Racism-Rules of the Game

I had the good fortune yesterday to be a part of an intelligent conversation about race. As tends to happened in such conversations I learned a few thing! I want to get them out. First off we found common ground in the fact “stupid people” and “evil spirited people” freely cross into all races. If your stupid I guess you can keep reading. You may learn something. If your evil spirited you can stop now and go too Hell. There is nothing here for you!

Race is a tough issue for me to take seriously. It matters little to me. I'm from the sticks and I'm white so I guess that makes some sense. However, there are smart, nice people that it does mean a lot too and I can't ignore that! They are surely not making things up. They are seeing something I have missed. I'm not mean either so I didn't miss it on purpose! This is my attempt to reconcile that with my views.

First a quick overview of my views. I believe this country is headed for economic collapse. The national debt is unsustainable. Our dollar is based on oil. The Federal Reserve (a private Enterprise) is a huge scam that prints money out of thin air. I am not really smart enough to figure out who actually controls this huge money making mechanism but that is who has the real power and who controls “things. (and where we need to place our efforts at change)” Everything else is secondary to the money. Obama Care is only important in how it effects the money. For that matter The Second Amendment is only important in how necessary it will be after the collapse. Race will be a non issue post collapse!

Could it be the racism my friends see is actually coming from this same base of power? I think that is quite possible! What if at the core it turns out to be the same enemy as mine? Maybe we could come together and do something about it!

Lets look at this as an elaborate game of chess. Black pieces vs white pieces (pun intended). Now as you may or may not know white gets to move first. That may or may not be an advantage and does not fit well with this analogy. I'm including that fact just for completeness. Be that as it may, if the chess pieces want to improve there lot in life it would be ridiculous for them to fight each other. That is simply how the game is played and would do nothing for them. Likewise revolting against the players would only be a temporary fix at best. The POTUS is simply a player! There have been players before him and there will be players after him. Little if anything of real significance can be changed by a player. Soon there will be another game. If our pieces want to significantly improve there lot they need to look towards the rules of the game!

The Constitution of the United States of America represents those rules. They are not being followed and IMHO are being trampled more and more as time passes. There could be our common ground! That could be the change we are all after! I say we get back to following the rules. THAT would improve all of our lots!

I believe any time one opens there minds and truly seeks understanding great things happened! That has surely been the case with this. It has been something that has been bothering me and I have been thinking a lot about it the past few day. I have gained lots of good insight. I'm sure I will be sharing that over time. One insight I would like to share now.

One of my friends chose to respond on PM. I'm assuming that's because he wanted to keep it private. Until I hear differently from him I intend to largely respect his wishes. He did however hit a KEY point. He stated he had seen racism even among Christians. (he is a devout Christian and a good man) He felt that kept people from God. He further stated that IF some were using there power (as I thing they may be) to “move us backwards” he found that disturbing.

I am NOT as devout a Christian as my friend. A powerful force, that uses deception and misinformation, to not only keep us divided as a country but to keep us away from God! That sound kind of familiar to me. I believe that is a fine description of satin himself! Disturbing in deed!! People THAT is the evil of which I speak! I fear we are heading for an epic battle of good vs evil. I want to be with the good guys! I want the good guys to stand united!

Thank you everyone for your input.  

A Few Thoughts on Education

It seems I have been spending considerable time debating Common Core and our education system in general. I fear we are missing 2 key points in the debate. The first of those points being “parenting.” The second: What exactly do we consider “smart?” I would like to take some time to look at these two aspects.

First just a little background in case you have missed it. I am the father of 2 GREAT kids. Calvin is 10 and in the 5^th grade. Sydney is 8 and in 3ed. Just to keep it simple, lets just say they are polar opposites in personality and learning style. Like all kids they are involved in stuff! I have the opportunity to interact with other kids and often their parents. Believe me I see lots of other GREAT parents. We do our very best to be involved. It's now the 5^th week of school. We have interacted with both teachers and in fact have had a sit down meeting with the principal (not in a bad way :-) ). Believe me there are some GREAT teachers! We do homework nearly every night. I HAVE seen the math book. :-)

In the long term I am quite positive putting in the hard work to parent will pay HUGE dividends. I consider being a parent my single most important and rewarding job. That's why we had kids in the first place! Statistics all seem to show having an involved parent(s) as the single most important aspect to a child's education and subsequent success. Unfortunately, that does not seem to motivate all parents. This does not have to involve rocket science! Any reasonable adult/teacher is more than capable of distinguishing an ornery child from one acting out and desperately needing intervention. If a child is so disruptive as to degrade the educational environment, I don't feel it's unreasonable to have the child's parents held accountable and by some means a part of the solution! Our teachers should not be spending their time parenting the entire classroom! We need to parent our kids. It doesn't have to cost a lot of money, It's very rewarding, pays huge dividends, and it's the “RIGHT THING TO DO!” If some chose not too, there needs to be more immediate and tangible consequences!

Secondly the people involved in the debate are by definition “involved parents.” Win or lose the debate our kids have a much better chance of success because we are involved! I take much solace in this as a parent. Mercifully, as a parent, I have noticed more rewards for effort regardless of the actual path chosen. Perhaps we could all use this bit of good news to chill out a bit and perhaps support one another in the common ground.

An even more thorny issue and what I see as the paradigm shift involves what we consider “smart” or “intelligence” in the first place. I purpose, currently, one who can store and forward large amounts of information is considered “smart.” No bought having a good memory is a very handy skill to have! I am purposing if one had a “photographic memory” one could simply store the information and “BE” anything they wanted to “BE.” The fact is they may (MAY) do okay. I wish I had that kind of memory! I do not. That is not the way my mind works. To say that in my school days I was not considered “smart” is an understatement!

I once read a book about Medical School that also highlighted this issue. You have to be “smart” to get into med school in the first place. By all accounts the level of information needing retained is intense. Suddenly (I have never been to med school. I will have to take the books word), the student is dumped out of the class room and faced with a real live patient! Again at least according to the book, this comes a quite a shock! Many “smart” students are not able to make this transition. Common sense would tell us everyone would transition differently.

Lets be honest. Nearly anyone who has changed the oil in there car or worked on most anything has cussed the engineer who designed it. Again, I have never been to engineering school but I am willing to bet the “design flaws” we cuss are not caused by the engineer failing that particular course. Engineering a product always involves choices, striking a balance if you will. Obviously “balance” implies more then one thing.

If there is a problem with our educational system (I believe there is, but that debate is beyond the scope of this post), I believe it is related to the fact that we have maxed out on how far we can go with “storing and forwarding” large amounts of information. We need the balance. The other things. What we need is some creativity, a deeper understanding, more thinking outside of the box and dare I say character! A new definition of “smart” to reflect these needs seems reasonable.

We all know there is no “one size fits all.” There is no “normal/average” way of learning. We have attempted to design an education system that fits a non-existent student! Is it any wonder it works for no one? Paradigm shifts are hard. I see it in my own house. I have a rule follower and a free thinker. It's my job too see they both succeed. They obviously struggle at different situations. Systems that are helpful for one causes stress in the other. I do however see much more diversity in this new system than I seen in the old. I surely don't think it's perfect. I'm not even sure it's all good. I'm just saying A) I think change is necessary B) I see at least SOME good points to this shift.

Will I continue to be vigilant? You bet. I will remain respectful and attentive to differing opinions. Please know if your opinion is obviously uninformed or short sighted it will be summarily disregarded by me.  

Keeping At It

I like to understand things. Sometimes I am successful in my quest and sometimes I am not. One thing I have noticed when trying to understand something complicated the understanding sometimes comes in stages. It's good to keep at it. I also like to talk. Some would say ALOT! I like current events, news and politics. It therefore comes as no surprise I often find myself in some pretty interesting debates. There are in fact a few people out there who can rise above the ignorance, the name calling, and the stereo typing and actually have a constructive, respectful debate about important issues. I am VERY lucky to have several of them as my friends on Facebook. I am also VERY happy to report I am seeing a trend of improvement in this regard. It was in one of these debates on Facebook that a small layer of understanding came to me.

We were discussing Burwell v. Hobby Lobby. (It is well beyond the scope of this post to discuss this landmark case. If you have read this far but need a refresher now would be a good time.) Judging from some of the memes on facebook you would think every female employee of Hobby Lobby was in imminent danger of a severe hormone deficient death or at least being impregnated by forced rape! As our debate progressed I asked my learned friend (a self professed liberal by the way) “You surely don't believe this mess has anything to do with womens health do you?”  His reply “Not even a little bit!” Well ok, I had a pretty good idea my friend didn't pay much attention the facebook memes!

It behooves one who is debating learned opponents to use the same strategy on himself. Again, judging from the memes on Facebook you would believe every church in the USA was going to be re-purposed Monday through Saturday as an abortion clinic on the taxpayer dime. Further each employer was going to be mandated to provide not only the customary 10 minute coffee break but also to grant each employee 30 minutes a week to engage in “UN-Godly” behavior and of course at time and a half! I asked myself  “You surely don't believe this mess has anything to do with religious freedom do you?” My reply “Not even a little bit!”

Given the fact all party's in this debate seemed to agree with Justice Ginsburg's remark in her decanting opinion "The Court, I fear, has ventured into a minefield...” What the hell then IS all this mess about? That was the question I was pondering as our little discussion came to a close.

Well of course it's about the politics. That's the first answer that popped into my head, but “politics?” What did I mean by that? “What are politics about?”  “Politics are about....well, politics” I heard myself thinking. It sounded about as crazy in my head as it looks in writing, but with that came my little morsel of understanding. You see we humans have a need to understand thing at our level. The “Facebook meme makers” try to make that simple for us. “No one is in charge of  MY body!” “You will NOT turn My Fathers House into a den of thieves!” “Not on my dime!” Pretty simple to get behind any of that! The media, while a little more subtle, still tries to keep it simple for us. We have the ability to choose an outlet that best fits our style, our beliefs. (Just for full disclosure I personally am a  “Fox news fan.” Do I believe they are 100% “fair and balanced”? NOT EVEN A LITTLE BIT!)

We humans (We the People if you will) are all out here operating under the belief that our government is trying to do things to/for us (take your pick). I believe the sad fact is they are simply playing politics, getting votes, doing what politicians do. The meme makers and the media are simply throwing stuff out there to give use the illusion it's about us, keeping it simple, ratings, hit's, likes, advertising, doing what they do. That needs to change. SOON! I believe governments function is not simply to play politics for the sake of politics! The media SHOULD be keeping We the people informed. They should be explaining the complicated issues so we can understand. Social media should be a place to discuss not name call and ridicule. Folks it's not simple!

I hope it's not too big of a disappointment that my friends and I did not come up with a simple answer to the minefield known as Burwell V. Hobby Lobby. Equally I hope you are not expecting simple answers on how I expect to effect the afore mentioned changes in government. I can tell you how I plan to proceed. I plan to continue diligently trying to understand. I plan to continue debating with my learned friends. I further plan to keep seeking out such friends. I plan to continue doing my best to look out for the interest of my fellow man regardless of politics! It's not simple and it is sure not getting simpler but I plan to keep at it! It is my hope to perhaps start a trend! If enough of us across this great nation were to develop this attitude, the politicians will be forced to take notice!