans and/or Detroit, then I have some bad news for you. Very few care. You care, I care and a few more care, but no one else. I do not know of any solution.
Keep up the good work!
"I have some bad news for you. Very few care. You care, I care and a few more care, but no one else. I do not know of any solution."
"In almost every scenario, the rightwing blames the failures it creates on its opponents. The failure of education in the USA is the result of rightwing values imposed on the nation in a back-door way."
The above two quotes are the two sides of progressivism in a nutshell: the feeling of moral purity and the feeling of persecution because of that "purity." As such, both quotes pretty fairly represent the two kinds of response you get from articles like this.
As for challenging power at a fundamental level--as Wisconsin clearly demonstrated, progressives don't do that. They're much too pure, and persecuted.
Maybe we should just bomb them! We are good at that!
>^^<
How do you measure success?
Success at what? What are the aims?
And yes, Detroit is at the vanguard of the American Future. It always has been. :wink:
It'll take a while for other cities, other towns, rural areas to catch up, and when all America is equal , and the race baiting and sexism baiting and immigrant baiting has been played out and no longer works to distract the masses from reality, then we might see some change across the whole country.
Because it's everyone or no one.
Mitch Daniels is getting media coverage as a Republican who might run for President. He is not getting coverage for getting rid of unions for Public Employees, privatizing the unemployment offices and medicaid and food stamp programs. He is pushing Charter Schools in Indianapolis, saying that Marion County is different from the rest of the State.He capped property taxs, slashing the funds for the Public School System. Since then, suddenly, he announced that he has a surplus of money and will begin All Day Kindergarten. This with less teachers than ever. All Day Kindergarten money for the Charter Schools. He is a sleeper, like the Wisconsin Governor and all the other newly elected Republicans that are now pushing through the Corporate agendas to the detriment of the American citizen and their children.
It is clear that the ruling elites of Wall Street and their fellow corporados intend to destroy public education from grade school to grad school. Tuition and fees at some state universities now approach the costs at elite Ivy League schools. In the 1960s I and my peers got bachelors degree without a cent of debt hanging over us. Society saw education as a social good that benefited and advanced the common good and accordingly funded and supported it. Now most students have tens of thousands of dollars in debt, making them debt peons to the system, where there are fewer and fewer jobs. Corporations will grab some pieces of the education system to be used as profit centers for their own ends, but they clearly regard a dumbed down population as preferable and easier to manipulate and control. As trillions are wasted on endless wars and given unaccountably to the Wall Street criminal fraudsters, we are told there is no money for public education and many other parts of the social and physical infrastructures we all depend on. The Obama crew is no more committed to public education than the Bush/Cheney gang. Arne Duncan as education secretary (not labor as the article states) is working steadily in the ideology of the Chicago/Friedman school to destroy and defund universal public education. Just 5% of the military's spending of over 1 trillion a year would resolve much of the state's education funding crises. But don't hold your breath for that event.
COURT JESTER: Thank you for posting this important information & clear, accurate analysis.
likeitornot,
On what do you base your statements? Show me some proof that New Orleans kids are doing better!
And the problem with standardized tests is that it produces clones unable to think independently and critically, the only goal is to pass a test, not to measure real learning. Each person learns differently, hence there cannot be any standard.
Obviously from reading your post critical thinking is what's most needed in this world to fight back the corporations, but if you like them to rule your life good for you, it's just that some of us prefer to be free.
Oh and I'll give you the solution: society and government need to invest money on education, health and infrastructure, NOT ON WAR AND MILITARIZATION.
If there any indication New Orleans schools are doing better, and I have seen no such evidence then it for one reason only.
The greatest demographic of peoples that have not yet returned to New Orleans are its poor who lived in the black districts of that city. It was those areas that were most devastated by the flooding and those which have taken the longest to rebuild.
There a very specific reason for this. Developers want to redevelop those districts and turn them into tourist hot spots by building hotels and casinoes.
I suspect likeitornot has read another of those studies from right wing think tanks wherein data cherry picked to arrive at a false conclusion.
You expect likeitornot / Thomas More / Henry8 / prometheus / mightymite to base his right wing mantras on proof?
He just makes stuff up as he goes along.
If you watch John Taylor Gatto’s Youtube talk, “State Controlled Consciousness,” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ogCc8ObiwQ, or read his excellent essay, “Against School,” http://www.spinninglobe.net/againstschool.htm, you may be able to get a better handle on what’s going on. Here’s an excerpt from the essay:
“We could encourage the best qualities of youthfulness—curiosity, adventure, resilience, the capacity for surprising insights imply by being more flexible about time, texts, and tests, by introducing kids to truly competent adults, and by giving each student what autonomy he or she needs in order to take a risk every now and then.
“But we don't do that. And the more I asked why not, and persisted in thinking about the 'problem' of schooling as an engineer might, the more I missed the point: What if there is no 'problem' with our schools? What if they are the way they are, so expensively flying in the face of common sense and long experience in how children learn things, not because they are doing something wrong but because they are doing something right? Is it possible that George W. Bush accidentally spoke the truth when he said we would ‘leave no child behind’? Could it be that our schools are designed to make sure not one of them ever really grows up?”
The true objective to public schools, as Gatto finally figured out, is to dumb people down, to make them bored, uninterested, uncurious, and sitting ducks for propaganda and advertising. They tell teachers to “implement the curriculum,” and if they don’t, they’ll get fired or harassed. The true purpose is to stupefy the children so they’ll have no interest in what is going on.
The good news, as I’m finding out, is that hordes of students are beginning to realize this, and aren’t buying it. Perhaps TPTB have realized this and are reacting with this faux argument. They get people riled up by saying that these teachers are making too much money, are incompetent, and have too much political power, so they must be stopped—but few are realizing that the problem is the curriculum and moronic teaching colleges. Bill Gates, like the “philanthropists” Carnegie and Peabody and Ford and Rockefeller, is going to take over our new educational system.
What’s the alternative to public education? For-profits? Don’t be stupid. We need to do what the Amish have done: refuse to make them go to school past the age of 13, teach them practical things and encourage them to learn about important, adult issues, say that they cannot be drafted, and start doing the educating ourselves, or better yet, give them some good books and let them do it themselves.
Likeitornot, I’m not sure if you’re a troll or just confused. Courtjester, that was a wonderful comment, and I thank you.
Thank you for those John Gatto links. I have heard (and had) similar arguments myself, but he adds tons of clarity, depth, and knowledge to the picture. I was unfamiliar with Gatto, but I treasure him already!
Elizabeth,
Thanks, for the John Taylor Gatto links -- I spent part of the afternoon listening to various links on YouTube. My views are very similar! His entire book, The Underground History of American Education, is available on his website at:
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/index.htm
Welcome back Kay. I too have been away for quite a while and on and off on the occasion. I look forward to reading your posts in the coming days and weeks ahead. :)
P.S.: I and others still await the return of RichM.
Hi Jennifer!
Thanks for the warm welcome back. The other day, when the tornadoes tore through St. Louis, I thought about you -- didn't you used to live in St. Louis? I was surprised to discover that no one was seriously injured!
Ah, yes, RichM -- is greatly missed!
I still live in St Louis but had to move to the county since living in the city turned out to be more expensive. That was nearly 3 years ago. My state is a total klutz with the typical anti-government rightwing rugged individualist attitude. The reality is that St Louis is in no better shape than New Orleans and the latest on the levee woes scares me. Unfortunately, none of this will change the tea bagger crowds already busy with their rude and macho attitude. They say that there is no money for public transportation, maintaining and repairing our public infrastructure, public education, and other caring social programs. Yet, they go mum even when shown the facts that taxpayer money is being used to fund fake "abortion" clinics and churches with pastors and bishops who are misogynists with some of them being known wife beaters ! Of course, this is also the same state that not only wants to further restrict women's rights on abortion and more but will even go out on a limb to reinstate child slave labor ! State Senator Jean Cunningham of all people would have the nerve to do it. All this has driven me insane to the point of angrily saying that feminism and the entire "left" in the USA is dead unlike Europe. Unfortunately, that has angered some on this site and Alternet and I slowly apologized for my insanity but I still think that nothing is changing for the better no matter how hard we all try.
P.S.: This forum is about the only one left in term of serious progressive thinking. Most supposedly "progressive" forums can get too classist even in the middle of economic woes and environmental disasters even though not everyone is a classist snob and I have nothing personal against anyone. Yet, I find the foreign forums and blogs far more enlightening than most American ones. Yes, I may have to learn those foreign languages but it sure beats giving myself a throbbing headache with the Obamabots.
Hi Jennifer!
Since I grew up in the Midwest, in a very small, very conservative community in southwest Iowa, and then, ended up living in Lincoln, NE for a number of years, I understand your concerns about Missouri and the mindset of many of the citizens! I am still connected through some of my friends -- progressives. Ergo, I am very sympathetic to your comments and feelings. In Red Oak, Iowa, most people were born partisan -- with the Republican/Conservative tag, and their beliefs remained unaltered as adults. I was one of the lucky ones -- my Grandmother and Grandfather were true progressives! They must have felt like fish out of water. To me, my Grandmother was one of the most interesting people I have ever known.
"All this has driven me insane to the point of angrily saying that feminism and the entire "left" in the USA is dead unlike Europe." -- JenniferB
BTW -- I have made similar statements in the past, and will make similar statement in the future. I wish I didn't agree with you -- BUT, I do agree with you. I can give you an example, if you like:
Here in NYC, when Bloomberg was running for his 3rd (illegal, IMO) term, he used his money to buy his election. Both NARAL and Planned Parenthood supported Bloomberg, even though Bill Thompson, the Democrat, stood for choice, etc. The few times I watched TV, I saw ads by NARAL for Bloomberg, who has accumulated about $14 billion while in office as mayor. His policies do NOT help most of us who live in NYC, other than that magical 2% of the population that we keep hearing about in the financial and economic reports. Affordable housing, etc., doesn't exist anymore -- or, the list is so long that a person might have to wait several years for help. Just because Bloomberg advocates for CHOICE, doesn't mean that his economic policies will help women, children, or men, when they need help. Every day, I see more and more homeless people on the streets of NYC. There is so much more I could say, but I will end here on this issue. I, too, am angry with the so-called feminists and quite a number of other liberal groups!
Jennifer, I continue, whenever I can, to attend rallies and protests on a variety of issues, but even in a city of 8 million people, the crowds are VERY small! Keep in mind -- our recently elected governor, Andrew Cuomo (a Democrat), is also anti-union.
I read the article about the levees breaking in Poplar Bluff, MO. Like you, I believe that we need real leadership at the local, state and federal levels, irrespective of party labels -- the infrastructure of this country is literally crumbling around us. (This morning, I awoke to the news that more than 214 people had lost their lives during the storms/tornadoes that tore through several southern states. My heart goes out to them!)
In 2004, the community of Poplar Bluff, MO, petitioned George W. Bush to visit and campaign there. Almost everyone in the town signed the petition. My very best childhood friend's sister and brother-in-law lived in Poplar Bluff at that time which is why I know about this event. My friend's sister is the only member of the family who is NOT progressive, which baffles me, because when my friend and I were little, this sister introduced us to all of the protest singers and the protest groups of that era.
It was in Poplar Bluff that George W. Bush said, "Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country." —Poplar Bluff, MO., Sept. 6, 2004
Thanks, Jennifer, for your very thoughtful response!
In almost every scenario, the rightwing blames the failures it creates on its opponents. The failure of education in the USA is the result of rightwing values imposed on the nation in a back-door way. The values of Das Kapital have to be imposed through the back door because the people won't let them through the front door. When the house is filled with rightwing values, it cannot function. When the society is filled with rightwing values it cannot function. When the mind, or the body, or the spirit, is filled with rightwing values it cannot function.