A friend recently shared a photo with me in an email that caught my attention and prompted me to ponder, once again, the matter of education. In the picture, a child is asking her mother:
“Why do I have to go to school?”
To which the mother replies:
“So you can be molded into a state approved homogeneous drone that cannot think outside of the prescribed consensus. You will learn to repeat information instead of how to think for yourself so that you don’t become a threat to the status quo. When you graduate you will get a job and pay your taxes in order to perpetuate the corporate system of indentured servitude.”
Now, I’m not promoting the idea of there being some grand conspiracy here, nor am I indicating disdain for education in general. However, as someone who is inclined to question the accepted norms, I do see a lot of truth behind this satire. The mother’s statement speaks to me of the danger, and indeed, the folly, of a society placing education into the hands of government to have the power to mandate, regulate, and own and operate the infrastructure for the dispensing of this precious commodity.
In a free country, parents would choose the when, where, whether and how of the educating of their own children, not have it mandated by a government that chooses the curriculum and sets the standards. Likewise, in a free country, those individuals, to whom God has given the gift of being educators, would be free to educate with all of their intellect, ability and God-given gifting according to their own conscience, unfettered by an education bureaucracy telling them how to teach. In a truly free country, the education of children would be determined exclusively by parents and those educators whose assistance parents might choose to employ. Continue reading “Set Education Free”
A couple years ago, while reading an article about some internal strife in my state’s Republican Party, I was surprised to read that, “the state GOP has a policy of not endorsing one Republican over another.” I had noticed that this seemed to be the party’s practice, but didn’t know it was an actual policy.
“Now more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature … If the next centennial does not find us a great nation…it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces.”
It’s that time again – time for another “special election.” This time, the City of Spokane is looking to renew a levy (i. e., Tax) for emergency medical services (EMS) at an April 26 special election. But why is the city spending taxpayer money to hold a special election for this single measure instead of just adding it to the November general election ballot? Well, it’s for the same reason that every special election is held – it’s because levies, bonds and other tax measures have a better chance to pass at special elections than at general elections.
I expect we’ve all heard the phrase, “three coequal branches” used to describe the composition of our federal system of government. In fact, we’ve probably heard it so many times that we don’t even pay attention, we just accept it as fact and move on. But, is it true? Are the three branches of our federal government really “coequal?”
When we give our endorsement to someone or something, we intrinsically connect ourselves to the object of that endorsement and to the values which it embodies, thus lifting – or lowering – ourselves to the level of the entity we have endorsed.
The Conservative Right seems to operate from a general assumption that things keep getting worse because liberals are in power and democrats win all the elections. However, I got curious and did a little research on the topic. I discovered that over the past 20 years, republicans have held 57% of the control of our federal government – 68% if you add in the Supreme Court – that’s a 68/32 split in favor of the republicans. Among the union states, the elephant party holds complete control (legislature and governor) of nearly half the states (23) – more than three times as many as the dreaded donkeys (7). It turns out that America is overwhelmingly republican-controlled.
Certainly not all Muslims are terrorists who are going around blowing people up. In fact, many can be said to be living at peace with their non-Muslim neighbors. Some people contend that the problem is with just a few “extremists” who engage in acts of terror. Clearly, that was the view that George W. Bush was promoting when he called Islam “a religion of peace.”
