Category Archives: equality

Teacher’s experience in Gulen Charter school

by

Diane Ravitch has an account of a teacher’s experience in a Gulen charter school.  Unreal.

No books.  And teachers with 100 students limited to 25 copies per day.  Money missing from their paychecks unaccounted for.  Seriously?

All of this is flying under the radar because the mainstream media is not only not covering the Newark 5, they’re not covering the criminal and unethical activities of people running charter schools.

…but they’ll be more than happy to run story after story of bad teachers in public schools…

 

 

Mi’kmaq Warriors begin tour

by

Mi’kmaq Warriors will begin a speaking tour on the environmental protests against fracking, but also pipelines and tar sands.

“We are all being systematically displaced within our own traditional territories,” Patles explained. “Once they destroy our territories and these resource companies are gone, we will be the ones left with destroyed land and poisoned water.”

~~~~~

Again, we have the disaster capitalism…take the resources without even paying for them, and then leave poisoned land and water.  And no, I don’t think the Mi’kmaq would take money even if it were offered to them. Their spirituality cannot be bought…and the Earth is seen as connected to the Creator…

You can’t buy clean air, clean water, nor clean land after it’s been poisoned.  This point seems to always be lost on politicians and energy companies who couldn’t care less what happens to people after the fact…

…and the rape culture continues in India **edited

by

In the latest gang rape of a woman from India.  I can’t even wrap my brain around elders ordering this brutality.  What kind of sick mind thinks this is okay??

Blessings to her and hopefully gaining strength from this…

**edited to add:  to elaborate more on my previous post on domestic violence–I  don’t mean to give men a pass for violence when I look for the cause behind it, such as heavy metal toxicity or steroids.  I do try to look for reasons other than surface reasons.

I think ultimately, the man makes that decision to hit her because:

1.  He can.

2.  Society has not strongly condemned such action, so he doesn’t feel the pressure NOT to hit or rape her.

3. Women and children are still looked upon as possessions.

4. Economic inequality plays a role in women being seen as second class.

5.  If she stays home instead of working outside the home, she is extremely vulnerable and society has not valued her being at home nor made provisions to help her if she needs to leave an abusive situation.  The opposite will happen, where she is pressured to stay in the relationship by society.

 

DN!

by

I don’t think democracynow could have put together a more emotional show than they did today.

The domestic violence segment is heartbreaking.  I don’t know how anyone can look at that woman’s injuries and ask her why she didn’t try to run away!  Who does that?!  (I’m really trying to restrain myself from using every choice expletive I know).  Given that she will either not have a job, or has one that pay is so low she cannot survive on her own, it will take nearly being beaten to death (or verbally abused to the point of the soul’s death), before she will even *think* of leaving.

I’m sure the documentary will explore the subject, but having not seen it, I can’t foresee that they will explore everything–the impact of toxins on rage; the circle of domestic violence, war, and domestic violence.  The interview mentions that the abuser was a body builder—red flag right there because of steroid use and other drugs that are known to produce aggressive feelings. 

Secondly, mercury and other heavy metals can produce feelings of rage and apparently promote criminal behavior.  Since one can’t really escape mercury, because it’s everywhere, I think it should be standard to do hairtests on those charged with crimes.  One can only wonder at what we would find–and how detoxing someone acting in a criminal way could change their life to a positive one….

My biggest hope for the film is to gather all the evidence of the rape/violence against women culture we live in.

I’ve touched on the domestic violence connection to war here.

My blog on the justification of rape…because *she’s just a whore*  here.

My blog on the military and sexual harassment/rape here. I wish that I could say my prediction of expressions of “outrage” and then business as usual was wrong…but, alas….women will still have to go through their chain of command, who may or may not be harassing them, too, or encouraging an atmosphere of bullying (which is what sexual harassment/rape/violence are).  How can we say that the youth are wrong for chanting misogynist lyrics when adults are condoning the treatment of women as second class?

I briefly volunteered for an organization that used lawyers and paralegals volunteering to help victims of domestic violence get protective orders.  It was hard to take–the first case I had, I was to interview the victim.  She unfortunately was not native to this country and her English was hard to understand at times, so there was a small communication barrier.  She was afraid of her victimizer, because he threatened to have her sent back to her native country, among other things.  The lawyer, trying to work within the laws on the books (that suck), told her to take the minimum that the judge would offer her.  I tried to convince her, based on the attorney’s advice. She refused.  The judge ruled against her petition, leaving her vulnerable.  I never felt so worthless for letting her down. She was understandably upset and immediately felt we had let her down.  It was hard.

~~~~~~~~~~

The second part of the show, about Alzheimers’ and Dementia was particularly hard.  It’s coming up on a year anniversary of my mother’s death…and it’s already starting to affect me.

It was especially hard to see the faces of the patients–I saw my Mom in them.  Music is definitely a way to reach them, as it was one of the last things my mother lost, but in the end, she was so detached that I don’t know whether having her own headset would have helped.  The nursing home did play Beatles and other 60s music, but that was in the dining hall, not in the patients’ rooms.  Mostly, they watched mind-numbing TV that doesn’t stimulate them by any measure.

And, as above, a hairtest on heavy metals should also be standard for these patients….my God, think of the lives saved if these folks were toxic and able to be saved through detox….

Autistic Child found in New York

by

NBC News has this posted.  The remains of the autistic child that disappeared from school have been found.

I was re-reading my blog on school colocation that had mentioned an autistic child had gone missing because the school was so overcrowded, he slipped out without being noticed.  I wonder if this is the school…and if so, why aren’t the networks mentioning this?  (I had seen the news on CNN before NBC website)

Wanna bet they won’t mention that school overcrowding via colocation with charters is responsible for this death?

Yeah, just like they’re *all over* the Newark school principal firings…er I mean indefinite layoffs (yeah, they were fired…)…haven’t heard a peep about it, but judging by the visitors to my blog on it, this is a hot issue.

Dr. Martin Luther King

by

Several folks have posts up this morning on Dr. King–

I’ll start with Mercedes Schneider — it is disgusting how George W. Bush used MLK to somehow try to link No Child Left a Mind with civil rights.  As we are seeing, most of the public schools being closed are in neighborhoods of the poor and minorities.  An excellent point made by Joanne Barkin about how they have appointed themselves as leaders of the reform movement without the rest of us included.  Our opinions don’t matter…unless, of course, we agree with them.

A quibble I have with “I Have A Dream…” is the sons of former slave owners and advocating brotherhood...what is glaringly missing are women being part of the whole.

As has been pointed out by others–Dr. King was defending workers who wished to unionize…he would have no part of the destruction of teacher’s unions.

Next, Diane Ravitch has a blog up on MLK.  When breaking the law is just…if one follows one’s conscience.

Finally, Democracy Now! has a video up on MLK.  When I first clicked on, I heard “I Have a Dream…” and sighed that it was going to be yet another rehash of the I have a Dream speech without reference to his other great speech, Beyond Vietnam. 

http://www.democracynow.org/shows/2014/1/20

I was so glad that they aired this speech.  It was so wonderful hearing Dr. King’s voice again…hard not to get emotional at the love that was flowing from him.  He and John F. Kennedy were advocates of Peace working against dark forces.  Both were killed for it.  But as Dr. King said prophetically, he had been to the mountain top and was not afraid of the consequences of doing what he knew God wanted him to do.

I want to say something about this speech by Amiri Baraka, also on DN!

He speaks about women being raped and wanting to have reparations for it…does he not think that white women have been raped, too?  Where is the white woman’s reparation?

What about the Irish slaves whom also worked for no wages?  Where are their reparations?  What about the Irish women whom were forced to birth babies for lighter-skinned African Americans?

The music we stole?  Didn’t all music come from the great classical composers?  Isn’t music supposed to be a shared experience?  Did we not enjoy each other’s music and share that special connection?  It is deflating to hear such anger for something we both enjoyed.

And then he says “give us our lives or be prepared to forfeit your own…”

Dr. King was against violence of any kind.  I can’t see him agreeing with advocating violence.

And I don’t understand “giving” someone their life….you can’t “give” someone their life.  You can’t give someone self-esteem nor a purpose in life–it has always come from within…from that connection to God (or your Higher Power).

Dr. King knew this…it emanated from him.  He was solidly connected and acted accordingly.   He mentions the overzealous need for material things…and questioned why someone had more than enough while others had to beg for the things they need.

Advocating violence against whites is just as bad as a KKK leader advocating violence against blacks.

I see white faces amongst the black faces in the civil rights protests.  I read a story of a white guy being hosed down and beaten along with the blacks during the civil rights riots.  He nearly had an eye gouged out.

Other whites wrote that they had fought alongside blacks and  then were told they were not welcome anymore.

White folk were right there alongside black folk, and now it seems that part of history is being rewritten.

I know I’ll probably catch hell for writing this, but it is written with an open heart, and not meant to offend, but to question biases and prejudices….and somehow get back to that love that emanated from Dr. King.   Violence, anger, and hatred don’t serve anyone.  Anger is only useful if that energy is used in a positive way.

As a side note~ Dr. King spoke about them keeping Vietnam going when they knew it was wrong.  I happened upon this the other day–and how Kissinger was behind the scenes prolonging the war…because he loved the power and he, Nixon, et al, wanted to “save face”.  They prolonged death of our soldiers, death of Vietnamese so they could keep their reputation intact.  Remember, he had stated that power is an aphrodisiac…it’s as if he thought of himself as some sort of “James Bond”….how disgusting.

The Law and Louisiana Teachers

by

This is why I love the law….if it is working properly (i.e., judges apply it fairly), then the “little guy” wins out even when being bullied by those bigger with $$ bank accounts.  Woot.

Young: Tar Sands are Canada’s Hiroshima **edited

by

Neil Young is finishing up his “Honor the Treaties” concerts in Canada.  He compared what is happening to Hiroshima, which irked a few people.

He is being compared to Jenny McCarthy, whom has spoken out on vaccines causing autism.

McCarthy, a former model/actress, vehemently claims childhood vaccinations cause autism and other disabilities, despite those claims having been disproven by rigorous scientific research.

~~~~~~~~~

…disproven by rigorous scientific research….

bwahahahahahahahaha *snort*

Well, as I posted recently, scientific research has a few flaws in it that the vaccine apologists, as Dr. Cutler refers to them, choose to ignore.

I hope that Neil Young considers being compared to Jenny McCarthy a compliment, because I do….much as I do when I’m called a bitch for speaking up for myself or others…

People who diminish others have little facts to back their claims up…that’s why they attack the person instead of the person’s arguments.  Ad hominem.

**edited to add:  I just wanted to say that Global News pushes vaccines.  They had article after article on scaring people into getting vaccination, and that the flu season was horrible, and that they were running out of vaccines.  Very lopsided reporting.

Education: Throwing kids into the deep end

by

Seamus McCarville has a thoughtful post up on the nonsensical approach of Common Core and its proponents.

I went to the NYSUT website and briefly looked over the cheerleading of Common Core.  It states that up until now, there has been a wide variation of standards from place to place…like that indicates failure…

…and as I’m reading that, I’m thinking of all the contributions to America that have happened by people who came from different areas of the country with different educational systems–Neil Armstrong pops into my head as I type–he was not educated under Common Core…

What about the artists? What about the musicians?  What about culinary endeavors or farming?  This is just sooo short-sighted and myopic in that it has such a narrow focus of what these self-appointed education gurus have deemed important.

They seem to want robots teaching class…instructing them which side of the classroom to be on? Seriously??  Micro-manage much?

~~~~~~~

More on Education:

Mercedes Schneider has this up on Arne Duncan blaming everyone else but himself.