America's REAL Enemies!
The real enemies of America -- those sabotaging us from within -- are the two right wing groupings: the greedy libertarians and the crazy fundamentalists among our various religious.
In joint progression both of these groups are attacking our most important public interests -- education, medical care, decent housing, jobs and food for all. How do they do this? The libertarians attack our tax structures and promulgate distorted ideological slogans. Funding our public interest areas is reduced to "big government -- cut your taxes." Some of the right-wing fundamentalists (not all evangelicals are right wing) -- all of our religious groups have these at work -- wish to substitute private education for public through various devious guises such as diverting public monies for private school students. Guess what. Our privates across the board are doing a worse job in teaching math than our privates!
............................,
Public-School Students Score Well in Math in Large-Scale
Government Study
By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO
When it comes to math, students in regular public schools
do as well as or better than comparable students in private
schools, the study found.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/28/education/28tests.html?th&emc=th
.............................
And needless to say we need math to keep up with the global competition. China is producing 300,000 engineers annually to our 60,000 and sucking in some of our best scholars now in a number of areas. India is grabbing the white collar jobs with its superior educational system.
And then there are the Americans firsters who are driving out the talent from overseas which we have traditionally educated and benefited from as they decided to stay and make the States their home. How many of these have we tossed into out of the way county jails because they are "undocumented aliens!" I know about some of these threatened -- my students and colleagues whose visas lapsed because our under-funded U.S. agencies did not get their routine yearly updates done in time, refugees whom we decided (in violation of international law) to lock up without contact with with either families or legal counsel -- or worse -- shipped back to the very countries from which they had fled oppression!
I could go on at greater length. I happen to be particularly angry today because for more than 3 years we have been being stiffed at the City University of NY where we knock ourselves out getting people educated. I have my usual 3 overloaded courses this spring -- full of talented students eager to learn. We must deal with a hostile board of political appointees to whom I am addressing this in its email version. Most of us are caring teachers and other staff. Our students are struggling at the same time to support themselves and pay our ever increasing tuitions. The Republicans in D.C. want to cut their scholarship support. Pataki in Albany also wants to cut student scholarship support. And my college, alone, Brooklyn, which is the best in our system and the archetypal port of entry college, is struggling with a $6 million shortfall for this spring semester alone -- students now pay more than 70% of our costs!
Needless to say we liberals are the ones accused of being the traitors to America. Don't you believe it for a moment. We had these American Firsters around when I was a child prior to WW2 -- they were supporting Hitler (as was Bush's granddad) until the shock of 12/7/41.
And so America goes down the tubes. Expect the crash to hit any time. We are replaying the 1920s at the moment. Bush is on record with his hopes of revoking the New Deal. He may just succeed. I support Dean for president -- he is at least telling it as it is.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort
to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollegeConversation
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeaceEfforts
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/440neighborhood
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StudentConcerns
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AcademicFreedom
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PrivacyRights
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
In joint progression both of these groups are attacking our most important public interests -- education, medical care, decent housing, jobs and food for all. How do they do this? The libertarians attack our tax structures and promulgate distorted ideological slogans. Funding our public interest areas is reduced to "big government -- cut your taxes." Some of the right-wing fundamentalists (not all evangelicals are right wing) -- all of our religious groups have these at work -- wish to substitute private education for public through various devious guises such as diverting public monies for private school students. Guess what. Our privates across the board are doing a worse job in teaching math than our privates!
............................,
Public-School Students Score Well in Math in Large-Scale
Government Study
By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO
When it comes to math, students in regular public schools
do as well as or better than comparable students in private
schools, the study found.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/28/education/28tests.html?th&emc=th
.............................
And needless to say we need math to keep up with the global competition. China is producing 300,000 engineers annually to our 60,000 and sucking in some of our best scholars now in a number of areas. India is grabbing the white collar jobs with its superior educational system.
And then there are the Americans firsters who are driving out the talent from overseas which we have traditionally educated and benefited from as they decided to stay and make the States their home. How many of these have we tossed into out of the way county jails because they are "undocumented aliens!" I know about some of these threatened -- my students and colleagues whose visas lapsed because our under-funded U.S. agencies did not get their routine yearly updates done in time, refugees whom we decided (in violation of international law) to lock up without contact with with either families or legal counsel -- or worse -- shipped back to the very countries from which they had fled oppression!
I could go on at greater length. I happen to be particularly angry today because for more than 3 years we have been being stiffed at the City University of NY where we knock ourselves out getting people educated. I have my usual 3 overloaded courses this spring -- full of talented students eager to learn. We must deal with a hostile board of political appointees to whom I am addressing this in its email version. Most of us are caring teachers and other staff. Our students are struggling at the same time to support themselves and pay our ever increasing tuitions. The Republicans in D.C. want to cut their scholarship support. Pataki in Albany also wants to cut student scholarship support. And my college, alone, Brooklyn, which is the best in our system and the archetypal port of entry college, is struggling with a $6 million shortfall for this spring semester alone -- students now pay more than 70% of our costs!
Needless to say we liberals are the ones accused of being the traitors to America. Don't you believe it for a moment. We had these American Firsters around when I was a child prior to WW2 -- they were supporting Hitler (as was Bush's granddad) until the shock of 12/7/41.
And so America goes down the tubes. Expect the crash to hit any time. We are replaying the 1920s at the moment. Bush is on record with his hopes of revoking the New Deal. He may just succeed. I support Dean for president -- he is at least telling it as it is.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort
to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollegeConversation
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeaceEfforts
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/440neighborhood
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StudentConcerns
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AcademicFreedom
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PrivacyRights
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
posted by Ed Kent at 1:10 PM
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