Mr. Richardson Has Done It Again

I have been reading more than writing lately. I always love taking a break. Will Richardson has once again made me think with his post An Education President. Will opens the post with the reality of his opinion on Obama's latest speech...

"Like him or not, what Barack Obama did yesterday, in my opinion at least, epitomizes what we need our next president to be, namely a teacher. Agree with him or not, can there be any doubt that anyone listening to that speech yesterday is not thinking harder and more expansively about race in this country and in our lives today? Trust him or not, is there any question that he articulated a real truth about the state of race relations from both a black and a white perspective?"

Listening to radio and television personalities has caused me to wonder about the State of Country as it relates to race relations. Race is an important topic. Listening to a few Conservative Republicans ho humming about Obama's speech last night, I came to the conclusion that most people do not care about the Country... They care about themselves. They started in talking about MORE important topics... Economy, The War, Immigration. More important to who?

I am a 29 year old white man that has many concerns with the Country in which I live. I am constantly thinking of changes that may make The United States a better place to live for everyone. One change that needs to take place... Bring a divided nation together to in turn make it a stronger nation.

Rush Limbaugh recently suggested that conservatives should vote for Hillary. For some reason, conservatives think that de-democratizing the system will work in their benefit. How is this a democracy? Voting for someone that you do not want to win for the purpose of getting your favorite candidate elected is not what our Country was founded on. I do hope that this comes back to bite the conservatives. It would be funny if they had to drudge through another 4 years with a Clinton at the helm. They would have no one to blame but themselves. Until next blog...

Transparency in Congress

Jim Cramer is the host of the hot (what to do with your money) show called "Mad Money" on CNBC. He has taken interest in the ever popular Sirius/XM merger that has been held up in Congress for over a year now. He is baffled at the attention this merger is getting. So baffled, he started to do his own investigating as to why this merger is being shot down in Congress. Click here for the article. Congress claims that the merger would violate anti-trust issues and would create a monopoly. How can satellite radio be a monopoly, when the competition (terrestrial radio) is free? This doesn't even take into account the other competitors... Ipods and CD's. I pay $12.95 a month for a subscription to SSR, but still listen to terrestrial radio.

Jim Cramer does not own stock in either of these companies. In fact, he doesn't own any stock... for obvious reasons. He sees what is going on in Congress and is name dropping. Cramer is a true financial hero. He mentions many Congressmen that have their pockets filled with terrestrial radios money. He then reveals how the average person can find this information out for themselves. Using sights like opensecrets.org and opencongress.org , one can find out all contributors to Congress, bills being introduced and who voted for what.

The transparency of our government is shining through. Cramer suggests that the only person being hurt by the merger of Sirius and XM Radio is Terrestrial Radio. But, how much will this actually hurt them? TR is free! Congress states that the merger will eventually lead to the rise of prices for the service. But, SR has to keep their prices down because the competitor is free. So this is a non-issue.

If Congress is so worried about rising prices, why did they let the two most profitable oil companies merge in the late 90's?... Exxon/Mobile ... If Congress cares so much about the consumer, why did they let the two most profitable Washer and Dryer Companies merge in 2006?... Maytag/Whirlpool. Does congress think that these mergers are creating monopolies?

Cramer claims that this attention being focused on Sirius and XM is deliberate and is for the sole reason to bleed these companies dry. The ultimate goal is to have these two companies fight the issue until one folds. Congress can no longer hide in these situations. There will always be situations like this in the future. 20 years ago, this would go unnoticed to the public. Not today. Our world is increasingly getting more and more transparent. I love it. Until next blog...

Why We Fight

I have been meandering off the education path lately. I can't help it... some things are just too important not to write about. They are all tied together anyway. I had the opportunity to watch this documentary yesterday.

We are told on a regular basis that we fight with other countries to save "Freedom". We are told that this fighting is necessary in order to keep our way of life in the United States.

This documentary notes many instances in the past 60 years that have built up our military to insure that we are the only Super Power in the World. From the bombing of Japan with Nuclear Warheads to the invasion of Iraq to eliminate terrorism. These actions could have easily been avoided. Japan tried to surrender for 6 months prior to the U.S. dropping the bombs. We didn't listen. We wanted to show how powerful we could be. We wanted to put fear in everyones thoughts. America can't and won't be messed with.

On September 11, 2001 we were attacked by terrorists. Instead of informing the American people as to "why" we were attacked, our government just blamed it on the evil-doers. No explanation... just, the evil doers don't like us because of our freedoms. The American people bought it. There was no mention of past alliances and actions that the U.S. government had with these people. There was no mention about how "we" built up the Taliban to fight the Russians, then left Afghanistan in ruins.

For 60 years the U.S. Government has had 1 underlying plan... To be the one and only Super Power on this Planet, by any means possible. We attack any Country that may be gaining power in the world, under the false pretense that we are trying to help them.

I guess Countries like Sudan are not a threat.

America: Culture of Confusion

Questions below...
I am worried about the culture of the United States. I am worried about what we deem as important in our country. It seems as though we say what we want everyone to hear when it comes to morals and ideology. We say one thing, but practice something completely different. It upsets me when I see a parent pick up their child in an H2 Hummer, when their child is on a free or reduced lunch program. It worries me when parents pay a child for their good grades on a report card. This is projected upon our children.
I do not want to make a blanket statement. I am not claiming that these are the actions of everyone in our Western Culture, but it is a reocurring theme.
Children are sponges that soak up everything that comes their way, whether its an innocent puddle of water or a toxic puddle of antifreeze. We are a culture of "look at me, look what I have". I hear this coming from the mouths of 4th and 5th graders every day. Most of them are more worried about being accepted and wearing clothes that are fashionable, then actually learning.
Having a conversation with a class of 5th graders today, we got off on a tangent, talking about life. This happens sometimes in my Science class. I asked them a few questions about their lives.

1. Why are you in school?
2. What do you enjoy about school?
3. What do you not enjoy about school?
4. What do you enjoy doing at home?
5. What career do you plan to have in the future?

You could imagine the answers I heard from 5th graders. This sums it up...To learn, recess, work, watching t.v., rapper, basketball player, on television.
It would be interesting to go to another country and ask students these same questions. I don't know the answers that we would hear, but I would imagine it would depend on the Country.
The fact is that these are all learned responses. I'd imagine that these answers would have been completely different if I was to ask them one on one. The students are more worried about impressing their classmates then giving a truthful answer. It's a circle. It goes back to the Hummer. What are we teaching our kids? What ideals are important to the adults in this Western Culture?