Dear America,

"there may be trouble ahead...

...let's face the music and dance...

soon... we will be without the moon, 

humming a different tune...

and then...

 there may be tear drops to shed..."

playing on Dear America, a little Vic Damone to carry you into the weekend.

You know what shocks me, at the root of this power struggle going on in Wisconsin -- and leaping state lines like a wildfire out of control -- is the stark reality that our children have been cordoned off into a tinderbox, with sheer politics directing the flames. 

What have our children truly gained over the last forty years?  Honestly, ask yourself, as a whole, are our children getting smarter, or dumber? Are our children growing up kinder, or meaner?  Have we taught them to be self-reliant individuals ready to leave a responsible, equitable,  charitable, productive mark upon this world -- or, are we just making a generation of spoiled, techie, shallow, needy, loud, future leaders of America advocating the age of entitlement and social justice for all the wrong reasons, no matter the means?   

Have we been throwing money at it, only to have it grow into a raging inferno, offering the very kindling needed to create a bureaucratic hell hole?  Averaging a whole lot of money -- around seven or eight grand per student (without so much as the possibility to use a voucher system to actually go to the school of choice) -- I would have to say somebody is getting gypped.

With a wealth of highly educated teachers, facilities most countries would die for, communities fully committed to the responsibility of raising our children well (as it takes a village, you know), and local budgets aside, a federal budget that has grown from 12 B's to over 100 B's in a matter of only forty years -- just what has this picture so muddied, nearly extinguishing all signs of what it used to be? 

You know why the teachers of Wisconsin are so dead set against losing a few of their collective bargaining rights?  It is because remuneration would be tied to their performance, through heavy handed reforms tied to new rules for  tenure, make raises based on merit (not seniority, or length of service), allow for vouchers (opening up the door to real competition in the education market), and simply give local jurisdictions more control over their own budgets, expenses, getting all the way down to the pencil and erasers.  (You know, anymore, they can't even blame the rising costs of education on paper, as it is customary now to simply have the kids make their own copy of the materials at home!)

If teachers were on the right side of this argument, they would want what is best for the nation, and our students -- and that only comes with an environment that elevates and rewards higher levels of achievement and capabilities all the way around.  

This, in a nutshell, is how the free market system works (when actually allowed to run free).  For we very quickly lose the business, the enterprise, the chain store, if in fact the business wastes money, hires unqualified people, or simply has no idea what customer service truly means.

The thing is, how can a teacher NOT be for these kinds of reforms?  

Shocking is the proficiency levels of reading:  across the nation, "PROFICIENCY" (just above the "basic" level, where only a partial understanding of the subject has taken hold, and just under "advanced") is less than 50% in every state!  Less than half of our children are coming out of the 8th grade considered "proficient!"  And in the state of Wisconsin, only 37% are proficient, making nearly two-thirds of the entire student body within the state of cheese-heads not all that prepared for high school and beyond. And to be fair and balanced, my state, glorious California, is at a level simply too sad for words --  22%.

What truly worries me, feeling in the thick of this nationwide conversation, realizing the duty of a Governor and state legislatures, such as in Wisconsin, is to collectively bargain for the rest of us -- is being totally, and thoroughly, mis-characterized; the voice of the taxpayer, shouldering the brunt of every single health benefit and pension fund for the pubic servant sector is being drowned out by vicious attacks, almost as an assault on the very privileges and duties this country was built.

All of a sudden we are being surrounded by people, congressmen even, who say things like this:

"Every once in a while you've got to 

get out in the streets 

and get a little bloody when necessary. 

This fight is worth it."

really, congressman?

To be fair, you did apologize... once you realized the comment got you into a lot of hot water...but seriously, is this where our country is headed -- when faced with challenges that upon first glance seem insurmountable, a divide to wide to give it our very best... 

is this what we want to teach our children?

that when the going gets tough, when trouble stares us right in the face, we yell and scream and call each other names, even promoting incivility, and "[getting] a little bloody" if we have to?  

that when we are stuck on the losing end of an issue within one of our state houses, we just flee, instead of facing the music and dance?  (Considering you are being paid to show up and vote and debate and be a voice of the people, not sure how leaving does anyone any good...unless it is all for show and tell.)

that when the opposition party takes the lead, we simply decide to pick up our toys and go home?  (If the GOP was carrying on like this, you would have our @ss alongside the tater tots for lunch...)

that when we are in the midst of reconciling overbearing, overzealous, over-compensated benefit packages and the bottom line, ones that can cripple and even topple entire state budgets, that when honest to goodness pull back must take place, the first response is to walk off the job you are being paid to do.

...and paid very well actually

...and with not a whole lot to show for it

...is that the image and message you feel entitled to make in front of our children?  (It must be, as many of you pulled our children out of school to help you with your cause.)

Curious as to why every state is not a "right to work" state by now -- I mean, come on, with so much emphasis on freedom of choice these days, how can it be possible for a job to obligate a certain amount of hard earned dough towards an agenda that runs counter to the very principles this country was made, and specifically one's own?  Last I checked, we have never really wanted to be anywhere close to resembling a communist/socialist/body of citizens of the state --  as in the bigger State, the Capitalist State -- which, by the way things are shaking out, our Union leaders would have us believing otherwise.  hello...we are not Venezuela.

What we should be teaching our children is that we can't have it both ways -- 

With freedom and liberty, comes freedom and liberty for all; the system in play here, will run us right smack into a wall of fire, and a state of affairs elevating the very thing most of us would not wish upon our worst enemy -- as we will forever be divided by the Haves and the Have-Nots.

....there will be no state legislature worth a grain of salt; we are a Republic for a reason --  a democracy is simply a nice way of saying mob rule -- and that is exactly what we see happening outside the legislature in Wisconsin... and Cairo, and Jordan, and Bahrain)

...there will be no middle class at all, let alone a teacher left scrambling through the means of collective bargaining for less practice and more boycott privileges, for we will have been devoured by the beast of burden.

...the privileged elites will control everything and everything we know and love about this land will have evaporated into thin air; America, by definition, in principle and in practice, will be gone.

With freedom and liberty, comes our inherent duty and responsibility; the system in play here, over the last hundred years, has whittled away at the true power of the people, we the people, in incremental, almost unnoticeable ways; instead of raising our children to understand and respect the rule of law, the law of this land, we have encouraged subverting the rule, to undermine the Constitution and our Declaration of Independence --  just what kind of independence are we making now?

...instead, we witness, bellowing out of our schools and universities, a generation plum ignorant, even combative towards, the force of nature from which we came; there is no connection made between freedom and duty; there is no connection made between the planting of the seed of common sense, self-reliance, and free enterprise and a history of prosperity, charity and grace.

...what we have building, in clouds of black smoke, is a sense of being entitled to the freedom, without effort; what we have building, in heated fits and starts, is a sense of being liberated, without reflection of how that very liberty is cultivated, nourished and ultimately blossoms into a rich and diverse society synonymous with America. 

...for true freedom only comes with great courage, convictions, a moral code of honor between people, a respect of property and privileges, a loving charitable heart, and a commitment to the process of the rule of law to keep us safe, protected, and led with integrity from coast to coast.  While, in truth, our freedoms are not bestowed upon us by our government at all; the only entity we have to thank for our freedoms and liberties is our Creator (look it up, I dare you)

Freedom is far from being free; it costs us in devotion, beginning with our early education and mastering our understanding throughout our entire adult life;  recognizing how civilizations come and go empowers us not to make the same mistakes and fosters a fundamental belief that we are special...here..in America ; while our founders realized all too well, we could very well lose it all, if one day we turned around having taken it all for granted, like foolish kids.

But above all, as we watch the world explode all around us, freedom is something much like our children -- it is SOMETHING, a real thing -- a marvelous, living, breathing, beautiful thing, to be cherished; if we do not raise our children to respect their very own freedom, and realize, just what this asks of them in return (as well as know the difference between  a freedom, a privilege, and a right), who will?

I seriously question the value of our current educational system -- I question it's latitudes -- I question it's entitlements -- I question it's motives -- I question it's priorities -- I question every single dime that falls that way.

When we truly know what is at stake, the answers will come to us with ease...

Until then...there may be trouble ahead, there may be tear drops to shed...let's face the music and dance.

Make it a Good Day, G

Dear America,

"Do not accept anything by mere tradition ...

Do not accept anything just because it accords with your scriptures ...

Do not accept anything merely because

 it agrees with your preconceived notions ...

But when you know for yourselves—

these things are moral,

these things are blameless,

these things are praised by the wise,

these things,

when performed and undertaken,

conduce to well-being and happiness—

then do you live acting accordingly" 

Buddha

I'm just thinking aloud this morning, wondering if the teachings of Buddha would find a more widely acceptable path of higher education within our widely held liberal education system of today?

Would the left brain thinkers allow for that?

Wondering if the airy fairy nature of it, the free spirited transcendence to higher thought, and the universal teachings of karma and suffering and connection to all of life as one everlasting soul which never really dies be found more palatable, by the liberals hellbent on indoctrinating our children their way or the highway?

As I go there, my mind also wanders off another direction, amused by the polarizing efforts of the main stream media, and the like, in an attempt to marginalize the tea party movement with the typical extremism fodder.  Amused completely, as apparently they entirely miss the purity of it's essence -- true Americana at play -- nothing more and everything less, in it's simplest of forms.

For the Tea Party movement is, at it's purest state, the re-birthing of freedom and liberty -- America Reincarnate, if you will.

Last I checked within the scope of my chakras, this isn't extremism whatsoever -- as a matter of fact, it transcends all party lines.  The make up of this brave, effervescent, honorable crowd -- the colors of red white and blue unite into violet -- encompassing all political ideology known to man; while at it's very core, is the opalescence of commonalities in which we all share, as Americans.

Please, someone, point me in the direction where I may find an Independent who shudders at the thought of real independence... living in a land where true liberty reigns in every aspect of their world, where less government regulation and more freedom to work and play and follow whatever religious practice of their choosing (or not) dictates without a tyrannical force telling you do this and not that, let me take this and you get that. 

Show me that American Independent.

Please, someone, point me in the direction where I may find a Democrat who shudders at the thought of living in a real American democracy...where everyone is equal under the law, where we unilaterally unite with one another under this law, and worship the ground we walk on as it is the only place like it in the world!

Show me that American Democrat.


I beg of you, all of you, tell me it is not just white bread, middle-class American, republicans who rally around this level of liberty and free thought.

Taking another twist this morning, I am awe struck with the actions of one person in Hollywood -- who happens to also be one of my favorites to watch, too, come to think of it.  Goldie Hawn.

The Hawn Foundation is responsible for creating a mind over matter program to elevate children across America through bringing attention to a higher school of thought -- the use of meditation in our schools!  She, herself, a self-described Jewish-Buddhist, leads the charity.  Her foundation developed a program called MindUp.

Hawn was in Washington last year promoting her cause and meeting with lawmakers, but more currently has met with Michael Gove, "Britains's shadow secretary of state for children, schools, and families', according to a brief article found in Newsmax magazine, May edition.  The article makes note that "Gove's education reform allows for charities, churches and parents' groups the freedom to set up schools in the state sector" and quotes him saying, "we need more schools outside local-authority control to challenge the bureaucratic monopoly."

Can you just imagine it?  Much of Hawn's program is simply based on teaching children, K-7, the qualities of meditation in order to alleviate stress, learn how to center oneself using breathing techniques, and tapping into this higher realm of being -- essentially increasing a child's ability to concentrate better, focus on learning, and even make them calmer, at peace with the world, with an added benefit of becoming less aggressive overall.

Looking beyond the entire scope of the MindUp program, however, one would have to be further enlightened by the occurrence of any of these children continuing the practice after they graduate.  For with a deeper look into the teachings of Buddha, we could probably stop at the first five precepts to find a path of creating a better life:

1.To refrain from taking life

(non-violence towards sentient life forms), or ahimsā

2.To refrain from taking that which is not given

(not committing theft)

3.To refrain from sensual misconduct

 (including sexual)

4.To refrain from lying

 (speaking truth always)

5.To refrain from intoxicants which lead to loss of mindfulness

(specifically, drugs and alcohol)

"The precepts are not formulated as imperatives, but as training rules that laypeople undertake voluntarily to facilitate practice.[87] In Buddhist thought, the cultivation of dana and ethical conduct will themselves refine consciousness to such a level that rebirth in one of the lower heavens is likely, even if there is no further Buddhist practice. There is nothing improper or un-Buddhist about limiting one's aims to this level of attainment.[88]"   One caveat, this quote, and the five precepts, were discovered from the teachings of wikipedia school of thought.

I'm just wondering if the left wing liberal educators who have done such a bang up job orchestrating a hostile takeover of our schools would have any sincere gripe about this?  Isn't this stuff right up their alley -- the path marching to the belief system that we are one with the world, of redistribution of the earth's resources in every which way and backwards,  the kumbaya lovers, the save the whales -- save the children -- save the planet (taking advantage of plugging Earth Day as we speak) philosophy?
 
I would love to see our education system embrace every possible avenue for raising self actualized, self-reliant, spiritually gifted,Americans -- ultimately raising free enterprising industrialist in every which way, including green, children into responsible adults.  Oh my God, can you just imagine it?! 
 
Pure love... surrounded in the silence of pure love first thing in the morning until we close our eyes at night -- embodying every aspect of the Divine into our daily life, into our work, school and play.  Now, that would be a kind of bi-partisan re-birthing of America that I could sink my thoughts into.
 
We can be so much more than this -- this foreboding and underlying sense that all the world is failing us, the sky is falling, the end is near and to whom can we point fingers to blame line of thinking.  We are so busy pointing outward -- we have dismissed the only thing that will ever save us -- the inward search for meaning, the hidden path to understanding, the center of our own bad self as the cause and creator of our own world -- which collectively appears rather dismal at this point in time.
 
The secret to finding the peace that passes all understanding, through whatever path of your choosing, has been right here and inside of us the whole time.  The keys to a higher level of learning -- and living -- are equally shared amongst us under natural law (as carefully and lovingly prescribed by our founders) and hold all the answers to this nation's suffrage and despair. 
 
Natural Law knows no one in particular and everyone in unison equally and in proportion to each one's belief and ability to connect to the law.
 

"The first principle fundamental to the understanding of the operation of thought is, that we are surrounded by an Infinite Intelligence.  The possibility of healing physical disease, changing environment, attracting friends and demonstrating supply through the power of right thinking, rests entirely on the theory that we are surrounded an Infinite Mind, which reacts to our thought according to Law."
 
"At the level of our self-comprehension, we know and understand the nature of God.  This self-knowing, which is God-knowing, has the possibility of an eternal expansion."

Ernest Holmes, Science of Mind

I would love to know how Goldie can get away with advocating and preaching about a spiritual world which awaits us at the morning bell each day, while any other tradition masked in Christian mad science is continually down graded and dismissed, dissed to the highest extent, and made a mockery of it's teachings.  For in reality, all religions gather at the same communal wellspring of character and values, a moral compass to uphold.
 
Whether the golden child or the golden rules, can't we all be rest assured by that which defines right action, tapping into all that is Golden in and of itself -- isn't that really what it's all about?
 
The tea party movement speaks on behalf of all children everywhere -- red or yellow, black or white -- we are the same in His sight; we are all the same when we allow ourselves to tap into the universal teachings, a higher power, a spirit divinely available to us all, and connect to that one substance in which all children are made.  We are one with that. 
 
The tea party movement is like an angry crowd of parents, facing a Principle without principals, and making their protest heard before God and everyone, especially, the Superintendent, that being America herself.  The movement only wishes to create more peace of mind, as none other than the parents and caretakers of all the children who will be left behind, with the burden heavy on their heart and shoulders to repay for all kinds of transgressions under the sun.
 
G speaking into the tea leaves now, we, the perpetual students and current protesters that we are, have been there and done that;  we have seen the light and are, in a word, not-happy.
 
We are all together a school of patriots -- encompassing not just one party, but the party of ONE.
 
 
The American party --
one that we entrust to like-minded individuals respectful of our duty to one and all -- all are welcome -- no one is dissed into a corner or ridiculed of dress or code, all are invited to the table -- while everyone brings something of value to share -- we know exactly where we are and where we wish to go -- the world is our oyster and awaits our right action, our right thought, our sweet surrender to that which was made manifest by our forefathers  -- firmly grounded in principals, we will not falter this time, nor will we be lulled or teased into intoxication, forgetting of our  new found mindfulness reincarnate -- we will remain cool, calm and stewards of our Constitution and rest peacefully in it's protection -- the only thing we may harm, may be a fly, but that of course, would be purely transcendental accidental... 
 
and there is nothing more I can say about that, except that y'all just better hope we keep our clothes on.
 
Namaste'
 
Make it a Good Day, G

Daily Affirmation from Science of Mind, for today April 22, 2010

Dear America,

Okay. Happy Tuesday.

"I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today..." Whimpy

Strange frame of reference, I know, but that is the first thing that came to mind. And you know what they say, better to laugh than cry. Today, I just want to slap people and I'm not sure any amount of venting through blogging will settle me down.

If Health Care issues were not enough in this lazy, final month of summer to concern ourselves. If the fallout of stimulus spending and bailout money evaporating right before our eyes doesn't make us sick. If just thinking about how did we get here over and over again doesn't keep us from a true good night's sleep...I mean, we did it to ourselves. THIS didn't just happen overnight; and it's hardly an issue we can entirely blame (unfortunately) on our, current messiah, Obama. That foot, now calloused and tired, got stuck in the door decades ago.

We did it to ourselves.

But now, if all that wasn't enough, climbing out of the woodwork is that 20-something crowd begging for a hand out too! Are you kidding me?

80 Million Strong for Young American Jobs Look it up.

Please tell me this is a joke. Our young, liberal fed, nimby brained, right to choose, twenty somethings -- who on the weekend protest against the cause of the hour or trip on Ecstasy --are coming into the job market with what, no job opportunities available (like the rest of us) and say what? Want a break. They sure came away having learned their socialist skills while safely sequestered for four years, yes, in deed.

Day after graduation they are putting their skills immediately to work. They want loan-forgiveness if they serve in distressed communities (can you say community organizer), they want health insurance covered under their parents policy, they want free college tuition to low-income students (wait, I thought it was all about those who already graduated who were whining), and they want loans to start their own businesses...the budding entrepreneurs that they are.

On the opening page of their website it actually says "they are being forced [as if through water boarding] to compete with more experienced workers..." Oh my goodness, not that, not forced to show a little gumption and step up to the real, dog-eat-dog world and perhaps, maybe pay your dues like the rest of us.

Don't get me wrong. It would be nice-- if the family could afford it -- to offer such entitlements to this angry mob of wide-eyed, fresh American spirits. It would be nice to extend to these citizens an opportunity to start a business demonstrating the beauty and benefits of a true free market system, honoring the American work ethic that success grows from blood, sweat and tears. It would be real nice.

BUT WE DON"T HAVE ANY MONEY. WE ARE ALREADY UNDER WATER IN HUGE DEBT. And from my vantage point, the reality is, we are all in the same boat together. One big happy family, yes we are.

We really have to get over ourselves, people, and this idea that we can keep up appearances either for the Jones's or for the children has seen it's better day; we have to start bailing the boat.

Reminds me of that corporate game played during weekend retreats, and the group has to decide who stays in the boat and who is dispensable, struggling with moral challenges and questioning human values. It's just a game, you know.

But what concerns me is that this administration is beginning to show signs of asking for a real life debate with regards to who is worthy. Who's worth the government investment? Who's life is less than valuable to society if rationing costly universal health care comes about? Who's life is entitled to a priority and special treatment over jobs or market share just because, like the 80 million said, it is just too hard to be forced to compete -- who?

So, it's Tuesday, and the twenty somethings want a free lunch. I say, pack your own...parachute.

Make it a good day, G


"Many people die at twenty-five and aren't buried until they are seventy-five."
Benjamin Franklin