Indivisible

     A question was raised about what it would take to make America great again. I am sure that there are a million and more great, brilliant ideas out there that would really make a difference, but there is one that I believe is core to them all. It is a simple thing, but oh so difficult. But before I give my idea, let me back up and talk about some of the things that made our country great. Ideas and ideals, and being willing to work towards those ideas and ideals. Many may wonder what the difference is between an idea and an ideal. An idea is a concrete plan of action. For example, John had the idea for a company that sold product X to consumers. He worked to develop a market plan for X, capitol to produce X, an ability to deliver X, and finally had a business selling X. This is an idea. An ideal is something like fair representation for taxation, which is one of the things that started our country on its path to independence, despite many in government forgetting that very important fact.

     Another thing that was essential in the minds of our forefathers as they crafted the beginnings of our government was that the majority would rule with no favor to minority special interest groups. Still, many of things that are done today are pushed by special interest lobbyists. There has been legislation put forth to eliminate or at least limit these lobbyists that are against the very principles put forth by our forefathers but these regulations will never pass because none of Congress is going to cut off a lucrative revenue stream. This is just a fact that we as Americans are going to have to live with.

     These are important factors to remember as I discuss my idea, even though my idea does not directly address these issues. No, my idea is for Congress to get back to doing their jobs instead of playing games. I can hear the uproar now, as many of them mistakenly think that they are doing their jobs now. The fact is that they have not done their jobs in quite some time. It has become a game of scoring points for their party, not for scoring the good of the American people, or for America in general. It has often resorted to schoolyard tactics to win at all costs, even when that win is the same as cutting one’s nose off to spite one’s face. But they do not feel the effects of it. They do not truly hurt for money or privilege. They will wail to the moon and to all that can hear that they are suffering just like the rest of America, but are they really? Are they really sitting there counting coupons and scraping together change to just get by, often having to choose whether they are going to eat or pay a bill? Have their phone cut off or see the doctor when they desperately need to? Are they limited on their choice of where they can work because many of the jobs that they could take and are qualified for would cost too much in gas, or to move, and as a result have to either go unemployed or underemployed? Do they have to accept blatant disregard of policy and law by others that negatively affect them, just because they do not have the money to pursue proper legal action? No to all of these. They are in a protected bubble and making things worse for the people they are supposed to represent so that they can play games and pander to lobbyists and the party line as if they were trying to score points for the House Cup. There is no house cup, only the destruction of America’s greatness and well-being. There should be some recourse that could be taken for these that have abused the American trust. There should be some form of accountability instead of just hiding behind the parties’ skirts (and both parties are guilty).

     My proposal would be a long-term plan and has many parts. It would have to start at the school level. The reason for this is that way too many schools are set up to be factories to produce unthinking laborers instead of thinking, productive citizens. Standards are all well and good, and we should have them, but you do not improve standards by drilling down to just the core and think that will improve education, because it won’t. We need a well-rounded education that has not only a good foundation in the core, but a diverse access to the arts and to physical education. If it is required that every student take at least a few credits in one of the arts and a few credits in physical education, then there would be an increase in scores. The reason is that these subjects help expand the way the student thinks and their ability to process information. I also believe that it should be required that every student take at least one class on forensics, or otherwise known as debate. There are many reasons for this.  First, it teaches the student how to research, which will help in all other classes. Second, it helps students to look at information and judge the veracity of that information. In short it teaches the student how to think. I know that this is scary, especially to some companies out there, but if we want to return to greatness this is essential.

     The next thing on the list is to make congress truly transparent. This means that not only should there be a report of the vote on things on the floor recorded, but each member of congress should have a report, not only available but readily published publicly, of when they attended congress on the floor to hear debates, which debates they were not present for and why, what they voted and when, what arguments they presented on the floor, and basically any and all actions that they took, or avoided, while serving. These should be publically posted to be seen at any time, and after each session of congress they should have a “State of the District” address that they would make via internet/town hall meeting where they addressed their action for that session and answer questions from their constituents submitted during session, and those from live audience.

     It should also be made clear not only to the congress member, but to the American people that at any time if the people in their district felt that their views were not being accurately represented, then the people could start a petition for recall for lack of confidence. If the majority of voters in the district signed then there would be a automatic recall.

     The other thing would be to limit the amount of money that could be spent on campaigns. This is going to be one that some will think is foolish, after all, a large amount of money is being spent upon campaigns each election, but how much of that money actually goes to helping the true economy versus damage done to America’s image abroad, and more importantly, at home? Not only would I cap how much could be spent, I would set that cap really low. Instead of all of these campaign contributions going to advertising lies and schoolyard gamesmanship, how about instead all money that is raised goes into a communal government fund that is used for that upcoming years federal budget? Campaign contributions would go down dramatically, but there would be some aid to the recovery of the nation’s finances. Despite what some politicians who have never had to scrape to get by believe, every penny counts. 

My Early Education

As a young child I was absolutely in love with learning. Before I ever started school, I wanted to be prepared. I read on a second grade level before kindergarten, knew how to do basic math and was learning my multiplication tables through pestering everyone around me to teach me things that I knew were associated with school. My parents, instead of answering my questions told me to not bother them, but to look it up, pointing me toward the dictionary for reading and the math books that they bought me to keep me quiet, for math.

So when I entered kindergarten, I was very disappointed that there was almost no learning done; instead we were set to play projects. We built forts with the building blocks. We did crafts much like those done in vacation bible school. We learned games. There was some attempt to teach the alphabet.

Then came first grade. Here we actually got to learn. Not only that, but we could do so at our own pace. For those of us who were faster than the rest of the class, we were allowed to advance and actually begin the coursework for second grade. In this advanced group were three girls, myself, and my best friend Jerry. Jerry worked at it more because I wanted him to advance with me, and the fact that the cute girls were in the advanced group. Jerry and I both had an early attraction to girls. If we had continued living in that school district, I would have advanced past the second grade and straight into the third. But we moved.

I remember when I first moved into the community where I now live. It was less than a quarter the size of the place in which I had lived my entire young life up until that point. The new school system that I found myself in did not support grade advancement. (Of course, they would happily hold back young boys as many years as they liked to have them big and powerful when they got to high school football.)

So I started second grade, happily looking forward to more learning. What I got was the worst school experience of my life. I had become accustomed to working at my own accelerated pace, and doing independent reading. Yet in my new class if I finished work before the rest of the class I received a paddling. I was told that I was disrupting the class. At first, when I finished my work I would ask for more. I got paddled. So then when I finished, I would try to get something to read. I was paddled. Then I bought my own material to read. I was paddled. Next when I finished I would try to sit quietly. I was paddled. I tried, when I was finished, putting my head down. I was paddled. I even tried writing after I was finished. I was paddled. I was paddled every day, four to eight times a day, the entire school year. My mother spoke to the principal about it and was told that there wasn’t anything that she could do and that the teacher was within her rights.

I had other kids in the class see how the teacher treated me, and felt that it was okay for them to treat me poorly as well. That was fine by the teacher. No one ever got into trouble, unless I tried to stand up for myself, or fought back. Then I got paddled. One time the teacher left the room and left a student as class monitor. He felt that he could come over and hit on me. I ducked my head under my elbow and his pencil broke on my elbow. I got paddled.

I have always been large for my age. At my new school, and with the apparent disregard that my teacher had for me, many of the boys saw me as a target to make their reputation on. I had been taught all of my life not to fight. Yet every day on the playground one bully or another decided that I was going to fight them. I never fought back, but I also never went down. I took punches, kicks, chokeholds, sticks, rocks, and once even a brick, but I never fought back, and I never went down. Yet each day after recess it would be reported to the teacher, or the teacher would have watched, and I received a paddling.

At the beginning of the school year I had been accepted by the kids in my school, especially due to my joining the games of football. They all wanted me at first because no one could tackle me. But it was not long at all before I was no longer accepted on anyone’s team and I was shunned by all the other kids. I had become the outsider. The boy that was in constant trouble. The boy that was paddled in the hall several times a day. No one wanted to be associated with that.