Time Capsule: Hopes and Fears
Nov. 5th, 2008 10:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
learnteachIt's a brand new day, and the sun is high.
Here's a thought. It's a historic moment; Obama is the president elect. What do you hope will happen? What do you fear may occur? If you put it in your blog now, you will be able to look back on it and remember how you felt, and what life was like today.
It's a brand new day.
Politics is interesting. The devil is in the details, especially the approval of funding and the selection of the people enforcing laws. The political views sold to us are sound bites, themes, reality defined by the advertising men and greasy eminences behind the politicians.
So, policy wonks shepherded by debate squad winners who won frat connections because, it's connections that matter.
And it inevitably gets nasty, because a reasoned arguement is one you're losing. Winning by emotions is so much more sure, an extension of P. T. Barnum's maxims. So the political campaigns have gotten lower and more vicious, and more misleading, and when you look into them...
Case in point: One of the big selling points of Cal. Prop 8 was that it would "teach gay marriage in the schools" and in ads (oh my, how many ads!) the issue of a teachable moment was quoted. Here's a specific response:
http://calmarriagedefense.blogspot.com/2008/10/proving-that-schools-will-teach-about.html
from which I quote,
"...Read the rest of the article. I wish I was making this stuff up. It's surprising how brazen the school is in defending their actions. Indeed, it seems highly ironic given how much noise the opposition has made that children would NOT be required to learn about gay marriage. Instead they turn around and do exactly what we said they would. Not a week after the ad ran a school goes out and makes a teacher's wedding a "teaching moment" about gay marriage. It's almost unbelieveable.
Posted by Publicola at Sunday, October 12, 2008 "...
Now, the facts excised to make the wordbite better:
The wedding that was visited was the 1st grade teacher, who sent home parental consent slips for the field trip. The school is a charter school, which is not held to the same state standards (and that's another rant of monumental proportions that I try to avoid) and the parents were pre-informed that the students would be going to city hall to watch their teacher get married.
OMG, what first grader wouldn't want to cut out of the classroom to go to a party and see their teacher be the happiest person ever? To meet the Mayor, who officiated at the wedding? To be part of the ceremony, blowing bubbles and throwing rose petals? When the school was challenged for allowing this, the interim director noted that gay marriage was legal, and that this was a "teachable moment".
The "Yes on 8" used this event to shitwash the whole opposition, repeating over and over and over that "the children will be taught gay marraige"
I'm so angry I could spit. There.
*****
And that's what I fear, that the hatemongering and money dumped in from fearful sources will continue. President Bush is leading his own crusade, and helping his fraternity friends while doing it.
MY HOPES: We can learn from this, and get to work fixing the problems in this country, together.
FEAR: That the divisiveness will cause rancor leading to violence.
HOPE: America becomes a superpower driven by concensus building reason, and works with all countries to achieve goals.
FEAR: We don't, and continue to be the world's cursed crusader bully.
HOPE: President Obama energizes and with the thoughtful grace he's shown, brings up the level of statecraft in this nation.
FEAR: That he can't. Because he's assassinated by (to borrow from a tetchy Terpsichorus) a violent Democrat.
HOPE: The reforms of the 30's are put back in place on the economy, and of the 70's on the environment, before Sunnyvale becomes a mortgage dumped wasteland of toxic sludge.
FEAR: Wow. That a recession hammers us down to penury.
And in the end, it's not really Hope vs. Fears. It's Hope, that NEEDS TO BECOME ACTION, vs. what we've been sold, WHICH IS NUMB EXHAUSTION.
So, I vow to go join my local government, and continue public works to improve the place I live. I'll clean house and put up crown molding, and keep working with education in some form.
I recommend to you:
1. The Family Giving Tree http://www.familygivingtree.org/
2. Planned Parenthood Mar Monte http://www.plannedparenthood.org/mar-monte/
3. The ACLU http://www.aclu.org/
Thanks for staying with this writing so long. What organizations do you recommend working with? What are your hopes, and fears?
Here's a thought. It's a historic moment; Obama is the president elect. What do you hope will happen? What do you fear may occur? If you put it in your blog now, you will be able to look back on it and remember how you felt, and what life was like today.
It's a brand new day.
Politics is interesting. The devil is in the details, especially the approval of funding and the selection of the people enforcing laws. The political views sold to us are sound bites, themes, reality defined by the advertising men and greasy eminences behind the politicians.
So, policy wonks shepherded by debate squad winners who won frat connections because, it's connections that matter.
And it inevitably gets nasty, because a reasoned arguement is one you're losing. Winning by emotions is so much more sure, an extension of P. T. Barnum's maxims. So the political campaigns have gotten lower and more vicious, and more misleading, and when you look into them...
Case in point: One of the big selling points of Cal. Prop 8 was that it would "teach gay marriage in the schools" and in ads (oh my, how many ads!) the issue of a teachable moment was quoted. Here's a specific response:
http://calmarriagedefense.blogspot.com/2008/10/proving-that-schools-will-teach-about.html
from which I quote,
"...Read the rest of the article. I wish I was making this stuff up. It's surprising how brazen the school is in defending their actions. Indeed, it seems highly ironic given how much noise the opposition has made that children would NOT be required to learn about gay marriage. Instead they turn around and do exactly what we said they would. Not a week after the ad ran a school goes out and makes a teacher's wedding a "teaching moment" about gay marriage. It's almost unbelieveable.
Posted by Publicola at Sunday, October 12, 2008 "...
Now, the facts excised to make the wordbite better:
The wedding that was visited was the 1st grade teacher, who sent home parental consent slips for the field trip. The school is a charter school, which is not held to the same state standards (and that's another rant of monumental proportions that I try to avoid) and the parents were pre-informed that the students would be going to city hall to watch their teacher get married.
OMG, what first grader wouldn't want to cut out of the classroom to go to a party and see their teacher be the happiest person ever? To meet the Mayor, who officiated at the wedding? To be part of the ceremony, blowing bubbles and throwing rose petals? When the school was challenged for allowing this, the interim director noted that gay marriage was legal, and that this was a "teachable moment".
The "Yes on 8" used this event to shitwash the whole opposition, repeating over and over and over that "the children will be taught gay marraige"
I'm so angry I could spit. There.
*****
And that's what I fear, that the hatemongering and money dumped in from fearful sources will continue. President Bush is leading his own crusade, and helping his fraternity friends while doing it.
MY HOPES: We can learn from this, and get to work fixing the problems in this country, together.
FEAR: That the divisiveness will cause rancor leading to violence.
HOPE: America becomes a superpower driven by concensus building reason, and works with all countries to achieve goals.
FEAR: We don't, and continue to be the world's cursed crusader bully.
HOPE: President Obama energizes and with the thoughtful grace he's shown, brings up the level of statecraft in this nation.
FEAR: That he can't. Because he's assassinated by (to borrow from a tetchy Terpsichorus) a violent Democrat.
HOPE: The reforms of the 30's are put back in place on the economy, and of the 70's on the environment, before Sunnyvale becomes a mortgage dumped wasteland of toxic sludge.
FEAR: Wow. That a recession hammers us down to penury.
And in the end, it's not really Hope vs. Fears. It's Hope, that NEEDS TO BECOME ACTION, vs. what we've been sold, WHICH IS NUMB EXHAUSTION.
So, I vow to go join my local government, and continue public works to improve the place I live. I'll clean house and put up crown molding, and keep working with education in some form.
I recommend to you:
1. The Family Giving Tree http://www.familygivingtree.org/
2. Planned Parenthood Mar Monte http://www.plannedparenthood.org/mar-monte/
3. The ACLU http://www.aclu.org/
Thanks for staying with this writing so long. What organizations do you recommend working with? What are your hopes, and fears?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-11-05 09:25 pm (UTC)Habitat for Humanity
Your local Food Bank
Hopes:
restoration of the Bill of Rights
restoring the balance between the 3 branches of government
restoring America's reputation in the world as "the good guys"
give every child a chance to excel
reduction in poverty
cut down on environmental destruction
affordable, competent health care for all
Fears:
that any of those will fail
that the downward trends will continue
no subject
Date: 2008-11-06 05:06 am (UTC)Hi darlin'. Just a quick note, charter schools are held to the same State standards of curriculum, but the educational approach is painted with a broader brush. Freedom rings, in that educators are allowed to take a more liberal stance, because it's the foundation for free choice, free speech and free exploration of opinions and view points.
I agree the Prop 8 fiasco is a bunch of bullshit. I have mixed feelings on the topic. I believe to each his own and if they want to call their union a marriage, fantastic. The reality is, all the civil rights afforded you and I, as non-gay couples, is extended to domestic partnerships. It's quite evident in my financial aide forms for college, my health insurance forms at work and the ordinary rights all U.S. citizens are granted as individuals. The argument is in "Title" alone my friend. (This from "gay Bob at work)...
But...what the Hell do I know? I'll leave it simplified because politics and I do not get along. I'd rather spout my impassioned opinions on fun topics like what happens after too many rum drinks.
smiles...