Pony up, Folks, the Iraq war sucks it out of us...

Who pays for this war? Are you feeling it yet? Is it pinching? If the pictures don't make it real enough for you yet-how about losing your home? Your job?

Are those utility bills nudging you into the small loan category yet? Are reeling from the cost of groceries? Gas?

Is your car payment getting closer to the payment you make for rent or your home?

Are you finding yourself choosing not to pay for repairs, or dental work, forgoing medical care?

Who pays for this war, folks? Some ubiquitous "someone out there"-some nebulous "other"???

Denial isn't working, friends. It just ain't working..Let's stop this-start yelling..

If there is one thing I know about the American people it's that they don't like to suffer or make sacrifices-other people do that..not us...

Are you starting to feel the burn yet?

The Classroom as Disneyworld........

It's crunch time for teachers. School starts Monday and the walls and floors of the school buildings are full of "learning tools"
Bulletin Boards are fierce competitions to see who can place the most elaborate eye catching phrases and images, most times not related in any way to the achievement of students, out for your viewing pleasure.

We have pirates and ducks, chili peppers and dragons, transformers, frogs, jungle trees with monkeys-whatever plays this year is on the wall.

Wall space in classrooms must be graded by how much JUNK can be pasted on the walls. The amount of stimulation via posters, pictures, rules, quotes, and various pop culture garbage is so overwhelming it is a wonder there is no smell to the amount of clutter.

If that doesn't totally distract the students the classroom clutter of rocking chairs, bean bags, pillows, games, videos, rugs, boxes, bags and various paraphernalia kids will wade through to get to their desks will plunge them asunder, boggling their minds and send them reeling as if they had too much sugar.

Welcome to the new generation of teachers. More is better. Feed the kids rather than teach them how to eat. Slide and slurp.

Disneyland classrooms. Keeping minds so overwhelmed and busy, the art of quiet reflection and time to think is lost in the myriad of buzzes like some kind of laser show to the brain.

I recently read something I thought critically important to learning.

It is the spaces around us that have meaning, not the objects in the way.

Learning is much like that.
We need the spaces in our brain, those pathways to neurons to be available to us in order to construct new meaning , store it and retrieve it.

As much criticism as I have with Kid Nation's approach to leaving kids unattended I have to say the crucial component of the show is this-kids had to use their brains-they had to problem solve without the Disneyland approach-they had to construct meaning-they had to work together in groups and they had to use those spaces and learn from them.

If you are impressed by the glitz and glamour of all that stuff on the walls and floors, think again-student learning, inquiry based student learning-which sticks inside the brain and clamps down in awe and wonder does not come from spoon fed videos and big, flashy posters on the walls.
In fact kids will struggle with the distractions all year long -struggle to focus-struggle to think-struggle to develop some sense of structure, as their little minds try and focus.

We have lost the art of quiet reflection, clearing our brains of stimulation and relishing quiet solitude.

Those days of lying on the grass, alone, watching clouds pass, without an agenda -those moments of noticing what is around us -that belongs around us -those are the pathways to the brain that we teachers need, desperately need-to foster learning and understanding.

Don't be impressed by Disneyland classrooms. Be more impressed by open spaces, room to wander and think and great lessons.
Ask to see those-the rest is smoke and mirrors.

Shootings on the Las Vegas strip..

The miracle mile ain't too safe this summer.

Las Vegas likes to hide their dirty little secrets and have successfully, until this summer...

Three shootings have occurred this summer which made national headlines. The Las Vegas Police like to tell you the strip is pretty safe and this is the work of a Las Vegas street gang, which they have a handle on...

You don't see the reports about the tourists who jump from the casino parking garages or commit suicide inside the hotel rooms. Those aren't the kind of events that get noticed.

But these shootings-these aren't same-old-same-old. These are news-

One man walks into a casino on the strip and starts shooting at people randomly. Last night another shooting at a strip casino when two guys bumped into one another-and one at the beginning of the summer-when a man was beaten by a group of men in a parking garage.

Then there was also the car bombing in one of the casino garages on the strip this summer.

Money is tight. People get ugly when money gets tight and the casinos are pulling in the cash and not much is going out.

I'd give it a rest if I were a tourist coming out here any time soon.

It's not a pretty place to be.

Ahhh Magical Mermaids

My daughter, at age two, was convinced she was really a mermaid. More than once I had to walk down and take her out of the water when we lived in Florida.

She was convinced she had to go and find her "real family"

Today she is fifteen. She still believes she has some past life as a mermaid. She also believes she is a Paris Hilton clone, was once one of the Spice Girls and lately, she believes she is a kin to some 1940's pin up girl.

I love her imagination...

E-Harmony-is that the only six couples....??

Did you ever notice the ad for E-Harmony hasn't changed since it came out??

The same six couples ooze bliss and compatability!

Just makes me want to gush all over the tv.

All that money-and that's it?? Six couples..

I'm tired of their tired faces.. Tired tired tired

Bush staff and Jed Clampett Leave Washington..

I'm tellin ya-those Texans don't waste much time-told to stay until the end or leave now, they jus' packed up them vittles and high tailed it outta there...

Leavin no dust on them cowboy boots, they all said the honorable thing-"I'm a missin the family-ma wife is doin poorly and it's done time to head for them hills...

Only prollin is leavin their kin behind to face all them hootin-hollerin-mad as possum varmits-

all hot in the hat because they dang drub took them expensive hifalutin carpets and wall scones with them.. Ok, so y'all a little sore about that there oil-well, we texans know all bout oil-in our veins to tell ya-and that's where it will stay-we been pokin holes for that stuff longer 'n y'all been playin that wall street game-suckahs!!!

The ladies just love that flea market stuff...and hey-finders keeper-losers weepers in this ad-min-u-stra-t-u--a-n...

Bye, Now-

Y'all come back now , hear??

Quality- Just another Buzzword??

Historically, two words represented American enterprise-quality and service.

Remember "Look for the Union Label" -?

Do any of you wonder if much can be trusted anymore? I look at the space shuttle and the engineers telling the world it is safe, after the same problems repeatedly occur and deaths result and I ask myself, "If I were up there would I take their word that I was safe to bring the shuttle home?"

Baby toys? Bibs? As parents, in a culture that sells Baby Einstein products and upscale baby products, we trust that our most vulnerable are protected as we buy products and services.

Can we trust that assumption anymore?

I've already written about our infrastructure, water quality, legal system -political protections-Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts-

Don't you ask yourself, "What are we doing here?" With our abundance of technology, our breakthroughs and sophisticated studies, our country of wealth, opportunties and inventive spirits-have we made a decision to work to the lowest common factor rather than the highest ?

What happens when we begin to see our country's government, our businesses. our services as suspect?

When profit takes precedence over safety and effectiveness , dishonesty over disclosure-cynicism instead of faith-what happens for us?

What was the turning point in our nation -when we saw opportunism instead of opportunity as our desired goal?

I don't know how you see this but I can't stop this growing queasy feeling inside telling me that

human life is only a cost factor in the risk catagory of profit.

Once we become less than whatever else is out there-(one of the mainstream), (less than the rich) human beings, become anonymous, what becomes of us?

Karl Rove-On how a man learns to fight dirty...

I wondered about Mr. Rove's decision to leave the Bush Administration now-when there is little more than a year left?

I wouldn't be surprised to hear the next announcement.

"George Bush resigns...decides he "needs to spend more time with his family"

As if these are "just jobs"

After reading a number of on-line news sources about the life and times of Karl Rove I have a better understanding of how and why he chose to fight dirty in life. Interestingly-he not only chose to fight dirty-his pride and penchant for teaching others how to fight dirty is more significant.

I don't think I could say anything not already known about his past life-it is full of sadness, surprises and betrayals. He learned to be sneaky and dirty during his college political years and instead of winning on merit seemed to find an easier way-look for a way to destroy the opponent, whether it is procedurally or negative information. Kind of like the school bully. If you can't be liked for good things be feared for the bad.

His mother committed suicide, his father announced he was gay and left. He discovered he was adopted after his mother died and he was an adult. If ever a man won the trifecta in trauma, I think he would be able to claim it.

Since college(which he never finished) he has grown and matured in his abilities to fight dirty. A smart person can do that.

All those allegories pertaining to good and evil?

Karl Rove's life and decisions almost seem cliched and predictable.

I can understand his decision to take a road-a significant road. A smart man, he may have recognized and considered all avenues of gaining power. He found his most effective. We can't argue that it hasn't been. He has managed to aid in the dissection and reinterpretation of our most fundamental rights. He has taken a weak leader and made his imprint.

He has a reason to look for each "screw you" moment in politics.

He has reason to be pissed. He really does.

The universe, in perfect alignment, waited for Karl Rove to develop and grow.

We needed him to shake us up-to evaluate our own morals and laws.We are doing that now.

Karl Rove is just one little man. Amazing....

Let's hope we make the right decisions.

Space Shuttle woes...again...

Hidden in the back of my morning news on page 14A is an interesting story-in small type.
Foam insulation may have damaged the Space Shuttle on take-off .
Nine pieces of foam broke off on take-off and three struck the vehicle. Barbara Morgan-school teacher turned astronaut operated the mechanical arm searching for the damage outside the spaceshuttle.
Apparently one large piece of foam struck the right wing and the damage is unknown.
Put these courageous people in your prayers and thoughts.
You would think NASA worked this out after the last deaths.
We are so complacent about our space shuttles. Did we ask enough questions about the last failure or are we using the cost risk factor here again over quality?

How much would you take for your son's death??

Army offering $20,000 bonuses to new recruits

How much is your child's life worth? Is it worth taking the chance for a $20,000 enlistment bonus?

Almost four thousand of our men and women have died in Iraq and as many as 200,00 have been wounded.

We don't see those pictures of the body bags taken off the military planes, or the soldiers deaths in Iraq, or footage of the wounded getting help. Why is that? Vietnam was a bloody war and we had to watch it. The news stations made it real for us. We saw napalm burning, Buddhists setting themselves on fire, the medivac helicopters carrying wounded US soldiers.

We learned the vocabulary of war and we were very aware of the sacrifices being made-and we said enough...

Today the only US citizens aware of the price of war are those who have lost family members-those deaths are real.

The rest of us have the luxury of the Bush media spin machine which keeps reality from our doorstep. Of cooperating news agencies willing to soft pedal the reality of the death and maiming war creates. We all want it-so we go along. Oh we grumble-grumble grumble...big deal..

I walked into my daughter's high school at the end of the year for a meeting. I looked around the front lobby of the school and posted, big posters-recruitment posters for the armed forces.

This school has a primarily African American and Hispanic population.

I'll bet those $20,000 bonuses look mighty good to poor struggling families. Like money they would ever acquire in a lifetime.

So who do you think those bonus bucks are set up to lure? Which socioeconomic group do you think will take the Armed Forces up on this once in a lifetime chunk of money?

Shame on them. Shame, shame and more shame.

We fight this war on the backs of the poor and the minorities in our country.

Let's have Mitt Romney's boys sign up for that bonus or some of the others in Congress-

It makes me feel sick in my heart. Sick in my heart and such a sense of sadness.

Should kids get cash for good test scores?

Some Wonder if Cash for Good Test Scores Is the Wrong Kind of Lesson

If it is up to New York City they should.
School administration wants to give 500.00 to children who pass the state standardized test.
Ah! But only to the low income kids. The kids from middle class families would not qualify.

Before you start nodding your head that this seems like a reasonable approach-after all-we get paid to do our jobs-

Let's really explore the world of positive tangible reinforcements.

Does rewarding with concretes instill any kind of self discipline -or such qualities as patience-internal sense of accomplishment-a moral compass which teaches us that sometimes working hard and waiting for "down the road" rewards is worth something in themselves?

I think our educational system is getting down right crazy-loonie-loco-I really do.

Let me put it terms of my own fifteen year old-"I want it now or I'll die" daughter.

Her adolescent way of thinking precludes hard work and accomplishment for long term gains. She learns (often enough) the hard lesson that some of those wants warrant patience, time, and work. It's frustrating for her to see the Paris Hilton's of the world become celebrities for no apparent reason. We should all be able to be "one".

Our culture rewards gluttony and excess. It reinforces the "what's it" for the moment. The message out there that works best in advertising is "get it now or it won't be there."

We have raised a generation who think saving money is an archaic notion. I have one friend who's 28 year old son did not want to propose to his girlfriend until he had his college loans paid off and could pay cash for the engagement ring.

That is an anomaly, my friends.
Most people think credit is a way of life.

Back to our kids in school-
I have used concrete rewards to reinforce positive behavior in the classroom. I think it creates a lot of little reward junkies. I really do.

Teaching kids those intrinsic character traits in the classroom is a challenge.
How to feel proud of work well done.
Why doing your best is a good idea-it is only then you will know how far you can go-in any endeavor. The sense of accomplishment one feels when hard work and perseverance produces a quality work.
Little kids really need to be able to develop these traits.
Why? The world is based on money and rewards-you say.
Ask yourself-maybe, just maybe, that is the reason the quality of products, goods and services have become inferior in the US.
Why Americans buy Japanese cars. Why drug companies are being sued for disastrous side effects-why bridges collapse and mortgage companies fail.

Maybe our philosophy of focusing on the external rather than the internal will be our downfall eventually.

Do we really want to teach our kids a philosophy which is already failing our nation?

I don't. Kids in my class need to learn how high they can soar-for the sake of curiosity and the challenge of it. They need to push themselves to see how what possibilities exist and how dreams can be made possible. They learn to love learning because it is an adventure.

Rewarding kids cash for a test that has such little meaning in the scope of life is so typical of our narrow minded little box of thinking.

When will this craziness stop?

What the Las Vegas Review Journal did not tell...

Two years ago the Las Vegas Review Journal was still printing articles about the how Las Vegas would never become a part of the housing bust beginning to shake the west. Sherman (the editor) found every article he could by whatever charlatans he could dig up to reassure the people of Las Vegas that THIS housing market was an exception to the rule.

Las Vegas has the highest foreclosure rate in the country, right now. Do you think he prints that? Oh, perhaps a few lines about how we are suffering like everyone else....buried in the back of the business section written in Chinese...

The highest foreclosure rate in the country. Florida ranks number two.

Las Vegas sets the standard in greed, indifference and corruption. If you want to watch a mini version of what could happen to the rest of the US in terms of downfall based on lies, corruption, disillusionment, good ol' boy politics, raking the dollars and ignoring the people -watch Las Vegas.

People are literally walking away from homes and allowing the banks to foreclose.

In fact, I just had a friend who remortgaged her house enough times based on an overinflated value she can't afford the payments. She said, "Oh, I'll just let the bank short sell it-everyone is doing it."

Truthfully, the California investors. those with the sub prime mortgages-most of the people who buy here have no investment in the community.

Why is that? Maybe because the state is not invested in the communities.

After the state legislators recessed this year they left behind-

no plan to improve the roads and gridlock of Las Vegas, no substantial plan to address the huge and ever growing school population and the swinging door of over a thousand teachers leaving a year-the housing shortage and the high cost of housing which has discouraged people who leave the state-the fact we are in a water crisis and have no plan except to steal water wherever we can-the high cost of living and utilities-much like California

What did they do??

Tried to pass a law allowing teachers to bring guns to the classroom-gave big casinos "green tax breaks" for not wasting water-and no a hell of a lot else-

except Gibbons as an afterthought told the Government it could use our precious water to drill at the Nuclear storage it has been trying to install 60 miles from the casinos of Las Vegas.

I could keep going-but of what use?

I tell you-watch this state-if you want to see an example of disaster-a living example of how corruption, greed and dishonesty can destroy a state...

Skill versus Illusion

Watching the old movie, "Greatest Show On Earth" with Charleton Heston and Jimmy Stewert, this morning.
Have you been to the circus in the past few years?

So much is based on Illusion. Most of us want to be entertained using sophisticated computer illusions, backdrops or videos which look real, music and lights which dazzle eyeballs and ears.
Watching the performers seems to be a small part of the act.
Our world gets brighter, lighter and more stimulating with new technology. Most shows use it and most of us expect it.

Watching the Circus acts in this film highlighted the real skill most circus performers exhibited. No one pulled a hippo using a rope, a plate and their teeth, no one needed to have costumes which set fire at the end of the act-the skill was in the relationship with the animals, the sense of timing of the clowns and the wonder of the kids.
Just makes me wonder how much of our entertainment is more illusion today..

I mean, if Paris Hilton can sing(lol) thanks to computer technology-we should all be able to sing..

Welcome, Kasen James Davis...

Welcome, Little Buddy.

You are born into a world of dichotomies. Before we get to that let me tell you a little about your family.

You have a dad who stills know how to play. What fun is that?? Your life will be full of magic. Parents who know how to play are far and few between. He will wake you up with bubbles on a Saturday morning, sing songs to you on the guitar to fall asleep at night and make even funnier faces than you will ever be able to---you can't ask for more-except

You also have a mom with a heart of gold. She is already majorly(my word) in love with you-and you will have real meals(she can cook), clean clothes smelling of fresh air and lots of pets. She is a guru of pets. She loves animals. So you will learn all about loving not just from your parents but from whatever pet you have as a family member. You are one lucky dude.

You also have other family members who you will get to know exceptionally well-

A grandmother who probably saw you long before you were born and was there the minute you took a breath-

an aunt with children so loved it makes your favorite teddy bear look sad-and she will -count on it-love you as much-and an uncle who will also play songs for you as part of a duet-with your dad.

Two cousins-one who will teach you manners and the other the way of boys-

A teen age aunt in the midst of her own angst who will love you the minute she gets to hold your tiny little hand

and a Grandfather-who has always had an inner teacher, and I think, has been disappointed for awhile that his Daddy Nature Trips have been on hold-

But don't worry, little Kasen, dude, he has plans for you-

You are going to learn all about the workings of the inner ear, the eye, airplanes, electricity-spaycams(lol) and all kinds of gadgets.

And Patty, his lifelong partner, who has taught your grandfather the meaning of loyal-and she is gonna love you-in fact you will probably get your first handmade gift from her-she has talents.

You are lucky-because although Grandma can't do tea parties and take you for walks, she gets to touch and smell you and she will know you, Kasen, it is a gift to be 90 and be able to smell the smell of your great grand baby- great grandchildren-your cousins know it-someday your parents will tell you all about Grandma and Guns and Roses...

Maybe we will save the part about your new home for another letter.

For the time being, I hope you feel all the love you have coming out of us, all of the love, it is what nourishes your spirit, and ours.

Welcome, Little Buddy. Life is good for you-we all promise you that....

Love, Connie

What else haven't we cared for???

My heart hurts for those lives yanked away in such a horrible disaster-one that could have been prevented. Like the Levees breached in New Orleans, the Sunshine Skyway collapsing in St. Peter burg, Florida, the O Rings on the Challenger, and the heat shields on the Voyager, these could have all prevented.

It seems as if few people take responsible for maintenance and we spend a lot of time investigating who needs to take the blame.

I would say "who needs to accept responsibility" but I have a question here-does anyone have consequences for neglect? I haven't heard of any except for the fact Brownie resigned. What about the Corps of Engineers? The contractors who built and knew about flaws? The state and government.

What is most frightening to me and should be to you as well is this-Can we trust our infrastructure? Do you feel confident driving through the Windsor Tunnel or across the Brooklyn Bridge? Some of these are twenty years or older. Is anyone really paying attention to what is needed to care for these?

Sometimes it is the cheap materials used. Sometimes it is knowing the flaw but factoring in the cost to correct it and deciding to take the risk.

Do our lives come so cheaply that they are now considered a cost factor in a gamble?

Do we care? Or do we only care when it involves someone we love personally.

Do we no longer care about the welfare of all of us-only what it means to us?

If that is the case, we no longer have a community- looking after the welfare of one another-just a large group of people living side by side believing they are the exception-not needing to take responsibility for anyone but numero uno.

Pretty scary.