Why Education Should Come First

Whenever a governmental body, either national or state, seeks to save money, one of its first victims is education. And by this I mean education in school, education in the home, and education in a religious or spiritual atmosphere. What we should all be seeking for our nation and the world is educated adults, people who have universal values and who can think critically.

Here in the United States, an important and much sought-after group of citizens that has become vital to people seeking election consists of people who have little or no education and are therefore easily led by political tricks or propaganda, and who often vote on the basis of how someone looks, if he or she tripped walking down the stairs, or cute but misleading slogans. These are the very people who are most in need of the people who can and should be helping them, and education should be the very first tool they are given.

Right now, there are a number of people – Republicans, as far as I know – who
are planning to register Democratic so they can vote for either Clinton or Obama and thereby seek to control the voting outcome in the upcoming primaries and thus throw more support to Sen. McCain.

Not only is such behavior a crime against this country, its citizens, and Democracy as a universal virtue and hope for many people, it is also a denunciation of everything that many of these groups should have learned through religious training.

And here is another example of the need for education obliquely unrelated to the election:
Every year in honor of Mother’s Day, CNN (and I assume other stations as well) chooses to feature a family fully laden with children. This year, they chose a family with 17 children of their own and another on the way. This isn’t cute, it’s an appalling example of the kind of people who actually race each other to produce more babies than anyone else. I had friends who did that when I was young. CNN should be ashamed of itself because it should be educated enough to know better. I don’t even want to guess at the number of families like the one they chose who are either uneducated enough or selfish enough to contribute so much to the worst problems of worldwide overpopulation.

Famous Quotes

McCain has faulted Obama for suggesting that he will meet with Ahmajinedad if he is elected. This because Ahmajinedad has called Israel a “Stinking Corpse.”

So - - - - ???

Bush has referred to Iran, North Korea, and Iraq as the “Axis of Evil” to justify his invasion of the Middle East.

A Family Conservation

Late yesterday afternoon, my doorbell rang and I opened the door to find a rather large, long box on my front porch. The card on the top of the box was addressed to Super “Commie/Pinko/Socialist” aunt, so I knew that it could not have come from anyone except my niece Toni and her husband Bill.

Because it was getting rather late in Tucson, where they live, I called right away. Toni answered the phone. I didn’t mince words and got right to business and asked to talk to the head of household. In a plaintive voice, Toni said, ‘Well, exCUSE ME! and handed the phone to Bill. Bill answered with his usual loud voice, HaLLOW. I verified that he was indeed the head of household by asking if I was talking to the Bush Boob and from there we launched into our usual confrontation – political jibes at each other, sprinkled with thank you for the gorgeous flowers, love you’s, how are you doing’s, OKs, how about you’s, somewhat better’s, and more love you’s.

I thought I had inflicted the final coup by saying, in regard to the flowers that “Oh, I just love the waste,” But it was Toni, yelling from the background, who said “And you wouldn’t have gotten them in the first place if WE hadn’t been capitalists. And with that, we all retired to our respective beds laughing our heads off.

(Thanks, Bill and Toni, for my opportunity to write something funny for a change.)

While You Were Busy Watching the Primary Returns

from North Carolina and Indiana last night, if your TV was turned up loud enough,
You could have heard the Cah-ching, cah-ching sound in the background...

It's About Illegal Immigration Again

It’s About Illegal Immigration – What Else?

In the past day or so, I heard Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo of Colorado being interviewed on CNN about the subject of (mainly Mexican) immigration reform.

He, and others, argue that Americans would be willing to take the jobs that illegal immigrants are taking if they could be paid higher salaries. And that, of course, leads to further consideration of the personal greed of those who employ them at slave wages just because they can.

It is my suggestion that the empasis on keeping illegals out should be preceded by laws requiring employers to pay a living wage to their employees regardless of who they are and where they came from. Then, the employers should be allowed to choose whom they please. If they choose Americans and Americans apply for the jobs, so be it. If immigrants do not make the grade, they will be forced to go elsewhere, including their nations of origin.

There is a much larger problem here, however, and that is that human population has already gone well beyond the carrying capacity of this earth. We have to start thinking of the Earth, not just this country, as one nation. How American it is, unfortunately, for Tancredo, like so many others, to show no compassion for the masses of people wandering over this world looking for a means to keep themselves and their families alive.

I might, no must, add that the religious hysteria currently sweeping over this and other countries, with its emphasis on keeping everyone, even those not yet born, and those who want above all to die, and lack of education are most responsible for what lies ahead.

I am including, once again, the first article I ever wrote, on over-population. If you have read it before, I hope you will read it again. If you have not read it, please do. And in both cases, please read it to the very end, where you will find my final solution, which is taking place as I write.

* * *

Overpopulation Solutions as I See Them

It is both encouraging and alarming that there are so many letters and articles these days about overpopulation—encouraging because of growing awareness of the problem, and alarming to realize that it may already be too late, that human beings are breeding themselves to extinction and taking the rest of the world’s creatures with us.

War, hunger, illiteracy, disease, violence, mental illness, and hatred between groups and nations are not discrete problems. Overpopulation is the BIG problem. It is worldwide, and it is a web in which we are all enmeshed.

Let’s start with some irrefutable facts:

1. The earth is of unchanging size.
2. The earth’s resources are finite, and rapidly being depleted, especially by the developed and developing nations, the United States leading the pack.
3. Human beings, like all creatures, do not live forever. We die at different ages from different causes—some old, some young, some ill, some healthy—but we will all die.

Envision two cows in a corral with barely enough food to keep one alive. Obviously, one will die. Almost certainly both will eat some of the food, so both will die.

Some humans live in big corrals with plenty of food for the body, the mind, and the soul. But millions are living in tiny corrals with little or nothing to sustain them. And as the numbers of each increase, they draw ever closer to each other. Folks, it just ain’t gonna work.

There is only one possible solution. Humans will have to start dying faster than they are being born. Following are my suggestions for partial solutions, written for this nation, but imperative in some form for all:

1. In the future the number ofchildren per family should be limited to one for all those on public support and two for all others, irrespective of religious belief or personal wealth, and it should be strictly enforced. Birth contnrol should range all the way from abstinence to abortion and sterilization. The method should be the prerogative of the woman, and it should be fully funded by the government for those who cannot afford it.

2. The Hippocratic Oath (first do no harm) should be rethought, both for the benefit of the people involved and for their caregivers. The evolution of scientific knowledge with regard to prolonging life can frequently result in more harm than good.

3. Babies born with no chance for any quality of life should be allowed to die mercifully at birth, at the request of their parents, and with their consent.

4. All adults should be made aware of and sign a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care (or similar legal document) stating how they should be cared for in case of catastrophic injury or illness. In the case of children, or adults who have left no instructions and are beyond the ability to do so, their families or their surrogates should be allowed to make the decision for them, rather than having them drag on forever unable to make the decision for themselves.

5. Suicide should be relieved of its stigma, and the humane means of accomplishing it made available to those who want to choose that course for any reason, physical, mental, or emotional.

And then, of course, there is the final solution, of unending war, pestilence, starvation, and violence of every sort, marching over the face of the earth as I write—the option-of-choice of the compassionate religious right.

6/16/07
ARW