Category Archives: religion

All Posts, justice, north carolina, public education, religion

WHY NOT THE BEST EDUCATION?

My initial reaction to the recent performance of the Randolph County Board of Education was disbelief. They seem to want what is best for students and for the schools but how did people with good intentions make such a mess? There are, perhaps two underlying problems. One is that a majority of Board Members became so confident that they know what is good and right that they felt justified in imposing their personal values on students and faculty. The other is that a majority have become so complacent in accepting “how things are” that they are not attending to “how things could be”. There can be a happy ending to this story when the whole education team is working together toward a shared vision of excellence. First, here is a review of recent problems.

One Board Member defied the US Supreme Court, the Constitution and the advice of the Board’s legal counsel by offering sectarian prayer over the public address system prior to high school football games.  That created a distraction from the School System’s responsibilities rather than advancing the cause of excellence in education. It does matter that some fans don’t want to be forced to hear his prayer in order to see a football game at a public school. Perhaps with good intentions, he imposed his beliefs and values on everyone in attendance and put the School System in a very difficult position.

In a separate matter, one parent complained about a book (The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison) on a suggested reading list given to her 12th grade son. The school system staff followed their established policy; inviting the parent to specify her concerns, then convening two teams of professional educators to reconsider the appropriateness of the book.   Both teams affirmed that the book should remain in school libraries and on the recommended reading list. It had been carefully selected for sound reasons.

The Board of Education voted to overrule its teachers, librarians and administrators by not only removing the book from the reading list but removing it from school libraries. It won the national book award and is considered an American classic by most scholars but board members explained imposing their views on students, professional educators, and the executive team by describing the book as “filth” and “…of no literary value…”.

The 12th graders who received the reading list would within a few months be deemed sufficiently mature to join the armed forces, go away to college, sign contracts and vote. Great literature can help them think through their own values before they are faced with the immediacy of important life questions. A majority of the Board of Education, much like their colleague who imposed his religious views on everyone attending football games, enforced their personal views of a book and thereby deprived students of an opportunity to think for themselves about American culture and literature.

The Board’s responsibility is to create an educational system which enables students to study, think, and come to their own conclusions. Instead, they appear to prefer indoctrinating students with their own beliefs and values. After local and international outcries over their action, the Board reversed themselves but offered minimal explanation and no apology to staff or students. Despite clear recommendations provided to the Board by the review teams, one Board member blamed the staff for not providing adequate advice. Why would English teachers and librarians want to work for a Board which does not trust them to choose books?

Robert Kennedy, paraphrasing George Bernard Shaw, said “There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?” We need that attitude among our Board of Education. The Board’s role is to establish broad vision, strategies and policies; to select the executive leadership; and to support them in their work. The Board should distinguish their responsibilities from those of the staff by leading on issues such as, “What policies and governance practices are followed in nations that have the best educational outcomes?” “Which of those ideas would work well here?” “What resources are needed and how will we provide them?” “How will we prepare students for lifelong learning and coming to their own conclusions about the important issues of their lives?” “Why will the best teachers want to practice their profession in our school district?”

We should not be satisfied with what we have done in the past – not because it was bad; but because we need to do better.  Our target should be public education as good as the best in the world because that is what our children deserve and because anything less will eventually produce a second class nation.   Rather than school prayer or their opinions of individual books, we should hear from our Board of Education about their plan for excellence including educational strategies, projected human and financial resource requirements, recruitment, retention, nationally competitive salaries, facilities, a budget sufficient to provide classroom supplies (so teachers don’t have to purchase their own) and even the option of year-round school for students who are aiming for the stars. If the Boards and the public give our school systems the encouragement and support that they need and deserve, we will be thrilled with the great results that our students achieve.

All Posts, deficit, justice, poverty, religion

YES, WE HAVE NO MAGIC

Yes, we have no magic

“I can’t really criticize the Tea Party people, because I came into the White House pretty much on the same basis that they have become popular. That is dissatisfaction with the way things are going in Washington and disillusionment and discouragement about the government.” It may surprise many readers to learn that this quotation is from former President Jimmy Carter.

At the time when we elected President Carter, trust in government was very low. We had experienced the Watergate scandal which forced President Nixon to resign from office for spying on political rivals. His schemes included an “enemies list” of opponents to be targeted with IRS audits or malicious prosecutions.  His predecessor, President Johnson, made up stories about attacks on American forces in order to justify the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that allowed him to start the Vietnam War.  We also learned that the FBI had been tapping the phones of civil rights leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King. There was suspicion that President Kennedy’s assassination was part of some conspiracy. There were plenty of justifications for mistrust of government.

“I’ll never tell a lie. I’ll never make a misleading statement. I’ll never betray the confidence that any of you had in me. And I’ll never avoid a controversial issue.” Those were promises that President Carter made. And to the best of my knowledge, he kept them. He dealt with an energy crisis by urging us to become more energy efficient. He talked about national initiatives to develop wind and solar power. His fiscal policies were disciplined, leading us away from the deficit spending of the Vietnam era and toward a balanced budget. He championed zero based budgeting which meant that no government agency would get money next year just because they had it this year. He offered leadership toward building our nation at home and keeping us out of wars.

It seems that voters want to hear about painless solutions to national problems from candidates who have magical cures for whatever ails the nation. In the very next election, the voters chose easy money and the cheerful countenance of President Reagan. He created economic stimulus by cutting taxes without cutting spending, leading us along the path to our current massive deficits and debt. He wanted to overthrow the democratically elected Sandinista party government of Nicaragua but congress forbade that. President Reagan then secretly sold arms to Iran (which had been holding our citizens hostage) and used the off-the-books proceeds to finance Contra rebel insurrection in Nicaragua. We became accustomed to disclosures of covert actions that congress never authorized. Since then, we have fought two wars in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, all paid for with borrowed money and American blood. Many Americans suspect the Bush-Cheney administration of making up the evidence for the second Iraq war, just as President Johnson did for Vietnam.

We have recently learned (through illegal disclosures) that the FBI, NSA, and CIA are running immense espionage programs, some directed at our allies and American citizens. The principal government response is to try to prevent disclosure of information rather than to honestly examine the proper role of government. Big financial institutions are suspected of improper influence on elected officials and regulators who created the opportunity for the 2008 financial meltdown – and with good reason. Deregulation of campaign finance is allowing the very wealthy and the biggest businesses to pay for massive campaigns to influence voters, often drowning out the voices of citizens, science and reason and subverting the “one man, one vote” principle.

As in 1976, when President Carter was elected, the mistrust of government is palpable; and the people are divided between left-leaning and right-leaning ideologies. Here is a more recent quotation from President Carter, “I don’t want to tell President Obama how to make a speech. He’s a much better speech maker than I am. But I think always to tell the truth in a sometimes blatant way, even though it might be temporarily unpopular, is the best approach.” That may not be the best politics but it is the best public service.

My hope is that regardless of ideology we will elect candidates who insist on integrity. Even if we disagree with their conclusions, their statements should always be factually true and above reproach, never designed to mislead us. If that is to happen, the candidates will need the courage to make voters uncomfortable by telling us things that we do not want to hear. We will need to learn, for example, how our spending for health care and defense compares to other nations and then decide how much we are willing to spend. Whatever we spend, we will have to decide who is going to pay enough taxes to collect more than we spend, so that we can begin paying down our debt. It will be our responsibility as voters to turn down any smiling faces who tell us that they have magical ideological solutions to our problems. Perhaps we have learned by now that they don’t exist. President Carter jokingly also said, “I have often wanted to drown my troubles, but I can’t get my wife to go swimming.” Candidates who mislead us with smiles and magical ideologies will drown us all if we continue to swim with them.

All Posts, environment, justice, public education, religion

PICK UP JOHN WAYNE

One of the reasons that I like folk and country music is the songwriters’ ability to express complex feelings and ideas in just a few words. I’ve heard it said that the main difference between opera and country songs is that the song lasts 3 minutes and the opera goes on for an hour and a half. Here are a few lines that Willie Nelson gave us to ponder.

“The world’s done gone crazy, and it seems to get worse every day. So come on back Jesus, and pick up John Wayne on the way.

While he kicks their butts We’ll just stand there and watch him and pray. Lord the news looked so scary When I glanced at the paper today. So come on back Jesus, And pick up John Wayne on the way”

In biblical history people looked for a John Wayne hero. Israel sought a king to defend against enemies and later a messiah to defeat the Romans.   But the lesson of history and of life is that it is up to the people living in the world to create our own peace and safety and to protect our own children. It may be in our nature to wish for a hero who will put the bad guys in their place then ride off into the sunset; leaving us a safe and peaceful nation. In the real world, a young teacher placed her body between a rampaging killer’s assault rifle and the children in her care. She gave up her life in a heroic attempt to protect them. It remains for us, the survivors, to create a world where children and their teachers are safe from mass murderers. If we accept that responsibility, how will we fulfill it?

Taking rapid fire semi-automatic weapons, large magazines and military style ammunition out of circulation will help. It will take courage to do it because a powerful gun lobby will stand in the way.

Creating a functional mental health system which covers everyone will help. Patients need timely access to competent professionals, counseling, medications, and both outpatient and residential services. The system needs performance standards. It is not acceptable for patients in crisis to wait for days and it is not ok to put them on the street because the hospital beds were closed by the legislature. We would not tolerate a health care system that told someone with a broken leg to wait for several days in an ER until they could be transferred to a hospital with an orthopedic surgeon. Severely mentally ill patients face that every day in North Carolina and across the country. After such ordeals, some who need help the most decide not to seek it again. We also lack well organized outpatient care to prevent illness from becoming an emergency. Many state level mental health systems spend huge amounts of money but have no data to demonstrate which of their services work and which do not. We will have to start at the beginning by understanding the needs of patients; with willingness to pay for things that actually work and the discipline to cut out the waste. It will take courage and willpower to acknowledge that our mental health system has been broken by decades of incompetent tinkering by legislators and budgeteers. Handling the gun lobby will be easy compared to tackling the problems of the mental health system.

Several, but not all of our mass killers had a history of mental illness. At this writing (7 days after the fact), I have heard no confirmation that the Connecticut shooter was diagnosed or treated for any mental illness. Think about the Birmingham Sunday School bombers and those who attacked a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. There is more at work here than mental illness. There is hate. It results in acts of violence based on race, religion, sexual orientation, gang affiliation or other factors. Preventing hate crimes will be every bit as difficult as changing gun laws and improving mental health services.

The next heroes will be the ones who help us take an honest look at America and show us how we need to change. The upcoming test of courage will not challenge the staff of the Sandy Hook School. They have already passed with honors; some with great sacrifice. The next test will determine whether the rest of us measure up to the standard by showing the determination and courage to fix our weapons laws; to build a high quality and responsive mental health system in every part of the US; to eliminate the attitudes that lead to hate crimes and to determine whatever else we need to do. Will that include reducing violence in games and movies? Preventing child abuse that leads to adult violence? I don’t know the answers but I do know that creating this kind of change will require courage. There will be heroes who face criticism and possibly danger for their roles in changing our violent nation. If we pass our test, we can have peace and safety beyond what John Wayne could bring with yet another gun. Neither he nor any other hero will do this for us. To paraphrase another old song, “There ain’t nobody else can walk it for us. We’ve got to walk that lonesome valley by ourselves.” It will be a difficult journey, but we can do it if we will.

All Posts, justice, north carolina, religion

North Carolina Amendment banning gay marriage

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Let’s try having some thoughtful conversations about the proposal to amend our North Carolina Constitution to ban gay marriage. The current debate does not make much sense to me and I’m trying to understand why anyone wants state government involved. When I try to think it through, I start with the history of marriage. As best I can tell, it exists in some form in every culture and often, but not always, it is solemnized in a religious ceremony. There is monogamous marriage, polygamous marriage, straight, gay and bi… Marriage may be for love or for political alliance or for convenience. It may be arranged by the family or based on the choice of the marriage partners. It can be intended as a lifelong commitment or a temporary arrangement until the kids are grown. If we look across different cultures and different eras, it becomes clear that marriage is not just one kind of arrangement and it evolves over time.  Several years ago a friend who is a Hindu from India was planning to return there to be married to a bride selected by his parents. He had not met her. When I asked him about this custom that was so strange to me, he asked me what the divorce rate is in the US. I don’t recall the number, but it was high. Then my friend asked, “Why should I think that I can do a better job picking a wife than my parents can do?” I prefer doing things my own way, but my friend did have a valid point.

Laws that try to define or govern marriage eventually run afoul of social changes. They become irrelevant or worse, they interfere in the personal freedom of individuals. We have experienced plenty of that within our own nation and our own lifetimes. Many of us can remember when it was illegal for people of different races to marry in some states. That changed gradually then finally our courts recognized inter-racial marriage as a basic civil right which states could not prohibit. Some states recognize “common law marriage”. If a couple live together for some period of time or if they have children together or whatever other criteria are set in the law, they are deemed to have entered an enforceable marriage contract whether they intended to or not.   If they move to a state without such a law, are they still married?

We’re headed for an interesting mess with more government intrusion into the personal values and religious persuasions of individuals. There are religious institutions (including Christian Churches in North Carolina) which perform same sex marriages today. They are going to continue regardless of what is in the constitution. Any attempt to stop them will create a head on collision between the State Constitution and the free practice of religion which most of us value highly. There are established churches in our state which now refuse to fill out the State’s paperwork for marriage licenses. The church performs the marriage and leaves it up to the individuals to decide whether to get a license and officially register the marriage with the State. Some of the folks so married claim married status on their tax returns, cover each other as family under insurance benefits and sign up for social security as husband and wife. They view themselves as married in their own eyes and in the eyes of their God.

Today we have an attempt by evangelical Christians to impose their personal view of marriage on everyone else. They stand in the tradition of their Christian predecessors who successfully banned inter-racial marriage and sexual relationships outside of marriage on biblical grounds. These laws were very serious matters. People were jailed for violating them. Why do we need a constitutional ban on same sex marriage? It won’t make homosexuality go away any more than a ban on blue eyes will make them disappear. I can’t see a benefit in this amendment to justify restricting anyone’s personal freedom.

To my evangelical friends, I pose this question, “What would Jesus do?” I have read the New Testament cover to cover in more than one translation. Assuming it to accurately report what Jesus taught, I find a great deal about how people should treat each other. I cannot find one occasion when he proposed enforcing any of his teaching through civil law. Not once. Never. As best I can tell, the idea never arose in Christianity until the Roman Church became a political power and began to impose its beliefs on others. There is, perhaps, one pertinent statement from Jesus that ought to be considered. The Jews of Jesus’ time had many (sometimes conflicting) religious laws governing daily life. Many religious and political leaders did not approve of Jesus’ teaching and one day he was interrogated publicly about the laws. At one point, a lawyer asked him, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus replied to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with your all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.” He made it clear that he was teaching values about respect for others; always teaching and never imposing his teaching on anyone else. That is what Jesus did.

I can’t find any justification for the State of North Carolina imposing evangelical values on people who do not share those values. I want to live in a North Carolina which fully respects the rights of every individual to live as he or she sees fit as long as they do not harm others. Live and let live. We are far better off not imposing the values of any religion in our constitution.

 

1/28/2012