In honor of the events of 9/11:

A recent poll indicates that two-thirds of all Americans think that it’s o.k. to sacrifice some of our basic rights and liberties in order to be safe from terrorism. You can read more about this poll on WTOPnews.com: http://www.wtop.com/?nid=755&sid=2530314

Do you agree or disagree with the idea that the government should restrain rights and liberties in order to preserve our security? Why or why not?

1. The government should NOT restrain rights and liberties to preserve our security. Rights that are once surrendered are rarely returned, and security is an ill-defined concept – what constitutes security for one person is imprisonment for another.

I wonder how the American people would respond to the aforementioned threat, if they knew that in order to guard against it FBI fraud specialists were diverted from their jobs monitoring white collar crime, and this decision likely lead the country and the world to the recession we have now.

Are some of the rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights in danger of becoming extinct? Which ones? Why are they in danger, and what can citizens do to be sure that these fundamental rights remain strong?

2. All of the amendments to the bill of rights are in danger, for what good are rights if no one takes up action in their defense. It is true that corporate America, the wealthy and powerful will always seek to defend their rights at any cost, but they are distorting a system that once corrupted defends no one.

Citizens seeking to defend their rights should be aware of what they are and how the system operates that protects them. Everyone should exercise their real political voice and not just follow party allegiance.

What rights might you be willing to sacrifice, personally, in order to feel safer and more secure? What rights are so important to you that you would be willing to risk the potential of another terrorist attack in order to be sure you could still exercise those rights?

3. I would not be willing to part with any of my Constitutional rights or freedoms to prevent some vague threat. Terrorism can, and does, come from any and all corners of the idealistic spectrum. Are we to live in shelters fearing the worst of humanity, or do we follow the holy word and do unto others as we would have done unto us?

The reality of school reform is that we, as a country, are not committed to it any more than we are committed to ending poverty. The reality of school reform is that we are in the process of dismantling the social welfare system in the United States.

If you are familiar with the concept of the ‘tragedy of the commons,’ then you might be aware that we have too many people at the middle and the top trying to reap unearned benefits from the system to provide for themselves and their cohorts.

Think about the reality of wealth in the U.S. The top 1% of the population controls nearly 50% of the wealth in the country. With this recent economic shift, those numbers are growing.

How do you erase, or eliminate, economic disparities? Education is a good place to start, but in order to truly educate you have to make people aware of the disparities. Our system does not do that. Our system pushes the idea that economic disparity is somehow good because the system is open and anyone can achieve success, which is a vision that severely distorts reality.

The reality is, without a true education the majority of people are reduced to parroting what they see or hear in popular media, which is itself the voice of a privatized corporate agenda.

The biggest tragedy of the mess is that the people themselves, unwittingly, are the largest shareholders in the systems corruption. Corporations chase short-term gains at the expense of long-term value. They do this to increase day-to-day earnings for their investors. Who are the largest investors? Surprise, it’s you and me. We invest in pension systems and 401k’s through our work, and these vehicles are “managed” in our interest [non-voting stock] by supposedly benevolent officials whose only concern is profits. They care not for us in particular nor the demise of our jobs.

I find myself wondering more and more these days about how long it takes, how much of the system is dismantled, before history comes full circle and we find ourselves in another French revolution.

I find myself ever more disgusted with politics and media these days. What is covered, and more irritatingly, not covered by politicians and media hucksters is mind numbing.

The following is an article about poverty in America that was published in England, of all places. One could hardly imagine why?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/aug/10/america-poverty-criminalised

We keep hearing in the media about rioting in London and whatnot, but what media outlets fail to print or acknowledge is the growing unrest here at home.

The claim is that these are just unruly people, and this type of unrest will not be tolerated and we need more policing.
What this fails to acknowledge, is the link to poverty and unemployment.
Hello? Wake up call, is that you?
The French Revolution happened for a reason. Are we in America, and the world, reaching a tipping point?

Been a while I know, but I am currently working on a MA in Counseling and have not had significant time to reflect and post here. The following is a comment I posted:

Maybe it’s time we rethink No Child Left Behind [NCLB]. The reality of increasing violence and truancy in schools has to do with the fact that schools are rewarded, or not punished, for decreasing violence and truancy. So, what we are seeing are school administrators, with an acknowledging nod from the board, falsifying data. There are no fights in the schools; just minor skirmishes that do not need to be reported. Truancy is not a problem if we do not acknowledge it.

The result of these silent but far-reaching measures is that students who face no consequences for rampant absenteeism, class-cutting, and yes fighting, increase their brazen actions. What is more, the students who might otherwise be compliant are forced to join gangs as their only means of defense, since justice is denied.

It’s time to reconsider NCLB. It’s time to rethink every child going to college. Maybe it’s time to reconsider the definition of insanity and work out a new model for education.