Arizona Politics for Conservatives: Sonoran Alliance
Arizona Politics, News, Commentary and Information with a Blatantly Conservative Worldview Presented by an Alliance of Writers, Activists, Consultants and Government Insiders.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/134080
Take these two items together and consider how the individual in the White House views Israel. This is being posted so folks who wish to can consider how events like these may impact them. The White House is stalling on Afghanistan and the dollar is still in ICU. And, why on 9/11 there was no mention in the U.S. media of the words “Muslim”, “radical”, or “Islamic.”
by Matthew Ladner, Ph.D.
Goldwater Institute
This summer, Goldwater Institute Senior Fellow Dan Lips and I published an article in the journal Education Next explaining why a student’s race, ethnicity or family income are not accurate predictors of their future academic success. We were very pleased when the Chancellor of New York City Schools, Joel Klein wrote a letter in response to the article.
Here is an excerpt from Klein’s letter:
In “Demography as Destiny?” (features, Summer 2009), Matthew Ladner and Dan Lips argue that Florida’s reforms–school accountability, literacy enhancement, student accountability, teacher quality, and school choice–have helped students there achieve record academic success. Florida’s results support school-focused reform strategies, such as those we’ve implemented in New York City. New York City’s progress in narrowing the achievement gap confirms that policymakers and advocates can no longer use demographic factors like race, ethnicity, income, or zip code to excuse differences in educational achievement between high- and low-needs students…We still have a long way to go, but it’s clear that even the most disadvantaged students can achieve at high levels when provided with a strong education.
It’s time for leaders across America to stop making excuses for low student performance. As Florida and New York City demonstrate, we can offer all students, regardless of their backgrounds, the educational opportunity they need and deserve.
Joel I. Klein
New York City Schools Chancellor
Klein led the Clinton administration’s anti-trust action against Microsoft and currently heads the nation’s largest school district. Teacher’s unions and other anti-reform groups face a growing and philosophically diverse array of critics who will not accept the sorry state of American schools. Liberals, conservatives and libertarians can all agree: Getting better results for the amount of money this country spends on education is critical for America’s future. Increasing parental choice is a key ingredient to an overall K-12 improvement strategy, and has growing support among the entire political spectrum.
Dr. Matthew Ladner is vice president for research at the Goldwater Institute.
| Often we are unaware of events happening on the other side of the Atlantic. This has been posted, so that you may consider the issue of “Defamation of Religions” as viewed by the Islamic world.
Of course, little thought is given by them to reciprocity in regards to Christians… |
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| http://www.eclj.org/ | |
| (Geneva, Switzerland) – The European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ), the international affiliate of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), has told the United Nations Human Rights Council that it is pleased that the “Defamation of Religions” concept being promoted by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is continuing to lose support.
It became clear that the OIC countries – lead by Egypt and Pakistan – continue to see an erosion of support which became evident during a public discussion before the U.N. Human Rights Council on September 30th. During that session, discussion focused on the most recent report “on the manifestations of defamation of religions, and in particular on the serious implications of Islamophobia, on the enjoyment of all rights by their followers.” (Document A/HRC/12/38) This report, presented by Githu Muigai, the new Special Rapporteur “on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance” advocates for a “change of paradigm” – has shifted the debate from the “sociological notion of the defamation of religions to the human rights and legal concept of incitement to racial and religious hatred.” This legal concept is grounded in relevant international, regional and national instruments, in particular references are made to article 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), and to articles 19 and 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which proscribe incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence. The ECLJ, in its oral presentation before the Human Right Council, expressed its satisfaction to see the gradual abandonment of the concept of “defamation of religion” and the shift toward a legal approach. The ECLJ has been advocating for two years in favor of this legal approach and considers this change as very positive. The ECLJ representative recalled that anti-blasphemy laws are very often implemented in a totally arbitrary way and serve as a pretext for persecution of religious minorities – mostly Christians – in countries like Pakistan, for example. “It is clear that the continuing push to protect Islam with this ‘defamation of religions’ concept amounts to a dangerous effort to eradicate current international standards on freedom of expression, said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the ECLJ and ACLJ. “We’re already getting ready for the next phase in the challenge over the ‘defamation of religions’ which will intensify at the end of October at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, when the OIC is expected to once again introduce its ‘defamation of religions’ resolution. We will continue to educate member nations about the dangers of this concept.” During the discussion, the OIC countries strongly opposed this shift away from the concept of defamation of religions, explaining that the issue is “too complex” to be addressed by the legal norm of non-incitement to national, racial or religious hatred. In fact, it’s clear that the goal of the Islamic countries is nothing less that to internationally defend and safeguard the “name of Mohamed” and the religion of Islam against any form of irreverence or criticism, by limiting the freedom of expression actually protected in international human rights laws. That places current international legal standards on freedom of expression at risk. The ECLJ has been working to educate and inform member nations about the dangers of the concept of “defamation of religion”, a concept often used to silence religious minorities – including Christianity in many countries. A growing number of organizations and legal experts recognize now the threat of this notion to religious freedom. In June, the European Center for Law and Justice had already been invited to submit to the U.N. High Commissioner of Human Rights a detailed legal analysis on the same issue.  Does anyone see the irony in Defamation of Religion? |
I’m still shocked that a person as unfit and anti-American as Obama got elected president. He’s not just your average destructive Liberal. How did it happen? How did a closet-Muslim named ‘Barak Hussein Obama’ get elected? Was it the flaccidness of the Bush administration? Was it the uncompromising weakness of John McCain? Maybe those things contributed but, I think that real answer lies in the social conditioning infused into our culture by our universities and pop culture over the last five decades—especially in the area of race relations.
A critical element of this conditioning is the untrue teaching that America is a “racist” nation and that black people are an oppressed group who are constantly being exploited by the greedy, white majority who ought to feel shame and guilt for the oppressions they inflict—even the unintended ones. The Liberal solution to these oppressions (after a hefty dose of guilt) are “Affirmative Action” programs—programs where blacks and other minorities are given preference in hiring and other areas over white applicants. That’s right, the same folks who insist that race shouldn’t matter want race to matter.
During the election I heard many a white Liberal say that “it is time our nation had a black president”. Like any Affirmative Action program the racial outcome is more important than the qualifications. All of these decades of conditioning have bestowed upon Obama a layer of protection never experienced by any previous president; just watch how many of his critics will continue to be labeled a “racist”.
You can bet that Hillary Clinton is one Democrat who isn’t enjoying this presidential Affirmative Action but other Liberals remain obsessed with racial issues. Why stop with the presidency? Let’s go whole hog. I think that every Democrat in congress should resign their seat in favor of a minority replacement. Let the healing begin!
Arizona Hispanic Republicans Launch New GOP Group
For Immediate Release Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Contact: Communications, info@somosrepublicans.com
Phoenix, AZ — On the eve of Mexican Independence Day and Hispanic Heritage Month, we are proud to announce the launch of Somos Republicans - a grassroots Hispanic GOP organization in Arizona.
Our mission and goals are simple: Increase Hispanic GOP voter registration; Recruit Hispanic Precinct Committeemen; Promote Hispanic GOP candidates; and get more Republicans involved and elected to office.
For far too long, Hispanic Republicans have been neglected and taken for granted. Somos Republicans has something to say: ?We are Conservative in our beliefs and we will be active in politics and shape the new Republican face!? We share the values and principles of the Republican Party, but our voices in the past have fallen on deaf ears.
When elected and party officials are quoted as saying such outlandish comments as, ?Operation Wetback; Change the Constitution because of too many anchor babies in our country; and all the terrorists are coming through Mexico (knowing full well that the 9-11 terrorists came from Canada when they overstayed their visas)? it is no wonder why Republicans continue to lose elections and registration advantages.
17% of eligible voters in Arizona are Latino. How many elections are determined with a margin of victory or defeat with less than 17%? — Almost all of them. Imagine the impact Latinos would have if all eligible Hispanic voters were registered to vote. Somos Republicans will work tirelessly to ensure that approximately 673,000 eligible Hispanic voters in Arizona are registered to vote, and will explain the Republican values of being pro-family, patriotic, pro-2nd Amendment, pro-religious freedom, pro-life, pro-Capitalism, supportive of the school voucher system, supportive of a strong military and national defense, against tax increases, for smaller government, and for humane immigration reform focusing on legalizing labor that would yield significant income gains for Americans and our households.
Pat Buchanan has a provocative assessment of the current political climate posted over at World Net Daily in which he asserts that American may be coming apart.
Given the growing dicension and unrest, I would have to agree with him. And we should have expected it. For several generations, American attitudes have been shifting between those who give and those who take; those who reap the benefits of government and those who pay for them.
It’s an attitude of entitlement and that everything other than life, liberty and property is a “right.”
We’ve been warned about this already many many years ago by a Scot named Sir Alexander Fraser Tytler when he supposedly said:
A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.
I’m not certain that Tytler had our situation in mind when he made his famous statement given that we are actually a Constitutional Republic, but I would have to agree that once a certain number of the population realizes that they can vote themselves into dependence on the state, we have a real problem.
I can easily see the other portion of the population revolting and collectively shutting down funding of the entire system. Already some conservative celebrities have suggested they’re gonna stop paying taxes into the system probably through tax avoidance (not to be confused with tax evasion). Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe they will be blatant in their refusal to fund the federal government. Regardless, I get a sense that those who have been funding the system are a day short from refusing to pay any more. And why should we expect anything but that when we’ve already escalated our everyday financial vernacular to the use of the word “Trillion” with a capital “T?”
I hope I’m wrong about this but I have a terrible gut feeling that our economic political and social system is about to collapse under the weight of entitlement.
If or when that happens, life in America will be very different. A post-American senario has already been predicted by Russian political science professor, Igor Panarin, but I don’t give total credence to his disintigration of the US hypothesis. We may be weak but not to the point where other countries rapidly infiltrate and balkanize us into six separate nation states. But his assertion that we are overwhelmed with financial turmoil and to a certain degree, moral degredation, does worry many of us.
Back to Buchanan’s column where he says:
We are not only more divided than ever on politics, faith and morality, but along the lines of class and ethnicity. Those who opposed Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court and stood by Sgt. Crowley in the face-off with Harvard’s Henry Louis Gates were called racists. But this time they did not back down. They threw the same vile word right back in the face of their accusers, and Barack Obama.
Consider but a few issues on which Americans have lately been bitterly divided: school prayer, the Ten Commandments, evolution, the death penalty, abortion, homosexuality, assisted suicide, affirmative action, busing, the Confederate battle flag, the Duke rape case, Terri Schiavo, Iraq, amnesty, torture.
Now it is death panels, global warming, “birthers” and socialism. If a married couple disagreed as broadly and deeply as Americans do on such basic issues, they would have divorced and gone their separate ways long ago. What is it that still holds us together?
The European-Christian core of the country that once defined us is shrinking, as Christianity fades, the birth rate falls and Third World immigration surges. Globalism dissolves the economic bonds, while the cacophony of multiculturalism displaces the old American culture.
“E pluribus unum” – out of many, one – was the national motto the men of ’76 settled upon. One sees the pluribus. But where is the unum? One sees the diversity. But where is the unity?
Sounds to me like our motto may be changing to “E Pluribus Discerpo” but I pray I’m wrong, if praying is still allowed.
Here what the Acorn Organizer-in-Chief has to say on the topic,
“You can’t fix the economy, without fixing health care.”
An issue affecting less than 59 million Americans (out of a population of about 330 million). Of course, if there were less people there’d be less pollution, more for everyone else, and fixing the economy would be much easier (especially if they don’t have to pay out Social Security to the Baby Boom generation now coming into the system. But how to do that?
And here’s the special interests, the big drug companies who stand to recover their paltry $150 million to change your entire future…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s drugmakers stand ready to spend $150 million to help President Barack Obama overhaul health care this fall, according to numerous officials, a staggering sum that could dwarf attempts to derail Obama’s top domestic priority. [a special interest of Biblical proportions]http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2009/08/08/drug-industry-helping-obama-overhaul-health-care/
But who wrote those thousands of pages of health care legislation? Your elected officials or their staff? Who’s Orwellian vision is this [e-u-g-e-n-i-c-s] program? Have you ever heard of Jacob Hacker or Tides Momentum? How about Senator John Kerry? Yes? you recognize that name … well remember his ‘french’ wife, Theressa?
The Tides Foundation is her ‘progressive’ organization and a part of the
Open Society foundation network (George Sorros) and the Tides Foundation (Theressa Kerry):
www.tides.org/tides-foundation/index.html
This quote is taken from Tides Momentum 2008 Plenary Session, the guy quoted is the guy who designed those thousands of pages of “health care reform” now sitting before the U.S. Congress. Remember his name, Jacob Hacker.
For the first time since 1992, we can more than just hope that the U.S. healthcare crisis will somehow be solved—we can see real possibilities emerging. Already on the ground and in the trenches in the U.S. and abroad, Momentums Health plenary speakers are laying the foundation for system-wide changes
Since 1992? A crisis? Have you listened to these guys?
Well, it seems very few folks are even aware they exist. Yet BigDrug Inc is willing to invest $150,000,000 to ram this health care nightmare through Congress this Fall whether or not you like it.
The last video for you to digest is complete disinformation about the disinformation from the White House Office of Disinformation … note the old video footage. Oh, and that guy Jacob Hacker? Watch
As for ACORN? Just the “community thugs” to enforce CHANGE (whether or not you want it) … and if you’re over 55? the ‘community counselor will be by to dialog with you about hospice’ (monthly until you die). And don’t worry about the health care costs of the mentally or physically challenged in the years to come, DNA screening and abortion will be provided to those found in need – no one will be left out.
Are you ready for Eugenics in the Progressive Era?
State schools superintendent Tom Horne is getting national attention for taking on the elements of so-called “ethnic pride” in an Arizona school district. Today’s Washington Times chronicles Horne’s ongoing battles with the entrenched bureaucrats and recalcitrant school board at the Tucson Unified School District who want to make sure Arizona taxpayers continue to foot the bill for Raza studies – a curricula that belittles the United States and advocates for racial separatism. Horne’s fight is one that’s worth winning. Here’s an excerpt but of course, you can read the entire article here.
Tom Horne has two degrees from Harvard University. He participated in Martin Luther King’s 1963 March on Washington. He’s Arizona’s superintendent of public instruction.
In other words, he’s not the kind of guy you would expect to find at the forefront of a movement to eliminate a politically sensitive program such as ethnic studies. Yet there he is, blasting classes that promote what he calls “ethnic chauvinism,” calling for voters to oust school board members who support it and generally painting a target on his back for liberals and minority advocacy groups.
“What I object to is dividing kids by race and teaching them only about their own culture,” Mr. Horne said in a telephone interview. “That’s exactly the opposite of what we should be doing. We should be teaching kids that they’re individuals and not exemplars of racial groups.”
Earlier today, Dr. Matt Ladner at the Goldwater Institute revealed a disturbing poll on the state of civics education amongst Arizona students. Some time ago, we ran this video but we thought it was worth posting again. This problem is obviously not limited to Arizona students. This video was shot during the November 2008 Election.
Phoenix Business Journal is reporting that Arvizu Advertising is in court seeking relief from 207 creditors to the tune of $3 Million.
Local creditors include KTVW – Univision 33 ($1.2 Million), KUVE-TV ($139,191), McDonalds, The Arizona Republic, Ryley Carlock & Applewhite PA, Chicanos Por La Causa – Tucson, and dozens of media outfits.
The PBJ reports:
Arvizu Advertising is one of the oldest marketing and pubic relations firms in metro Phoenix, primarily serving the region’s booming Hispanic market and businesses. Its clients have included Basha’s and its sister company Food City, Quest Communications Inc. and McDonald’s. The company has created numerous public service announcements targeting Latinos, and is well known for its philanthropic endeavors in the community.
According to the 2008 Phoenix Business Journal Book of Lists, Arvizu was the largest minority-owned firm in the Phoenix area, generating $113 million of local gross revenue in 2007. Arvizu Advertising, similar to many other marketing firms here, has struggled to keep its book of clients, while others have cut marketing budgets. The industry continues to shrink, as real estate advertising vanished after the housing crash and other economic drivers, such as tourism, flounder in the deepening recession.
One factor not mentioned in Chris Casacchia’s report is whether or not a reduction in the Hispanic population has been a contributing factor in Arvizu’s decline.
Here’s a video that is making the rounds.
There are signs that Allah will grant victory to Islam in Europe without swords, without guns, without conquest. We don’t need terrorists, we don’t need homicide bombers. The 50 plus million Muslims [in Europe] will turn it into a Muslim continent within a few decaces.” – Muammar al-Gaddafi
If what “FriendofMuslim” asserts is correct, we can expect the world to look a whole lot different in a generation.
The irony in all of this is that those in the liberal “progressive” movement (gay rights, feminists, population control advocates) who have little or no toleration for social conservatives (Evangelical Christians and Catholics) will likely be the first ones who extreme Islamics will seek to eliminate.
For some time I’ve been asserting that the country is moving pro-life based on simple demographics. And although a majority of Americans voted for the most pro-abortion president in history, that vote was not driven by pro-life values but rather economic self-preservation.
Today, Gallup released results of a poll stating the obvious – the country is moving pro-life. Gallup states,
A new Gallup Poll, conducted May 7-10, finds 51% of Americans calling themselves “pro-life” on the issue of abortion and 42% “pro-choice.” This is the first time a majority of U.S. adults have identified themselves as pro-life since Gallup began asking this question in 1995.
Much of this attitude shift is due to an unmasking of the ugly and horrific Obama abortion agenda among middle-of-the-road voters: taxpayer funding of organizations who promote abortion overseas, taxpayer funding of destructive embryonic experimentation (which has already been determined ineffective compared to adult stem cell research), the pursuit of the so-called Freedom of Choice Act, opposition to the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act and the list goes on…
Fundamentally, the country is switching and there are a number of reasons.
First, the pro-life movement has made tremendous strides in educating the public on the issue. Whether this has been through promoting an adoration and respect for innocent human life through the culture (music and film), through teaching basic human development and embryology in the classroom, or by simply stigmatizing the abortion industry.
Second, this is a battle of attrition. Let’s face it, pro-lifers are having children and “pro-choicers” are not. Those values are being passed on to their children and as I’ve said, its creating a red-diaper culture. This is especially prevalent among faith-based groups which hold a strong respect for life: Evangelicals, Catholics and Muslims. Think about it. As those with less or no religious views (typically pro-choice) have fewer children and those who have strong religious views have more children, the value of respect for life becomes more concentrated or diluted on their respective sides.
The good news is that time is on the side of the pro-life movement. The law will finally catch up to the science. Eventually the culture will shift not just based on the pure science of the issue, but it will also be reinforced by the faith factor. And one day, we will live in a country in which all human life is respected regardless of age, location or human development.
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A survey of National Weather Service weather stations finds that |
Special Thanks to WeGetIt.org for the following:
As the country reels from the economic down-turn and officials cautiously hope for a recovery to begin by the end of this year, some Congressional leaders are calling for a “green recovery.” But Spain, which leads the world in creating green jobs, has found that for every green job created, 2.2 jobs are lost.
Now comes a memo from the Office of Management and Budget to Environmental Protection Agency saying, “Making the decision to regulate CO2 under the [Clean Air Act] for the first time is likely to have serious economic consequences for regulated entities throughout the U.S. economy, including small businesses and small communities.”
But, what would you think if you learned that the most reliable database in the world on which fears of man made global warming–the rationale for such a massive tax–are based was fundamentally unreliable? That almost 9 out of 10 measuring stations failed to meet basic criteria for long-term comparable data?
You’d probably think the fears weren’t well grounded–and neither was the tax.
That’s precisely the case with American temperature monitoring stations. They’re supposed to constitute the world’s most reliable set of stations, but 89% fail to meet the National Weather Service’s siting requirements . They’re exposed to all sorts of nearby point sources of heat that have increased over time, making their long-term records show a false upward trend.
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(Left) A National Weather Service temperature monitoring station located among |
As this map and its key show, the result is near-universal higher-than-proper temperature readings at stations around the country. (You can see stations in particular states here.)
A study of the significance of these and similar findings for stations around the world led two experts to conclude that estimates of warming from 1980 to 2002 were double what they should have been. Satellite records confirm this study’s results and show significant global cooling for the last seven years.
Are these good grounds to adopt expensive cap-and-trade?
Percent of US population Jewish – 2.2% (2006 as reported)
Percent of US population Muslim – 0.6% (2007 as reported)
Percent of US population Catholic – 22% (2008 as reported)
Percent of US population Mormon – 1.7% (as reported)
Percent of US population Protestant – 51.3% (as reported)
Percent of US population “Non-Religious – 15% (2009 as reported)
Summing up by group, the percentage who approve of the job Barack Obama’s been doing is 39.9% of the nation’s population. Meanwhile, among Protestants and Mormons (53% of the US population) the POTUS is holding a 58% or lower approval rating.
Consider now that 30% of Congress is Catholic and 51.3% are Protestant. Jewish influence is 8.4% in Congress for 2.2% of the population while Mormons comprise 2.6% of Congress for 1.7% of the country. There are 3 Buddhists, two Muslims and one out-of-the-closet atheist.
Now here’s the question: Is religious background (or lack thereof) a factor in the MSM’s coverage and hype of Obama? [I'm only asking a question]
This envelope represents one child who died in abortion. It is empty because that life was unable to offer anything to the world. LIFE begins at conception.
How long will Obama and the MSM continue to ignore this story?
The racism of Planned Parenthood appears to be working. Here’s the trend line from 1973 to 2005 shown as a percentage of total abortions performed:
[Source: US CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report MMWR 11/28/08]
The good news is that the overall rate of abortions in the United States continues to decline. From 2004 to 2005 the rate dropped 2.3% overall from 839,266 to 820,151.
For 2005, the highest percentages of reported abortions were for women who were known to be unmarried (81%), white (53%), and aged <25 years (50%). In 2004 (the most recent years for which data are available), seven women died as a result of complications from known legal induced abortion. One death was associated with known illegal abortion.
Perhaps this country will someday come to a place where, although still legal, abortion becomes socially a procedure no woman would ever consider. But for the moment, the termination of life in the womb remains the most popular surgical procedure in this country.
Invest $.42 and send the White House a Red Envelope today. Oh, and I remain totally Pro-Choice … the woman may choose how to protect her body BEFORE she has sex.
The liberal blog Rum, Romanism, Rebellion is reporting that PolitickerAZ is shutting down, its parent company is closing up shop in the various states it operates in. Even though PolitickerAZ had only two paid employees. When they first arrived on the scene, we were pleased to see a local newspaper type of publication debut only on the web. We were not pleased to see that PolitickerAZ had a decidedly left-wing bent. This came as no surprise, since it is run by the far left New York Observer. A model like this cannot survive, because there are already two liberal newspapers in the Valley that are migrating to the web, the Republic (with its 1000+ employees) and the Tribune. They have disproportionately provided the mainstream news to the Valley for years; trying to add yet another so-called mainstream news outlet with a liberal bias is just too much saturation for conservative Arizona. With the advent of online news from talk radio stations like KTAR and KFYI, which are less biased, as well as this blog, there are fewer people likely to go to a small biased online news outlet like PolitickerAZ.
Cultural tastes also group us into demographic ploppings of people. Our friends quote a line from Caddyshack, or The Godfather, and we can finish it together. Ahh– it’s a brotherhood. Love grows from moments as such, and good times become frightenly nostalgic. But then, what is better than realizing you belong, and those people over there are weird! So much for teaching of tolerance and singing Kumbaya; this is the happy hour of our life and today either tastes great or is less filling.
In the scope of political correctness comes the reality check that we are not supposed to tolerate everyone or everything. We do not think alike; our closest friends line up either with us or against us.
Mockery? Maybe. But there is a real need to bond based on personal valuations. It’s who we are and how we find out who is going to be there for us. It is how we play nicely with others. If we keep denying that factions happen, we truly begin to think that there is only one right way. Diversity is rooted in the reality check that differences are only recognizable as a result of cultural bias and personal judgment. We are free to choose for ourselves, and still get along with others who are really different.
As a certified teacher and counselor, with many clock hours from oodles of vapid workshops about equality, self-efficacy, social platitudes, moral edification, and homogenization of all learning, I can tell you that we are all one mission statement and action plan away from a major cheese moving reality: NO ONE will have an opinion about anything without obtaining tolerance screening.
While tolerence and conflict resolution are corner stones of my beliefs as a counselor, I start to wince when tolerence moves from curricula designed to break prejudice and violence cycles, becoming universal precautions for all thoughts. Children are now pushed to “think outside of a box”, as long as they think inside of the sharing circle next door.
So before we allow the dumbing down of our young and the goose stepping tribal drum beats of change. Before we lackadaisically sideline the vote while the Democratic party brings us new hope in the snake oil salesmen frocked candidate called Barack Obama, please actively participate at the grass roots. Learn about local governmental issues. Read the school board’s minutes and vote in elections. Find out what is being taught in schools near you. Before all of the kids are pushed to a seasick shade of green, or forced to calculate carbon credits while flunking math, let us make sure we define freedom, individualism, independence of thought, and the costs of all of the above. Happy Independence Day.
