Choosing Our Precipice

Our choice of precipice is about the only independant act we have nowadays.

If we choose to do nothing we allow ourselves to play the victim.

We have been making that choice for eight years.

A fat lot of good it did us.

Welcome to the hood. The neighborhood of victimhood.

Doing nothing and saying nothing does not make us any less responsible for our condition today.

Collective Fear-A Vicious Cycle

There isn't much empty land to squat on nowadays. Laws have changed since 1929. Money is supposed to be insured so banks can't just tell you-"Too bad", laws are supposed to be in place to protect the most vulnerable of our people, social security, medicaid, unemployment, welfare acts are supposed to provide food stamps for the truly desperate.

All of these provisions were implemented during Roosevelt's administration to protect the US economy and its people from another great depression.

Yet unemployment rates are soaring, mortgage defaults continue, wave after wave of layoffs continue-

Why ? Has our economic system really been a house of cards all along? How can we stop this downward spiral?

Us little guys don't have much control, do we?

We are at the mercy of business and the way our economy is built, those who invest pull the strings.

As we lose jobs, we don't have money to spend, business suffers, more layoffs occur, business suffers and the spiral continues.

I really do believe collective fear is an insidious thing-crawling into our psyches, disabling us, or worse yet, signaling that old "fight or flight" instinct, often bringing out the worst-you know, that part of us that oozes anger, attacking those around us, looking for a cliche to blame-those who have, portraying others as less than human, if they don't have.

I am waiting for one big corporation, one world business leader, one very influential group, or even one little voice of a powerful powerless person to ring aloud, the sense we all need to hear-

"That we are in this together and there isn't anything we can't do collectively to make this earth better for us and our families.

If we believe we will always have food to eat, a job to put our honesty and labor into-a roof over our heads for our families, and that those we love will have the same safety because we have their backs, , we will be just fine.

Give the fear back to that place in your mind that stores it-you know the place where sometimes the worst can come out of us?

Put it back in there. Take stock of your strengths-the ones which mean the most in this life-your health, those you love, what you can do to give back instead of take-

don't let the fear mongers in the news, the doomsday naysayers in the press, those whose negative energies spill out to grab you-don't let those take you off the path you know is right-

You know that path-the one that reduces us to the basic, the very basic core of what our needs really are-our belief that life is good because we have all those essential necessities in life-and as long as we have each other-that is all that counts.

Don't let it go-not for a second.

Gibbons-Education FIrst Now Education Last..

Gibbons may keep his word on NO NEW TAXES but he doesn't keep his word of EDUCATION FIRST-
A lightweight gov. in all aspects, he is is equal only to Dan Quayle in the brain cell department.
A perfect example of the Political Machine's ability to put ANYONE in office if they campaign to a certain lowest common denominator-greed-in big business, corporations, gaming and mining.

It is a theory I thought only possible on the grandest scale-i.e. George Bush-but it is obvious, we have little threads of brain dead light weights woven into our country's government.
Or-my other theory-is this the best we can do-nowadays?
If it is, as an educator, I promise to work even harder to teach my students not just the three "R's" but more civics and common sense.

Governor Jim Gibbons signed Assembly Bill 627 into law on Wednesday, June 6th during a signing ceremony at Bernice Martin Mathews Elementary School. The governor signed the education budget bill at the same elementary school where the Education First Initiative was launched in 2003. Nevada voters approved Education First overwhelmingly in 2004 and 2006, and it is now a part of the Nevada Constitution.
�Placing our children's education first as a state priority has proven to be a vital policy that protects the interests of our children and our state�s education system," Governor Gibbons said.
AB 627 provides nearly to $2.2 billion in K-12 funding over the next biennium, and represents an historic 18% increase over previous funding levels

Nevada teachers protest in HUGE rally!

That is what the Nevada media should be headlining!
This is actually a picture of teachers in China!!
Freakin China!! No human rights China!!

Where is our rally?
Parents and teachers stand side by side by the thousands, and tell Gibbons, NO.
Schools districts, unions, educators , parents and children -stand together and let the state of Nevada know that our children are not up for bid to the lowest state contracting crony of Jim Gibbons.
Nevada's citizens -this is child neglect. Set an example and empower your children
Where is our rally?
We need to do this.

Teachers-shame on you for rolling over and playing dead.
Remember, we are a country with the right to free speech?
What are you teaching your students when you walk around muttering, "There is nothing we can do..."

CCEA? You make me sick. More platitudes about letter writing and calls.

CCSD-Ruffles tells us , "Oh, write the Gov.", he'll listen."
The largest school district in the state of Nevada-Clark County-where is your rallying cry??
Am I missing something here?
Or is this lunacy real??

Nevadans acting like crowded rats in a cage...

Like overcrowded rats in a cage, Nevada citizens

have begun to eat their own....

It occurred to me this morning as I read the rampant ravings of the RJ editor-there is nothing like stirring up the little people, pitting them against one another-to take the focus off the REAL

problem-

big business, banks, huge corporations yelling uncle and taking no responsibility for the shape of our country, state and local losses.

What a goldmine for them! Eliminate senior employees, outsource more work to cheap labor in other countries-hold back credit to the little businesses, ideally forcing them into bankruptcy and leaving a conglomerate of large monopolies to control the economy.

Until now, the money kept flowing -NPR reports Chase Bank CEO demanded a 10 million dollar bonus in December for "cobbling the deal with B of A-his TOILET in his office, cost 35,000.00

Employees are asked to take cuts, freeze pay, accept retirement losses and eliminations, endure layoffs and hit the unemployment office.

What is wrong with this picture?

The little people (workers) are eating each other up, pointing fingers, calling state workers greedy and unpatriotic, attacking one another in community forums-

While the elite continue to eat cake...

This has to stop.

As long as we are willing to kill one another over a few thousand dollars, and repeat the mantra, "Be glad you have a job"

We will continue to the idiots we have been acting like for the past eight years.

Stop it.

Think.

Hold those banks and corporations accountable.

Forget the letter writing campaign and the sit ins.

QUIT DOING BUSINESS WITH THEM.

Pull your money out of banks that deal with B of A and Chase and put it into credit unions,

boycott the very banks that hold your money and won't share it.

We have power collectively.

None divided.

Gov. Gibbons finds a way to starve poor people

I work with a little boy who has a rare medical condition and leaves his home for medical appointments only. His education consists of five hours per week-per school law-in home teaching.
He actually receives a great deal more because his mom is a fantastic teacher. He is a bright, creative student and it is a joy for me, as a teacher to be a part of his learning.

Because of his medical condition Mom cannot get a job.
Oh, she could, if she could afford to pay for nursing care for her son. The cost of care is prohibitive.

Yesterday my little student fell asleep as I was packing up my gear and mom told me the state cut her food stamps.
She used to receive 445.00 a month for food. They cut her stamps to 270.00 a month.
The food stamps they use to eat with does not cover such things as toilet paper, toothpaste, shampoo , tampons, cleaning supplies or any other non food items. She must purchase this out of her "own" money. Which is zero.

This is how the state of Nevada cut her food stamps.
Income was considered at a rate of 450.00 per month. If she made more than 450.00 per month it affected the rate of her food stamp allotment.
They live on a small allotment of 450.00 per month from disability. This is supposed to cover housing and utilities.
The state of Nevada recently changed the income level and reduced it to 250.00
This means anything over 250.00 is considered excess and food stamps can be cut.

She is now considered over the limit because the disability check is 450.00 per month.

It is unconscionable to expect a family of two to live on a grocery budget of a little over 50 dollars over week.
"Oh, you say, let them eat ramen noodles, like everyone else." We are talking about a child with a serious medical condition. 50.00 a week doesn't exactly cover the food pyramid, does it??

Gibbons government cut their food budget by almost half in less than three weeks.

This is the reality of the state of Nevada.

While we quibble over "no new taxes" and "cut education", gold mines, businesses and other profit making entities in our state have no obligation to the little boy I see five hours a week.
In fact, he is an anonymous face to them, one who doesn't exist as they rake in their profits.

Shame on you, Gibbons, and shame on Nevada. These cuts are taking place on the backs of the poorest and the most vulnerable of our state citizens.

The future isn't about our adult selfish sides. You know, the ones who overspent, refinanced the equity in homes so they could buy an SUV or a new jet ski, pay down that credit card used to buy Ferragamo shoes and Dooney and Burke purses?

The last time I had to decide how to budget 50.00 a week for groceries was in 1978, when I was a student in college and my son was five years old. Even then we ate a lot of macaroni and (fake)cheese.
When you talk about tightening your belts you don't talk about living on less than 700.00 per month for rent, utilities, food and necessities.So you are on unemployment? You still receive more than this family of two receives.

The very sad fact is they have no choice. The future for them, with his medical needs, doesn't change. They are at the mercy of our decisions.

Gov Gibbons, how about giving your six percent cut to this family?
Maybe this little boy can have some fresh fruit in his diet.

Now I know why the peasants went crazy...

There was something freeing today, about President Obama's inauguration.

A ton of weight lifted from my heart.

I did not realize what fear and anxiety I held inside until now.

Not a baby boomer but old enough to watch -through child's eyes I saw Kent State, the assassination of both Kennedy's and Martin Luther King. I watched my cousin go off and never return from the Vietnam War.

I lived through the trials of impeachment and eventual resignation of Nixon. Ford pardoning him.

These past eight years instilled a subtle fear-insidious actually-knowing phone calls could be monitored without cause, citizens could be locked up without representation, a right to a fair trial-

unions weakening and workers losing many of the rights hard earned by the violent confrontations between worker and owner.

I grew up in Detroit, experiencing the consequences of layoffs and strikes. The deep gashes on my fathers hands from working the assembly line.

Now I understand why peasants went a little mad during the French Revolution. Destroying property and executing the elite.

Not that I would ever condone the deaths of any persons-but desperation and fear are two toxic companions.

Hunger, helplessness , fear and hopelessness drive humans to desperate acts.

I am grateful we have an opportunity to walk the road of justice, toil with pride amidst the ethics of hard and good work,

Open the shades and let honesty into our country again.

No longer see the fear reflected from countries, once our allies, at the unpredictability and arrogance.

I began to wonder if our country really wanted to rush that road of zealotry and harsh judgement under the guise of a new form of Christianity.

I am filled with joy that we have a chance to make it right-for the future generations, and hopefully, for a tiny smidgen- in my lifetime, as well.