Our education system is failing for several reasons.

1. Family structures aren't what they used to be. Then again, neither is the country. Respect for symbols, adults, each other, has gone the way of Common Sense. If it isn't on social media readily available on an electronic device, then why bother thinking about it, researching it, questioning it?

2. Apparently there isn't a lot of reading going on in a lot of families. If the parents don't read it is guaranteed the children won't, either. Good luck getting a child to curl up with a good book on a rainy or just-too-hot-day to be outdoors. They will play video games until their eyes dry up. No student should be allowed past 3rd and 8th grades without being able to read for understanding at those levels. This newspaper I believe, is written for an 11th grade level, if I am not mistaken. This means that ninth-graders should be able to handle it. Most adults read at 7th or 8th grade level. Most books are at this level. This literacy fact says a lot about us as a nation.

3. Our educational system structure is partially to blame. K-12 demands regular annual progress regardless of whether any material was learned for understanding and retained. There's another class coming along, and heaven forbid we hold any student back, at any age. Social promotion has been the standing order of the day, for DECADES. Teachers' hold-back recommendations are routinely ignored.

4. An overhaul of our educational structure is long past due. K-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-14. Students should start K at age 6, 1st grade at age 7. Middle school should run three years, grades 7-9. High school should be lengthened to 5 or 6 years. I don't make this recommendation lightly. To borrow a phrase, students are getting "a mile-wide education one inch deep." Look up SC (or any state) high school core subject standards. Read line by line what teachers are expected to teach. On too many facets, teachers could spend weeks, months, or an entire year on them, to insure learning for understanding. They don't have the time, so they merely introduce topics, not study them. Imagine sending more mature and actually prepared high school graduates out into the world at jobs, or at college, able to actually function without needing remedial courses. It's a concept. It's supposed to be the whole point of education.

All the disgraceful national stories about college behaviorial problems on campuses, including frats and sororities, would probably be greatly reduced if the environment consisted of older and more mature young citizens, actually interested in learning and questioning. Our brains don't fully develop for about 23 years or so. Until all those neurons are connected, why push students through a system they aren't ready for?

Annually, everywhere, because students mature at different paces, there are 7th graders not ready for 8th, 8th not ready for 9th, 12s not ready for college, etc. This is fact, and this is fixable. Students in each of the numeric categories I listed would be able to proceed at their own pace. Under this overhaul, the best would still graduate in four years, and NOT need remedial college courses, and NOT need help filling out a job app. There would be no social stigma staying an extra half year, year, or up to two years.

The goal of education is to produce qualified, literate citizens ready to take their place in the world. Who cares how long that takes? We are failing at that, annually, in great numbers. That failure is showing up everywhere, in the low quality of elected leaders at every level and job of govt; low levels of journalism; medical mistakes, you name the career field, it has problems it didn't use to have.

Our current crop of citizens can't lift their heads up away from their devices to walk, talk, drive, or be civil. They can't carry on a conversation unless they use their thumbs. Their standard response to social confrontations however minor or major, is to either flash a middle finger, or a gun. The complete visible lack of manners, tolerance, and Common Sense, is atrocious. They don't even like our Flag.

This is nuts. We allowed this to happen. We created this. We can fix this. We will not fix it if we continue to support the current education structure, one in which too many certified teachers become expensive administrators, or simply quit; where we socially promote the un-ready; where we praise the few with particular skills in whatever (sports, mostly) and ignore the majority; where we allow tax dollars to be pulled away from public schools to fund charter schools that, even with selective admittance programs, show barely more progress.

States need to tell the feds to stay out of public education, and learn to go their own way. States know where their problems are. Relying on blanket programs from the feds that don't allow for individual fixes is wrong, and proven wrong.

Our ineffective, broken national public school system doesn't necessarily need a lot of money to be fixed.

Let's first define the problem. Life-risking busses? Low-paid staff? Too may administrators, not enough classroom teachers? Crumbling facilities? Lousy test scores? Low h.s. grad rate, recently manipulated in this state by lowering the scoring system? High drop-out rate? Too many needing remedial classes in the basic skills their first year of college?

SC is slowly, like it does everything, proceeding to acquire a few new busses each year. It's a start. There will be a horrible accident or two before that gets the attention it deserves. New roads have started, as well. So, there's some light in those tunnels.

Staff are low paid, especially classroom teachers. When her district allegedly has a 16-person public affairs staff, it's difficult to listen to her and the school board complain about funds shortages. When local and state govt officials give away the bank to entice new businesses to settle here, there is a not so hidden cost to those offers: someone else is going to get short-changed. So far, that someone else has been SC education.

Low test scores, grad rates, high drop out rates, and a high number of graduated students needing remedial courses, is mostly a function of lousy home lives, and of schools trying to teach too much in four short years, or 175 days times 4 = 700 high school days. That simply is not enough time. It just isn't. Teach less, or add more days. That simple.

Parents and students should not get all glossy-eyed over great GPAs. Almost none are based on detailed knowledge of any subject. Scan through the standards for any required high school course. I defy you to explain to me or anyone else, satisfactorily, how so much can be taught for understanding, in such a short time period. Answer is, that it can not and is not being done. Remedial college freshman courses, drop out rates, and grad rates, are all proof. Students for decades and decades have received a "miles wide, inch-deep" education exposure. Most folks posting here including me are victims of this approach.

Simply by reading the core state standards/requirements, one should quickly grasp that students simply aren't being given enough time to absorb, critically think about, and understand the material, much less the nuances. We annually send off un-prepared, mostly socially promoted students into the world, be it to sell drugs and work retail, attend a career technical school, or attend an actual college, sorely un-prepared to handle the advanced course work or life challenges.

One shouldn't criticize, without having viable alternatives. Here's mine.

We need to re-structure our K-12 system. it currently is based upon age. If you are a certain age you need to be in a certain grade level, and that is all there is to that. The horror of holding a chlld back a year, especially in early years, is too much for those involved. That self-esteem thing weighs more than any other single factor.

Our schools should start first graders at age 7. No one goes to 4th grade without reading at 3rd grade level, period, nor does anyone go past 8th grade without reading at an 8th grade level. Most newspapers are I believe, set for 8th grade reading levels. It's not that tough a standard.

If it takes a student six years to graduate high school, I say why not. Eliminate the four anachronistic levels, and replace with a different, perhaps numeric scale. One being beginning knowledge levels, and 6 being actually ready for college course work without needing remedial classes. Testing at registration would help place students in appropriate starting levels.

Sending 19-20 year olds off to college isn't a bad idea. Their advanced maturity should translate to less college nonsense, especially fraternity and sorority behaviors that have made national headlines over the years, and more students actually staying in college, actually learning, as opposed to one and done, or not even attending at all. This carries forward to graduating 25-26 year olds into the real world, far better prepared to handle job challenges and life itself. Repeated studies have shown human brains take about 23-25 years to fully mature. Why rush students through a system they aren't built for?

Personally, I want my nurse to know what the heck he or she is doing. I want my airplane pilot to be smarter than his or her instruments. I want my train engineer fully alert at all times. I want the truck drivers high-balling me on the highways trained and able to handle their rigs. That list goes on and on.

Shut down charter schools. Stop the drain of public school funding. Change our school funding system. Pay all our teachers a living wage. And let's re-invent the way we teach our young.

CBS News posted on their site a story about 18 deadliest U.S. mass shootings. I looked up some of the details:  example - 0/2 = dead/wounded

Sep 1949: Camden, NJ: WW II vet on rampage, 13/3; Luger pistol.

Aug 1996: Austin TX: former Marine on rampage, 17/31; Rem. 6mm; M-1 carbine; .35 caliber; 12 gaug shotgun; .357 magnum; Luger; knife; .25 ACP.

1982: Wilkes-Barre PA: prison guard on rampage, 13/0; AR-15

1983: Seattle, WA: gang hit, three shooters, 13/0 multiple firearms.

1984: San Ysidro, CA: survivalist/security guard on rampage, 21/19; Uzi; shotgun; pistol.

1986: Edmond, OK: postal worker on rampage, 14/6; two .45 semi-auto pistols, one .22 Ruger semi-auto pistol.

Oct 1991: Killeen, TX: 23/27; unemployed man on rampage; Glock 17; Ruger P89.

Apr 1999: Columbine CO; 13/26; two students, Tec-9 among several weapons and unexploded bombs.

Apr 2007: Virginia Tech, VA; 32/23; student; Glock 19; Walther P22.

Apr 2009: Binghampton, NY; 13/4; unemployed Vietnam native; 9mm Beretta; Beretta .45

Nov 2009: Ft. Hood, TX; 13/32; major; FN5-7 pistol; .357 magnum.

2012: Aurora, CO: 12/62; student; tear gas, M + P 15 Sport Rifle; 870 Remington Shotgun; Glock 22; FN5-7 pistol; .357 magnum.

Dec 2012: Sandy Hook, NY: 27/2; man on rampage; AR-15; Glock 10mm; two semi-auto handguns; hundreds of rounds of ammo; several magazines.

2014: Wash. D. C. Naval Yard: 12/8; civilian contractor; Rem 870 shotgun.

2015: San Bernadino, CA: 14/24; Muslim; two .223 AR-15s; 2 9mm guns; pipe bombs.

Dec 2015: Orlando, FL: 49/53; Muslim; Sig Sauer semi-auto rifle; 9mm Glock 17 semi-auto pistol.

Oct 2017: Las Vegas, NV: 58/546; four DDM rifles; three FN-15 rifles; one AR-15 rifle; one AR-10 rifle; 1 AK-47 rifle; one LMT rifle made to order; one handgun.

Nov 2017: Sutherland, TX: 26/20; all in church; unbalanced shooter; automatic weapon; 30 empty mags found holding 15 rounds each.

Total dead: 338, does not include shooters themselves.

Total injured: 886 (548 in NV alone)

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Number of NRA conventions in victim cities: at least one, Denver, shortly after Columbine.

Congressional response to massacres since 2004:

1. 2004: Effort to renew the assault weapons ban law of 1994 failed in a Republican-controlled Congress.

2. 2008, post-VA. Tech shooting, Bush II signed into law an expansion of FBI background check system; also required agencies to keep up to date records on people with mental health issues and felons.

3. 2011, post-Rep. Gifford shooting (one of their own): a bill closing gun show loopholes and banning high-capacity magazines, failed.

4. 2013, post-Sandy Hook Elem. School massacre: a bill expanding background checks failed, as did proposed amendments to this bill banning high-capacity clips and limiting size of magazines to 10 clips.

5. 2015, post-San Bernadino shooting: Senate rejected a series of gun control bills; failed repealing funding gun ban on gun violence research.

6. 2016: Bi-partisan bill on background checks failed in Senate.

7. 2016: post-Orlando nightclub shooting: a bill proposing a no-fly, no-buy terrorist watchlist ban on purchasing weapons failed in Senate; never came to a vote in the House; Trump on campaign trail was in favor of this bill, as were 86% of polled voters.

  

NRA spending 1998-2016 to politicians, political action committees, campaigns usually without coordination with candidate, for or against: $207m.

Break-out since 1998:

Donations to Congress members: $4.23m (source: Washington Post newspaper).

Contributions to candidate, P.A.C.s, $13m.

Outside spending: "independent expenditures, often ad campaigns for or against a candidate without coordinating with same": $144m.

Federal lobbying: $46m.

After researching this, studying what I have presented here, I have come to these conclusions:

1. Congress does not care and will not act to reduce massacres. Your representatives simply do not care about mass murder.

2. NRA money talks, and bullshit walks.

3. Massacres will continue and so will the hand-wringing and the crying and the spin, but nothing, absolutely nothing, will change in America.

Mind you, this is just a list of the deadliest massacres. Wikipedia and the FBI have far more data on mass killings.

Pretty sick. It's worse than sick, because as a nation, as a society, we have chosen to do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to change this, to reduce this, to make our communities safer. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Shame on us all.

 A need to own guns falls into three categories: hunt for fun, which controls herds; hunt for food; protection. No one needs high firepower, multi-round, easy re-loadable weaponry to do any of these three activities.

 No one is asking anyone to give up their guns, or their gun rights. I believe in restricting the sale of weaponry designed for armies, to armies. Call me crazy. Swat teams too. That's it. No other category needs them. 

Tanks and LAWs and jet fighters aren't sold to the general public for the same reasons. There is no loss to anyone's precious rights if we finally, at long last, take a stand in trying to reduce the national slaughter rate, by restricting that which seems to do the most damage in the quickest amount of time. Why not do this? What reason would we not ? 

People intent on committing violence can use baseball bats, tire irons, axes, crowbars, you name it, but they cannot commit mass slaughter quickly. These weapons and small guns that hold small numbers of rounds before needing re-loading, would give crowds time to scatter, thus lowering the kill and injured total. Now, who would be against that? 

Respect the Flag

"When you see the Stars and Stripes displayed, son, stand up and take off your hat, somebody may titter. It is in the blood of some to deride all expressions of noble sentiment. You may blaspheme in the street and stagger drunken in public places, and the bystanders will not pay much attention to you; but if you should get down on your knees and pray to Almighty God or if you should stand bareheaded while a company of old soldiers marches by with flags to the breeze, some people will think you are showing off.

But don't you mind: When Old Glory comes along, salute, and let them think what they please! When you hear the band play " The Star Spangled Banner " while you are in a restaurant or hotel dining room, get up even if you rise alone; stand there and don't be ashamed of it, either!

For of all the signs and symbols since the world began there is none other so full of meaning as the flag of this country. That piece of red, white and blue bunting means five thousand years of struggle upward. It is the full-grown flower of ages of fighting for liberty. It is the century plant of human hope in bloom.

Your flag stands for humanity, for an equal opportunity to all the sons of men. Of course we haven't arrived yet at that goal; there are many injustices yet among us, many senseless and cruel customs of the past still clinging to us, but the only hope of righting the wrongs of men lies in the feeling produced in our bosoms by the sight of that flag.

Other flags mean a glorious past, this flag a glorious future. It is not so much the flag of our fathers as it is the flag of our children, and of all children's children yet unborn. It is the flag of tomorrow. It is the signal of the " Good Times Coming. " It is not the flag of your king-it is the flag of yourself and of all your neighbors.

Don't be ashamed when your throat chokes and the tears come, as you see it flying from the masts of our ships on all the seas or floating from every flagstaff of the Republic. You will never have a worthier emotion. Reverence it as you would reverence the signature of the Deity.

Listen, son! The band is playing the national anthem - "The Star Spangled Banner." They have let loose Old Glory yonder. Stand up-and others will stand with you.

This tribute to the flag is offered to the country in appeal to all men and women of all races, colors, and tongues, that they may come to understand that our flag is the symbol of liberty, and learn to love it.
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Author: Alvin M. Owsley. It was on the backside of an American Legion page entitled "The Flag Code." It is a product of the American Legion's National Americanism Commission circa 1923. Seems fairly applicable today.

Divisiveness is bringing down our country. 

There have always been differences of opinion on every topic, and there always will be, hopefully. We seem to have more splinter groups than ever before, all shouting to be heard, or protesting over something or other. Our Congress is Bought and Sold, and has been for years. Once in office, they could care less about us. Their salaries are far outweighed by their benefits legal and not so legal.

I still encourage people to vote. It's our only weapon left. Too many Americans since 1917 have died for our freedoms not to vote. I am sure the dead would love to vote just once. But for crying out loud, be a term-limit person and vote out all incumbents in place for two or more terms. Diane Feinstein from CA is about 87 and deems herself fit to run again. This is nuts. I am so weary of voters not caring and just voting a straight party ticket, or simply recognizing a name and checking that box.

Our spirialing-down education system isn't helping matters. Our young people enter adulthood totally un-equipped to make good conscious choices. We used to have a three-part, Checks and Balances govt where in each branch kept an eye on the other. No longer true, blatantly so.

The Executive Order power presidents have has morphed from sparing the Thanksgiving Day turkey, to making each president one himself. Thoroughly and totally NOT what the FF had in mind when they set up this Checks and Balances thing. Grown adults can't/won't lean across the aisle and talk with, not to, each other. Meanwhile, our enemies are lapping it all up. 

We don't have to worry about invasion. We're doing just fine destroying ourselves from within.

What happens when the next black motorist mis-behaves during a traffic stop and any color officer ends up shooting that person? Is the dis-respectful kneeling going to continue?

What happens when a black couple shops for a housing loan and is rejected time and again, or offered a higher rate than anyone else? Is the dis-respectful kneeling going to continue?

What happens when a black person shoots another black person, yet again? Will there be kneeling? Protests?

What happens when young blacks rage in a mall brawl, or have a punch-out in a park? Will there be kneeling? Riots? Public and private property destroyed?

White folks, and others of all tints, are abhorred whenever people of any tint are mis-treated, whether they take to the streets or not. Please don't mis-interpret our silence as acquiescence and approval. We do not.

We are however, absolutely mystified, when a black motorist doesn't know how to behave/respond during a traffic or street stop, no matter the reason or lack of one. The proper response simply is NOT rocket science. When a police officer contacts you, be polite. Talk politely. Move very slowly if you must. Answer the questions, politely. Accept the ticket. Accept the harassment. Also accept name and badge number, note the time and location, and immediately report the officer's actions to that officer's superior. You can be assured the matter will be investigated.

You can also be assured that if you act the fool during a contact, you are going to create problems for yourself. Not keeping your hands in clear view, sudden movements, running away, driving away, yelling, assaulting, throwing, whatever, will bring a response you are not going to like. How hard is this?

I understand, I get it, that blacks are followed around retail stores as if they were about to steal. I get that they get stopped for driving/walking.sitting while black. But their reaction always determines what happens next. I don't believe kneeling is going to change any of this.

We citizens of all shades, we immigrants/sons and daughters of immigrants all, willing or not, are perfectly aware our melting pot nation is not perfect. We always will have problems and we must always be vigilant in identifying them and coming up with viable solutions. This kneeling, this refusing to stand and appear, will not change anything substantial. Point has been made. It's time to move on.

We have struggled with equality mightily since the end of the Civil War. We have a long ways to go. Blacks do appear to be their own worst enemy, however, merely by the way a tiny minority lead their lives. The rest of the imbalance: in properly funding decent schools with great teachers in poverty zones, with proper pay rates, with sufficient job opportunities, with equal maintenance and repair of neighborhoods and provision of parks and playgrounds, can far more easily be addressed. There simply are too many blacks in prison and across the nation's crime statistics sheet, in proportion to their total percentage of the population. That fix, is not in stadiums, arenas, marches, riots. It's in the mirror.

Just a thought, but maybe if we pulled our troops out of the 177 countries they are currently deployed in, we could cut down on the $100B it takes to support some 800 overseas bases. Military leaders are constantly complaining how tired our troops are. Well, no kidding.

Here's a short list of where we have our military. We need to be asking why, and demanding answers. Ask yourself how many of these countries listed we actually are at war with: Norway, Hungary, Kosovo, Romania, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Afghanistan, Pakistan, UAE, Qatar, Singapore, British Indian Ocean Territory Australia, Guam, Japan, S. Korea, Poland, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, England, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Somalia, Uganda, Greenland, Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Honduras, Columbia, Brazil, Peru, El Salvador, Mexico, Canada. Just a partial list, mind you.

Meanwhile: home infrastructure is crumbling; mental health care is lacking, health care for all is lacking, about seven states and Puerto Rico need serious long-term aid to re-build themselves from fires and hurricanes and floods. Nope, I have zero idea why we are in these countries. Afghanistan has zero end in sight, btw. Zero End. Think about it.

In response to NFL anthem/flag protests around our country Sunday Sept 24, 2017.

The failure of American public schools was evident across the length and breadth of our beloved country this weekend. Countless sheep decided to dis-respect our nation's symbol, thus enabling our enemies like no spin out of Washington D.C. could. They know now, that we are weak, deeply divided, and non-patriotic and won't care who comes in to do whatever.

Not everyone, of course.

The spin this morning is that such dis-respectful actions have nothing to do with love of flag and country, but everything to do with mis-treatment of some folks, or whatever.

Wrong.

Those of us, and we are in the vast, vast majority, who stand to respect our flag and anthem, are fully aware of our failings as a country, a mixed culture found nowhere else on Earth. We are also aware of our accomplishments, of the Five Thousand Year Leap, of the advances humans have and can make when given the freedom and the laws to do so, un-hindered by restrictive one-person rules and dictates. One fellow has been quoted as saying America is only known for baseball, Constitution, and Jazz music. I dis-agree.

Name another country where people are willing to die, to risk their lives, to reach. People: stow away, float, swim, hijack, tunnel, falsify papers to come to America. Our freedoms are like nowhere else on Earth. Folks are taking them for granted.

Standing for our flag acknowledges that we are Americans, all of us immigrants or descended from. Many cultures, languages, backgrounds, customs, habits, beliefs religious and otherwise. E Pluribus Unum. Out of Many, One.

We all know America is not perfect. Our failings, however, are out there for all to see, unlike govts. past and present around the globe today. We are aware of what needs fixing, and we are working on it. It will not get fixed, whatever it is, overnight.

To me it is hypocritical to stand in an arena and boo those who don't show this respect, then sit down and watch them perform for us anyway, as if we can't live without their athleticism. Horse hockey.

What will happen to us as a nation, unique to all others, when we stop coming together as one people, under one flag, no longer believing in the ideals and philosophies and guidelines laid out for us 228 years ago, when our Constitution was produced in 1789? We have to, we must believe in something. Otherwise, we believe in nothing, and that shall be the end of us.

Two generations, minimum, of Americans have been raised primarily in day care by strangers. Think about that. I believe it has had serious impact on national social mores, the way we greet, meet, and treat each other. Which is to say, shabbily to poor to violently. 

Says a lot about us as a nation, when we walk and drive around, with our heads down staring at our pacifiers. No human qualities on display much, anymore. Letting a car in front of you in a traffic line, or in or out of a parking lot or side street; no holding doors for others by looking behind us as we enter or exit; no returning shopping carts to pick-up points so they don't block others; littering everywhere; road rage; shootings for no reason. Our family values and moral fiber are weak to non-existant. Our natural propensity for acting out emotionally, irrationally, violently, sometimes deadly, is so much more so in evidence the past 30 years or so. Really sad to observe.

In response to a Charleston, SC Post and Courier newspaper article Sat Sept 2 2017 about on-line physical education being available and popular, the following is offered in response/opposition. Good grief.

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No kidding.

The nation-wide emphasis on varsity and junior varsity competition, down to 7th grade, has existed for decades to serve only a tiny minority of enrolled students everywhere. The talented few compete, the rest are expected to enthusiastically support them, whether they want to or not. Makes no difference the sport.

Meanwhile, out on the grassy fields of multiple sports, CTE continues to take lives/damage brains, eventually, through repeated knocks to the developing brains and skulls of the young and sometimes gifted. Parents continue to look the other way. Why, I have no idea.

On-line physical education classes are nothing more than logging what you may or may not have done over time. Seriously? Intramural sports, on the other hand, guarantees: actual physical activity, increased heartrate, aerobic gain, sweat, effort, learning about competition, digging down inside one's self to try harder, never give up, to win and lose with grace. You know, sportsmanship, win or lose. Are these key-tappers receiving these types of benefits sitting in the bleachers? Ehh, probably not. Definitely not. The same group of young people afraid to shower with their peers, has zero problem walking in public with their pants hanging below their buttocks and their chests exposed. Weak excuse.

Parents, and taxpayers without children in the school systems, constantly complain about costs.
Well, here's an area to dramatically trim costs. Eliminate high school varsity sports entirely. If your child wants to play enroll him/her in an off-campus program at your expense, not ours.

Implement intramural sports program across the curriculum starting in 7th grade. Every student including special needs, must enroll in one sport, preferably two, every year. Flag football, volleyball, basketball, badminton, softball, wrestling, field hockey, soccer, you name it. EVERYONE participates. We can dial down this letter jacket/bmoc thing. Teachers and students have their favorite sports team player's name and number all over the hallways and classrooms, while National Honor Society and IB students and the musically and artistically gifted routinely get ignored. No pep rallies for them, have you noticed?

No Friday night light bill. No stadium maintenance. No security. Far less insurance. Far less equipment needed. Flag football requires plastic belts and flags, tennis shoes, and a grass field. No traveling budget. No traveling on the nation's apparently oldest school busses. No students bouncing along on C averages, being released from desperately needed classroom time early, to go knock themselves senseless somewhere. Concussions will happen during intramurals too, but in far less numbers and should occur at less impact speed.

School spirit, often cited by principals as key to an entire school's self-worth, won't suffer. Indeed, the number of students feeling better and more self-confident about themselves should actually rise. The inclusion of ALL students in physical fitness training and competition is better for our society as a whole. Isn't this the point of public education, to educate and improve ALL students? Take a look around next time you're out running errands, etc. We are a woefully out of shape nation. Our education system's failings in this crucial area of student development is a prime reason, but not the only one.

Anyone swallowing this bilge water about on-line physical education needs to have their head examined.

In response to a FB post I read, whereby a young lady, ostensibly an American, asked why anyone would really want to pledge allegiance to a symbol.  My response for what it is worth:

I want to stand for our flag and pledge allegiance to all that it represents. We Americans, immigrants or children of immigrants every last one of us, including the Indians, have put forth the greatest experiment in self-rule in the history of human kind. It isn't perfect. We aren't perfect. Our national mistakes, scandals, internal war, our street battles, our arguments, our grievous errors are out there for the whole world to see. 

We made the Five Thousand Year Leap in civilization, because we embraced individual freedom and responsibility for one's own life, philosophy, beliefs, values, morals. What worked really well for over 200 years, was pledging that allegiance, remembering and applying the Golden Rule, and working together to advance our society and fix our mistakes to make this country more equitable for all. 

We remain the beacon of hope for the entire world. Make no mistake about that. Don't ever doubt that for a second. There's no line, no tunnels, no boats, no homemade rafts, to get into N. Korea, Russia, Cuba, Japan, Finland, Venezuela, Peru, France, Canada, or anywhere else. Folks want to come here and they will do anything to make it. There are reasons for this international attitude.

 It serves zero purpose for the greater good, for folks to speak out against what we stand for, what we are striving for, to turn us away from making life in America better for everyone, for ALL. Kneeling during our anthem, tearing down monuments, advocating one skin tint over another, this is not what America is about. Never has been, never will be. 

Freedoms listed in the Bill of Rights come with limits, believe it or not, best imposed by Common Sense and majority rule, not by lawyers, civil libertarians who think they know what is best for all of us, nor protesters with nothing better to do with their lives. 

When I pledge allegiance to my country and its symbol, I am not ignoring the wrongs done to my fellow citizens. I am not advocating one race over another, one political line of thinking over another. I am not ignoring improper treatment of anyone, by anyone. I am recognizing the basic principles upon which our great country was founded. I am standing up to give notice that I believe in making it better for everyone through peaceful, lawful means.

 A House divided, cannot stand. One Nation, Under God (whatever that vision is for you) Undivided, with Liberty, and Justice, for all. No matter how long it takes. 

Questions? 

Thank You.

Research before pontificating is always a good idea.

NATO pulled out and declared an end to hostilities in Dec 2014. About 13k soldiers in the country fighting the Taliban and whomever else is there, and about half or more are U.S. soldiers.

Exactly how do we get left holding the bag after every war? We stayed in Europe after WW II, because Stalin wouldn't pull back, and the Cold War cost us billions. Yes, NATO troops were with us, but examine committed budgets from each of those countries compared to ours.

We managed to entangle ourselves along with the UN forces, in Korea. Three years later, and ever since, who is the overwhelmingling predominant military force there? Hint, it ain't the Australians....

NATO countries willingly went into Afghanistan with us, as Bush II neatly swerved around our Constitutional requirement that only Congress can declare war, by declaring he would follow UN sanctions and charters. How legal that move was, no one knows and heaven forbid the Fourth Estate would have the testicles to investigate.

Almost three full years after NATO allies withdrew, our president is re-committing troops to a strange cause. Like Vietnam (you remember that one, correct?) the landscape doesn't lend itself to ground troop battles. What is noticeable, is that, as of today, no other NATO nation has joined our president's announcement. Once again, America goes forth almost totally by itself, into the wilderness. The Military Industrial Complex is as strong as it's ever been.

Soon, American soldiers will start coming home in boxes, while a hard to find enemy dances around Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Meanwhile, the real enemy far closer to home, Islamic terrorist cells, rise up all over the globe raising havoc and bringing terror and death, all the while crying "we're innocent. We don't know how this could have happened. Please forgive our Imam. We didn't know he was a bad person."
Holy Crap.

Having just read Jane Mayer's 2016 book Dark Money, this article does not surprise me at all. The dark money of billionaires has infiltrated, like the tentacles of an octupus, every corner of America, in their so-far completely successful attempts to change public opinion, laws, philosophies, freedoms of choice, you name it. Betsey Prince DeVos already admitted to this years ago. Others of her ilk and societal levels have done more damage to America than anyone can comprehend. The 2010 Supreme Court decision, Citizens United, removed 100-year old constraints on campaign finance, opening the doors to unlimited spending, overty and covertly, brushing up against remaining few laws. The influence of the far right extends everywhere their money is accepted, which is everywhere, from Congress and the SC, through the WH on down to whatever field you might have interest in. The U.S. of Corporate America needs a new flag. One with a crooked dollar sign on it, landing in the palms of elected and appointed officials. Too bad too. This experiment in self rule, not without its problems from the beginning, was the most successful of all mankinds' many attempts to live under semblance of law, order, and civility. That is all gone now, and I do not know how to get it back.

America is a oligarchy/plutocracy now. 

Forget our Constitution and the balancing branches of govt. Self-rule has been abused and replaced by the wealthy who have adjusted the system to their benefit.

I love this country too. But the reality is, we no longer follow our Constitution. We are in national debt over our eyeballs and no plan to address it. We insist on foreign entanglements/war, because it is good for business (just the billionaires who benefit). 

I suppose it might be possible to return to the good old days of three balancing branches of govt. Takes a responsive Congress that hasn't sold out to the highest bidder. That happened decades ago. Even the Supreme Court has bent over for Corporate America. 

Why do you think nothing changes? Because those in power behind the throne, making enormous wealth, want it that way. A revolution aimed not at Washington, but at the billionaires behind the scenes pulling all the strings, is necessary to restore our Constitution as the actual Law of the Land. Every time a figurehead president (all of them since LBJ) signs an Executive Order, he goes right around the entire process, thus weakening it further. 

Time to change our flag to one with a Dollar Sign.

And yes, my flag is still up in my front yard. Happy 4th. I guess. (boy this is going to piss some people off....)

Why aren't charges being brought? I don't understand.

Alleged actress/solipsistic Madonna: " .....wanna blow up the White House...."

Night t.v. host Stephen Colbert about our President, whether you voted for him or not: "....your mouth is good only for a
c--k holster for Putin..."

Actor Johnny Depp: " how long has it been since an actor shot a President? Might be time for it again...."

Alleged comedian Kathy Griffin posts a picture of herself holding up the bloody freshly amputated head of our President to social media.

Why aren't charges being brought? I don't understand.

In response to an article about SC education ranking last in America, I offered this response:

I think it's more a reflection of disappearing/definitely-changing social mores and family values, than it is about anything really changing or failing to change in SC education pursuits and standards.

Up to about the early to mid-1970s, two-earner incomes were not the norm in most families. Dad usually went out to slay the dragons, and Mom tended the home fires and was hugely responsible for molding the children. That has all undergone tremendous change, because home values have.

There are fewer two-parent, different-sex households than before. There are single-parent home-lives ongoing. There are grandparents in the child-raising mix. One parent is dead, gone, under the influence of whatever, or jailed. The all-important home stability factor has diminished in its numbers.
Teachers today are sometimes the only people giving students hugs and support. Schools sometimes are the only meal providers. We have police officers in our school hallways, down to the elementary level. These are all signs that societal fabric is tearing at its most important point, home life.

It is NOT the responsibility of teachers to expose children of any age to: basic manners, a love of reading, basic hygiene, basic dress code standards, self-respect, and respect for other children and authority figures. These responsibilities begin at home. They used to, and they need to again.

Classrooms and schools can have computers and SmartBoards and updated software in every room, but if students arrive with dissenting resistant attitudes of me-first, zero empathy for others, and no desire to learn or cooperate, then having them at the river is useless, since they are extremely poorly prepared to drink. There are few teachers available at any salary who can make that happen.

Fix the families, fix the schools. It's that simple. And that difficult. Respect for one's self, first, then respect for adults and authority figures. The Golden Rule, along with Don't Touch and Keep Thy Hands to Thyself, solves/avoids about 95% of every day's events. Parents play such a key role in student lives, and thus school and society as well. What comes out of the home, affects us all. Throwing more money at schools ain't necessarily the problem, although teachers are under-paid and schools remain under-funded, because we don't place high value on education in America. We simply don't.

Fix the families, fix the schools.

Somewhere in the middle of WW II, Wild Bill Donovan took the OSS spy agency off and running. It was once killed, allegedly, by HST after the war, but didn't really die. It was renamed the CIA and people like Donovan and the Dulles brothers put our country on a different path from which we have been unable to stop and get off of. Tons upon tons of war material stashed in the Pacific for the pending invasion of Japan, instead was split and sent half to Korea, and half to Vietnam. The manipulations of the populations of those two countries makes for fascinating reading by our Black Ops guys who took part. JFK came along in 1961 and thoroughly upset the status quo by pursuing world peace, calling for it in our lifetime. His American University commencement address in June 1963 was one of his last efforts to turn us around. He wanted us out of Vietnam and in fact signed the orders, which were ignored by his Joint Chiefs and Defense Dept, aided by the CIA and State. He signed a nuclear arms treaty with the Russians, which ticked off the establishment no end. He had us, and the world, both East and West, on a path to peaceful co-existence, using the Peace Corps as a primary tool. He sent us to explore the heavens and land on the moon. And it all ended in Dallas, the third of three cities selected that summer that he was visiting, in which to assassinate him. The same triangular field of fire was set up in all three cities. It worked in Dallas. The CIA got their way, the day after his funeral LBJ signed the document sending us to war. We haven't looked back. Ike warned us about the M. Ind. Complex, and we failed miserably to listen. War is the engine for economies, it has been argued. We will never know if peace would also work, because the powers behind Washington won't allow it. The development and use of the atomic bomb nearly ruined the cabal's plans, as using nukes would eliminate the needs for arms and that economy, and wouldn't do much for populations, either. The last 72 years have been miserable for a govt that once held so much promise. Today it is an empty shell of its origins and I doubt any of the FF would recognize it.

How to Improve Public Education:

1. Children may start school when they are ready, not by some arbitrary age.

2. Children may progress through required material at their own pace, and not be socially promoted based upon age or size.

3. No one gets past third grade without being able to read at a third grade level. No one gets past 8th grade without being able to read at an 8th grade level.

4. Starting in middle school, abolish all varsity sports programs. Your kid has some athletic talent? Great. Go pay his/her fees for some traveling team and better training/coaching. The rest of the ENTIRE student body must participate in at least two intramural sports in each school year from 7-12. Competition, learning about winning and losing, and being in decent shape are goals for all students, not a few talented ones who end up getting worshipped and receiving special treatment. No more traveling teams for any grade level and sport. No more Fri night football games to celebrate the skills of a few, or basketball, or softball, or whatever. Schools could trim hundreds of thousands off their budgets from supplies to coaching to insurance. A whole growth industry, teenage sports programs, is awaiting entrepreneurs. Schools could gain income from leasing their fields, arenas, stadiums.

5. Life skills classes for all students beginning in high school. Students will be able to handle a checking and a savings account; change oil and filter and a flat tire and an air filter; handle a washer and dryer and iron; cook more than one type of meal; first -aid proficient; type proficiently; basic computer skills.

6. All high schools would have two tracks: college, and immediate work force ready. World needs drivers, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, painters, medical aides, and so much more, too.
Reduce the requirement for four years of English and Math. 

7. Let students find their passion, and encourage them to follow it. 

8. Turn off cell phone access to all campuses, period. You know where your child is. School has a phone. Nothing else is needed. Kids absolutely refuse to put their phones away. Critical thinking skills, basic writing skills, basic conversational skills, are all missing. As long as instant gratification can be done via devices, this will not change. 

9. Black studies must be made mandatory, not optional. If we don't discuss the past, the present will remain edgy and the future will remain foggy. 

10. Teacher salaries must be at least doubled, and their education requirements raised to either a master's degree, and/or national board certification. Salary scales must reward the grueling work these certifications require. Today they do not.

Until we value education in this country, and finally give up the agricultural attendance calendar and start going year-round, we will continue to lag the entire rest of the world we once led.

The Dulles boys' legacy.....starting since about 1943-44, a shadow government was formed and has expanded its reach into every facet of American life. Every nation controls its people through its ability to wage war. We have been blinded and led astray since the dawn of the Atomic Age. Ever notice nukes have never ever been used anywhere since Japan? That is because the Military Industrial Complex would have been out of business before it got going. It was the only entity they didn't plan for. All the landing supplies for our planned invasion of Japan: where did they go, because they didn't come back to the US. Half went to Korea, half went to Indochina and both stockpiles were used to perpetuate the wars in those countries. JFK had issued a National Security Memorandum ordering 1,000 soldiers out of Vietnam, and all U.S. soldiers out of Vietnam by 1965. He was killed for issuing that document. The day after his funeral, LBJ issued his own NSM reinstituting the soldiers and initiating the Vietnam War. Some 58000 lives later, all that can be shown for our involvement, is profit. The OSS/CIA kingdom, which effectively runs this country through its Pentagon affiliations, answers to no one, no branch of govt, yet they are continually funded. A certain number of prominent NYC law firms, certain banks, brahmin industrialists, all pulling the strings, manipulating international affairs to assure the continuance of war everywhere. War makes national economies hum right along. Next march on Washington needs to be done at nearby Langley instead, home of the CIA, and at NSA, and at the Pentagon. The three branches of our govt have long past into figurehead status. Read. Question. Read More. Rage. Get Angry.

Black men in America have problems with self-control, self-respect, the ability to interact properly in society. I want to believe that morons like this are in a tiny minority. I cannot in good conscience agree.

My local paper is full of violent crime stories accompanied by pictures of black men young to old

My national new media sites, all of them, are full of black men behaving badly, to the point of guns and gunfire being used practically in every instance.

I see this crappy behavior in my classrooms. I see it on the local news media, and national. I have observed it consistently and continually happening in my 65 years of passing through.

I do not understand. 

Blacks argue that they are only a couple generations removed from slavery, lynchings, de-humanizing treatment, banned from facilities, voting booth, yet allowed to die in our wars. They argue it takes time to establish family values. 

How long must we all wait? There aren't going to be any black men around to establish these values. Our prisons overflow with black men. Our courts overflow with cases involving black men. 

Anyone out there have any suggestions?

 Or is this all just me?