Re: [Futurework] Killing its own

[Robert E. Bowd]

Keith,   I have never read Tolkien, or either, although I did read THE HOBBITT to our son, as a bedtime story.  He went on to read the Trilogy and now, as an adult, he is passionate about the films, two of which my wife and I saw with him, and his now wife.  My perception of Tolkien is on the basis of Jackson's (altered, I understand) filmic representation.  A lot of my understanding of the stories has come from conversations with him.   Throughout my lifetime, most of my reading has been non-fiction since my childhood, other than the obligatory required school reading.  Lately, I have been trying to change that and have enjoyed all of Annie Proulx's novels and short stories.  She has a fascinating gift for capturing cultural details in her nuanced characters.  Been giving some thought to engaging Tolkien as a writer, given that the films have suggested to me that I may have missed something, but you are not the first person to tell me he is not an easy slog for some temperaments.   Bob     ----- Original Message ----- From: Keith Hudson To: Robert E. Bowd Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2004 10:46 AM Subject: Re: [Futurework] Killing its own Bob, At 09:13 11/01/2004 -0500, you wrote: And the task of destroying the ring of power that threatened Middle Earth was left to lowly, empowered Hobbitts whose life experiences had been shaped by cocooning in Hobbiton.  It is possible that the Hobbits are metaphorical representations of children, I suppose, rather than the agrarian bourgeoisie and agrarian working class (Samwise in the latter instance) but the notion of being powerless and exercising agency is still valid.  Lesson in that about taking social responsibility.  Peter Jackson has suggested that LOTR was Tolkien's fantastical response to the carnage he observed during the 'war to end all wars,' [mediated by his expertise in Arthurian legend and linguistics] so it's possible he was making some didactic points.  Anyone know if Tolkien was caught up in the Utopian Socialism of the early Twentieth Century?  Keith? No idea, I'm afraid. I tried several times to read Tolkein when young but he's one of those authors I could never read. I even tried to make amends by going to see the first film in the series (whatever it's called), but I fell asleep, my wakeful partner was unimpressed with what she saw, so we left within an hour, none the wiser and none the happier for the experience. Keith  Darryl? Anyone?  The trilogy does contain early nods to environmentalism and collectivism.   Bob   ----- Original Message ----- From: Ed Weick To: Darryl and Natalia ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; futurework Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2004 8:43 AM Subject: Re: [Futurework] Killing its own Not tongue in cheek, Darryl, but intended as irony.  I saw the movie "Return of the King" a few days ago.  All you needed to do to rid the world of the dark forces that were threatening to take everything over was destroy the ring of power by throwing it into the lava of Mt. Doom.  Would that it were so simple!   Ed ----- Original Message ----- From: Darryl and Natalia To: Ed Weick ; Robert E. Bowd ; Ray Evans Harrell ; futurework Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2004 9:15 PM Subject: Re: [Futurework] Killing its own I hope that last line was tongue-in-cheek Ed. Or, let's bring on the "Future Fascists" with your ostrich rush. Everyone who knows, or suspects, the lies must voice opposition, or must begin a different and definitive opposition. All things worthwhile are worth protecting. And if it takes a few hundred or a few thousand deaths of those who will not succumb to the "jack-boots", maybe, just maybe, the word, the knowledge, the truths will spread. Speaking out is the first step.   Darryl.       ----- Original Message ----- From: Ed Weick To: Robert E. Bowd ; Ray Evans Harrell ; futurework Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2004 12:12 PM Subject: Re: [Futurework] Killing its own We live in a time when fantasy and reality are almost indistinguishable.  We cannot really know whether the recent orange alerts were responses to real threats or were being used to keep us in a state of anxiety and therefore maleable.  We know that 9/11 happened and Al Qada exists, but we don't know whether it can happen again.  We know that people are being held without warrant or have simply "been disappeared", but we can't really tell whether they were a threat or not.  Best to keep one's head down, march in step and be quiet.   Ed ----- Original Message ----- From: Robert E. Bowd To: Ray Evans Harrell ; Ed Weick ; futurework Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2004 9:10 AM Subject: Re: [Futurework] Killing its own The conservative counter-revolution is built on the fear that the 60s and 70s, in the last century, may come back and they will lose control as they almost did during the Vietnam Era when citizens were prepared to practice a more participatory kind of democracy [within the channels of power and in the streets] which questions the roots of their society.  It leads to the conservatives constant propagandizing around issues of control and fear and this kind of 'accountability' which targets and marginalizes and breaks down social cohesion and any sense of community.  Better to built passive conformity dispositions in students, through punishment, tough love, and what is authentic through testing,  rather than critical democratic discourse that has the potential to create a more caring and compassionate society.  It permeates not only the official organs of the power elite, but also many middle class families in the way they socialize their kids as a basis of ensuring the reproduction of their own class status.  It creates a complex matrix of self-blame among people who convinced of their own powerlessness.  [Poppycock, really.]  Of course the propagandizing keeps attention away from the legitimate, palpable fear that people live in their own lives, sensing that things are not as good as the lies fed to them by the mainstream media and conservative politicians.  The most significant news item for me, during the past week, was the IMF warning on the U.S. deficit and balance of trade, and its potential to send the global economy into a downward spiral.  The Asian flu may well be coming to the Gold Mountain.   BB ----- Original Message ----- From: Ray Evans Harrell To: Robert E. Bowd ; Ed Weick ; futurework Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2004 1:59 AM Subject: Re: [Futurework] Killing its own Robert and Ed,   This is a very sad state that children find themselves in.  I've never seen so much irresponsibility.   Now they are even throwing kids in jail for school infractions.   Jail is a great teacher but it teaches people to be criminals not better citizens.  On the one hand information is withheld from parents and then when the crash comes, the parents are impotent in their ignorance.   Its even worse in college when underage students are expected to be paid for by parents but the parents are not privy to grades, health records, etc.   It springs from both left and right.   With the left screaming individual freedom and the right screaming hold them responsible while this takes the onus off bad parents and bad teachers.   It is disgusting and is system wide.   This does not mean that I believe the schools are hopeless and going to hell in a handbasket.   But this element of it is in severe need of rethinking from both left and right wings.   The problem is that neither seems to know much about education or cooperation.   Education is always a team effort if the best is to be drawn from the student.   REH ----- Original Message ----- From: Robert E. Bowd To: Ed Weick ; futurework Sent: Friday, January 09, 2004 9:14 PM Subject: Re: [Futurework] Killing its own Ed,   What is happening in the United States is a great tragedy, not likely to end in November, unfortunately.  The internal war against kids has also been extended to education.    See below from Chicago.   Bob   SCHOOLS PRESSURED TO DUMP BAD STUDENTS, CRITICS SAY       Chicago Sun-Times -- January 9, 2004                   by Kate Grossman Phillip Parker knew he was in the wrong when he started skipping class and getting into trouble at Chicago's Crane High School. But before he could figure out how to fix it, he found himself dropped from school. "I'm not one to blame others for what I did, but if the school had steered me the right way, it could have helped," said Parker, who says teachers and staff seemed too busy to really give him the help he needed. After dropping out, he landed a spot at West Town Academy, an alternative school. He knows he's one of the lucky ones. "A lot of students just give up," Parker said. "It's almost like their life has no direction, they ain't got nothing going." In the 2001-02 school year, 17,400 students -- 17.6 percent -- dropped out of Chicago schools, according to an analysis of state data by the Greater West Town Community Development Project. That's up from 13.5 percent in 1992. The Chicago public schools publicize a lower percentage -- 13 percent in 2003, down from 16.6 percent in 1995. Those percentages don't include 27 alternative schools. The numbers are too high and the pressure on schools to push out truant, low-performing students is only growing, several experts, including Illinois Education Supt. Robert Schiller, testified at a state Senate Education Committee meeting in Chicago Thursday. The main culprit is the federal No Child Left Behind law, Schiller and others said. That law requires schools to meet testing, graduation and attendance benchmarks each year. "There is tremendous pressure on districts," said Sen. Miguel del Valle (D-Chicago), the committee chairman. "All of this is creating a climate that, as the superintendent says, creates a disincentive to hang on to students and help them go the extra mile to stay in school." Del Valle convened the hearing to come up with legislative ideas to confront Illinois' dropout problem. Statewide, the rate is 4.9 percent. Suggestions floated at the hearing include more accurate counting of the problem, more small schools, such as Chicago is trying, more emphasis on early childhood education and more academic support for middle schoolers and ninth-graders. Del Valle has one bill pending that would make it more difficult to drop students, make it easier for them to return and change the way they're counted so they can be tracked and schools aren't penalized if they drop out again. Several advocates support the proposal but say the existing law must also be enforced. State law says students over 16 can only be denied an education if they are expelled for serious misconduct or if they don't have enough credits to graduate by the time they're 21. "The dropout problem is largely a push-out problem for kids who'd like to stay in school," said William Leavy, director of the Greater West Town group. "Our neediest kids have the least support." Added Bob Meyer, a teacher at West Town Academy: "We think [Chicago] and other districts should be mandated to do what we do daily -- give kids another chance." ----- Original Message ----- From: Ed Weick To: futurework Sent: Friday, January 09, 2004 10:19 AM Subject: [Futurework] Killing its own As a Canadian, I find the behaviour of the US administration increasingly perplexing and difficult to understand.  Killing people, including kids, in Afghanistan and Iraq is one thing, but killing its own is incomprehensible.  More and more, one gets the impression that America exists for the ownership class, the top five percent or even one percent, and no one else matters!  Rogue abroad and rogue at home!   Ed       January 9, 2004 OP-ED COLUMNIST Sick State Budgets, Sick Kids By BOB HERBERT hile headlines continue to tell us how great the economy is doing, states across the U.S. are pulling the plug on desperately needed health coverage for low-income Americans, including about a half-million children. Even as the Bush administration continues its bizarre quest for ever more tax cuts, the states, which by law have to balance their budgets, are cutting vital social programs so deeply that tragic consequences are inevitable. The cruel reality is that Americans at the top are thriving at the expense of the well-being of those at the bottom and, increasingly, in the middle. A new report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows that 34 states have made potentially devastating cuts over the past two years in public health insurance programs, including Medicaid and the very successful children's health insurance programs known as CHIPS. More cuts are expected this year. "Almost half of those losing health coverage (490,000 to 650,000 people) are children," the report said. "Substantial numbers of low-income parents, seniors, people with disabilities, childless adults and immigrants are also losing coverage. Cutbacks of this depth in health insurance coverage for low-income families and individuals are unprecedented." The worst of the cuts are in Texas. "The Lone Star State has adopted deep cutbacks in its State Children's Health Insurance Program that will cause about 160,000 children � one-third of its SCHIP caseload � to lose coverage," the report said. Texas is also making Medicaid available to fewer pregnant women, a dangerous move that increases the number of women without coverage for prenatal care and the actual deliveries. "All told," the report said, "Texas is eliminating coverage for between 344,000 and 494,000 children and adults. Census data showed that, even before these changes, the percentage of people who were uninsured was higher in Texas than in any other state." A loss of health coverage frequently leads to a reluctance to seek needed care. "In poor or low-income families, where there is not a lot of disposable income, people will avoid going to the doctor or getting a prescription," said Leighton Ku, one of the authors of the report. "Certain diseases can then become much more severe. With children, it's likely that they won't get treatment for ear infections, asthma, diabetes � conditions that can ultimately lead to hospitalization." When treatment can no longer be avoided, the financial consequences can be ruinous. Medical expenses are one of the leading causes of bankruptcy in the U.S. Officials at the center noted the case of a woman in St. Louis who works but whose annual income is below the poverty line. Under eligibility rules in effect until 18 months ago, she would have qualified for Medicaid. Under the new rules, she does not. The woman became ill and was told upon her release from the hospital to seek follow-up care. But without any health insurance, her medical bills have been overwhelming. According to the center, "[The woman] has occasional abdominal pain but is not getting any treatment. She intends to declare bankruptcy because she cannot pay the $47,000 she owes in medical bills, but so far has been unable to save the funds needed to pay for a bankruptcy filing." People caught in this kind of squeeze often find themselves "sicker, much poorer, or both," said Robert Greenstein, the center's director. It seems extremely strange that in the United States of America, the richest, most powerful nation in the history of the world, we are going backward in the 21st century in our ability to provide the most fundamental kinds of health care to ordinary people, including children. The health insurance cutbacks would have been even worse if not for the $20 billion in emergency state aid that was reluctantly approved by the Bush administration and the Republican-led Congress last year. Despite the economic upturn, states are still struggling. They face a collective budget deficit of $40 billion to $50 billion for the coming fiscal year, and there is little sentiment among Republican leaders in Washington for another round of fiscal relief. Maybe the nation itself needs a doctor. Shoving low-income people, including children, off the health care rolls at a time when the economy is allegedly booming is a sure sign of some kind of sickness in the society.  Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company | Home | Privacy Policy | Search | Corrections | Help | Back to Top _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework Keith Hudson, Bath, England, <www.evolutionary-economics.org> _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework

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