With the latest crapola from The Supreme Court, you know, the decision that allows the uber rich to buy Congress which will now be referred to as "the Koch-sucking groveling wretches," I'm hearing the sound of democracy swirling down the toilet. This decision makes the United States no better than all those countries with moneyed, despotic rulers and slave laborers. We are less than a third world country now. The citizens of the US have been sold down the river. Bribery has been made legal.
And now, the Human Rights Committee of the U. N. issued a report that has labeled the United States as "cruel, inhumane and degrading" to those who are poor and homeless. Being poor and homeless has been criminalized here so now we are in the same company as many of the countries we, ourselves, denigrate and berate for the same reason.
We have never witnesses such vile, heartless and dishonorable individuals as the Republicans. It's not Democrats, Progressives, or Liberals (or for that matter anyone with a heart and a working brain) who want to get rid of every program designed to help the working poor (and who blame people just for being poor) by getting rid of unemployment compensation, food stamps, Medicare, Social Security, pensions and unions. It's not the Democrats who insist on feeding the huge corporations, Wall Street and the military with billions of our tax dollars, giving the rich tax breaks allowing them to pay NO taxes while the rest of us bear the brunt of making up what the rich don't pay! Enough already! And it's not the Democrats who spit on anyone who isn't white and male. Every single issue that favors the average citizen is spat upon by the GOP.
It seems that evil has triumphed, courtesy of the Republicans.
I believe that Senator Bernie Sanders said it best: "The great political struggle that we now face is whether the United States retains its democratic heritage or whether we move toward an oligarchic form of society where the real power rests with a handful of billionaires, not ordinary Americans."
I don't want to live under an oligarchy. And the United States will become one soon if ordinary citizens don't revolt against a Republican Tea Party hell bent on destroying democracy as we have known it.
Showing posts with label money. Show all posts
Showing posts with label money. Show all posts
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Monday, December 16, 2013
A bit of this and a bit of that
1. It seems to me that every utterance that comes out of a Republican mouth is simply mean or astoundingly stupid or vindictive or condescending or misinformed or racist, or misogynist.
2. I haven't heard one kind word about anything from the Right.
3. It appears that it is a requirement, when applying for a job at Fox news, that one must leave their brains outside.
4. Christmas is not my holiday, consequently I save a LOT of money not going crazy buying STUFF. It's really become a huge mercantile event.
5. How much money do rich people need before they get a conscience? Is someone whispering INFINITE?
6. I can't stand being waited on in a restaurant by someone with a tongue piercing. It makes me want to vomit. I almost have the same feeling when I see those huge black things making big holes in earlobes.
7. I dislike people who declare their religion publicly every chance they get. It's usually Christians because I don't see, read about or hear Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Baha'is, Sikhs, Wiccans, atheists, etc., yelling about the war on WHATEVER, or yelling that this is a WHATEVER nation and trying to legislate their point of view for the rest of us. I prefer religion to be a private affair.
8. So, I'm not a six year old kid anymore. I grunt when I have to bend down to pick something up off the floor!
9.
2. I haven't heard one kind word about anything from the Right.
3. It appears that it is a requirement, when applying for a job at Fox news, that one must leave their brains outside.
4. Christmas is not my holiday, consequently I save a LOT of money not going crazy buying STUFF. It's really become a huge mercantile event.
5. How much money do rich people need before they get a conscience? Is someone whispering INFINITE?
6. I can't stand being waited on in a restaurant by someone with a tongue piercing. It makes me want to vomit. I almost have the same feeling when I see those huge black things making big holes in earlobes.
7. I dislike people who declare their religion publicly every chance they get. It's usually Christians because I don't see, read about or hear Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Baha'is, Sikhs, Wiccans, atheists, etc., yelling about the war on WHATEVER, or yelling that this is a WHATEVER nation and trying to legislate their point of view for the rest of us. I prefer religion to be a private affair.
8. So, I'm not a six year old kid anymore. I grunt when I have to bend down to pick something up off the floor!
9.
Yes, I was. It is good to be a New England sports fan! And that includes UCONN Women's basketball, too!
10. I wish someone would tell the crazy gun nuts that the correct way to hold a gun is with the barrel pointed at their stomachs. I was going to write hearts but they don't have any!
11. Why does my passion for chocolate never subside????
12. We are such a war-mongering nation. And it all comes down to GREED. War is a money-maker. They fact that it snuffs out so many young lives is of no consequence to those who supply the war machine.
13. Women are still second class citizens in the United States. Just ask any fr***** white, male Republican member of Congress or any white, male, Republican a**h*** elected to state office.
14. The ads asking for everyone to give money, food, gifts for kids at this time of year are legion. So what happens during the rest of the year? Do people think the poor disappear until the next holiday season? And my point is why do we have so many really poor people needing life-sustaining help in what is supposed to be a very prosperous country? It's crazy, it's a shame and it's unconscionable. We have to do better by RAISING THE MINIMUM WAGE to a decent living wage.
15. I have never seen The Nutcracker ballet and frankly, don't have any great desire to see it.
16. Years ago I decried the lack of intelligence in public life. Alas, it has gotten so much worse. And I don't want to be represented by people with such low IQs! Have you read the crazy, meshaguss coming out of the mouths of members of Congress? Did they all snort themselves throughout their formative years? Most of them are Republicans. Do they have a diseased gene in their pool? Sigh............ They are meshugeh ahf toit (crazy as loons). It sounds better in Yiddish.
17. Best job I ever had: radio talk show host in Connecticut. Had different guests on every day: authors, politicians-state and Congressional, entertainers, people involved in every social service agency in the area, an inventor, musicians, a Native American sculptress. I had so much fun interviewing the myriad guests who came on the show. It was lively, funny, entertaining and informative and a joy to do. Interviewing, asking the right questions and getting interesting information is something I do really well. Wish I could do it again.
18. I wish I could just twitch my nose and make everything right with the world.
19. It remains to be seen. Will the bad guys ever really get their comeuppance?
20. Does anyone want the ice scrapers I still have? I don't need them here in Arizona's Valley of the Sun!!!!
Hey, if you're reading this, please leave a comment at the bottom where it says: post a comment. I'd really appreciate that. Thanks.
Monday, October 28, 2013
When I Taught, Part 2 (see Part 1, 6.10.2013)
After my initial teaching experience in my hometown, the place where I spent a good portion of my own money providing food, school supplies, haircuts and such to those of my students who needed these things, I found myself in a completely different educational environment. I landed a teaching position with the Muroc Unified School District at Edwards Air Force Base in California where my husband was assigned to the Judge Advocate General's office, his first assignment as a JAG officer.
The school building I was assigned to, on the base, was brand new and housed only sixth and seventh grade classes. I was part of a team teaching effort and taught the sixth grade social studies/sixth and seventh grade girls physical education component. Everything I needed or wanted was either housed in the building or could be brought in within a day. My students were world travelers by virtue of their parents being stationed at Air Force bases all over the world. They came to my class armed with knowledge gained from living in other countries and around the United States.
All were well dressed, articulate, eager to share their experiences. It was exciting to teach kids who didn't have hunger issues or all those issues that come with broken homes, low income or other family problems. I didn't have a plethora of paperwork to do. I was able to be extremely creative with projects designed to give my students a reason to be enthusiastic about what I was teaching them. It's the experience I expected to have when I became an elementary school teacher.
That teaching experience at Edwards had the kind of educational atmosphere every public school in the United States should provide. But that was an exception. My first teaching job in my home town and this one at Edwards were worlds apart in every sense.
After Edwards, I took time off to have our sons and I stayed out of teaching until they got into school. My next teaching experiences were different, weird, and unusual to say the least but that's for another time.
The school building I was assigned to, on the base, was brand new and housed only sixth and seventh grade classes. I was part of a team teaching effort and taught the sixth grade social studies/sixth and seventh grade girls physical education component. Everything I needed or wanted was either housed in the building or could be brought in within a day. My students were world travelers by virtue of their parents being stationed at Air Force bases all over the world. They came to my class armed with knowledge gained from living in other countries and around the United States.
All were well dressed, articulate, eager to share their experiences. It was exciting to teach kids who didn't have hunger issues or all those issues that come with broken homes, low income or other family problems. I didn't have a plethora of paperwork to do. I was able to be extremely creative with projects designed to give my students a reason to be enthusiastic about what I was teaching them. It's the experience I expected to have when I became an elementary school teacher.
That teaching experience at Edwards had the kind of educational atmosphere every public school in the United States should provide. But that was an exception. My first teaching job in my home town and this one at Edwards were worlds apart in every sense.
After Edwards, I took time off to have our sons and I stayed out of teaching until they got into school. My next teaching experiences were different, weird, and unusual to say the least but that's for another time.
Monday, June 10, 2013
When I taught, Part 1
When I began teaching, my first assignment was a third grade self-contained classroom. The city I lived and worked in was a working class, blue collar city. The children in my class came from a variety of backgrounds. Some came from one parent families, some from extremely poor families, some from more middle class families with more income than others. All the kids, however, were eager and happy at the beginning of a new school year.
I looked at my motley crew, laughing and happy, and thought how wonderful they looked and how grateful I was to be able to share my new teaching skills with them. During the course of the school year I learned things about each student that played into how I taught each of them, individually. I didn't learn this stuff in college.
One young man, George R. (I still remember his name) came to school many times wearing pajama tops kept together with a piece of rawhide and sweatpants. He seemed to always be hungry and couldn't concentrate. He told me he had several siblings, many with different last names.
Another young girl came in, day after day, with her hair all matted and not smelling clean. She always looked a little sad. Her brother was also in my class even though he was two years older. He looked scruffy most of the time.
Another young girl, however, came to school each day wearing exquisite clothes, diamond studs in her ears and smelling of Je Reviens perfume. I had to ask her mother what the scent was.
Teaching was fun. Most of my pupils were willing to learn and as the year advanced I could see that they were succeeding, for the most part, in their lessons. But there were times when my heart was breaking. My little matted-haired girl came in one morning, looking so sad. The day, for her, didn't improve. At the end of the day, I asked her to stay behind for a minute after everyone else left. And we talked, softly and quietly. She told me the family had no hot water in the apartment and she couldn't stand taking a bath in cold water, that the family didn't have a lot of food, that her dad liked to run his fingers through her hair and a bunch of other ugly stuff. I managed to get her hair washed and cut, found some clean used clothes for her and made sure I had food for her in school.
George was in a similar situation at his house with not having enough food. And yes, there were others experiencing the same problems. I started loading up my desk drawers with packages of food, crackers, nutrition bars, etc. and told these kids to come up to my desk at any time and take whatever they needed or wanted. It cost me a lot during the year but there was not an agency I could find, at that time, where I could get help for these kids.
Over the course of my teaching career, I shelled out a lot of money on school supplies and food. And I never begrudged that money. It was necessary and vital to the well being of my pupils. Schools have NEVER had enough money to provide sufficiently for all the needs of their primary reason for being, the kids who attend. They are entitled to excellent educations, taught by well-compensated teachers and having the essential materials to foster that eduction. Every single kid in every single city, town and village in this country deserves the very best education we can give them. It should never be based on a family's ability to pay. Public school should be as great as any private school.
"Wouldn't it be nice of the military had to hold bake sales and schools were totally funded?" That saying has been round for a very long time and is still relevant.
Ah, but there's more. But that's for a different time.
I looked at my motley crew, laughing and happy, and thought how wonderful they looked and how grateful I was to be able to share my new teaching skills with them. During the course of the school year I learned things about each student that played into how I taught each of them, individually. I didn't learn this stuff in college.
One young man, George R. (I still remember his name) came to school many times wearing pajama tops kept together with a piece of rawhide and sweatpants. He seemed to always be hungry and couldn't concentrate. He told me he had several siblings, many with different last names.
Another young girl came in, day after day, with her hair all matted and not smelling clean. She always looked a little sad. Her brother was also in my class even though he was two years older. He looked scruffy most of the time.
Another young girl, however, came to school each day wearing exquisite clothes, diamond studs in her ears and smelling of Je Reviens perfume. I had to ask her mother what the scent was.
Teaching was fun. Most of my pupils were willing to learn and as the year advanced I could see that they were succeeding, for the most part, in their lessons. But there were times when my heart was breaking. My little matted-haired girl came in one morning, looking so sad. The day, for her, didn't improve. At the end of the day, I asked her to stay behind for a minute after everyone else left. And we talked, softly and quietly. She told me the family had no hot water in the apartment and she couldn't stand taking a bath in cold water, that the family didn't have a lot of food, that her dad liked to run his fingers through her hair and a bunch of other ugly stuff. I managed to get her hair washed and cut, found some clean used clothes for her and made sure I had food for her in school.
George was in a similar situation at his house with not having enough food. And yes, there were others experiencing the same problems. I started loading up my desk drawers with packages of food, crackers, nutrition bars, etc. and told these kids to come up to my desk at any time and take whatever they needed or wanted. It cost me a lot during the year but there was not an agency I could find, at that time, where I could get help for these kids.
Over the course of my teaching career, I shelled out a lot of money on school supplies and food. And I never begrudged that money. It was necessary and vital to the well being of my pupils. Schools have NEVER had enough money to provide sufficiently for all the needs of their primary reason for being, the kids who attend. They are entitled to excellent educations, taught by well-compensated teachers and having the essential materials to foster that eduction. Every single kid in every single city, town and village in this country deserves the very best education we can give them. It should never be based on a family's ability to pay. Public school should be as great as any private school.
"Wouldn't it be nice of the military had to hold bake sales and schools were totally funded?" That saying has been round for a very long time and is still relevant.
Ah, but there's more. But that's for a different time.
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