A Ruinous Meltdown

by: teacherken

Sat Mar 20, 2010 at 07:04:12 AM EDT

Taxes are being raised. Draconian cuts in services are being made. Public employees are being fired. The tissue-thin national economic recovery is being undermined. And in many cases, the most vulnerable populations - the sick, the elderly, the young and the poor - are getting badly hurt.

What, you say, Obama isn't raising taxes, not even on the wealthy.

Not yet.  And that is not the issue.  Because the quote, the 2nd paragraph is  Bob Herbert's column this morning, is about state governments, and local governments, and especially schools.   Believe me, I know.

I am, after all, a school teacher.  Our system is cutting over 200 teaching jobs.  Those on 12 or 11th month contract are being furloughed for 10 days, those on 10 months (most teachers including me) for 5.  

And that was announced BEFORE we found out that further cuts are forthcoming in the state funding for our districts.

But this is not about me, or other teachers.  It is about children, about the sick and the elderly, about the least well off.  And more.

How far are we willing to let the police go?

by: teacherken

Tue Mar 02, 2010 at 06:40:23 AM EST

So other than the indignity - visited far more often on young Black and Hispanic men than anyone else - other than the demeaning nature of the encounter, it's over, right?

WRONG.  All of your biographical information will now be stored indefinitely by the New York City police in a data base

"used primarily by department investigators during the course of a criminal investigation"

If you are not shocked by this, why not?  Whether or not you are, you should read Bob Herbert's column today, Watching Certain People, which will be the basis of this posting.

Unemployment Inequality

by: teacherken

Tue Feb 09, 2010 at 04:28:48 AM EST

Household Income   Unemployment
Level                      Level

under 12,500          30.8%
12,500-20,000        19.1

40,001-49,000         9.0
50,000-59,000         7.8
60,000-75,000         6.4

100,000-149,999      4.0
over 150,000           3.2

But it is worse even than those figures show

Jim Crow Policing

by: teacherken

Tue Feb 02, 2010 at 05:54:56 AM EST

The fact that a certain percentage of criminals may be black or Hispanic is no reason for the police to harass individuals from those groups when there is no indication whatsoever that they have done anything wrong.

So writes Bob Herbert in a New York Times op ed titled, as is this posting, Jim Crow Policing.  The disparate treatment of Blacks and Hispanics, particularly teens and young adults, by the New York City Police Department, is an issue about which Herbert has written before -  and will again, so long as it continues.  

I am a white, middle class, middle-aged adult -  well, okay, since I will soon be 64, I am a senior citizen.   I am unlikely to be the subject of such random searches.  But I am appalled by them.  I am especially appalled given that yesterday was an important 50th anniversary, one that unfortunately went almost unnoticed.  

I want to explore Herbert's column in light of Greensboro and 4 North Carolina A & T students.

Bob Herbert: "They Still Don't Get It"

by: teacherken

Sat Jan 23, 2010 at 06:18:10 AM EST

The door is being slammed on the American dream and the politicians, including the president and his Democratic allies on Capitol Hill, seem not just helpless to deal with the crisis, but completely out of touch with the hardships that have fallen on so many.

So writes Bob Herbert in the 2nd graf his column, THey Still Don't Get it.  It is a powerful and blunt piece of writing.  You should read it.  I will explore it, offering some thoughts of my own, but I am not going to cover every point Herbert makes.  For me the column is a starting point, an occasion to share some additional thoughts of his own.

So read the Herbert.  Then if you want, join me below the fold.

Gulag politics or spending for the future - our choice

by: teacherken

Sat Jan 09, 2010 at 07:59:12 AM EST

Gulag politics.   The idea of locking up your opponents.  In the old USSR it was political opponents and critics of the Communist regime.  Perhaps it seems inappropriate to use that term here, in what is supposedly a democratic republic.  But consider this:  

With 1 out of every 100 Americans  - more than 2.3 million - now behind bars, the United States imprisons far more people - both proportionally and absolutely - than any other country in the world, including China.  Representing only 5% of the world's population, America has 25% of the world's inmates.

It is a good bet that the United States has frittered away a decent chunk of our former global advantages with gulag politics.

Bob Herbert has "An Uneasy Feeling"

by: teacherken

Tue Jan 05, 2010 at 06:23:01 AM EST

I'm starting the new year with the sinking feeling that important opportunities are slipping from the nation's grasp. Our collective consciousness tends to obsess indiscriminately over one or two issues - the would-be bomber on the flight into Detroit, the Tiger Woods saga - while enormous problems that should be engaged get short shrift.

We face major crises that  we - all of us collectively - are failing to sufficiently address.

Herbert offers some cogent criticism, which I will repeat.  But even his  

Stacking the Deck Against Kids

by: teacherken

Sat Nov 28, 2009 at 08:15:08 AM EST

The American economy is broken, ruined by the greed and irresponsibility of fabulously wealthy corporate chieftains and their shabby acolytes and enablers in government. While Wall Street is handing out billions in bonuses, American families are struggling with joblessness, home foreclosures and rampant debt. The economic woes are exacting a fierce toll on family life, and children are taking a big hit - emotionally, psychologically and otherwise.

The quote and the title are from this column by Bob Herbert.   Read it.  

Then we can talk.

"Follow the fellow who follows a dream"

by: teacherken

Sat Aug 29, 2009 at 18:42:43 PM EDT

When Jack Kennedy learned on a May morning in 1948 that his sister Kathleen, known as Kick, had been killed in a plane crash in Europe, he had been listening to recordings from the Broadway musical "Finian's Rainbow."

Bob Herbert begins with those words today, in a column that is titled Look to the Rainbow. It is a worthy column, as most of his are. And because he reminds us of Kathleen, we should remember that the number of siblings who died of unnatural causes early is four - her and the three oldest brothers who are so often remembered, Joe, Jack and Bobby.

But for me it is Herbert's use of Finian's Rainbow instead of Camelot that is key to this column, and leads to both my title and this diary.

The importance of words - some random thoughts

by: teacherken

Sat Jun 06, 2009 at 18:51:43 PM EDT

After watching via online video Obama's Cairo speech - well after he gave it - I began reflecting on the issue of words.  I remembered back the criticisms he received during the primary about his speeches, and wondering how many who were skeptical then might respond now, after even more speeches that inspired, in Cairo and then in Germany, and with full expectation of something similar today on the 65th anniversary of D-Day.  

This morning in my daily perusal of op ed columns I encountered three pieces that deal with words, by Derrick Jackson, Dana Milbank, and Colbert King.  I urge you to read all three, for which I will provide links.  My intent is to use their words as a starting point for my own mental meanderings.  

Holding On to Our Humanity

by: teacherken

Sat May 30, 2009 at 06:41:37 AM EDT

A simple title, is it not?  Yet the implications are immense.  The demand not to turn away, or shut our eyes and ears to the suffering of others.

That is the topic of Bob Herbert's column this morning, entitled as is this diary, Holding On to Our Humanity.  You need not read any further in this diary, because I have provided the link to Herbert, and I now tell you to go read.  Not convinced?  Then try his first paragraph:

Overload is a real problem. There is a danger that even the most decent of people can grow numb to the unending reports of atrocities occurring all around the globe. Mass rape. Mass murder. Torture. The institutionalized oppression of women.

I will quote more, but not enough.  And I will offer a few words of my own.  But again, if you have read all of Herbert, you can stop.  I am satisfied.

War's Psychic Toll

by: teacherken

Tue May 19, 2009 at 10:24:01 AM EDT

"It is well that war is so terrible, or we should get too fond of it."

And then there are the broken souls, the shattered psyches.

The psychic toll of this foolish and apparently endless war has been profound since day one. And the nation's willful denial of that toll has been just as profound.