We need to watch our
words and how we use them. George Lakoff in “Don't think of an
elephant” gives excellent lessons on this and how to fight back
against people who manipulate and twist words.
This came to my mind
as I was reading the Sunday Buffalo News article called “Right's
call public education in Kansas 'government schools.'”
In their ever
continuing war against a government that they can not and do not
control, conservatives are using the ever unpopular word
“government” on programs that they dislike. It's a case of Alice
in Wonderland where they want to be able to define the words that are
used in public discourse and everyone has to go by their definition
rather than a definition based in reality.
In reality, the
schools are public schools. We own them. We pay for them with our
taxes. Plain and simple there.
The fact of the
matter is that the conservatives (avoid calling them anything that
uses the word “right” because that word has a second dangerous
“subliminal definition” - that being “correct.” ) forces are
going by the libertarian Grover Norquist idea of shrinking government
down to a size where it can be drowned in a bathtub.
We need to be armed
and ready on this issue. We need to remind the conservatives that
President (sic) GW Bush is responsible for all the testing that we
have in schools today. No Child Left Behind is the government law
that Bush signed that mandated yearly testing in Language Arts and
Math from grades 3-8 and other testing in grades 9-12. So all this
testing is a creation of conservatives in Texas. (Remind them that
GW Bush is a Republican and that NCLB is based on his legislation as
Governor (sic) of Texas.)
Sick of Common Core
and all that over reach by President Obama? Repeal NCLB and Obama's
agenda goes out the door with it.
While we're at it –
since the government is overtaxing us – an often heard complaint of
the fiscal tightwad conservatives – I shouldn't have to pay school
taxes. I don't have any children that attend the local school, so
why am I paying school taxes? Let the people who are sending their
children to school foot the bill for the education of their children.
Now, I understand that because of the cutoff of funds programs like
extracurricular sports is going to be eliminated. That's correct.
No more football, baseball, basketball, volleyball, soccer, etc. But
those are luxuries and not necessities. We need to ask the real
purpose of education and address funding that, not having college
educated people playing overpriced babysitters. (Please read and say
that with a note of sarcasm.)
And at that –
private education, like charter schools and religious schools,
should never be receiving our tax dollars. They are private and it
is not the responsibility of the taxpayer to guarantee their
profitability and survival. (This is the government really overstepping its bounds.) After all, they are private
institutions. Remember – capitalism is premised on survival of the
fittest and the government is supposed to keep its nose out of
private institutions. These private schools are exactly that –
private and need to find their own funding.
And while we are
attacking the government, there are other notable government failures
that we need to discuss and de-fund.
Let's talk about
government policy in the Middle East. The government has failed, in
a dramatic way, to create any form of a stable government in
Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. Furthermore, government policy is
literally giving arms to ISIS – know those people that are
supposedly attacking us with assault weapons in bars and at rallies?
Guess who's training them and giving them weapons? Our government.
We need to totally cut the government aid to those countries and get
out of the Middle East.
And did you know
that Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are the two largest supporters (both
with money and weapons) of Islamic terrorist organizations? We need
to stop giving them money too. That's our tax dollars being used by
those countries to indoctrinate and arm terrorists to attack us. In
fact, Saudi Arabia is the largest funder of ISIS. Seriously, we
need to look at the failure of government policy in the Middle East.
(They hate it when I bring all this up.)
And while we are
talking about government spending – did you know that the F-35 is
over budget, behind schedule, and still can't be used in combat? And
that much less expensive Chinese and Russian fighters can get the
best of it in combat? Seems to me that's a ton of wasted money.
We
need to eliminate all these government weapon systems that are over
budget, behind schedule, and fail to work as advertised. The
littoral combat ships fall into that line as well. So does the “Star
Wars” anti-missile system. It can't even hit a missile and even if
it did, it can't stop the warhead from detonating. Oops.
Did you know that
the “Stealth” bomber and fighter can be detected with weather
satellites and FM radios? Billions of dollars spent on weapon
systems that an be located with free and cheap technology. (Avoid
the use of the word defense at all costs – Defense is a positive
word.)
And then there are
those state governments that are trying to stick their nose into
women's health care. These “big government” types want to stick
their noses into a private conversation (private is always a positive
word in conservatives' eyes) between a woman and her doctor about her
choice of medical treatment. Remember President Obama's government
“death panels?” This is the same thing where the government is
overstepping its bounds in a woman's health care choices and we need
to get the states to honor a woman's right to choose. (Choose is
always a positive word for some reason. Avoid the word abortion.
Negative and one of their push buttons.)
Your homework? Tax
subsidies for private businesses. Public-Private partnerships. And
what else can you think of that is sacred to fiscal and social
conservatives? (LBGTQ marriage is too easy but way fun. Are we
going to put a policeman in every bedroom? Who is going to pay for
that? Or are we gong to put in cameras? Government mandated porn?)
The Edward Sowden,
Chelsea Manning revelations about the security state and the total
failure of the military to defend us on 9-11 and the NSA's total
failure to detect, let alone stop how many attacks in the US? Seems
like government surveillance isn't doing what it claimed it can.
We'll have to cut its funding.
Seems like the
conservative government can't do anything right.
I'll settle for a
walk in my public park to calm myself down.
