They Could Be Heroes

by Ruth A. Sheets

After a disaster, reporters interview “ordinary people” who have done something extraordinary.  Nearly always, the person says that he/she is not a hero and just did what had to be done. 

To the rest of us, these folks are genuine heroes.  They go far beyond what one should be expected to do, but they do it anyway.

If ordinary people can perform such heroism, those in power should be natural heroes.  Most of the time, they don’t even have to put their lives on the line.

Egyptians elected a president last year to get their country on the right track to an inclusive political system.  President Morsi was elected and almost immediately began limiting the rights of the people, particularly those not part of the Muslim Brotherhood.  He could have been a hero, but chose to be a divider, an ideologue.  The Egyptian people are now suffering for his anti-heroic actions  

Our state, Pennsylvania, is in need of strong financial support for public education, particularly in the poorest districts.  A hero would find ways to get legislators to find some funds, perhaps add some fees to the frackers in Pennsylvania, but instead, the gas drillers don’t even pay enough to make up for the destruction they cause through their operations.  And, no other money can be spared for our kids.   We need a hero, but our governor is about blaming everyone who is not as wealthy as he and his backers.

Many Americans cannot afford medical insurance and are vulnerable if they or someone in their family becomes ill or injured.  We need some heroes to stand up to the Republican Party and their core constituency, saying something like, “it might not be perfect, but at least it’s a start, that Obamacare.  Instead they tell young people “You don’t have to carry insurance since you are healthy and you should not have to support those old folks who just suck up the money.  Only get insurance when you actually need it.”  How about the notion that Americans take care of each other.  I guess not, right?

Why do our leaders shy away from talking about poverty and its role in keeping our people down, keeping our students performing poorly?  There are no heroes here either.  Democrats ignore the issue and speak only of the middle class, while Republicans pretend that the poor are reaping the results of their own actions. 

Compromise is a 4-letter word, a curse for Republicans.  No heroes will come from that quarter because their fear of losing power keeps them from donning a cape and jumping in for the good of America and its people.

Every challenging situation, especially the big ones like health care, poverty, jobs, climate change,   needs heroes.  People in public office and other positions of authority can make large changes quickly if the will is there.  Just think of Harry Truman integrating the armed forces, Lyndon Johnson moving the Civil Rights and Voting Acts through Congress, John Kennedy spurring America on to the moon.

Alas, maybe we can’t wait for the “chosen” few to accept the role of hero.  Maybe ordinary people like us will have to go far beyond what is expected and will just do what has to be done.   

NEW SCHOOL YEAR

by Ruth A. Sheets

The 2013-14 school year is about to start.  Traditionally, at this point in the summer, there has been a lot of excitement among students and teachers, and relief among parents.  

For the students, parents, and teachers of my district, however, there is mostly anxiety.  August is half over and many of us do not even know which schools will be open and who will be teaching.

My district is not alone in this. As Republicans in office work to limit funding for education and add to the burden of poor school districts with vouchers, charter schools, and other unproven theories, the public schools are forced to cut programs, personnel, and supplies, while charters get what they need.

Many studies lately point to poverty as the variable which puts children at risk for poor performance in school, yet our legislatures and public executives have done little to address it.  In fact, many Republican (Hypocrican) proposals these days would serve to drive more families into poverty and others deeper in (eliminate food stamps, for example).

It makes perfect sense to Hypocricans to make teachers the target of their anger. Teachers are often in unions. Hypocricans hate unions because they demand salaries and wages above minimum wage. 

Hypocricans spread the lie that “anyone can teach.”  Notice that none of them chose teaching.  I guess it was beneath them when they could amass greater fortunes in more prestigious fields. 

Those who teach in charter schools don’t even need to be certified.  The belief is that if you follow the script, you can teach anything.  With their new law, in North Carolina, only 50% of charter school teachers need to be certified.   Without certification, it is possible to pay less.  Hmmm, one wonders if these legislators would want their children to attend the schools with uncertified teachers.  Of course they would, if only they lived in that neighborhood.  Yeah, right!

So the new school year will begin across America and the haves will continue to have more while the have nots will continue to lag behind and be blamed for it.   

The saving grace here is the number of truly dedicated, highly qualified teachers there are, willing  to teach our children who are in most need.  We love our students and want the very best for them.  We will do everything we can, despite Hypocrican  opposition, to build our students’ skills, talents, and hope in the future. 

Have an inspiring school year, students and teachers.  Don’t let the Hypocricans keep you down.

ALEC, A Cancer Growing on Our Democracy

by Ruth A. Sheets

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is celebrating its 40^th anniversary.  I suspect that when it was founded, its goals were not as lofty as to limit voting, destroy women’s freedom of reproductive choice, promote guns for all citizens, eliminate the public schools, reduce taxes for wealthy members of society, deregulate just about everything, cancel employee pensions, break unions, criminalize immigrants, privatize the services the government does well.

From the beginning, ALEC certainly had its political agenda, extremely conservative, somewhat racist and androcentric.   It started small with developing ideas to reduce taxes and provide legislative templates for conservatives all over the country.  Just like cancer, however, its actions metastacised over time and spread to envelope legislators all over the country.  ALEC and its ideas are now out of control.

Now, conservative candidates run for office claiming they will work for job creation, education, and other worthy issues of concern to Americans.  But, when they get into office, they pick up ALEC bills and go after everything else.  

If one state legislature succeeds with a restrictive voter I.D. law, everyone else in the network wants to try it in their state.  If one ALEC bill is passed to profile potential undocumented immigrants, the rest of their gang will introduce a nearly identical bill.  It is popular with ALEC to blame unions and public workers, particularly teachers for all financial woes,  so one state after another passes union-busting laws.

Women are not popular with ALEC, so it has helped to introduce a variety of anti-women bills.  The interesting thing here is that each state that picks these bills up tries to make its own law more restrictive than the last.

There no longer even has to be an honest reason for the laws that are proposed.  Voter fraud is almost non-existent, but millions of dollars and thousands of hours have been wasted pushing through a variety of voter suppression laws.  There is little or no evidence that school vouchers or charter schools have improved education or cost the tax-payers less, but this proposal passed in one state, now all the legislatures in the network keep pushing both.

Some courts have been like chemotherapy, trying to stop the cancer.  It is harder and harder, though,  as the US Senate is not filling openings on the courts.  Money interests are invading the judicial system.   In addition, it doesn’t matter what the American people want.  Protests seem irrelevant.

ALEC is not the only organization engaged in corrupting our democracy, but it is one of the most powerful.  Its leader, Grover Norquist, is not elected, yet our politicians give him and his crew more power than elected officials have. They threaten candidates who don’t sign their ridiculous pledge not to raise taxes.  Why do our Republican legislators give away their ability to govern?

We need to wake up and fight the cancer before it is too invasive to be put into remission.