Recently, Pres. Obama announced he would be addressing students returning to school from their summer break. Spokespeople said that the president wanted to address students in a general manner in order to encourage their education. For reasons which are unclear, some people reacted by inventing a sinister motivation, then objecting to the speech under their false pretense.
The idea that Pres. Obama was attempting to indoctrinate America's youth with his rhetoric should be labeled exactly what it is: a terrible false accusation. I agree, however, that any time someone constructs a speech, they indicate and must refer to their philosophy. This is what made reviewing Pres. George H. W. Bush's address to the eighth grade class at Alice Deal Jr. High School, back in 1991 terribly enlightening.
Though overall it was clear Bush's message was meant to be inspirational, his worldview (and the worldview of the majority of the voting public) set clear boundaries and definitions for success that were out of touch with the way our country was growing.
The roughly 15 minute speech (available at http://www.cspan.org/Watch/Media/2009/09/04/HP/A/22807/US+Presidents+Address+Students.aspx ) paints a picture of the president's expectation. His stated goal in his direction of efforts was a 90% graduation rate by 2000. He attempted to make the students responsible for reaching his expectation by defining success. According to Pres. Bush, if you go to school, get good grades, and graduate college, you'll have fulfilled your dreams and be successful. Your life will be better than those goof-offs who “chicken out” and let the “bad people” take over schools... all of whom end up with “dead-end jobs” and/or on drugs, and “running the streets.”
President Bush said, “if someone goofs off today, are they cool? Are they still cool years from now when they're stuck in some dead-end job?” The idea behind this question indicates the conservative philosophy that constructs unrealistic ideas of success. Bush estimates that success is the balance between only two dynamics. In other words, the president divided the children into “winners” and “losers,” which begs the question of his own attempt at indoctrination: Is it correct to assume a “winners” and “losers” posture about the lives of a generation? I have neither won, nor lost, and I do not live my life as though I must live up to some one's expectation of a “winner.” We all have our experiences, and living through tough times is not an example of us being “losers.”
Bush's decree that being a dropout is equal to failing at life leaves no room for the reality of life in the 21st century. I suggest that it is not we who failed President Bush in his attempt to see a 90% graduation rate, but rather his philosophy did not lend itself to the realities of life outside what he was willing to experience or understand. Meaning, his ideological standard wasn't in touch with the direction the world was going to go.
It is in this time that we must make more earnest efforts to view things the way that they actually are. We must make progress in a fashion that makes sense for the future. We should set realistic goals for the future, and strive to achieve them over time, rather than dictate to everyone the wishes of a few of us.
In-depth experience and the ability to translate this experience in a manner which sufficiently demonstrates the aspects of it, will serve to aid the consciousness of humanity. All aspects may be made available to the individual, who may judge the value of a potential experience absent of prohibitive opinion, which may lack credibility or merit due to ignorance of experiential data. Attempting to limit the curiosity of a potential experience by demonstrating percieved character flaws within the individuals who partake in an activity, rather than addressing the merits of the experience itself, is ineffective and misguided. This means that it is inappropriate for someone to tell someone else that some action is "wrong" if they have neither experience in the matter, nor logical understanding of it.
Bush spoke about dead-end jobs and drug users as loathsome parcels of an intolerable existence. Now that these terms are regular aspects of the American lexicon, it appears the former president was either less than motivational, or insufficient in his direction.
We are forced to deal with people of all walks of life. Molding the nation into one ideologial box is not realistic. A strategy for the peaceful existence of all people must consider the characteristics and sensibilities of all people. Some find solace in the ways of the past, while others look to newer or more diverse ways of life. Neither philosophy is wrong, so it would behoove us to stop trying to vanquish either one.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Thursday, September 3, 2009
The Game is Up
I believe most people in the US are not thinking about what's happening to the US as the whole, but rather they are supporting their local way of life. The ways in which common people live regularly doesn't require they know or care much about even the next County, let alone the next State. The size and happenstance of development of the United States has now left us in a different country from the one even 15 years ago, though each region has remained roughly the same the entire time.
Rather than deny that this country is evolving, or hopelessly cling to the ignorance of the past (meaning that we understand each other much better now thanks to the improvement in communication), Americans, if we wish for that to mean something, need to figure out exactly what being an American means. What is it that we want to represent?
I grew up in Florida. I've never lived in any other state. That must either say something about me or Florida. I've lived in North Florida, in the northwest panhandle, and in South Florida, in the city that is the I95 corridor. If you've never been to Florida, might not know these places seem like different states. My South Florida side, in its kindest form, says North Florida is more rural, while my North Florida side says once you pass Orlando, you cross into New Jersey. While that may be crass, it at least indicates a difference in the available ways of life between the two regions.
For all the idiosyncrasies represented in these populations, a general respect for human life and happiness is reflected in both societies. In fact, it's been my experience that most people from anywhere in the world share that same philosophy. We don't immediately disagree upon meeting people, unless there's something overtly objectionable about their appearance. We may, however, be divided.
If you average six hours of television a day for 16 or so years, you develop a sense for the means by which common people are divided. I'm not saying I recommend it, but the development and the voice or tenor of the nation when approached on the broad scale of trivia is eerily discernible.
On average, I think America took the Bush administration exactly for what it was. The power of the shady politician was unleashed for eight years. People regularly talked about it, it was joked about on TV, and many many people became utterly exacerbated and left the conversation. People gave up and said, “well that's the government for you.” It is to these people, the silent majority, I say this:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Is the future of this nation really that easy to ignore? Are we really so caught up in the trivial events of the day, that we will allow ourselves to be tended sheep to a power-drunk sociopathic shepherd? I don't just want to change the shepherd, I want us to stop acting like sheep. A very thoughtful person once said, “Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime.” Understand, you don't teach sheep to fish.
In the past month, I've read the town charter for the town I live in (posted online), and the Constitution of the United States (also posted online). I have familiarized myself with the fundamentals of governance in my town and country.
I wish nothing more than for the stability of my town and my country for the sake of my family, and the baby I have on the way. I have a longer future to consider, and I want her to be able to say her father tried to make a difference. Her father knew people don't often listen, but also knew if we speak together, we tend to stop shouting at each other.
We can't let ourselves get caught up in which side is going to win, but rather decide it is all of us who should win and throw the sides in the video games where they belong. If an idea is the best idea, then it should be supported as the best idea, and any other idea should have a concrete merit, lest it only be an obstacle to our collective progress.
(If the idea of collective progress is in any way to be misconstrued, then I should clarify. Universal collective progress for mankind is required in the philosophy of government regardless of the region, town or country... If not, then regrettable decisions may be made, even by people who love other people.)
The Bush administration made itself available to criticism on a number of issues, criticism met the Obama administration at the door. With nothing less than the future stability of this country at stake, it is obscene that people play sour grapes politics with efforts so vital as healthcare and carbon cap and trade. To ignore the scientific data that supports the idea of changing a flawed way of living, because of the way one makes money is indelibly reminiscent of classical hubris.
If a farm boy from Sneads, Florida can think up that line, and an urban-esc Lake Worth, Florida man can type it, I'd bet we can get a few people to consider reasonable alternatives to stifling the future with problems we see today. It just takes a little getting in touch with our inner patriot. I love this country, and I love the state of Florida... and I want it to look right when my daughter arrives.
I don't know all the right ways, but I've got a few good ideas and am willing to share them in an effort to make all of this world safer and more secure ( and I do assume that is possible). I don't see my value as a human and my ability to reason as properties that I should hoard or use with like-abled peers without regard for the rest of humanity. I'm interested in the well-being of this State, Country and Planet, and am offering my opinion in the hopes for that” more perfect union.”
Rather than deny that this country is evolving, or hopelessly cling to the ignorance of the past (meaning that we understand each other much better now thanks to the improvement in communication), Americans, if we wish for that to mean something, need to figure out exactly what being an American means. What is it that we want to represent?
I grew up in Florida. I've never lived in any other state. That must either say something about me or Florida. I've lived in North Florida, in the northwest panhandle, and in South Florida, in the city that is the I95 corridor. If you've never been to Florida, might not know these places seem like different states. My South Florida side, in its kindest form, says North Florida is more rural, while my North Florida side says once you pass Orlando, you cross into New Jersey. While that may be crass, it at least indicates a difference in the available ways of life between the two regions.
For all the idiosyncrasies represented in these populations, a general respect for human life and happiness is reflected in both societies. In fact, it's been my experience that most people from anywhere in the world share that same philosophy. We don't immediately disagree upon meeting people, unless there's something overtly objectionable about their appearance. We may, however, be divided.
If you average six hours of television a day for 16 or so years, you develop a sense for the means by which common people are divided. I'm not saying I recommend it, but the development and the voice or tenor of the nation when approached on the broad scale of trivia is eerily discernible.
On average, I think America took the Bush administration exactly for what it was. The power of the shady politician was unleashed for eight years. People regularly talked about it, it was joked about on TV, and many many people became utterly exacerbated and left the conversation. People gave up and said, “well that's the government for you.” It is to these people, the silent majority, I say this:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Is the future of this nation really that easy to ignore? Are we really so caught up in the trivial events of the day, that we will allow ourselves to be tended sheep to a power-drunk sociopathic shepherd? I don't just want to change the shepherd, I want us to stop acting like sheep. A very thoughtful person once said, “Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime.” Understand, you don't teach sheep to fish.
In the past month, I've read the town charter for the town I live in (posted online), and the Constitution of the United States (also posted online). I have familiarized myself with the fundamentals of governance in my town and country.
I wish nothing more than for the stability of my town and my country for the sake of my family, and the baby I have on the way. I have a longer future to consider, and I want her to be able to say her father tried to make a difference. Her father knew people don't often listen, but also knew if we speak together, we tend to stop shouting at each other.
We can't let ourselves get caught up in which side is going to win, but rather decide it is all of us who should win and throw the sides in the video games where they belong. If an idea is the best idea, then it should be supported as the best idea, and any other idea should have a concrete merit, lest it only be an obstacle to our collective progress.
(If the idea of collective progress is in any way to be misconstrued, then I should clarify. Universal collective progress for mankind is required in the philosophy of government regardless of the region, town or country... If not, then regrettable decisions may be made, even by people who love other people.)
The Bush administration made itself available to criticism on a number of issues, criticism met the Obama administration at the door. With nothing less than the future stability of this country at stake, it is obscene that people play sour grapes politics with efforts so vital as healthcare and carbon cap and trade. To ignore the scientific data that supports the idea of changing a flawed way of living, because of the way one makes money is indelibly reminiscent of classical hubris.
If a farm boy from Sneads, Florida can think up that line, and an urban-esc Lake Worth, Florida man can type it, I'd bet we can get a few people to consider reasonable alternatives to stifling the future with problems we see today. It just takes a little getting in touch with our inner patriot. I love this country, and I love the state of Florida... and I want it to look right when my daughter arrives.
I don't know all the right ways, but I've got a few good ideas and am willing to share them in an effort to make all of this world safer and more secure ( and I do assume that is possible). I don't see my value as a human and my ability to reason as properties that I should hoard or use with like-abled peers without regard for the rest of humanity. I'm interested in the well-being of this State, Country and Planet, and am offering my opinion in the hopes for that” more perfect union.”
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