September 22, 2005

Oust the Bastards

So many things have been altered in the wake of Katrina, one of them is the tens of thousands of displaced families. As these families move to new areas at the start of the school year they’ll be enrolling their children in new school districts. I was listening to NPR the other day and they were doing a short about how this was going to affect already under funded schools. They then went on to say ‘under funded schools are primarily in rural and urban areas.’

So what I want to know is what schools are not under funded?

Some people have noted that possibly the ‘suburbs’ are the only area with good schools, however the federal funding program does not have such a designation. There are only urban & rural areas. (specifically referred to as metropolitan & non-metropolitan counties).

So as near as I can figure, correct me if I’m wrong, if neither metro & non-metro areas are receiving proper educational funding, then doesn’t that mean that basically no one is getting a good education? I think it’s interesting (in a morbidly fascinating sort of way) that our politicians love to restrict so many of our freedoms under the guise of ‘it’s for the children’, yet they seem utterly unable to proactively educate these children. To me it seems much more valuable to teach a child basic math & reading than to ban HBO from having swearing & violence.

Somehow, no matter how much lip service the politico pays to the need to educate our young, I don’t believe they mean it. For if all americans were properly educated (especially the poor) then the ad machines the politicians use wouldn’t fool people. Politicians would need to be more honest, be held accountable, in essence they would lose their modern aristocracy. If you don’t think a modern aristocracy exists, then explain the bushes & kennedys. & those are just the big 2 families, our royalty.

A better educated public would demand higher standards from their politicians. The current administration realizes obtaining these standards would be detrimental to them. They realize that what is good for the public, and even the future of this nation, is not good for them. And so they have slowly been eroding the education system, knowing that as america becomes dumber their positions become more secure & richer, with less accountability.

Now is this a concerted, sinister conspiracy by this nations politicians? Probably not, but the politicians are taking advantage of america’s sad state of ignorance, and the measures they are taking to teach the next generation are filled with more photo-ops than teachers.


But they tell me it’s for the children.

-De

September 15, 2005

Another Katrina Post

Sorry. Got to do it.

I was lucky enough to have visited New Orleans before it sank. And I’m glad. I wanted to move to New Orleans after I visited, and I’ve always wanted to move there since, but never let myself.

New Orleans was a city forever on the edge of it’s own destruction. Many of it’s people seemed to live with a frantic air about them, as if they knew that any day a Katrina could swoop in a wipe it all away.

It was the masochist of cities.
Drinking itself to death every night, only to wake bleary eyed the next afternoon the hangover preventing it from dealing with the heat, so it would wait for the night once again.

It was the wonton hedonist of cities.
breasts flashing everywhere, public lewdness was good fun. It was living the fantasies that most can only dream about.

It was the freak of cities.
Sporting the wildest of fashions & hairstyles, every day was a new look for it, & every look it pulled off.

It was the musician of cities.
With a passion for music that only can come from a true love of music.

It was the chef of cities.
Mixing their spices with the flair that only a true artist can do.

It was the street performer.
It was the entertainer.

It was the friend who lived every second of their life to the fullest.
The one you are better off financially than yet you secretly envy their spirit & wish you could be that care free.

I’ll miss the old New Orleans, but hope it’ll be reborn just as vibrant & full of life.

-De

September 13, 2005

Stronger than a speeding bullet...

Well, it’s been awhile, 2 months 2 days in fact.

Why haven’t I been here blogging faithfully?
Why haven’t I been chugging out the words for all of your eager eyes to consume?
I understand that without my words, a shining beacon guiding you to salvation, then you are lost.
And so you have been my faithful Fridays, but worry no longer I have returned from my leap into the void, and as proof to my steadfastness I am neither stronger nor wiser, merely older.

Anyway.

Things are going on, and I shall endeavor to shout against human stupidity once again.

-De