Social Justice – Page 5 – The Future is Open

August 11, 2011

Main Street welfare

I’ve read a lot of stories decrying the efforts of some progressive politicians who think we need a new jobs program. I’ve also listened to a lot of heated rhetoric from the right wing. This has inspired me to write. The problem is not on the left. There really isn’t much of a left anymore. This country was started by progressives. Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Henry Et al weren’t Status Quo. They were revolutionaries. Revolutions are almost never started by conservatives. These radicals were tired of taxation without representation to support the British war machine. We on the left have been told for decades that we are the problem. We are not the problem. We are the co-equal owners of this country and we insist that our elected representatives represent us and not the corporations who try to buy influence. What a radical/liberal concept that once was the core of this republic. I have grown extremely tired of the mean spirited rhetoric on the right. We are not foreigners, we are not subversives, we are Americans who pay our taxes whether in progressive income tax or the increasingly popular regressive user taxes which target the less fortunate.

There is this continual mean spirited rhetoric which implies that government bears no responsibility to create jobs for it’s citizenry which is exactly how we got out of the great depression. We’re in another great depression now because the greed masters over stepped sensible business practices and brought the country to it’s knees. People on welfare are often the target of the right. They aren’t the problem, but it’s easy to pick on them because they have no voice.

In 1776 it was the Tory/conservatives who stood in the path for freedom. In 1861 it was those same conservative elements who sincerely believed that we needed to keep African-Americans in bondage to support the status quo. Conservatives have traditionally been agents of the status quo and they are now. We’ve listened to your faulty logic for over thirty years. Tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations have produced no new jobs. What corporation has started an employment program in this country. I’m tired of corporate welfare and ready for a little Main Street welfare.

August 22, 2010

Care for Kids

I’m finally getting a chance to write. Wow! What a summer it’s been. I have been a busy boy, but it’s been a good kind of busy and it’s not over either. A year ago I enrolled at St. Bonaventure University in their Educational Leadership program and as part of that program I have been working in two different internships. One as a curriculum director and the other as an assistant principal. Four days a week this summer I rolled out of bed at 6AM, showered, dressed and climbed in my Rav4 and drove over to summer school at the Ellicottville BOCES Center. Students from four area school districts came everyday too for summer school. I got to work with a great staff of teachers and I had a great mentor who supervised me and gave me lots of keen insights and practical experience of what it’s like to be a principal at the middle and high school level.

I have lots of thoughts about where I’m going from here and it may be that I’ll just keep being the technology director that I am but maybe someone will give me a chance to lead or maybe I’ll get to do both. I really enjoyed working with the students and some of them challenged my ideas while others seemed to respond to my empathic outreach. I told many of them that one summer I had to attend summer school too, because I wasn’t the world’s best geometry student. I tried to help the students to see that failure is a part of life and that all lives include failure at some level and that being perfect isn’t the object, but that acceptance is what is most important. Some of the students responded to that and maybe the others did too. One of the hard to reach students nicknamed me “big bird.” No doubt someone my size and deportment looks a bit like Big Bird. I think I surprised this young man when I failed to take issue with his nickname. He was startled when I responded one morning with, “is that your nickname for me.” From the look on his face I could tell that he was shocked and a little embarrassed that I had heard him, but he was more shocked when I failed to respond negatively.

Many of the students who came to our school had lots of trouble in their lives and I tried to accommodate them while at the same time provide a positive direction for them. In addition to my co-principal duties this summer I worked with our curriculum director who is also in charge of writing grants and one of those grants centered around researching the demographics of our community and in the process becoming acutely aware of the demographic of those students I was working with. Cattaraugus County is home to some of the most beautiful flora and fauna in New York State. This summer has been an exceptionally beautiful summer. However it is home to increasingly disenfranchised rural poor and a middle class that is teetering. This fractured social fabric cries out for attention. The safety net here has gaping holes in it and generations are at risk. My heart ached for many of our students this summer and for the students during the regular school year. I often thought how can we reach these children? How do we impact them and their families. It’s easy to point fingers and assign blame but far more difficult to provide answers and change the culture. There are many desperate situations that cry out for attention.

Yesterday, in my reading I came across a program which I recommended to all the school administrators I worked with this summer. It’s called “Care for Kids” and it’s been successfully implemented in Louisville, Kentucky. I’d like to try it here and though I’m not in a leadership position currently I’m going to lead from where I am and as much as possible use the principles of this unique program to care for kids in my own sphere of influence.

Care for Kids Video

[brightcove vid=207598747001&exp3=85476225001&surl=http://c.brightcove.com/services&pubid=69222501001&lbu=http://www.edutopia.org/louisville-sel-video&w=300&h=225]

July 24, 2009

Health care reform is good for business

This story comes from a story and video I’ve just seen on one of my favorite blogs. Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Senator John Edwards, a woman currently battling cancer really does a great job of debunking some of the myths surrounding the health care debate which have heated up quite a bit this week. Some national Republicans are calling this Waterloo for Obama. Health care critics are always citing phony number and I’ve had a sense of that for sometime, but the statistics shown in this post are remarkable.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg1VSH1_eLo]

A few years ago I was speaking to a technical support representative of a major printer manufacturer. In our conversation I noted that he sounded very Canadian, which in fact he was. I quizzed him about why his company had located their technical support in Alberta. Why Alberta? Why put your technical support people in the middle of the Canadian Rockies. Why such a remote location? His answer was that the company wanted highly skilled English speakers but could not afford health care costs so they moved their operation to Canada. The light came on for me that day. As a business owner and an American citizen who wants to see my country grow and prosper I began to realize the imperative of health care reform. Small business will not be saddled with benefit costs which have been driving many out of the market place. Health care reform is therefore our patriotic duty. Taking advantage of people in the fashion that health care conglomerates have is very un-American not to mention un-holy.

Sadly the American health care system is deadlier than our neighbors to the north. Take a look at some numbers that come from this link.

Circulatory disease deaths per 100,000: