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The Wake County Public School System published the results of a survey intended to obtain feedback on proposed changes to mandatory year-round schools. Last year’s elections gave a majority of seats on the board to those who want parent’s to have more influence over the education system. This, in itself, can only lead to disaster since the parents usually want what is most convenient for themselves, not what is best for the education of all children in the county.

The poll included open comments sections. The comments from parents fill 2,548 pages, but there are some great comments in here if you can find them. These are a few of the comments related to immigrants in the school system. I really don’t see how immigrants can be blamed for year-round schools, but I guess if you feel strongly enough you can blame immigrants for most of your problems.

So, without editing, here they are.

I am sick to death of moving kids from school to school and busing all over the county.It is tearing up families.Do away witht he diversity policy-nobody is trying to be racist.Keep kids in neighborhood schools and let year around be an option like it used to be.Put more money into poor performing schools and take a stand to make parents more responsible for the childrens academic progress.I am tired of the white,middle class,hard working,parent involved students suffering while illegal immigrants and such get everything for free!!!

I do not care for year-round schools at all. My son is in the third grade and is at his fourth school. He has been to different schools each year and it is ridiculous. I am very very disgusted with Wake County and their school systems. It is very disorganized. Our kids are not learning, they are being taught how to pass the EOC/EOG. I support my children 100% but I can no longer support the incompetency of Wake County school system. There are too many children of illegal immigrants in our schools, causing lots of distress to our county. I do not support illegal immigrants and their children. Keep all the schools on a traditional calendar. Hire more teachers and get rid of all those useless administrators in the schools. We need more qualified, caring, passionate teachers in the classrooms. Wake County needs to wake up and start making a move to better educate our children.

Year-Round calendar schedules are only beneficial to teachers and staff that need employment that is not seasonal. It also sucks that illegal immigrants are the reason for over-crowded schools, when in fact they hate both Black folks and White folks. Keep our children on traditional schedule. Don’t rob a child of their child hood and summer vacations, just because the Mexicans are coming here illegally.

As a father I was very angry that the school board forced our children to be in Year Round schools without the consideration of the parents. It appears that this year round schedule only benefits single mothers that can’t cook at home for their children and those that have social lives after work, instead of picking up their child and taking them home to a hot meal. It also appears that illegal immigrants have overcrowded the school system and this year round schedule was created to avoid the segregated history of racial bias we had back in the 1960’s. True FACT. Latin/Mexican woman DO NOT like Black nor Caucasian people in personal relationships or friendships. The Mexican/Latin men work very hard jobs, and love both Black and Caucasian people. See the problem? it’s the Mexican/Latino Women that are hateful!

East Garner Magnet Middle School appears to be a good school so far. However, I am hearing rumors that Mexican Gangs are popping up. “”Brown Pride”" and the female Mexican Gang “”13 seconds”" which is a stem from MS-13. There needs to be ONE more added resource officer. THIS SCHOOL needs ONE additional FEMALE Garner Police officer to patrol the girls bathrooms. They initiate new gang members in the girls bathrooms. Mexican girls beat a new girl for 13 seconds then she is initiated as a new member. Please note; the Spanish Vice Principle Ms.Alan appears to be racist towards Black Parents and Caucasian Parents.

You have probably heard that Howard Zinn died yesterday. His books have been a great influence on my thinking about politics, government, war, and how we should treat other people in this world.

This video, A People’s History of American Empire, briefly covers many of Zinn’s ideas that are expanded upon in his many books and articles. If you aren’t familiar with Zinn’s work, start with this. (I also posted this same video a few months ago, but I think it is worth repeating now.)

Now go read some of his books. I would recommend A People’s History of the United States, probably his most recognized work. I am also a fan of A Power Governments Cannot Suppress. Both are great books and will hopefully change the way you think about the world and your place in it.

You have seen the news coverage of the earthquake in Haiti. Now you need to help.

Find a charity that you think will do good. Charity Navigator has a list of charities that are helping in Haiti.

So now that you are in a giving mood, consider making regular donations to help people who are not as lucky as you are. The immediate emergency of the earthquake will pass, but there are always millions of people who suffer in situations that will never receive news coverage.

It should be clear to everyone now that the politicians who run your government have no intention of actually trying to stop terrorism. Why should they? The threat of terrorist attacks is one of the main reasons some of these people still have jobs. They continue to use the fear of attacks to scare the rest of us into supporting them and opposing the other guy. They really don’t care if a few hundred, or thousand, more regular people die in the process.

Let’s go back just a bit to start this discussion.

On November 24, 2009, Dano Perino stated that there were no terrorist attacks under the Bush administration. As a guest on Fox News’ Hannity show she said,

We did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush’s term.

On December 27, 2009, Mary Matalin claimed that Bush inherited the 9-11 attacks while a guest on CNN’s State of the Union. She said,

I was there, we inherited a recession from President Clinton, and we inherited the most tragic attack on our own soil in our nation’s history.

Then on January 7, 2010 Rudy Giuliani appeared on Good Morning America and continued to deny that there were any terrorist attacks during Bush’s presidency. He told George Stephanopoulos,

We had no domestic attacks under Bush. We’ve had one under Obama.

And surprisingly, Stephanopoulos didn’t even challenge him on this. I thought that he, of all show hosts, would call out this outright lie.

It seems that Republicans have a new strategy to have us forget that the 9-11 attacks, and other acts of terrorism, took place under Bush’s administration. If they are successful in this, then they can easily show that Obama and the Democrats have failed to protect the country. This strategy fits into the long-standing theme that Democrats are weak on national security and easy on criminals, so it’s not a big stretch to convince their base that Bush had a 100% success rate in protecting us from terrorism.

The fact is that terrorism is a part of the world today. There is nothing that can be done by Republicans or Democrats to save us from future attacks.

But while nothing can be done to fully protect ourselves from future attacks, the political games that are being played by both sides on this issue will only serve to weaken our defenses.

The December 25, 2009 attempt to blow up an airplane bound to Detroit is one example of how ineffective your government is at dealing with terrorist threats. There were many warning signs and chances to stop Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab before he boarded that flight. (I won’t go into all of them here, but many are noted on his Wikipedia page.)

The point is that the failures of the government to identify this terrorist are the same failures that facilitated the 9-11 attacks and the failed shoe-bombing attack in 2001 (during Bush’s presidency, by the way). Among these are failures to properly analyze and coordinate intelligence, failed physical security screenings at airports, and just poor work from people who had information on potential attacks.

So instead of trying to work to resolve these issues, our political leaders focus their efforts on blaming the other guy for things going wrong and giving credit to themselves for the great work they did. But nine years after the 9-11 attacks, your government has done nothing to really make you safer. The politicians benefit from your continued fear, so they continue to blame each other for the mess we are in and only they benefit from their own mess.

You prayed for someone to die? And then you were actually upset that it may have worked?

You have probably heard that Oklahoma senator Tom Coburn stated, “what the American people ought to pray is that somebody can’t make the vote tonight, that’s what they ought to pray.” He was referring to the late night vote on the health care bill in the Senate. Of course, he didn’t say who shouldn’t make the vote but obviously he was hoping that one of the 60 senators who voted for the bill would not make it.

This video is of Illinois senator Dick Durbin calling out his colleague.

Of course, some tea baggers in Georgia actually did pray that one of those 60 senators in favor of the bill would not make it to the vote. They focused their prayers on Senator Robert Byrd, who is very ill. Not only did they pray for Byrd to not make the vote – they actually prayed for him to die.

When one of the Republican senators missed the vote, the tea baggers freaked out, thinking their prayers may have backfired and killed the wrong person.

The guy really thinks that prayer is going to kill someone. How bizarre is that? You really think that you can pray for someone to die and it happens? What kind of god do you pray to? Is this the Old Testament god of revenge and jealousy. Or did you make a voodoo doll of Senator Byrd and stick some pins in it? Either would be just as effective.

Finally, for all you pretend leaders out there, stop using religion to manipulate people. (Well, that’s really what religion is all about, but I digress.) But the point is that Senator Coburn was clearly trying to manipulate religious people into thinking that god is opposed to the health care bill. Having people pray for the defeat of this bill links god to the right-wing political agenda. Stop it, just stop!

A few days ago, Chuck Norris asked “What if Mother Mary Had Obamacare?” Well, what if…….?

Luke Chapter 1, starting at verse 26.

Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”

But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”

Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”

And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.”

Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

And it came to be in that great day that an election was held and the prophet Obama was elected as king over all the land. Obama brought forth peace to the entire world and won great prizes for his expansion of military might in the lands of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Obama also provided everyone with medical care after he smote the corruptor Lieberman in a great duel of corporate lobbyists. And so, Obamacare became the way of health care for the entire land.

It was also written that the kingdom’s funds could be used to provide women access to the full breadth of reproductive procedures including the termination of pregnancies. Since Mary was under the influence of the liberals of the time, the ending of her condition was considered a great sacrament to her false gods.

She said to Joseph, “I am but a young, poor woman. I cannot continue with this great burden that was placed upon me by this Holy Spirit. I only want to avoid the ridicule, ostracizing, persecution and possible stoning that are common in this great, holy culture that we live in.”

So Joseph, a white man without any legal protection under the new politically correct reign of Obama took Mary to the town of Bethlehem where the great hospital of Obamacare was being built. As was the new custom after Obamacare was granted to all, many others also flocked to this small town for help with various medical ailments after all those years of being neglected by the big insurance companies.

Joseph and Mary found a comfortable Bed & Breakfast, because there was no room for them in the inn. The sacrament was conducted with great care in the temple of Obamacare and Mary was treated with great respect by the liberal doctors.

Mary returned home with Joseph and they lived out their lives in great peace and prosperity.

I should go ahead and apologize now for the blasphemy. I’m sure if anyone actually read this, some would be offended. But really, Chuck, you are using Mother Mary to fight your political battle against health care. If I were as religious as you pretend to be, that would certainly offend me.

A few weeks ago, my local middle school offered an information session for parents. I imagine that this session was designed to tell us about all the horrors that the internet has to offer our kids. I’m sure that if I had bothered to attend it wouldn’t have been all scare tactics, but I’m also sure that none of the great stuff that kids are doing would be featured.

Our nanny government has a great site for instilling the fear of the internet in parents, OnGuard Online. They even have a lovely pdf document, Net Cetera, for you to download to talk to your kids about safety.

The approach taken in this document seems typical. First, very briefly it notes that there are good things to be done on the internet. Then, the majority of the document scares everyone away from exploring those good things.

It’s also common practice for schools to use filters to block access to just about every interesting site kids may use. It is very likely that Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other sites where community and sharing are the focus are banned. Of course, kids are smarter than most school administrators when it comes to these technologies and they can easily find ways around the filters by using proxy servers.

As this article from BBC News points out, there are security issues with some of the proxy sites.

Some can carry viruses, malicious software, and may even be under the control of cyber criminals, according to security experts.

So stop blocking access to the internet and actually educate students! If you did this properly, then students wouldn’t be saying that they were unaware of the security issues.

One student using the proxy servers said,

I didn’t have a clue that people could get my information if I was putting it in.

That’s because the schools are not teaching students how to use technology properly. You don’t need to create a culture of fear around the internet to do this.

Maybe, instead of scaring parents with tales of internet horror, we should start these education programs with stories like this one from Seattle, WA, where high school students created lip dub videos.

What a great example of using technology for creative expression and education. And they probably had a lot of fun doing it.

Do you think these kids were scared away from the internet? Did the school administrators fear what could happen when the students were turned loose with cameras and posted their work on the internet for all to see?

One student said,

This is the highlight of my high school career. I can’t see anything topping this.

Now enjoy the videos.

First from Shorecrest

Then from Shorewood

A friend directed me to a review of the new film Avatar from Movieguide, the family guide to Christian movie reviews. I knew that there were Christian-based review sites for all types of media, but I had never given them much thought until I read this review.

The review, titled Avatar Abominations: Get Rid of Those Pesky Humans! was more of a Sunday morning sermon than a review of a film.

The film’s plot is summarized as

a group of nature-worshipping aliens triumph over the greedy, evil human corporations that want to destroy their planet.

And that’s the jumping off point for the rant that follows. First, let’s get in some Al Gore, anti-environmentalist bashing,

If you think this sounds as if Vice President Al Gore wrote the script for “Avatar,” not James Cameron, you may be right. This theme of kill all the humans, especially the pro-American, capitalist humans, has long been an underlying message of the left-wing, environmentalist movement.

And then, we have to criticize the film for being anti-capitalistic since Jesus was the first investment banker.

Avatar cast[s] human beings, especially militaristic capitalists, as the super-villain, and to create heroes out of a bunch of pagan primitives who have achieved an idyllic, but impossible, at-one-ment with nature.

For hundreds of years, the pagan, communist ideas expressed in this movie circulated among a threadbare group of outcasts with dirty fingernails and greasy hair, who shared their obtuse, occult ideas amongst themselves with manic, alienated glee. Now, James Cameron has made these insane views the major bulwark of a very spectacular movie, but the spectacle does not make these Neo-Marxist views any more coherent, rational, or uplifting.

That’s just from one article on Avatar. Movieguide has another article titled Capitalism, Christianity and AVATAR that continues that rant against the anti-capitalistic and environmental themes in the film.

What I find most interesting about these reviews of Avatar is how closely related they are to the political right’s criticisms of President Obama. And the timing of the environmental criticism comes right as world leaders are meeting in Copenhagen for a climate change conference. A conference that has been widely denounced by the American right-wing as perpetuating the hoax of climate change.

Obama’s critics have also frequently attacked his policies as “socialist,” or anti-capitalist. And since Christianity and capitalism both come from Jesus, then any threat to capitalism is a threat to Christians everywhere. Wait, that doesn’t make sense. I think I may have bought into the prosperity gospel just a bit too much.

But seriously, why is capitalism such an issue for a website promoting movie reviews from a Christian perspective? Dr. Ted Baehr, founder and publisher of Movieguide, has cited capitalism in other reviews as well. In 2007, he reviewed Ratatouille for the World Net Daily. The article is even titled, “Ratatouille upholds capitalism,” a seemingly strange title for a movie review.

Baehr praised the film for an

overall storyline [that] is very pro-capitalist, pro-individual and supportive of the gifts
that the individual has no matter what his background or genetic makeup.

He concludes by expertly wrapping American history, capitalism, individualism and Christianity together in a paragraph that would make you think that Jesus was one of the founding fathers.

The real Christian theology comes in the fact that the movie makes it clear anyone can be a chef, although not everyone can be a great chef. Thus, like the divine meritocracy instituted by the Declaration of Independence, the movie strongly suggests all people are created equal by God, who grants everyone the right to pursue personal happiness while pursuing individual service to God’s divine authority. Whether the humanist pundits who believe in biological and economic determinism pick up on the radical nature of this premise is anyone’s guess, but it is nice to see a movie taking the side of free enterprise and freedom to be who you want to be.

Now, I’m no expert in theology but I’m pretty sure that Jesus wasn’t much of a capitalist. And I’m also pretty sure that millions of people consider themselves Christian without the faithful devotion to money and individualism that seem to be the themes of Movieguide’s reviews.

Last month, we learned that President Obama would be the Nobel Peace Prize winner for 2009. I wasn’t really a fan of this choice at the time even though a number of you supported the choice based on the hope of peace that Obama represents to the world. I thought then, as I do now, that awarding a peace prize to the leader of a nation involved in two wars was a bad choice.

In the past few days, there is more reason to think that the Nobel prize committee couldn’t have been more wrong in their choice. First, Obama is preparing to announce his plans for increasing the war effort in Afghanistan. Yesterday, he said that he wants to “finish the job” there. Because eight years hasn’t proven to anyone that the job there will never end, Obama may be prepared to send more than 30,000 additional troops to the country.

Even more troubling is the administration’s decision not to join an international treaty that bans land mines. Land mines remain one of the most dangerous of all weapons because they not only kill combatants, but they remain in place for years. These land mines killed more than 5,000 people last year alone – many of them children. There simply is no place for land mine production and use in the modern world. Anyone who advocates otherwise should never be considered for awards related to peace.

These are not isolated decisions. The United States should not be considered to be pursuing peace on any level. Consider this fact. The United States is the world’s largest arms dealer, selling $154 billion worth of weapons from 2001-2008. That’s 41% of the total world arms sales. This is one of the few things that the United States still leads the world in, and it’s not something to be proud of. According to the study, in 2000 “the U.S. controlled half of the developing world’s arms market…. This dominance of the global arms market is not something in which the American public or policy makers should take pride in. The U.S. routinely sells weapons to undemocratic regimes and gross human rights abusers.”

Is this the path to peace? More combat troops in Afghanistan, more use and support of land mines, sales of weapons to anyone with enough cash?

I think we really need to reconsider our concept of peace.

November 11 is a day to remember. It is Veteran’s Day in the United States and Armistice Day in Europe. But it is also the anniversary of the execution of four innocent men at the hands of our government.

August Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer and George Engel were publicly hanged on this date in 1887.

The details of their arrest, trial and conviction – and their innocence – should be a part of all American history courses.

“The time will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today!” – August Spies

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