Trying to follow

So, considering my last post concerning education generated a bunch of comments I figure it’s something I should come back to addressing. For those who want to make personal attacks, grammar corrections, etc. Please direct your comments to me in an email, that would just help the comments section to be a little more constructive.

I guess I’ll just start by saying somehow I’ve ended up with a whole bunch of friends that are teachers, in a wide range of schools, all over the coutry. I’ll do my best to share stories and situations that I hear from them.

I guess the question I have in my mind right now is whether or not people actually want public schools. I have to say Stephen’s comment sort of floored me. Do most republicans think there isn’t any really justification for public schools? Do a lot of people think there is no reason why education should be “equal” or “fair.” I guess I’m eager to hear some responses.

Wow, I mean to even hear some of the comments that were given before, it’s just scary to me:

“I’m not certain where in the United States Constitution it says that all public schools have to be equal.” -Stephen
“They say nothing about using taxation to establish “equal” ends in education.” -Anonymous
(This seems to imply you don’t think they should be equal, is that true?)

“Sometimes I laugh because you all don’t know how to frame the debate at all. ” -Anonymous
(It’s not a debate, but I appreciate your response to Stephen’s comment)
“Look, we’re an advanced industrial nation. There’s no reason that our literacy rates should be so low; there’s no reason that our kids shouldn’t excel. We’re wealthy and industrious, and it’s a crime that any child should languish with inadequate preparation for the industrial 21st century!” -Anonymous

Okay, so someone showed me this link and I’m thinking this is a huge opportunity. Can you imagine if a lot of people got on board with this and focused on bringing people clean water? A lot of potential.

Stay tuned for more info as I hear about it.

So I’ve told people about this music video for a while now, but I saw another Nashville person blog about it and I figured I should put up a little post.

World on Fire

My intitial thought is I wish all music videos where like this. I mean I wish we had our priorities a little more straightened out.

I’ve been meaning to investigate this further but for now I’ll just give me first impression.

The Garnett high rise is a low income housing apartment building on the corner of 12th and Edgehill. It’s located right across the street from a larger public housing block on the other corner. I’ve been there a number of times for neighborhood meetings. There are real needs: dealing with and reducing crime, finding programs and activities for the youth to be involved in, and bringing retail business to the area. All of these things I have heard from the voices of people who have lived in the area.

As I’ve been going to these meetings and passing the building occasionally I noticed some work being done on the corner. About two weeks ago I finally saw what was being done. Someone somewhere in the city decided what this building and the people of this community really needed was two stark white polar bear statues throwing snowballs at one another. I guess they felt these statues where so important that the day they unveiled them I saw city vehicles out at 6am cleaning up trash, hosing down the area, and setting up cameras and lighting. It was so important to unveil these two statues that even the mayor came out and said a few words.

Now, I apologize for my cynicism, but this does not seem like the most pertinent need of the community. I could be very wrong, and maybe the artist was from the Garnett high rise. I’ll take a look further, but something tells me I won’t be surprised at the answers.

Does anyone else in Nashville see a problem here? I mean people in the community are speaking up and asking for the city to help with the crime and help build youth activities so the kids stay out of crime; and instead the city puts up two polar bears?!?

Something is not right here.

If your seeing this site you’ve probably wandered over from the newly launched RelevantMagazine.com website after reading my article on the site.

Welcome! And I hope you’ll take the time to subscribe to my email list or the rss feed of this blog, so you can know when I post again on this blog.

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peace.