by Edd Doerr
One of the most serious consequences of the Republican electoral sweep in November 2010 has been the dramatic upsurge in Congress and many state legislatures of efforts to do away with or sharply curtail abortion rights, reproductive choice. Underlying these drives is what is correctly labeled malignant patriarchalism, a centuries old macho movement to keep women subordinate to men. We see this malignant patriarchalism manifested in many ways: The Vatican's refusal to ordain women and centuries of exploiting the labor of nuns. Conservative evangelical opposition to female ministers. Female genital mutilation in parts of Africa. "Honor" killings. The paucity of women in Congress (17%) and low numbers in state legislatures. The old German "Kinder, Kueche und Kirche" ("Kids, Kitchen and Church") mentality. The Islamic burqa. Etc.
To justify this malignant patriarchalism the guys invented the idea that fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses are "persons", persons with the same rights as you and me. But this idea is alien to the more "primitive" cultures with high infant and child mortality rates. It is also alien to the Judeo-Christian Bible, which not only does not condemn abortion but also (in the Jewish or "Old Testament" portion of the Bible) uses the word "nefesh" to refer to persons, and "nefesh" refers to something that breathes, as in our Latin-based word "respire". The "personhood at conception" idea is also unscientific.
Some years ago I was the moving force behind an amicus curiae brief to the US Supreme Court in Webster v Reproductive Health Services signed by twelve Nobel laureate scientists (including DNA co-discoverer Francis Crick) and 155 other distinguished scientists (had we had a few more days to gather more signers we would have had a veritable army of scientists). At the heart of the brief is this: "The Organic Capacity for Human Thought is Absent Until After 28 Weeks of Gestation.... It is not until sometime after 28 weeks of gestation that the fetal brain has the capacity to carry on the same range of neurological activity as the brain in a full-tern newborn. ... The neurobiological data indicate that the fetus lacks the physical capacity for the neurological activities we associate with human thought until sometime after 28 weeks of gestation." We should note that 90% of all abortion procedures are carried out during the first trimester and over 99% by 20 weeks. Abortions after 20 weeks are performed only for serious medical reasons.
Isaac Asimov has made the point that we can replace or do without arms, legs, hearts, lungs, kidneys, etc. and still be persons, but we cannot replace or do without the cerebral cortex.
Let me put it this way for the many of our fellow citizens who believe that man was "created in the image of God". This of course could have nothing to do with flesh and blood and DNA, but, rather, with the "godlike" capacity for consciousness and thought and will. For religious conservatives to ascribe "personhood" to fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses is to be more "materialistic" than naturalistic humanists or atheists.
Readers of this comment need to put abortion rights near the top of the list of hot concerns, along with protecting our public schools, church-state separation, the environment, civil liberties, and other pressing matters.
(Disclosure: From 1973 until 2003 I represented the American Humanist Association on the governing body of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice and was elected a vice president of the group more than once. I have also worked with the group Catholics for Choice, publishers of the excellent journal Conscience.)
(The amicus brief mentioned above is included as an appendix in John Swomley's book Compulsory Pregnancy: The War Against American Women [Humanist Press, 1999] and is available from me for $7 at Box 6656, Silver Spring, Md 20916. See also Abortion Rights and Fetal 'Personhood', edited by me and James W. Prescott, and also available for $10 from me at the address above.)
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Heard of Barbara Smoker?
She was president of National Secular society, and British Humanist association (formerly)
She toured India twice, once in 1990 and another time in 1998. I met her in 1990 in Hyderabad city and heard her speech at the Press club.
According to Barbara: All non christians would go to hell since they are heathens.
According to muslims all non muslims will land in hell (of course, Islamic hell) since they are Kafirs.
According to Hindus all non Hindus will suffer in Hindu hell since they are Mlechaas.
Each religion has its own hell to put sinners in that place.
Barabara concluded that all religious people will land in hell but only atheists have no hell. Hence they enjoy life and that is the end of it. She received applause from the audience.
Her book: Humanism is now in its 5th edition.
See her website: http://www.barbara.smoker.freeuk.com/
by Innaiah Narisetti
Monday, June 13, 2011
Kwik Kwiz
by Edd Doerr
Can you identify the sources of the following quotes?
"Almighty God, dear heavenly Father. In thy name let us now, in pious spirit, begin our instruction. Enlighten us, teach us all truth, strengthen us in all that is good, lead us not into temptation, deliver us from all evil in order that, as good human beings, we may faithfully perform our duties and thereby, in time and eternity, be made truly happy. Amen."
"Secular schools can never be tolerated because such a school has no religious instruction and a general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion must be derived from faith . . . We need believing people."
The first quote is the prayer that was required by law to be recited in secondary schools in Germany in the 1930s. (National Conference of Christians and Jews statement to the Maryland General Assembly, February 8, 1982, in opposition to a school prayer measure)
The second quote comes not from Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson, but, rather, was a statement made on April 26, 1933, to two Catholic Church officials, Bishop Wilhelm Berning and Vicar General Johannes Steitmann, adviser to the German embassy in Rome, by Adolf Hitler during negotiations leading to the Reich-Holy See Concordat of 1933. (Ernst Christian Helmreich, The German Churches under Hitler, 1979)
And of course we all know that "Gott mit Uns" ("God is with Us") was the motto on German military belt buckles in World Wars I and II.
Herzliches Sommerurlaubgruesse! (Have a nice summer!)
Can you identify the sources of the following quotes?
"Almighty God, dear heavenly Father. In thy name let us now, in pious spirit, begin our instruction. Enlighten us, teach us all truth, strengthen us in all that is good, lead us not into temptation, deliver us from all evil in order that, as good human beings, we may faithfully perform our duties and thereby, in time and eternity, be made truly happy. Amen."
"Secular schools can never be tolerated because such a school has no religious instruction and a general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion must be derived from faith . . . We need believing people."
The first quote is the prayer that was required by law to be recited in secondary schools in Germany in the 1930s. (National Conference of Christians and Jews statement to the Maryland General Assembly, February 8, 1982, in opposition to a school prayer measure)
The second quote comes not from Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson, but, rather, was a statement made on April 26, 1933, to two Catholic Church officials, Bishop Wilhelm Berning and Vicar General Johannes Steitmann, adviser to the German embassy in Rome, by Adolf Hitler during negotiations leading to the Reich-Holy See Concordat of 1933. (Ernst Christian Helmreich, The German Churches under Hitler, 1979)
And of course we all know that "Gott mit Uns" ("God is with Us") was the motto on German military belt buckles in World Wars I and II.
Herzliches Sommerurlaubgruesse! (Have a nice summer!)
Sunday, June 12, 2011
THEIST MORALITY--ATHEIST PRACTICE
NO MORALS?
All theists accuse atheists that they have no morals. That is why it is dangerous to be an atheist.
YES. IT IS TRUE THAT ATHEISTS HAVE NO DIVINE ETHICS, RELIGIOUS MORALS AND THEOLOGICAL VALUES.
Atheists accept human values, human morals and human rights.
All religions through their holy scriptures degrade human dignity, human values. All religions go againt human rights as envisaged by United Nations organization.
Please remember divine ethics are inhuman .
Atheists accept human values, human morality and practice them.
Innaiah Narisetti
All theists accuse atheists that they have no morals. That is why it is dangerous to be an atheist.
YES. IT IS TRUE THAT ATHEISTS HAVE NO DIVINE ETHICS, RELIGIOUS MORALS AND THEOLOGICAL VALUES.
Atheists accept human values, human morals and human rights.
All religions through their holy scriptures degrade human dignity, human values. All religions go againt human rights as envisaged by United Nations organization.
Please remember divine ethics are inhuman .
Atheists accept human values, human morality and practice them.
Innaiah Narisetti
The Hitler Letter – Part 1
by Luis Granados
The Simon Wiesenthal Center put on display this week the first known anti-Semitic writing of Adolf Hitler, a letter he typed and quite legibly signed in 1919. Unfortunately, at the same time, they put a politically correct spin on what the letter actually says, while glossing over some inconvenient facts about people who were saying exactly the same thing as Hitler at exactly the same time.
As you can read here, the letter says nothing at all about exterminating, annihilating, or otherwise killing any Jews. In fact, Hitler pointedly rejects the whole idea of pogroms against the Jews, disdaining such violence as based on “emotional grounds,” in contrast to his own loftier “anti-Semitism based on reason.”
At the very moment Hitler was writing, pogroms were racking the nearby Ukraine, during which some 35,000 to 50,000 Jews were murdered. The Hitler of 1919 disdained that approach, championing instead the “systematic legal combating and elimination of the privileges of the Jews, that which distinguishes the Jews from the other aliens who live among us (an Aliens Law). The ultimate objective must, however, be the irrevocable removal of the Jews in general.”
Today, with the benefit of hindsight, the rabbi who put the letter on display said that if people had taken bets in 1919, “they all would have bet this is a lot of nonsense, nothing would happen like this. And 22 years later, it happened exactly as he wrote it.” But it didn’t happen at all as Hitler wrote it. What happened 22 years later was the commencement of the “Final Solution,” the systematic extermination of the Jews of Nazi-conquered territories. That’s not what the letter says – it says “removal,” an entirely different and not very novel idea.
The first “removal” of Jews was effected by the Roman Empire, back in the 2nd century. After the second major rebellion in Palestine, which cost thousands of Roman lives and massive sums of Roman money to subdue, the frustrated Emperor Hadrian ordered the permanent removal of all Jews from Jerusalem, and even renamed the city.
In the 13th century, it was England’s turn. King Edward I, perpetually short of funds, extracted money from his Jewish subjects by every means he could imagine, until they had very little left. They still owned property, though; Edward solved that problem by his 1290 “Edict of Expulsion,” removing every Jew from the country. This Edict was not repealed until 1656.
King Philip the Fair of France was only mildly impressed, because Edward’s inefficiency let a lot of money slip from his grasp. Philip thought that secrecy of preparation and suddenness of action were the keys. On July 22, 1306, every Jew in France was arrested. Within weeks, they were escorted to the borders and expelled – without any of their property, which Philip retained for himself. Currency went into the treasury, chattels were auctioned off, and account debtors were instructed to pay their debts to the Exchequer of France. Just as importantly, all debts owing from the king to the removed Jews were cancelled.
There weren’t that many Jews in England and France to remove, but there were lots of them in Spain. In 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella ordered them all either to convert to Christianity or leave. Many who elected to convert did so falsely, while secretly continuing their Jewish practices; rooting out these pseudo-converts was one of the principal aims of the Spanish Inquisition. Many who did leave wound up in Ottoman Turkey, whose Sultan could not believe his good fortune: “Allah has struck the king of Spain with blindness, that he should impoverish his realm to enrich mine.” Many of the highest government positions in 16th century Turkey were filled by Jews.
In Germany itself, Jews had been removed from Vienna and Linz in 1421, from Cologne in 1424, Augsburg in 1439, Bavaria in 1442 and again in 1450, and from cities in Moravia in 1454. So when Hitler talked about removing Jews in 1919, there is little doubt about what he actually meant. What’s fascinating, though, is that Hitler was not the only voice calling for removing Jews from Germany and the rest of Europe: the loudest clamor arose among Jews themselves.
Late in the 19th century, Theodore Herzl launched the “Zionist” movement, to create a location where the Jewish religion could predominate and Jewish politicians could rule. At first, Herzl was intrigued with a British offer of land in East Africa. But Jewish God experts said no, it had to be Palestine, because that was the place that previous Jewish God experts said was intended for them. So Palestine it was; the fact that Palestine was already occupied by other people was a triviality to be disregarded. Some of Herzl’s predictions in his seminal 1896 work The Jewish State seem rather Pollyannaish now: “If we only begin to carry out the plans, anti-Semitism would stop at once and forever. For it is the conclusion of peace.” Further:
So in Herzl’s vision, all Jews would remove from Germany and elsewhere to gather in Palestine, and the few party-poopers who stayed behind would conveniently vanish. This held little appeal at all for most Jews, simply trying to live their lives as best they could; the joke going around in Herzl's hometown of Vienna was "We Jews have waited 2,000 years for the Jewish state, and it had to happen to me?" In fact, 63 years after Israel’s independence, most of the world’s Jews have chosen to stay put. The prospect of this disturbed the Zionist Vladimir Jabotinsky no end, as he wrote in 1904:
Not surprisingly, this was music to the ears of Europe’s anti-Semites. Kaiser Wilhelm put it bluntly: “I am all in favor of the kikes going to Palestine. The sooner they take off the better.” The obvious question becomes, if there were two groups who wanted the Jews removed from Germany – the Nazi types and the Zionists – why didn’t they just work together? The answer is that they did, in ways so shocking that you will definitely want to read about them next week …
The Simon Wiesenthal Center put on display this week the first known anti-Semitic writing of Adolf Hitler, a letter he typed and quite legibly signed in 1919. Unfortunately, at the same time, they put a politically correct spin on what the letter actually says, while glossing over some inconvenient facts about people who were saying exactly the same thing as Hitler at exactly the same time.As you can read here, the letter says nothing at all about exterminating, annihilating, or otherwise killing any Jews. In fact, Hitler pointedly rejects the whole idea of pogroms against the Jews, disdaining such violence as based on “emotional grounds,” in contrast to his own loftier “anti-Semitism based on reason.”
At the very moment Hitler was writing, pogroms were racking the nearby Ukraine, during which some 35,000 to 50,000 Jews were murdered. The Hitler of 1919 disdained that approach, championing instead the “systematic legal combating and elimination of the privileges of the Jews, that which distinguishes the Jews from the other aliens who live among us (an Aliens Law). The ultimate objective must, however, be the irrevocable removal of the Jews in general.”
Today, with the benefit of hindsight, the rabbi who put the letter on display said that if people had taken bets in 1919, “they all would have bet this is a lot of nonsense, nothing would happen like this. And 22 years later, it happened exactly as he wrote it.” But it didn’t happen at all as Hitler wrote it. What happened 22 years later was the commencement of the “Final Solution,” the systematic extermination of the Jews of Nazi-conquered territories. That’s not what the letter says – it says “removal,” an entirely different and not very novel idea.
The first “removal” of Jews was effected by the Roman Empire, back in the 2nd century. After the second major rebellion in Palestine, which cost thousands of Roman lives and massive sums of Roman money to subdue, the frustrated Emperor Hadrian ordered the permanent removal of all Jews from Jerusalem, and even renamed the city.
In the 13th century, it was England’s turn. King Edward I, perpetually short of funds, extracted money from his Jewish subjects by every means he could imagine, until they had very little left. They still owned property, though; Edward solved that problem by his 1290 “Edict of Expulsion,” removing every Jew from the country. This Edict was not repealed until 1656.
King Philip the Fair of France was only mildly impressed, because Edward’s inefficiency let a lot of money slip from his grasp. Philip thought that secrecy of preparation and suddenness of action were the keys. On July 22, 1306, every Jew in France was arrested. Within weeks, they were escorted to the borders and expelled – without any of their property, which Philip retained for himself. Currency went into the treasury, chattels were auctioned off, and account debtors were instructed to pay their debts to the Exchequer of France. Just as importantly, all debts owing from the king to the removed Jews were cancelled.There weren’t that many Jews in England and France to remove, but there were lots of them in Spain. In 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella ordered them all either to convert to Christianity or leave. Many who elected to convert did so falsely, while secretly continuing their Jewish practices; rooting out these pseudo-converts was one of the principal aims of the Spanish Inquisition. Many who did leave wound up in Ottoman Turkey, whose Sultan could not believe his good fortune: “Allah has struck the king of Spain with blindness, that he should impoverish his realm to enrich mine.” Many of the highest government positions in 16th century Turkey were filled by Jews.
In Germany itself, Jews had been removed from Vienna and Linz in 1421, from Cologne in 1424, Augsburg in 1439, Bavaria in 1442 and again in 1450, and from cities in Moravia in 1454. So when Hitler talked about removing Jews in 1919, there is little doubt about what he actually meant. What’s fascinating, though, is that Hitler was not the only voice calling for removing Jews from Germany and the rest of Europe: the loudest clamor arose among Jews themselves.
Late in the 19th century, Theodore Herzl launched the “Zionist” movement, to create a location where the Jewish religion could predominate and Jewish politicians could rule. At first, Herzl was intrigued with a British offer of land in East Africa. But Jewish God experts said no, it had to be Palestine, because that was the place that previous Jewish God experts said was intended for them. So Palestine it was; the fact that Palestine was already occupied by other people was a triviality to be disregarded. Some of Herzl’s predictions in his seminal 1896 work The Jewish State seem rather Pollyannaish now: “If we only begin to carry out the plans, anti-Semitism would stop at once and forever. For it is the conclusion of peace.” Further: But the Jews, once settled in their own State, would probably have no more enemies. As for those who remain behind, since prosperity enfeebles and causes them to diminish, they would soon disappear altogether. I think the Jews will always have sufficient enemies, such as every nation has. But once fixed in their own land, it will no longer be possible for them to scatter all over the world.
So in Herzl’s vision, all Jews would remove from Germany and elsewhere to gather in Palestine, and the few party-poopers who stayed behind would conveniently vanish. This held little appeal at all for most Jews, simply trying to live their lives as best they could; the joke going around in Herzl's hometown of Vienna was "We Jews have waited 2,000 years for the Jewish state, and it had to happen to me?" In fact, 63 years after Israel’s independence, most of the world’s Jews have chosen to stay put. The prospect of this disturbed the Zionist Vladimir Jabotinsky no end, as he wrote in 1904:That feeling of national ego is deeply ingrained in a man’s “blood”; in his racio-physical type, and in that alone. We do not believe that the independent spirit lies in the body; we believe that a man’s spiritual outlooks are primarily determined by his physical structure. … For that reason we do not believe in spiritual assimilation. It is inconceivable, from the physical point of view, that a Jew born to a family of pure Jewish blood over several generations can become adapted to the spiritual outlooks of a German or a Frenchman. A Jew brought up among Germans may assume German customs, German words. He may be wholly imbued with that German fluid but the nucleus of his spiritual structure will always remain Jewish, because his blood, his body, his physical-racial type are Jewish. The basic features of his spirit are a reflection of the basic traits of his body. And a man whose body is Jewish cannot possibly mold within himself the soul of a Frenchman. … A preservation of national integrity is impossible except by a preservation of racial purity, and for that purpose we are in need of a territory of our own where our people will constitute the overwhelming majority.
Not surprisingly, this was music to the ears of Europe’s anti-Semites. Kaiser Wilhelm put it bluntly: “I am all in favor of the kikes going to Palestine. The sooner they take off the better.” The obvious question becomes, if there were two groups who wanted the Jews removed from Germany – the Nazi types and the Zionists – why didn’t they just work together? The answer is that they did, in ways so shocking that you will definitely want to read about them next week …
Thursday, June 09, 2011
Waiting for Sainthood - Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa make believe charities!
by Innaiah Narisetti
Searching for one more miracle and then Mother Teresa will become a saint. Then Catholics can do a roaring religious business.
Please observe the myths and reality about her.
Remember Bhopal India Bhopal
Sushan Sheilds who worked with Mother Teresa for 9 years dealing with her accounts of donations revealed that there was $ 50 million in New York Bank. The amount was received by various donors. That amount was supposed to be spent for poor, destitute children in her charity homes. She never bothered about the ethics of her donors.
Robert Maxwell, the mega publisher who embezzled the employee's funds to the tune of 450 million pounds, donated $1.25 million to Mother Teresa. And she was aware of the facts about Robert Maxwell.
The inhuman dictator of Haiti, Jean Claude Duvalier, honored Mother Teresa. She flew all the way to Haiti
Mother Teresa received $1.25 million from Charles Keating in California, USA Los Angeles, asked Mother Teresa to return the amount so that it could be distributed to the victims of Keating . Mother Teresa observed stoic silence!
Mother Teresa visited the grave site of Albanian dictator and nobody knew why she did that.
When Indira Gandhi, the prime minister of India imposed emergency during 1975 and suspended constitutional fundamental rights of citizens, Mother Teresa praised her saying that the people were happy, and the unemployment problem of India India
Dr Robert Fox, editor of Lancet , medical science magazine from UK visited the charity homes of Mother Teresa in Kolkata, India
During Bangladesh war with Pakistan in 1970s scores of women refugees flew to India
Walter Weber, after thorough research about the funds received by Mother Teresa published articles in Stern magazine in Germany Germany
Robert Fox, editor of Lancet, medical journal from UK
Treatment to Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa was sick and had to be admitted several times into hospitals. Those are corporate nursing homes which were very expensive.
She was in Nanavati Hospital
Twice she suffered heart attacks and treated in hospitals. During 1989 she received cardiac pacemaker.
During 1996 she was in intensive care after suffering heart failure.
Earlier she suffered with pneumonia during 1991.She broke her color bone in 1997.
Catholics, Pope and Mother Teresa should be thankful to doctors and medical science for curing her and discharged from corporate hospitals. Of course, she deserves such treat just as any other human being.
But Mother Teresa did not extend similar treatment nor facilities to children in her charity homes. There were advised to pray. When one patient in her charity homes was suffering and dying with cancer, Mother Teresa told him that Jesus must be kissing him. The patient immediately asked Mother Teresa to recommend to Jesus not to kiss him any more!
Nobody objected when Mother Teresa got corporate hospital treatements instead of prayers. But she did not realize that the lives of children are equally important, and no prayer would cure their disease.
Sister Paulen in Germany
Dhiru Shah of India
Arup Chatterjee (Kolkatta)in his book “ The Final Verdict” narrated several facts with first hand experience and documented the evidence.
Sunanda Datta Ray, reputed journalist published articles exposing the behavior of Mother Teresa.
Christopher Hitchens in collaboration with Tariq Ali produced documentary evidence entitled: Hell`s angel. It was telecasted from channel 4 in UK ( Nov 8, 1994).
Christopher Hitchens published a book entitled: Missionary position , which has become eye opener. He wrote this book after visiting Mother Teresa`s charity homes and also after interviewing her.
Of course on the other side Catholics worldwide and Pope, particulary promoted her activities. She received Templeton prize in 1973.
Above all, Mother Teresa received Nobel Prize for peace in 1986.
Mother Teresa was born in 1910 in Uskante, a small town in Macedonia India
Drama after the death:
As usual catholic institution commenced to concoct miracles in the name of Mother Teresa so that she can be canonized as saint. Then big business starts. It is necessary to show two miracles for that purpose.
The story starts!
Monica Basra, a poor tribal woman in west
Yet, the Pope determined to make her a saint which they could not do. But to start with they beatified her and called her blessed. Of course, in due course, it is no wonder if they will concote another miracle and finally make her saint. That is the regular business of the Catholic institution.
I met Mother Teresa in
Christopher Hitchens was called to Vatican
By Innaiah Narisetti
References:
1. Mother Teresa: The Final Verdict
2. The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice
3. Fox, Robin (1994). "Mother Theresa's care for the dying". The Lancet 344 (8925): 807
4. "Less than Miraculous" by Christopher Hitchens, Free Inquiry 24(2), February/March 2004.
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
Texas, Part 2
by Edd Doerr
While I was en route from Dallas to Baltimore via American Airlines on Monday evening (see Texas, Reflections, below) a Texas House committee was hearing testimony on a bill, HB 33, to provide massive state support to religious and other private schools under a voucher bill that does not use the word "vouchers". The horribly misnamed "Taxpayer Savings Grant Program" bill would actually have the state "create a voucher with no accountability that is hundreds of dollars more [$1,049 more, to be precise] on average than what the state has just proposed to spend on public education". The Republicans seem to have the votes to pass this piece of church-state melding thuggery in this special session.
Republicans are trying to pull the same sort of coprological shenanigans in Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Arizona. If Americans don't wake up, our great US public education system will go down the sewer, to be replaced by multiple systems of sectarian brainwashing centers.
While I was en route from Dallas to Baltimore via American Airlines on Monday evening (see Texas, Reflections, below) a Texas House committee was hearing testimony on a bill, HB 33, to provide massive state support to religious and other private schools under a voucher bill that does not use the word "vouchers". The horribly misnamed "Taxpayer Savings Grant Program" bill would actually have the state "create a voucher with no accountability that is hundreds of dollars more [$1,049 more, to be precise] on average than what the state has just proposed to spend on public education". The Republicans seem to have the votes to pass this piece of church-state melding thuggery in this special session.
Republicans are trying to pull the same sort of coprological shenanigans in Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Arizona. If Americans don't wake up, our great US public education system will go down the sewer, to be replaced by multiple systems of sectarian brainwashing centers.
Texas, Reflections
by Edd Doerr
The first weekend in June found me in Texas for the high school graduation of my granddaughter (magna cum laude). I was impressed by the ethnic diversity of the 375-student graduating class in the very affluent Dallas suburb ( in Dick Armey's old congressional district). While the grads were predominantly Euro-American, the four student speakers were -- president, African-American; salutatorian, Chinese-American; valedictorian and class vice-president, Hispanic. And all four were female. The graduating class was quite diverse.
On arrival I was greeted by a lead story in the June 3 Dallas Morning News, "School cuts risky business, executives say", a report on Gov Rick Perry and the GOP-dominated legislature's plan to slice $4 billion from the biennial education budget., which would mean about 50,000 school district layoffs. The cuts are so draconian that even business leaders are complaining, James Oberwetter (president of the Dallas Regional Chamber of Commerce, former Bush ambassador to Saudi Arabia, former adviser to Texas oilman Ray Hunt) warned that shortchanging education could undermine the state's ability to compete for jobs and investment, and urged that the state tap into the state's $9 billion "rainy day" fund. According to the US Census Bureau Texas ranks 42nd in per capita school spending.
FYI, Texas has 1,000 school districts, compared to Maryland's well-run 24. The Texas State Board of Education for years has been plagued by majorities of right wing and fundamentalist mouth-breathers and creationists.
More FYI: Texas has the third highest teen birth rate in the US. Between 1991 and 2004 teen births in Texas cost taxpayers over $15 billion. Well over 90% of Texas students get no comprehensive sexuality education beyond abstinence education, which is equivalent to teaching kids that the best way to avoid automobile accidents is not to drive. The percentage of Texas high school students who have sex is higher than the national average and the percentage who use contraceptives is lower.
One good thing about Texas, it is very hard to find a bad restaurant.
The first weekend in June found me in Texas for the high school graduation of my granddaughter (magna cum laude). I was impressed by the ethnic diversity of the 375-student graduating class in the very affluent Dallas suburb ( in Dick Armey's old congressional district). While the grads were predominantly Euro-American, the four student speakers were -- president, African-American; salutatorian, Chinese-American; valedictorian and class vice-president, Hispanic. And all four were female. The graduating class was quite diverse.
On arrival I was greeted by a lead story in the June 3 Dallas Morning News, "School cuts risky business, executives say", a report on Gov Rick Perry and the GOP-dominated legislature's plan to slice $4 billion from the biennial education budget., which would mean about 50,000 school district layoffs. The cuts are so draconian that even business leaders are complaining, James Oberwetter (president of the Dallas Regional Chamber of Commerce, former Bush ambassador to Saudi Arabia, former adviser to Texas oilman Ray Hunt) warned that shortchanging education could undermine the state's ability to compete for jobs and investment, and urged that the state tap into the state's $9 billion "rainy day" fund. According to the US Census Bureau Texas ranks 42nd in per capita school spending.
FYI, Texas has 1,000 school districts, compared to Maryland's well-run 24. The Texas State Board of Education for years has been plagued by majorities of right wing and fundamentalist mouth-breathers and creationists.
More FYI: Texas has the third highest teen birth rate in the US. Between 1991 and 2004 teen births in Texas cost taxpayers over $15 billion. Well over 90% of Texas students get no comprehensive sexuality education beyond abstinence education, which is equivalent to teaching kids that the best way to avoid automobile accidents is not to drive. The percentage of Texas high school students who have sex is higher than the national average and the percentage who use contraceptives is lower.
One good thing about Texas, it is very hard to find a bad restaurant.
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