Not Everyone Needs College

 

 

Earlier this week, the old "not everyone needs college" meme resumed its fairly regular rounds among the chattering class. Here are my random thoughts about that.

This particular meme is a corollary to the article of faith among conservatives that not every child in America deserves the opportunity for a free, world-class public education. The segregationists seize upon every innocuous sounding slogan and reasonable sounding rationale to push forward their basic belief that there are "real Americans" and there are those other people among us who are not deserving of opportunity. 

In reality, every child should have the opportunity, and that starts with well-funded, excellent public schools, with well-paid, professional educators teaching our children. Whether that child wants to be a microbiologist or simply hold a microphone in a garage band, every child needs to have a foundation that results in the minimum of a high school diploma, based on established national standards for a diploma. Certainly children have different levels of academic skill or potential, and there should be different levels of instruction. But that differentiation should not be based on race, gender, economic status, or zip code. 

 In my view, the opportunity for job training (which many people conflate with education) starts when the ink is dry on that high school diploma. We should invest heavily in community college, apprenticeships, military enlistment, and other "vocational" training at that level - AFTER the high school diploma.  

Again, that assumes that the high school diploma represents a level of academic achievement that is recognized universally. A high school graduate from South Dakota and the high school graduate from South Carolina should be recognized to have a very similar level of basic achievement in math, literature/composition/grammar/vocabulary, history, civics, and science. 

Finally, let me be clear. Not everyone needs college. But let's not allow that basic truth to become a smokescreen for denying opportunity to every child to get a free, world-class public education. You can bet that the wealthy, educated elite who spout the "not everyone needs college" line are telling their kids that.

Our Fractured Society

This rainy January morning, with lots of turmoil in the news, has got me thinking as I listen to the great album known as Chicago 2. I can recall hanging out with my friends, especially on the staff at Camp Palmetto during summers, where the little phonograph in the staff lodge was cranking loud with the sounds of "Wake up Sunshine" or "Magic Carpet Ride" or "Eli's Coming." 

The key being we were in this together, doing things together, and listening to music from the LPs or the radio together. No "personal isolation devices" with our own curated personal playlists put together by some computer algorithm. The conversation was "did you catch that bass riff," or "what an awesome drum fill," or "those lyrics were awesome."

During my second class (junior) year at Annapolis, my black roommate, Paul Davis, and I grew together and learned about each other and our wildly different cultures because we had a stereo. One stereo. I listened to and learned to love funk and harder core soul music than was played on Top 40 radio, and heard for the first time the raunchy but incisive and insightful comedy of Richard Pryor. Paul heard Flatt & Scruggs and Reno & Smiley, and we listened to Chicago and Grand Funk and The Guess Who, all together. 

It seems to me that our personally curated reading lists and playlists don't encourage sharing what we like in meaningful ways with other people. And they certainly don't support expanding our horizons in music or books or politics.

Maybe our parents' generation had the same kinds of complaints, bringing even more meaning to the great lyrics from Pete Townshend: "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

Thoughts on a President

 This week we are all joined in the death watch for former President Jimmy Carter. The pundits are crafting their tributes, the politicians are weighing in with their usual, and the family no doubt are sitting by the bedside. 

So many of the tributes to Mr. Jimmy, as he's called in Plains, describe him as a good man, too honest or too much a technocrat to be a good President. They often resort to the backhanded compliment as the "best former President ever," pointing to his work for Habitat for Humanity or the Carter Center or to eradicate the scourge of the Guinea worm. Reviews of his presidency are couched in terms that focus on his unpopularity, his failure to inspire, his lopsided loss in the 1980 election. 

Yet when one looks at a list of accomplishments while in office, for only one term, one finds a substantial body of work, including a number of initiatives that have had great influence on the nation and the world. 

• President Carter gets blasted for inflation, but zero credit for appointing Paul Volcker to head the Federal Reserve, perhaps the single most important step to end the inflation that brushed aside Nixon's wage-price controls and scoffed at Ford's WIN buttons.
• He is vilified for allowing our embassy staff in Tehran to be taken hostage, and mocked for the failed hostage attempt. Meanwhile the tough Ronald Reagan is rarely criticized for the bombing of the Marine barracks at Beirut Airport on October 23, 1983, killing 241 Americans.
• His aggressive push to ratify the Panama Canal treaty was widely panned as surrendering a vital strategic interest, and has even been cited as the cause of the rise of the criminal tyrant Noriega to power in Panama. Yet none of the doomsday scenarios the critics predicted ever came about.
• He was widely mocked for his sweater speech, urging Americans to adjust their thermostats to save energy. Four decades later, we see missed opportunities for global leadership in the 21st-century energy transition, a transition which Engineer Carter foresaw with amazing clarity.
• The Camp David treaty between Israel and Egypt remains an anchor of stability in a volatile Middle East.
• Carter's deregulation of trucking and airlines revolutionized transportation in the United States.
• The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) was landmark legislation that preserved more wilderness than any single action in the history of the nation.
• His amnesty for those who evaded the Vietnam era draft turned another page on a dark part of America's history, helping to heal many wounds.

Perhaps the most telling commentary is that a man who by almost every account is good, honest, full of integrity, and principled, could never be a successful politician in America. 

Capitalism Run Amok

Several seemingly unrelated news stories during this holiday week have pointed to the rise of capitalism run amok in our society. The influence of big money and the desire for making money without legal, ethical, or moral restraint are having consequences on our society that will reverberate for generations.

First, there are stories about the state of college athletics, especially about college football during bowl season and the opening of the transfer portal. Many players are abandoning their teammates and sitting out their bowl games, either to drop out of school and enter the transfer portal, or to drop out of school to prepare for entering the NFL draft. Tampering and big payoffs through the name, image, and likeness money (NIL) are the worst-kept secrets in big time college football. Players are working toward their third, and sometimes even fourth, college football team in search of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. And all that funded by big money corporate donors, trying to attach their brands to popular college football players. 

Second, there is the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) by students to write papers for them. One particular app in the news is called ChatGPS, which can take a writing assignment and use AI to generate a paper, complete with references. ChatGPS is making money by selling students the tools they need to cheat. And that leads to other software tools sold to schools and individual teachers to detect the cheating, sometimes by the same companies that develop the cheating tools. And the arms race escalates, with these software development companies laughing all the way to the bank.

All this is capitalism run amok. 

What Does Moderate Mean

 

Much has been said and written about the “mainstream moderate” or “independent” voter, but beyond the labels there’s not much substance or fleshing out these moderates’ specific views on specific issues. The labels are popular especially when criticizing Democrats, who somehow must be careful so as not to offend these “moderates” with extreme positions. 

But to try to figure out what exactly the labels mean, here is a list of specific policy areas. I appreciate the feedback from everyone on what the “moderate” position is for each.

1. Voting rights. Specifically, should Congress fully reauthorize the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and expressly reinstate the pre-clearance requirements struck down in Shelby County v Holder and expand pre-clearance to the entire nation?

2. Abortion. Should Congress codify nationally the framework established by Roe v Wade?

3. Gay marriage. Should the bill currently in the Senate codifying the right to gay marriage pass as is?

4. Policing/criminal justice reform. Should Congress resurrect the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act from the last Congress?

5. Environmental protection/energy. Should the Congress override the Supreme Court’s decision in West Virginia v EPA, reasserting its power to delegate rulemaking authority to Federal agencies? Should the Congress increase support for smart grid, EV, and alternative energy infrastructure? 

6. Immigration reform. Should the Congress resurrect the framework of the 2013 comprehensive immigration reform bill that passed the Senate by a vote of 68-32, but was not taken up in the House when Speaker John Boehner invoked the Hastert rule?

7. Firearms. Should the Congress pass universal background checks for every firearm sale/transfer, enact limits on magazine capacity for semiautomatic weapons, beef up enforcement of gun trafficking laws, and enact a nationwide red flag law?

8. Taxes. Should the Congress reform the personal and corporate income tax laws, and in what ways, specifically?

9. Education. Should the government support private schools through vouchers and expansion of charter schools, especially for-profit and online schools? Should the government support universal pre-K? Should community college be free?

A Sober Debate

 Michael Gerson, Washington Post columnist and former speechwriter for George W. Bush, calls for a "sober debate" on abortion in a column posted this week on the Post website. He then goes on and sets up a false equivalence between some extremists on the left who he claims want abortion on demand throughout pregnancy, and the mainstream Republican position that is calling for imposing restrictions on travel and mail-order medications akin to the fugitive slave laws to punish women.

But I agree that we need a sober debate on many of our policies. And I agree that we need to view these policies through the lens of our Judeo-Christian heritage, specifically as that heritage is rooted in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.

• We can talk about "quickening" as the demarcation where pregnancy seems to matter when it comes to legal distinctions.
• We can talk about the vision of a just and righteous society, where doom is proclaimed on those who enact laws that punish the poor, the fatherless, and the widow (Isaiah 10). Where justice is almost always accompanied by the phrase "for the poor" in scripture.
• We can talk about the Kingdom of God described as a time when we turn our weapons into useful implements for agriculture, and instead of standing our ground we talk about putting away our swords (Matthew 26).
• We can talk about the division of the nations between sheep and goats in Matthew 25.
• We can talk about the Imago Dei imprinted in every human being, and how we ignore Christ when we ignore the least of these.
• We can talk about Matthew 6 and the insistence on public prayer and other public displays of piety among so many today.
• We can talk about the command to "suffer the little children" and how the right wing seems to completely misread that.
• We can discuss the command to treat the foreigner among us as a citizen.

So let's have the debate. Let's discuss all this openly, in the spirit of fellowship and mutual respect.

Robb Elementary School

The shooting on May 25, 2022 at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX has again shocked the nation. It has also brought out the usual divisions on firearms safety. I personally come down on the side of groups like Moms Demand Action or Giffords.org, promoting universal background checks, stringent red flag laws, magazine size restrictions, and aggressive enforcement against gun trafficking.

There is also springing up a debate over physical security and law enforcement response, given what appear to be glaring failures in Uvalde despite spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on physical security measures and having a trained and equipped SWAT unit in the local police department.

After the shooting at Columbine HS in Colorado in 1999, physical security of school facilities became a focus of design and construction of new school facilities. Measures to "harden" schools include:

• Single-point controlled access, to include electronic locks and video or physical surveillance and card access control for entry to the building
• Armed school resource officers, whose duties include the typical "security guard" routines to check for unlocked doors
• Perimeter security, including perimeter video surveillance and controlled access to the parking lots and grounds during school hours
• Hardening interior doors, especially doors to classrooms

Columbine also brought forward scrutiny of law enforcement tactics in response to an active shooter on campus. Many police departments formed active shooter response teams, and coordinated with schools to conduct active shooter drills.

All that seems to have been for naught at Robb Elementary this week. The shooter killed his grandmother at her house (shades of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in Connecticut), and then wrecked his car near the school and opened fire at a funeral home across the street from the school (per 9-1-1 calls). Response to those 9-1-1 calls appears to have been slow. The shooter then apparently entered the school through an unlocked door, despite the school having spent lots of money to implement some of the hardening measures described above.

Several minutes later, police responded to the school. But they failed to carry out any kind of tactical response, despite their own SWAT unit. Instead, law enforcement entered the school about 40 minutes later, upon arrival of backup from Federal officers, including Border Patrol officers.

The questions about the law enforcement response and hardening measures at the school must be answered. But we cannot allow that to distract from addressing the ocean of firearms that floods our nation.

And a note about our two high schools in Haywood County, NC. Tuscola and Pisgah High Schools are designed around the "Florida plan," which means the schools have several separate buildings separated by covered walkways. There is no single point of entry to the school building, because each campus has six or seven separate school buildings. That is a physical security nightmare.

Washington Post comments

 I have long said that the basic philosophical difference between Democrats and Republicans is the question, who gets to be an American. Who gets to enjoy the rights and privileges that are clearly laid out in our sacred founding documents.

For Democrats, the answer is that every person born in America is an American, regardless of race, creed, sexual orientation, education, wealth/income. Every person is entitled to the inalienable rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, and the rights and privileges set forward in the Constitution and laws enacted thereto. Democrats seek to widen the circle, to help every person realize the dream of that more perfect Union.

For Republicans, the answer is different. Republicans start with the premise that only white Christians are "true Americans." And then when we see this news this morning, we understand that it's really only white male Christians. The rest are obligated to somehow force their way into the inner circle, where it's up to the white male Christians whether they get to enjoy some of the rights that are "endowed by the Creator."

There is nothing more personal and private than health care decisions. And here the white Christian males decide it's time to put women in their rightful place, letting them know in no uncertain terms that they are still not first-class citizens.

 - 5/3/2022 on https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/02/roe-v-wade-supreme-court-draft-politico/

Folks, this abortion ban stuff is the mainstream of the Republican Party, not some radical fringe. Attacking the LGBTQ community, people of color, and immigrants is the mainstream of the Republican Party, not some radical fringe. Saying that protesters should have their skulls cracked in is the mainstream of the Republican Party, not some radical fringe. Slashing Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid is the mainstream of the Republican Party, not some radical fringe. Denying citizens the right to vote is the mainstream of the Republican Party, not some radical fringe. Dumping pollution in our water and air is the mainstream of the Republican Party, not some radical fringe. Supporting Putin is the mainstream of the Republican Party, not some radical fringe.

 - 5/3/2022 on https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/02/roe-v-wade-supreme-court-draft-politico/

Our Misplaced Priorities

 Just browsing the headlines today in the Washington Post:

Virginia Thomas urged White House chief to pursue unrelenting efforts to overturn the 2020 election, texts show

Race hovered over Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearing

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton goes after puberty blockers

Ted Cruz held up ‘The End of Policing’ in a hearing. Sales soared.

It’s Pride Week in Austin schools. The Texas AG says that’s illegal.

Then we find stuff that's buried on page A6 somewhere, or not even making much news.

The number one killer of adults ages 18-45 is fentanyl poisoning. COVID-19 is indeed a public health crisis that in my opinion we're not done with yet. But fentanyl is killing people, companies are making money by illegally distributing this killer, and we seem to be impotent against that threat. 

Public education continues to be under attack from the segregationists, this time in the guise of all manner of culture war issues like puberty blockers and critical race theory and Pride Week. Meanwhile, our kids keep falling behind in math and science and reading and writing while the politicians argue over masks and whether little Johnny should wear a dress. And those kids will not be able to compete in the 21st-century global economy, leading the world in the 21st-century global energy transition.

And speaking of the 21st-century global energy transition, Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine has opened the eyes of the West to the perils of dependence on crude oil imported from bad actors like Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela, and others. The price of gasoline won't matter when most vehicles on the road have electric motors instead of internal combustion engines. The price of propane won't matter when you heat your home and your water with a very efficient electric heat pump. The price of fuel won't matter when your forklifts and your golf carts have batteries instead of fuel tanks. 

But instead of tackling hard issues head on, in good faith, we spend our political energy fighting over bullshit.

Ukraine

 It's time for the United States and NATO to step up against Putin's aggression. It appears that the Russian army is bogged down in its attempt to control Kiev. The real front is along Ukraine's coast, from Mariupol to Odesa. 

I suggest sailing the USS Harry S. Truman carrier strike group from the Eastern Mediterranean through the Bosporus into the Black Sea, in a show of freedom of navigation. This would, in my opinion, provide a huge distraction to Russia's Black Sea fleet, in particular dissuading the Russians from conducting amphibious assault operations along the coast of Ukraine.

3/24/22 My friend Bill Everett posts this on his blog: The war in Ukraine is not only a struggle over autocracy versus democracy (and not simply over the value of national sovereignty). It is a struggle over the degree to which Christian churches will align themselves with nationalisms and imperial versions of “Christendom.”

Running List of Quotes

 Just a running list of quotes, this being a handy place to keep them.

"Our army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do, and at Fort McHenry, under the rockets' red glare, it had nothing but victory." - Donald Trump

The gospel doesn't need a coalition devoted to keeping the wrong people out. It needs a family of sinners, saved by grace, committed to tearing down the walls, throwing open the doors, and shouting, "Welcome! There's bread and wine. Come eat with us and talk." This isn't a kingdom for the worthy, it's a kingdom for the hungry." - Rachel Held Evans

"Beware of any Christian movement that demands that government be an instrument of God's wrath but never a source of God's mercy, generosity, or compassion." - Rev. Benjamin Cremer

“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: “there must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” - Frank Wilhoit

America's billionaires could give everybody in the country a $3,000 stimulus check and still be richer than they were before the pandemic. - Robert Reich

"Billionaire" isn't a qualification. It's the description of a person who is hoarding more resources than they could use in 100 lifetimes while other people are starving. It's the name for a human dragon sleeping on its pile of rubies and gold. 

Benjy Sarlin on Twitter: "These seats always get talked about like they're an objective Best Lawyer Award for whoever got the highest on the Lawyer test. There are 1000s of people who could do this job fine at any moment. WH's consider lots of factors starting with ideology, it's not like an MVP vote."

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.” -  Lyndon B. Johnson

“I asked a man in prison once how he happened to be there and he said he had stolen a pair of shoes. I told him if he had stolen a railroad he would be a United States Senator.” - Mother Jones

the homeschooled college dropout Annapolis reject divorced-after-8-months driving-with-revoked-license gun-totin lawsuit millionaire cross-dressing insider trading  and my very own ex Congresscritter Madison Cawthorn

“Science isn’t Burger King; you can’t just ‘have it your way. Take notes, Madame Speaker. I’m about to define what a woman is for you. “X chromosomes, no tallywhacker. It’s so simple.”

"Christians are usually sincere and well-intentioned people until you get to any real issues of ego, control power, money, pleasure, and security. Then they tend to be pretty much like everybody else. We often given a bogus version of the Gospel, some fast-food religion, without any deep transformation of the self; and the result has been the spiritual disaster of "Christian" countries that tend to be as consumer-oriented, proud, warlike, racist, class conscious, and addictive as everybody else-and often more so, I'm afraid." - Robert Rohr

“Using a different colored pencil to shade the solution of each inequality in a system will make identifying the solution of the system of inequalities easier.” - Precalculus with Limits

@NobleSpencer on Twitter: "Fascinated by how the behavior of the people who took 3 pieces of pizza at the pizza party because they thought it would run out and the people who took 1 piece for the exact same reason is such a perfect encapsulation of American beliefs about community."

"When the establishment turned their guns on me, when the Uni-party coalesced to defeat an America First member very few people had my back. On a mission now to expose those who say and promise one thing yet legislate and work towards another, self-profiteering, globalist goal. The time for genteel politics as usual has come to an end. It’s time for the rise of the new right, it’s time for Dark MAGA to truly take command. We have an enemy to defeat, but we will never be able to defeat them until we defeat the cowardly and weak members of our own party. Their days are numbered. We are coming." - Madison Cawthorn on Instagram, 5/19/2022

"...if our liberty demands the occasional massacre, then conservatives ought to make that case." - Jamelle Bouie

"Take notes, Madam Speaker. I'm about to define what a woman is for you: XX chromosomes, no tallywhacker." - Madison Cawthorn

"It is by no means enough that an officer of the Navy should be a capable mariner. He must be that, of course, but also a great deal more. He should be as well a gentleman of liberal education, refined manners, punctilious courtesy, and the nicest sense of personal honor." - John Paul Jones

Cause everybody's got a pistol
Everybody got a .45
The philosophy seems to be
At least as near as I can see
When the other folks give up theirs, I'll give up mine.  - Gil Scott-Heron

“It’s a horrible, horrible situation, and we’re not going to fix it. Criminals are gonna be criminals. And my daddy fought in the second world war, fought in the Pacific, fought the Japanese, and he told me, he said, ‘Buddy,’ he said, ‘if somebody wants to take you out, and doesn’t mind losing their life, there’s not a whole heck of a lot you can do about it.’” - Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN)

"Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion." - Edmund Burke, speech to the electors of Bristol, November 3, 1774

"A man in the pursuit of deer, elk, and buffaloes might carry his rifle every day for forty years, and yet it would never be said of him that he had borne arms; much less could it be said that a private citizen bears arms because he has a dirk or pistol concealed under his clothes, or a spear in a cane." - Tennessee Supreme Court, 1840

“Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion? Without all doubt, we may. Herein all the children of God may unite, notwithstanding these smaller differences.” ― John Wesley

"The Gospel of Christ knows no religion but social; no holiness, but social holiness.” - John Wesley

“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.” ― John Wesley

“Bring me a worm that can comprehend a man, and then I will show you a man that can comprehend the Triune God.” ― John Wesley

Hawkeye: War isn’t Hell. War is war, and Hell is Hell. And of the two, war is a lot worse.
Father Mulcahy: How do you figure that, Hawkeye?
Hawkeye: Easy, Father. Tell me, who goes to Hell?
Father Mulcahy: Sinners, I believe.
Hawkeye: Exactly. There are no innocent bystanders in Hell. War is chock full of them — little kids, cripples, old ladies. In fact, except for some of the brass, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander.

It is not possible to preach lawlessness and restrict it. - Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial, October 13, 1958

“Here is this guy who comes out with his manifesto, holding the Confederate flag and had just hijacked everything that people thought of. We don’t have hateful people in South Carolina. There’s always the small minority who are always going to be there, but people saw it as service, sacrifice and heritage. But once he did that, there was no way to overcome it.” -- Nikki Haley, four years after the massacre at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.

“In honor of our great Veterans on Veteran’s Day we pledge to you that we will root out the Communists, Marxists, Racists, and Radical Left Thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our Country, lie, steal, and cheat on Elections, and will do anything possible, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America, and the American Dream…. Despite the hatred and anger of the Radical Left Lunatics who want to destroy our country, we will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.” - Donald Trump

“Today I am taking sides. I am taking the side of Peace. Peace, which I will not abandon even when its voice is drowned out by hurt and hatred, bitterness of loss, cries of right and wrong. I am taking the side of Peace whose name has barely been spoken in this winnerless war. I will hold Peace in my arms, and share my body’s breath, lest Peace be added to the body count. I will call for de-escalation even when I want nothing more than to get even. I will do it in the service of Peace. I will make a clearing in the overgrown thicket of cause and effect so Peace can breathe for a minute and reach for the sky. I will do what I must to save the life of Peace. I will breathe through tears. I will swallow pride. I will bite my tongue. I will offer love without testing for deservingness. So don’t ask me to wave a flag today unless it is the flag of Peace. Don’t ask me to sing an anthem unless it is a song of Peace. Don’t ask me to take sides unless it is the side of Peace." Rabbi Irwin Keller, Oct. 17, 2023

Haywood County Schools Facilities - LOCAL ISSUE

 Local education facilities have been in the news in recent months here in Haywood County. First, there is the construction underway for the new Shining Rock Classical Academy near Lake Junaluska, which will cost in the neighborhood of $15 million. And there is the recent report of the Board of Education discussing facilities needs for our public schools. 

The public school effort kicked off a few weeks ago with a brainstorming session by the Board of Education. Among the things reported on the wish list:

- A shared vocational high school, where students would be transported from their traditional schools for part of the day. This would be a new facility.

- Swapping the current middle school and high school campuses. The current Waynesville Middle School campus would house Tuscola HS, the current Tuscola campus would house Waynesville Middle School, the current Canton Middle School campus would house Pisgah HS, and the current Pisgah HS campus would house Canton Middle School.

- Artificial turf for the football field at Bethel Middle School.

- Reopening Central Elementary School in Waynesville.

- Enlargement of weight training rooms at Pisgah and Tuscola High Schools.

The current public school facilities are woefully aged. The newest elementary school, Bethel Elementary, is nearing 20 years old. The next newest, Clyde Elementary and Hazelwood Elementary, are 25 years old plus. Tuscola and Pisgah High Schools were occupied as new facilities in the mid-1960s. Canton and Waynesville Middle School campuses have buildings that are nearly a century old, and Bethel Middle houses fewer than 300 students.

My thoughts:

1. It is time to consolidate the high schools into one comprehensive high school in a brand new facility. Get over the cross-county rivalry and come together. That will probably cost $75-100 million. That would include the vocational/tech/STEM components, in one place.

2. Move the middle schools to the current high school campuses, and consolidate Bethel Middle into the other two schools. 

3. Build a new elementary school to replace the current Junaluska Elementary School, and make it large enough to accommodate students who might otherwise go to the reopened Central facility.

4. Tear down the current Canton Middle and Waynesville Middle campuses, and sell the properties for development.

Two Weeks In - the Biden Presidency

Two weeks into the presidency of Joe Biden, and already the nation is in a discernable cooling off period after four years of daily pot-stirring by the former tweeter-in-chief. There has been a collective exhale with a return to normalcy.

- Daily press briefings by White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki hearken to the fictional West Wing's C.J. Cregge, with honest answers, wit, and humor.

- Biden's nominees for high office, many of them already sworn in now, are a collection of experienced experts in their fields.

- In his White House meeting with ten US Senators this week concerning the COVID-19 relief package, President Biden participated cordially, and respectfully stood his ground on the size and scope of the bill.

- In a sweeping number of executive actions, President Biden has attempted to restore humanity to the power of government to affect the lives of the vulnerable.

After 10 p.m. Eastern time last night, President and Dr. Biden visited the Capitol to pay respects to Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, killed in the line of duty during the January 6 attempted coup d'état. There were no speeches, no exchanges with reporters, no tweets. Just the President and First Lady, saluting and giving the signs of their own Roman Catholic faith, in respect and humility.

Refreshing, indeed.

Political Division in America

My political leanings are no secret, so no one who knows me should be surprised that I am excited to see noon on Wednesday, January 20.With that said, this inauguration will be like no other in American history, with perhaps the notable exception of Abraham Lincoln's inauguration on March 4, 1861. From the Wikipedia entry for Lincoln's first inauguration: 

On Inauguration Day, Lincoln's procession to the Capitol was surrounded by heavily armed cavalry and infantry, providing an unprecedented amount of protection for the President-elect as the nation stood on the brink of war. During the 16 weeks between Lincoln's victory in the 1860 presidential election and Inauguration Day, seven slave states had declared their secession from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America.

This week, some 25,000 National Guard soldiers, plus no doubt the entire alphabet soup of Federal and District of Columbia law enforcement, will be deployed to safeguard the Capitol and the new President and Vice President.

Those who have studied beyond the 11th-grade high school American History class full of platitudes and thinly-veiled jingoism understand that political division has characterized our public discourse from the very beginning. We lump our Founding Fathers and those we call the Framers of the Constitution into a monolithic group, oblivious to the deep ideological differences and personal rivalries that drove many of the decisions they made. Many considered Patrick Henry ("give me liberty or give me death") a kook, Thomas Paine (author of Common Sense) a whacko, and Alexander Hamilton devoid of principle other than advancing his own ambition. The personal animosity between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams is well documented, as is their eventual reconciliation. But the fact that George Washington himself was not universally idolized among those early politicians is not as widely known.

In his excellent biography of Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, historian Stephen Fried recounts a letter from former President John Adams to Dr. Rush, his old friend from the heady days of Philadelphia in 1776. Adams writes in February, 1805:

Is virtue the principle of our Government? Is honor? Or is ambition and avarice adulation, baseness, covetousness, the thirst of riches, indifference concerning the means of rising and enriching, the contempt of principle, the Spirit of party and of faction, the motive and the principle that governs? These are Serious and dangerous questions; but serious men ought not to flinch from dangerous questions.

Two centuries later, the questions raised by Adams deserve our attention again, as they do in every generation. 

Rethinking Corporatism

The reaction of internet platforms like Twitter and Facebook to the events of January 6, 2021 has drawn lots of pushback from the right wing. Many have voiced concern over the First Amendment implications. But others have a more nuanced criticism that acknowledges that the companies' content-based bans don't have a First Amendment problem.

Pundit Charles Lane of the Washington Post lays out the alternate case in his January 11 opinion piece. He writes: "Private companies or not, Facebook, Twitter and the rest face exactly the same problems a governmental agency would face in establishing consistent, principled — and universally accepted — criteria for what to allow and what to forbid." Mr. Lane basically says that because we have allowed these companies to become so big and so important, we must apply the free speech standards to them as if they were the government.

Except that Mr. Lane and others want to have their cake and eat it, too. They want the government to exempt corporations and other business entities from civil rights laws, as in the case of the bakery's free exercise of religion in refusing to bake a cake for a gay wedding. They applaud the craft supplies retail chain's free exercise of religion in denying its employees health care coverage that is mandated by the government. And they profit greatly when corporations and other business entities exercise their free speech rights through huge campaign contributions.

But what about the individual's right to speak? Well, first, the free speech right doesn't come with a guarantee of a platform. Just as there are other bakeries, there are other internet platforms for communication or "social media." That said, laws that apply to public accommodations (like bakeries) guarantee individuals in specific protected classes access to those public accommodations. Insurrectionists, seditionists, and inciters of violence are not protected classes, and that criminal speech is not protected speech.

When we endow the corporation with freedom of speech (long before Citizens United), or the free exercise of religion (Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. or Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd.), or the power to confiscate property (Kelo, or look up compulsory pooling) we strengthened the bond between the economic power of commerce and the police power of the state, against the rights of natural persons. When these corporate behemoths become so big as to stifle competition, maybe it's time for some Teddy Roosevelt-style trust busting, IMHO.

January 6, 2021

The images from Capitol Hill on January 6 are seared in my memory, the same way the images of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in flames, and little John-John Kennedy saluting his father's casket, are burned into my brain.

- A wooden gallows, complete with a noose, on the Capitol grounds, apparently prepared to execute Vice President Mike Pence.

- The confederate flag paraded through the Rotunda, where Abraham Lincoln, JFK, and John Lewis, among many other American patriots, lay in state.

- A black Capitol Police officer holding the door open as these thugs, who had ransacked and desecrated the seat of the government of the United States, exited freely, rather than in handcuffs.

- Black, white, Latinx, Asian, and Native American custodians, and a Korean-American Member of Congress Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ), cleaning up the trash left by white supremacists.

- Security agents with guns drawn at the main door to the chamber of the House of Representatives, where Presidents enter to report on the State of the Union, providing cover so that the people's elected representatives can be evacuated to safety.

And the reports continue to flood in about those who instigated and cheered on the violent coup attempt.

- My very own Member of Congress, Rep. Madison Cawthorn, on that stage at the Ellipse earlier that morning, encouraging the crowd to stand and fight.

- The Attorney General of Alabama, Steve Marshall, head of the Rule of Law Defense Fund, a dark money PAC that stems from the Republican Attorneys' General Association. The RLDF issued a call to action in DC on January 6, including marching to the Capitol, via robocalls.

Sadly, none of this instigation or incitement to engage in a violent insurrection against the government of the United States of America was done in secret. Which causes one to wonder why weren't the nation's defenses ready?

Two Days After

On January 6, 2021, a day that many Christians celebrate as the Feast of the Epiphany, a violent coup attempt happened when an armed mob stormed the Capitol in Washington. There will be lots written and said about that by many people smarter than I. So I will talk about a few other items in the news.

The COVID-19 pandemic is raging, as state governments try to figure out the logistics mess created by Operation Warp Speed. The 4-star Army General who heads the Federal distribution effort has been inexplicably silent since a 60 Minutes interview several weeks ago. Yesterday (January 7), The Atlantic's COVID-19 Tracking Project reported 4,033 Americans died from COVID-19, and so far in the first 7 days of 2021, over 19,000 Americans have died from the disease.

President-elect Joe Biden continues apace with rounding out his top leadership team, yesterday announcing that Merrick Garland will serve as his Attorney General. To a person, every Biden nominee for every post so far has impeccable credentials, and in total demonstrates his commitment to a diversity that reflects American diversity. Yet sniping continues from special interest groups whose darling picks didn't end up in the positions they knew better about. The articles with "Joe should do" or "Joe should have picked" would fill a library.

An assistant football coach at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga was fired this week because of a tweet he posted that attacked political superstar Stacey Abrams' appearance. Some are defending the coach, saying he was fired unfairly. Well, a couple of things apply. First, discrimination in employment statutes protect people for who they are (skin color, religion, sexual orientation, age), not what they say or do. Besides, the protected class does not include stupidity or misogyny. Secondly, these folks don't understand the right wing corporatist concepts of "right to work" or "employment at will," which are holy writ in many Southern states. Another criticism of the firing questions why Stacey Abrams should be in some kind of hands-off class. Well, I think the coach should be fired if he says that about my wife or my daughter, who are not political celebrities. 

Finally, publisher Simon & Schuster announced they are withdrawing a deal to publish a forthcoming book by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR). Senator Cotton blasted the news on twitter, claiming a first amendment right to be published and accusing the publisher of censorship. Many aspiring authors across the nation are now repackaging their rejected manuscripts for resubmission, confident that the Constitution requires the publisher to publish the material. 

Enjoy your weekend!

Cult Behavior - 2020

Throughout the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us have tried to understand the reactions of those who essentially threw caution to the wind, ignoring calls of public health experts and epidemiologists to wear masks and practice social distancing. The viral images (pun intended) of armed, maskless men shouting at police at the Michigan State Capitol are the tip of the iceberg, as we go about grocery shopping and doing other necessary tasks only to see those ignoring mask mandates and one-way aisles and markings on the floor at the checkout line.

In an excellent op-ed piece in the Washington Post, columnist Megan McArdle discusses the dichotomy between those who are seeking normalcy in their own way. She writes: "One group wanted to feel as safe as they had before a virus invaded our shores; the other wanted to feel as unfettered." She discusses the attitude that causes people to ignore the hurricane evacuation warnings, or grab one's carry-on bag when ordered to evacuate the airplane. And her analysis is fine as far as it goes.

But I believe that 2020 shows us a different dynamic at work. We have all observed the mob mentality, or cult-like behavior, of those who support Donald Trump. We are aware of the different communications channels, from talk radio to news networks to now a new social media thing called Parler. And we see how misinformation spread there becomes gospel.

It's not like folks are simply ignoring the fire alarm calls to evacuate the building because of some personal sense of "freedom." It's like there's a different loudspeaker altogether, telling them that the fire is "fake news" and that they should stay at their desks to "save the economy."

All while the building, or our constitutional democratic republic, is burning down.

The Bait and Switch

The NDAA, or National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2021. According to Monica Montgomery of the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation, the NDAA authorizes appropriations and establishes policy for the Department of Defense (DOD), nuclear weapons programs at the Department of Energy (DOE), defense intelligence programs, and other defense activities of the federal government (e.g., military construction projects, homeland security programs). On December 11, the US Senate passed the NDAA - National Defense Authorization Act - by a veto-proof margin of 84-13, after the US House of Representatives passed the bill earlier in the week by a vote of 335-78. 

On December 23, before leaving Washington for his Mar-a-Lago retreat in south Florida, President Trump vetoed the bill. In his veto message to Congress, the President cited three specific reasons for not signing the bill into law:

• The bill did not address Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which President Trump calls a threat to national security by allowing foreign actors to disseminate disinformation online, especially using social media platforms.
• The bill orders the Department of Defense to rename a number of military installations named after men who served in the Confederate army, including Fort Bragg, Fort Lee, and Fort Hood.
• The bill places limits on the amount of money designated for military construction that could be diverted to other purposes during an emergency.

On December 28, the House voted to override the veto by the vote of 322-87, with a handful of Republicans, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, abandoning their previous support of the bill in order to support President Trump. The override vote in the Senate is expected on December 29.

While the President may have genuine concerns over these three cited reasons, they don't seem to justify, individually or taken together, vetoing the bill, especially given the overwhelming bipartisan support for the bill in the Congress. So what's really the President's beef?

Tucked into the NDAA is something called the Corporate Transparency Act. This section (in legislative language called a Title) would require certain business entities, such as LLCs, limited partnerships, and other such organizations to report the names of certain beneficiaries (owners of 25% or more, controlling/managing partners, etc.) to an obscure Federal agency called the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network within the Treasury Department. FinCEN tracks financial transactions in order to trace potential money laundering, and LLCs and other similar business entities are the frequent laundromats for such illegal activity. 

The Trump organization is really not a single company, but dozens upon dozens of LLCs and other such companies, layered one over the other. Michael Cohen's payout of hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels was from an LLC set up specifically for that purpose. So the threat of a Federal law enforcement agency being able to unravel who controls the LLCs is a very real and present danger to Trump and his family.

LBJ once said, "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." Trump (as others before him) is using the shiny objects of white grievance (confederate sympathy and the border wall) as the pickpocket's diversions.

https://armscontrolcenter.org/the-ndaa-process-explained/

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/presidential-veto-message-house-representatives-h-r-6395/

https://www.fincen.gov/

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/27/nyregion/stormy-daniels-trump-payment.html

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/lbj-convince-the-lowest-white-man/

Some broadly popular ideas

The COVID-19 relief package deal released last night includes a provision that would end the practice of "surprise billings" from medical providers. Those surprise bills show up when a patient goes to a hospital or ER which is in network, but some of the individual providers contracted by the hospital (ER physicians, anesthesiologists, etc.) are not in the patient's insurance network. Despite wide public support for ending the practice, many legislators face intense lobbying from physicians and private equity firms that own many practices that profit from the status quo. Finally, it looks like the COVID-19 relief bill is the vehicle that will get this done.

In reading up on this, I ran across an article in New York Magazine that listed 7 public policy ideas that, according to polling have broad support across America. A few of these are particularly progressive ideas, and end up getting shouted down in the right-wing echo chamber. Others are a bit more obscure, but important, and don't get a fair hearing either because of their obscurity or because of the kind of lobbying pressure that blocked ending surprise medical billing. 

Here's the article's list:

• Legalize marijuana use
• Workers' representation on corporate boards
• Cap on credit card interest/fees and on other similar loans (title loans, payday loans, etc.)
• Government officials shouldn’t be allowed to own stocks or become lobbyists right after leaving office
• The government should directly finance the development of new drugs, and then allow the breakthrough pharmaceuticals to be sold cheaply without a patent
• 12 weeks of paid family/medical leave for childbirth or serious illness/injury
• Some sort of Green New Deal

I would add a few more:

• Universal background checks for all firearms sales/transfers
• Comprehensive immigration reform, including path to legal status for many, worker permits, etc.
• Comprehensive income tax simplification, including eliminating distinctions on the types of income

All this is really a sad commentary on how disconnected our legislators - even state legislators - are from reality.