Saturday, January 26, 2008
Election Year Thoughts
It has been another interesting week in South Carolina with presidential candidates and their entourages, the national media attention and the abundance of political advertisements offering voters insight into the issues that are part of this election year. Of course, the economy has taken center stage and we continue to hear about immigration, health care and war. But, concern for worldwide poverty, the threat of global warming, foreign policy based primarily on military action and the other injustices that shape the lives of children here and around the world seems to be almost non-existent. I am sure there are position papers and expert political analyses that could give us a better of understanding of each candidate’s views, however, most of us rely mainly on sound bytes and headlines to shape our opinions. So, as the glitz and glamour subsides, I plan to spend more time digging deeper into what I need to know to vote in November.
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8 comments:
We need to dig deeply and make sure the immediate issues of the health and education of our children are not overshadowed by (dare I say it!)the "trendiness" of concern over the threat of global warming and other environmental issues.
I do not discount the importance and relevance of environmental issues, but I do believe that the reason we are not hearing about what the candidates' beliefs are about education (ie, the hypocrisy of No Child Left Behind and its debilitating effect on our nations' educational system) is because they are focusing on the more "popular" issues.
Has one candidate spoken out about education?
I completely understand and agree that under ordinary circumstances, the health and education of our children are our greatest concerns. But these are not ordinary times.
If we spend any more time digging deeply into any other arena other than the very tenuous future existence of our children,we are just digging deeper graves for them. Global warming is not a threat. It is a reality. I agree that health and education are major issues in the lives of all Americans, but health and education issues are always under criticism. They are always scrutinized. They have been beaten to death, and they will continue to get kicked around. It is time to quit beating a dead horse and trust that health and education will always be important as long as there are people.
"As long as there are people" is the operative thought here. If we don't get off the fence, there very well may not be. I prefer to think that God wishes us to be good stewards of His Earth, rather than God will watch us use global warming to bring about the end of days.
The real hypocrisy of No Child Left Behind is that if we focus on "NO CHILD", ALL CHILDREN WILL BE LEFT BEHIND. For once, and I mean for ONCE, the candidates just might all agree that they want to save themselves and their children. They have maybe all been enlightened by better information that the general public has access to, and are not evading any issues, but, rather, are scared to death not to agree on what the only issue can be right now. Maybe they have noticed some of the same "trends" that I have noticed.
I have noticed the ocean get closer and closer to Ocean Blvd. I have noticed that the Japanese Boxwoods that have thrived in my yard in Myrtle Beach, SC for over 50 years can no longer sustain direct solar radiation unfiltered by a disappearing ozone layer and are dying from above ground. I have noticed that at least two species of migratory waterfowl no longer have to fly south for the winter. I have noticed from state population reports on reptiles whose unborn sex is determined in the egg by temperature, indicate that a much higher ratio of males to females are being hatched because males occur at higher temperatures. I have noticed that all of my overcoats have remained in suit bags in my closet in Myrtle Beach, SC for five years because we have virtually no winter anymore. I have noticed that there are boat ramps in this county that no longer reach the water. I have noticed that I have only listed a FEW suspicious things that I have noticed LOCALLY. The things that I have noticed globally are the stuff of nightmares and horror movies.
Please,let no one think that what I am putting forth is any kind of rebuttal or attack of anyone's ideas. My only aim is probably to clear my own conscience and not to wash my hands. It scares me and scrambles my thoughts that our candidates for the most important job on Earth seem to intentionally disregard all the, heretofore, mainstays of political concerns. It scares me because this time they have it right, and they are scared too.
I hope that this election year all the candidates realize that every one is not an American, but that, because America uses such a large percent of the Earth's resources, America and her leaders have a huge global responsibility. That responsibility is very simple in concept and very complicated in actualization. It is, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". Thank you for your kind indulgence, and pay no attention to the little man behind the curtain.
I really have to force myself to dig deeply into the political mire. The sound bytes and headlines, not to mention the mountian CNN can make out of any molehill, have irritated me. Only my belief that I have a valuable responsiblity to care and to vote compel me to think about this at all.
The dialogue is needed, but I must add a comment...the "future existence" of our children is now!
Yes, tend to environmental concerns, but also raise a generation who will do better than we have done for them--and that is an immediate and viable concern! Until society, legislators, and voters realize that childrens issues are everyones issues, we will continue the harm that has been done when our youngest and most vulnerable are not a priority. And the harm is not just to children, but to our economy, our society, and the world.
Children's issues ARE global issues AND economic issues and, research shows, that when quality education for children is in place, important changes happen in society. Had those before us done a better job in educating the young to be involved, forward-thinking, innovative, healthy, aware, contributing citizens, perhaps global warming and many more environmental, societal concerns would not be the reality they have now become.
We must, as a society, understand that it's all about education, and education must start with our youngest citizens if our world is to have a future worthy of our children. Waxing poetic about how the environment around us has changed makes a good read and is very poignant and, yes, is true. But we haven't been the ones to do the work! The work will be done by those who are now children; educated to break the cycle of destruction that WE have caused. If we do our job insisting on quality education, not teaching to pass tests, then there is the likelihood that our children will become problem solvers, our children will learn to care even more than we do, our children will be able to break the cycle of abuse and poverty that have marginalized so many. Then they would go on to become the environmentalists, scientists, engineers, inventors, doctors, who make a difference in the world because of what their past has taught them and where their education leads them.
I like this quote that relates to educating the next generation of conservationists.
" In the end, we will conserve only what we love.
We will love only what we understand.
We will understand only what we are taught."
Baba Dioum,
Senegalese conservationist – 1968
Thanks for the comments as they call us to formulate responses of both word and action. Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? In other words, can hungry or poorly nourished children be the great minds of the future? Can children who suffer from environmentally induced illnesses be effective learners? Can children who live in fear even think beyond the moment? Yet, we look to their educated minds to give us answers to a long list of our social ills. I am looking for politicians today who are willing to discuss how we might redeem our broken world and restore justice among its peoples in an honest and forthright manner. As people of faith, we must also enter into these discussions and respond with appropriate action.
Now I am compelled to also add just one more comment.Before I launch out of the gate half-cocked, I must assure anon that you are just as your sign-in identity states, anonymous, and that I have no idea who you are. Whoever you are, I love you. Your statements are in the exact sentiments as mine. You are correct and right at the same time. I wish that anonymous and I could share some more ideas because we actually have very similar views. Nothing in the forthcoming is directed at you personally. I lack the organizational skills to structure my observations in a logical manner without having reference points to build around, so I have borrowed a few of your phrases to catapult from. Thank you for your forgiveness. I truly believe that what I wish to convey is the extreme sense of urgency that I feel about a few technical issues associated with our future. That sense of urgency makes me braver than wise, but compelled nevertheless. My e-mail address is tomcandoit@hotmail.com. Please fuss at me personally if you like, or exchange more of your refreshing views.
I think that I have a more radical and urgent interpretation of "NOW" than most. Delighted though I am that anon agrees that our children's "future existence" is NOW, the argument for that major premise indicates that anon is suggesting that NOW is sometime in the future, after a whole new generation miraculously appears which will STOP PASSING THE BUCK. If we believe that the future is now then we all have to do something NOW. This minute.
I am approaching 60 years of life on Earth, so I am one of those who came before. I had every tool available to me through the educational system already in place to allow me to understand most of what then were our future global problems. Educational systems seem to work best when students insist that every tool and every word be made available to them and take responsibility to challenge the very best out of every instructor and teacher. One does not have to be exceptionally smart to realize very young that very little of what I have learned so far can kill me, but it seems that much of what I do not know might. A good sense of self-preservation is a terrific motivator. All young human brains work furiously, tirelessly and relentlessly to understand early in their development one of the most complex systems that they will ever encounter in their lives. They know intuitively that without knowledge and mastery of this awesome complexity they will shrivel. That complexity is language. At some point after a child has exhibited true genius on a grand scale, adults let them off the intellectual hook by presenting too little input into their soak-it-up-like-a-sponge brains.It was not a lack of education that retarded our capacity to think on a global scale. It has always been a social order that allowed greed to rob parents and instructors of the sacrificed time needed to sustain the idea of our stewardship role that retarded our capacity to think on a global scale. All babies are born thinking on a global scale because you can take them from their birth location and put them anywhere on the planet, and they will learn any and all of the languages of the world.
As one of those who came before, I have been screaming about THE FUTURE IS NOW for 30 plus years to students, friends, educators, city officials, politicians and congregations. Only recently have I seen a real concern. Heretofore, the response was usually based on more study or more budget being made available. The discussion was always tabled until the next meeting, and if I am reading what I think I am, the suggestion has come around to "Yes, I agree that the FUTURE IS NOW, so let's table the discussion for ,not the next meeting, but for the next generation.
Not to get too technical, but please, if any blog readers could, google Ricochet Effect esp. as it applies to states of gases in the atmosphere. Be aware that the collision of particles in our atmosphere will continue to degrade the protective effect of that atmosphere for at least thirty years after they are there. That means that, even if humans stop emissions cold turkey NOW, this minute, the harmful effects of them will continue for thirty years. In essence, NOW means thirty years ago. Did the emissions stop while you were reading this? NO. Can you wait until a new generation of young scientists earns that first big paycheck, buys an SUV and a charcoal grill, loves their standard of living and decides to PASS THE BUCK again? No.
Believe me, I "wax poetic" in deliberate, metered syllabication that simply exudes joy , beauty and the power to inspire a chosen emotion. These feeble attempts that I am making at socially acceptable Apocalyptic forecasting are not in that league. I see nothing idealistic or idyllic in the prospects of a mediocre planet with no sentient beings aboard to glorify creation. Roaches everywhere must be enrolling in "meek" classes, because they are chomping at the bit to inherit the Earth. I do consider idealistic, however, the notion that out of the blue, with no basis of past occurrence, and many examples to refute, that a generation will appear that exhibits none of the greed that all others before it possessed , and that they will, with determination and single mindedness, instantaneously reconfigure a planetary system and flawlessly implement that plan to make an untested prototype become an actual habitat for future generations while depending on a labor force to carry out those plans which probably won't speak English and, therefore will have been denied as elite an education as that miraculous team of young scientists who thought of the plan.
The very simple fact is that technology can not start to heal the planet. The future can not save us. NOW and WE are all there is. Again, very simply, NOW, starting right this second, WE, all of us in developed countries, must begin to NEED less. WE NEED LESS packaging. we need less travel. We need less food. We need less clothes. We need less self.
If we ever need more than our daily bread, we are expecting too much. If we do not begin to need less. we will become needless. The most harm that we do to our children is to teach them by example that they have a right to own more than they need. When our concerns are stated in an ordered sequence of "economy, society and world" the translation to our children is that they should protect their possessions first, promote a social order that serves those that such an order considers worthy and consider the effect that those two flawed ideals have on the world last.
While it still might make a difference, WE NOW NEED to lower our standard of living. In New Testament times the answer would have been to rid ourselves of all our material possessions and follow Jesus. Christianity, even in the simple form of lose the material and find the spiritual, would be a perfect plan for planetary rehabilitation. It could work for NOW. Maybe it WAS the plan from Creation. If no one believes anything I have ranted about so far, believe this. NOW means thirty years ago. If we start NOW, it won't begin for thirty years to come. If we wait for one generation, we are one generation plus thirty years late. I dare say that everyone agrees that would simply be too late.
Poetically, the modern bard will have been correct. "This is the way the world will end, Not with a bang, but a whimper."
What a great conversation! Ron's quote is a concise statement of the importance of education and stewardship. Thank you, Ron, for shedding your light on us all! Jeanne
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