Brian,
Not
joking. The US is a grand experiment in the history of the
world.
It is
built on the rejects, restless, ambitious, persecuted, etc., of many groups
around the world. Those who had to leave or felt frustrated where they
were were and saw an ability to build a new life. Not always a good
life, but a new life. A fresh start. If not for themselves then for
their kids.
Trudeau said that living next door to the US was like being in bed with
an elephant. Every twitch and grunt is felt manyfold here in Canada.
I suggest that the entire world is now living next door to that
elephant.
If you
take a standard distribution, a bell curve, of people from most cultures, the US
population is probably drawn from the 10 or 15 percent at the end who were
restless enough, adventurous enough, ambitious enough, desperate enough to leave
where they were. This does not take into account most blacks who were brought in
as slaves, it also (I can feel your eyes over my shoulder Ray) does not take
into account the aboriginal population who were subjected to genocidal acts by
the newcomers.
Not a
pristine or pretty picture, but still a beacon of light (people still want to
migrate to the US) and, again, a grand experiment. An experiment which may
yet run off the rails through hubris or grandiosity of one sort or
another.
The US
which is based on checks and balances finds itself in a world where there are
few if any checks on its economic and military power. Paradoxically, this
may work against the long term interests and viability of that
country.
arthur
-----Original Message-----
From: Brian McAndrews [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 4:40 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [Futurework] fwd: Casualties at HomeAt 12:56 PM -0500 4/1/03, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:Some feel that the Americans are failing in this test of their use of power. I don't. I think the US is a beacon of light and a grand experiment in the history of the world.Were you joking Arthur?Take care,Brianhttp://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/27/opinion/27HERB.html
New York Times, Thursday, March 27, 2003.Casualties at Home
By Bob Herbert
WASHINGTON - On Tuesday, as President Bush was asking Congress for the first
installment of the hundreds of billions of dollars needed to finance the war
in Iraq and its aftermath, the students and teachers at a high school within
walking distance of the White House were struggling through their daily
routine in a building that has no cafeteria, no gymnasium, no student
lockers, not even a fully reliable source of electricity.
A few weeks ago bricks were falling from the facade of the building, which
is more than 100 years old.
As we continue the relentless bombing of Baghdad, which the military tells
us is the necessary prelude to saving it, it's fair to ask when the
rebuilding of essential institutions like the public schools will begin here
at home. (Don't hold your breath. The money for that sort of thing has
completely evaporated.)
"We actually have rooms where the water comes in when it rains," said Sheila
Mills Harris, the principal of the School Without Walls, an academically
rigorous high school that routinely finishes first or second in the District
of Columbia's rankings.
Laura Bush has visited the school, which has won a series of national
honors. But academic honors and a visit by the first lady are, frankly,
irrelevant in an era in which social concerns - such as support for public
schools and health care, and the need to assist the poor, the hungry and the
unemployed - have been forced to the perimeter of public consciousness.
Those issues, crucial to our conception of ourselves as a just and humane
people, have been devalued and shunted aside by an administration that is
committed to an ill-advised, budget-busting war and a devastating parade of
tax cuts for the very wealthy.
With our attention riveted on the death and destruction in Iraq, and the
continued threat to Americans in the war zone, the other very serious
problems facing the U.S. get short shrift. We knew last fall that the
proportion of Americans living in poverty had risen, and that income for
middle-class households had fallen.
We know that unemployment, especially long-term unemployment, is a big
problem. And we've known that the states are facing their worst budget
crisis since the Great Depression, a development that has led, among otherthings, to drastic cuts in education aid that are crushing the budgets of
local public school districts.
These issues aren't even being properly discussed. The Bush administration
sounds the alarm for war and blows the trumpet for tax cuts, and Congress
plunges ahead with the cuts in domestic programs that must inevitably
follow. The voices of those who object are effectively silenced by the war
propaganda and the fear of seeming unpatriotic.
With attention thus deflected, the administration and its allies in Congress
have come up with one proposal after another to weaken programs that were
designed to help struggling Americans.
In his budget last month the president offered a plan to make it more
difficult for low-income families to obtain government benefits, including
tax credits and school lunch assistance. This month, as The Times' Robert
Pear reported, the administration proposed changes in the Medicare program
that would make it more difficult for elderly people, many of them frail, to
appeal the denial of benefits like home health care and skilled nursing
care.
The extent to which the most vulnerable Americans are being targeted is
appalling. Billions of dollars in cuts have been proposed for food stamp and
child nutrition programs, and for health care for the poor.
Collectively, these are the largest proposed cuts in history. Even cuts forveterans' programs are on the table - in the midst of a war!
The administration is actually fighting two wars - one against Iraq and
another against the very idea of a humane and responsive government here at
home.
At some point, hopefully sooner rather than later, the war against Iraq will
end. Americans will then have the opportunity to look around and be stunned
by the fix we'll be in. We'll look at the enormous costs of the postwar
occupation in Iraq, and at the social and economic dislocation that's
occurring here. And we'll look at the disaster that the federal budget has
become. We'll be broke, and we'll ask ourselves, again and again, "What have
we done?"
* Brian McAndrews, Practicum Coordinator *
* Faculty of Education, Queen's University *
* Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6 *
* FAX:(613) 533-6596 Phone (613) 533-6000x74937*
* e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *
* "Education is not the filling of a pail, *
* but the lighting of a fire. *
* W.B.Yeats *
* *
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