Cause and Effect Denied.

The validity of the theory of "Cause and Effect" has certainly been adequately proven scientifically. Also, in our everyday lives we are confronted with its truth time and time again, very personally. Eat too much or the wrong things, we get fat. Drink too much, we get drunk and have hangovers. Work hard and well, we get feelings of fulfillment. Lift weight the wrong way and we get an injury. The list can go on and on.

So, I am stricken dumbfounded lately by the anti-politician E-mails that I have been getting. Let me be more explicit, by the anti-politician E-mails I have been getting lately from those whom I know were devout pro- these same politicians. If they didn't vote them or those like them into office the last two elections, "I'll eat my hat!" The E'ers were too anti-Obama and definitely too anti any of the ideas and programs that he espouses and supports not to have voted for those opposing him.

I think that it is safe to assume that they voted for those very same politicians whom they now vilify and fear. Maybe I should have said "fear and by whom they feel betrayed." These E-mail forwarders are or were labor union workers for the most part. Most of them are now retired. Many of them were public employees. They have a right to feel threatened by those whom they elected.

The E'ers are upset because those for whom they voted are now trying to "screw" them. Those rabidly anti-Obama, anti-Black, anti-N(^$_&! voters helped elect these people into office. Now, those same elected officials want to take away their right to collective bargaining, bust their unions, continue to stop paying into public employee pensions and call seniors, whom many of these voters are, the "greediest bunch of people..."

I can't imagine what other effect those voters could have expected to happen from the cause know as "their vote," the election of the non-Obamas, the non-N(Y#*@)s. Effects are produced by causes.  Elect a certain type of politician who adheres to a certain philosophy, and the effect will be what we are seeing now in our governments and what these E'ers who voted for them are complaining about.

Enough voters used party loyalty, biased reasoning and in some cases real ignorance to vote those politicians or their ilk into office. These voters turned the election into a game between two teams, "us" and "them...All that's important is our winning." The results are now what they are.

We do whatever to ourselves. We cause our own effects, our own futures our own worries and failures in many, many ways. I certainly have and continue to do so.  Damn it!

I wonder where those disappointed voters stand on that other very sound scientific theory, "Evolution"?

Hamlet Was Right...

Maybe it is time "to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them..." Oh, I'm talking about suicide here. I'm talking about killing the dragon in the United States of America that begins with each and every one of us, the fire-breathing dragon know as "PREJUDICE." Call it "elitism." Call it "racial profiling." Call it "uncovering truth about birth." Call it "patriotic zeal." Call it whatever you want, but what's going on in America today is PREJUDICE, BIGOTRY, HATRED, MEANNESS, VILENESS. It is all "PREJUDICE." 

I don't believe that we ever overcome the biases that were infused in us from our earliest exposures to them in our lives. I believe that we are all brought up with some in some way. That's the point from which I am proceeding.

On the other hand WE CAN AND DO OFTENTIMES OVERCOME OUR REACTIONS TO OUR OWN EMOTIONS. We can and do move into the revelation that what we were taught by family, neighborhood, community, geographical location on the planet may be worth ignoring. That the emotional reaction to skin color or sexuality or social status is just an emotional reaction.  That is the secret to ridding America of the PREJUDICE that is killing us. Rid ourselves of our reaction to that which we were taught that was WRONG.

That insanity to which I am referring is the mentality that says, "Make Obama A One Term President." To that end, those who have no real rational basis for their thinking are actively engaged in the process of opposing him on every issue. It makes no difference if he is right or wrong. It makes no difference if he compromises. It doesn't even make any difference if he completely acquiesces. He is always wrong to them, and they always oppose him on every issue.

Let me give you an example. Someone quite close to me is and has been on the balls of his ass for years. He  got himself on Social Security Disability years before he ever could have even thought of retiring. His rent is contributed to by HUD. I'm sure that he gets food stamps and whatever else the government is willing to hand out.

He hates Obama and is in total favor of all of the cuts that are being proposed by the anti-Obamaists. He sees no need for adequate medical care for everyone regardless of whether they have money or not, even though without that aid he'd be desperately ill. The jobs that the illegal aliens take he would never even consider consider doing. Yet, he is totally against them because they take jobs away from Americans, cost the government money for services that they have no right to, just as he does. He disregards that for years the Social Security that they paid and never collected back helped support Social Security so that the government could unwarrantedly borrow from it for programs it was never designed to support.

This person is gay, and he still is against Obama and for the Religious Right. He never even thought of serving in the military, and he is in favor of Iraq and a hard line in Libya, and supporting the Egyptians and all of the others fighting for their freedom with guns and ammunition and help of all kinds that our taxes would pay for. He sounds like that Fascist Pig who stole the White House, Bush. At the same time he talks about the need to cut spending and cries that he needs more of what the government gives him - free aid.

Another example is... NO!

I can give you more and more examples, but why bother. They would all go toward my same point. Those who are talking about making Obama a "one term President" have no real intellectually, morally or ethically sound interest in this country. They want the N%*_$+ OUT. I've heard the word used that way.

Oh, they say they don't care about the color of his skin. If that were true, they would be supporting him on issues where he is right and when he tries to ameliorate, not incite, conflict. They would not be spouting, "Make Obama A One Term President." They would be cheering on the person they thought was better than he. They have no one; therefore, they just sloganize, vilify and denounce.

So, it is time to take the knife to self and cut out the way we behave in reference to our internalized bigotry. Accept that we have our prejudices. Recognize what they are. Decide to look at our reactions in the cold light of honesty. Resolve to change and then stop ourselves from behaving in the demeaning, illogical, irrational manner on which unexamined bias flourishes and grows like a cancer.

Those of us who feel differently than these bigots need to stand up and speak out. Call a bigot a bigot. Ask the difficult questions, "Where are we going to get the money to pay for YOU when the cuts that Obama's opposition propose will amount to a little more than 3% of the deficit and big business and the rich don't want to pay their fair share? Will you go out and mow the lawn for the money that the illegal aliens get for that blistering work? Will you go back to work and help pay into Social Security so that it doesn't go under? Will you go patrol the border to stop illegal aliens as a means of earning your free check each month? On what basis can anyone support tax exemptions for the rich and big business when it is the middle class that has been supporting society for generations.  Why should I support your union when you voted into office the guys who are trying to do away with it? And on...And on...And on..

Change Is The Only Real Atonement.

Atonement, at least the the way I see it from my own personal experience, has a couple of definite, identifiable qualities. First, there is an obviously sincere regret for  actions, thoughts or words. Another is that the atoner has a clear and realistic understanding of the situation from the offended's point of view. In other words, they have an empathetic understanding of the offense. A third and perhaps the most important quality is the actual changing of the offensive/offending behavior, thoughts or words. Change indicates that someone has ingested and digested the essence of their error, and that their remorse has produced quantifiable results. That to my mind is the definition of "Atonement."  

 If a person is truly sorry for the pain or burden that they inflicted upon another or even themselves, they'll not want to do it again. Hence, they will commit to not doing it again. That commitment is an act of will, and that is the most important quality we, as humans, can exercise. We choose, exercise our free will, to change. There is no more important indicator of sincerity and commitment than that.

Yes. There are those who want to change and try to change but can't really do it. That's another issue.  I'm proceeding here from the belief that most of us are capable of exerting that act of will successfully. We are capable of consciously changing our behavior. If we do that, then we and everyone else knows the depth of the sincerity of the remorse. That sincerity expressed in the action of change is atonement to me, and that, to my mind, makes it an idea worth repeating.

Just a thought, an idea, that I wanted to explore. 

"What If....?"

An ex-student of mine, Kurt Montayne, posted the title I'm using here on his Facebook wall. The first to immediately hit me was "What If...'The world lived in peace.'" Naturally, I had to post it as a comment under Kurt's instigation.

Then, I got to thinking about what if we each lived in our own peace. That is where world peace really has to start anyway. It needs to begin with each and everyone of us individually. Then, we'd have something to pass on to others in our little worlds, and it could and would grow from there.

Well, how in the hell do we get ourselves to live in our own peace? What about all that we've done that can't be undone that brought us to where we are today? What about what we are doing now that is going to affect the quality, the peace, of our futures. What about what others have done, are doing and will do to us?

Damn! So may questions! So many variables! So many "What Ifs." Damn!

Well, maybe it is time for us to stop regretting, worrying about and planning for the "What Ifs." Maybe it is time to just accept certain ideas as truths. Perhaps, life is easier than we think and less difficult than we make it.

We are born. We will die. We will go through difficult times. We will make errors. We will do good, and we will do bad. We will experience joys and sorrows, ups and downs, hope and hopelessness, success and failure.

If we ask ourselves how we want to live this very moment, is there anyone of us who would not say, "The best way that I possible can. I want to be happy." If there is, and you're reading this, maybe you should force yourself to read on.

For those of us who would agree that the best, happiness, is our desire, then we can't rationally doubt that the decisions that we make at any given point in time are the best that we can muster up. What we are doing now and what we think are both products of that same desire, to live the best life that we can, given the circumstances of the moment.

We'll see these decisions differently when we look back on them from some point in the future. That's because we will be different people. Hopefully, we will have grown from who and what we are now. We will, therefore, choose to do things differently given a similar set of circumstances, given similar options.

Actually, doing things differently in the future, in similar situations, is the only real way to expiate guilt or regret, if they are, in truth, different.  You see, in order for real change to take place, a person, we, need to go through some catharsis, a modification of self on a deep level of being. That is usually a painful process. That pain is a cleansing. Regardless of what society and the law want to add to it, it is a purification that no jail or cell or prison fine can come close to duplicating.

(Ironically, that is, to my mind, the reason to explore literature in our classrooms. Structure, devices, language all pale in reason when compared to catharsis. If I remember correctly, that's how I approached literature in my classrooms. At least that's what I hope I did. That's another blog subject, however. )

It is when we don't change our behavior that we really deserve punishment from a source outside of ourselves.  Was it Plato who said that "the unexamined life was not worth living"? Maybe it was Proverbs. Regardless, it is that examination that provokes change. It is that change that promotes healing. It is healing that begats peace. For Peace is the product of Healing.

I wish us all Healing that we may live in our own Peace.

Thank you Kurt for your posting. It was "pregnant with meaning."

"Intimations On Mortality"

I went to visit a friend who has been around this life quite a bit long than I. She recently underwent a serious surgery. She has lost quite a bit of vitality, still listens hard and has as strong will. My evening with her and with her being nearer to her transition than I'd ever seen her ended on a prayer of sorts. The drive home gave my thoughts time to clarify around the idea of our endings, not just hers.

As I left, I said, "What I hope for you is that you have a long, long, long, healthy life, and, when your time comes that you just..." I made a sign with my forearm and hand, indicating that I meant just passing. She seemed surprised and said, "That is what we all want."

On the way home I began thinking about that idea in reference to myself. That is, of course, exactly what I want too. The truth, as I have seen it several times now, is  that, no matter what a person has gone through in  final years, months, weeks, days, minutes before "THE MOMENT," for the most part, their moment of passing is usually an uneventful, almost indistinguishable moment from any other mundane one in life. It quickly reveals itself as something other than that because it last much longer than any other moment. Their peace is the graphic, indisputable evidence that the time has arrived for time to end.

No matter what happens to the spirit of the departed one, they have left this life and will never know it again. Even if there is such a thing a reincarnation, they will not come back to then. Then is gone.

This, the second most important moment in our life, is nothing more than a gentle letting go and moving on. It is a leaving of the form our spirit knew for as long as they were joined. The manner of that relationship dictates the emotion that we ultimately attach to that separation. Love Begats Love. Enmity Begats Enmity. So it goes for everything forever.

What is so hopeful to me is that we become so much closer to someone as the possibility of our or their leaving becomes more real. It is often referred to as "a shame" because we didn't achieve that degree of caring and intimacy for all of those years that we shared prior to that possibility. I always thought so, too.

I don't think that way anymore. Now, I see all of life as building to that moment. That moment and the build-up to it are such important periods of our lives. They deserve to be experienced on a different, deeper level than what we experience in day to day association, even with loved ones. The final stage of being here is the culmination of all those other days and moments.

Rejoice in them. We have earned every atom of intimate energy that passes between us. We deserve every nano second of the experience. Relish it. It is life-shared's final statement to us and about us.

NJEA/Teachers/The State of New Jersey

Why is NJEA so silent on all of this. Why aren't they broadcasting, advertising and announcing such information to the general public? Something is going on behind the scenes that is preventing that, or the NJEA leadership has become completely effete and useless.

Also, what are some teachers doing that has caused such alienation from enough of their ex-students, now-voters that has allowed the opposition to gather such a following?  Not only is it time to broadcast but also look inward. Our greatest PR weapon is ourselves and how we deal with each and every student individually and collectively in our classrooms.

Also, administrators need to stop being politicians. However, that is for another tirade.

Getting the Facts Straight

New Jersey's governor, as well as many other politicians and concerned citizens, seem to be zeroing in on the atrocious way in which teachers ruin society by demanding to be compensated adequately for the feeble jobs that they do. At least that is the view of New Jersey  Governor Cristie and those other high flying, overly ambitious and under qualified, political ladder climbers. From what I understand, he claims that we teachers are the main cause of drain on the coffers of New Jersey's Treasury.

I'd like to know how he can claim that. OOOPS! I take that back. A rabid politician can claim anything he wants, and there will always be rabid fools to agree. That's especially true when it comes to negative claims about teachers' job performances, responsibilities, benefits, etc.

His claim is quite interesting, given that for 13 of the past 14 years, the State of New Jersey has not contributed to the Teacher's Pension and Annuity Fund. Only teachers have paid into their pensions. In fact, in the past the venerable State of New Jersey has borrowed money from that same pension fund and never paid it back.  Also, we teachers contribute heftily to our own medical insurance plan. We don't get it for free. So, it appears that the only way that we drain the system is by demanding that we get paid adequately and that we be treated fairly. That's pretty unreasonable of us.

Now, as for tenure. Yes. It must be revised. That does not mean eliminated. It means that it must be made more meaningful for students', teachers' and communities' benefits. So, to that end the wise political ladder climbers and their supporters are trying to tie it to student performance. That's really keen thinking. Intellectually gifted students can excel in spite of the teacher's quality. On the other hand, students at the other end of the intellectual spectrum oftentimes do not improve regardless of the quality of teaching they receive. So, judging a teacher on their students' performances is really wise thinking.

Maintaining tenure should have meaningful requirements attached to it. Teachers should be required to take X numbers of courses/credits in their field within a given period of time. They should also be required to take "enrichment" courses outside of their field. What would be ideal is if teachers were required to step out of the classroom every so often and actually spend some time in the business world working in something related to the subject they are teaching. All of that would mean that teachers would be in a constant state of growth and enrichment, which they could pass on to their students and that the classroom and industry and academia would become more closely aligned.

All of that would also be very difficult to implement and would require lots of ironing out. So, tough talking politicians create popular press for themselves by taking the easy, populist, expedient road. They don't move to revise tenure to insure that the best people are drawn into the profession, that the best teachers stay and the worst are weeded out.They herald the every populist ideas, "Ax tenure. Those lazy, over paid, under worked teachers deserve to have their salaries cut, an axe always hanging over their heads, no legal recourse and certainly no respect. They don't deserve the same collective bargaining rights as do police and firemen. Teachers are a drain on society. They cost us money."

There are times when I almost wish those defamers become successful in their campaign. Then, they would reap what they are sowing. Then, fewer good people would go into the profession, taxes would be lower, classes would be more crowded, respect for teachers would be even more undermined than it already is, so students would be even more difficult to motivate, parents would have even more to complain about ref. their schools, and industry would have even more to complain about ref. the inadequacy of their workers. (Isn't that a long, bitch of a sentence?) Let us not forget that the police will have more crime to keep them busy.

Then, and only then, will the United States of America be able to regain and maintain it's legendary status as world leader. Teachers had nothing to do with the US of A's success in the past. They have no real role in its future accomplishments. Dump as many as you can. Cut compensation to the bone. Force them to live in ghettos where they belong. You'll save money, America! 

I propose a toast: "Short Life to The Mental Midget Mentality Of The Mouth, Cristie, and His Band Of Merry, Short Sighted Followers."