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Showing posts from January, 2013

Garden of Courage

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I've been working on a short piece for about a week now. It's got to be ready for a March 1st deadline, so I can't agonize over it for too much longer. First I had to pick a poem that I have used for inspiration with my students as well as myself. That wasn't too hard. The call for submissions is for the 3rd edition of an anthology of teacher writing. I've had good luck in the past with getting my ideas and experiences out there, but this one is a bit different. This new book is about courage and teaching. Rather timely in my view because jobs are scarce and pressures are escalating. The new collection seeks the kind of anecdotes that feature teachers reaching into their pockets for the crumpled copy of the poem they always carry with them. Not literally, but you get the picture. Reality check...maybe some folks really do keep a poem handy. I know many who keep a photograph to look at when things get tough. I carry poems in my head. That's where my

Hear Me Roar

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In between the increased clamor about the American right to own an assault rifle and the inauguration of a President, the Secretary of Defense this week announced he's lifting the ban on women in combat. So now gender equality applies to the right to kill other human beings under the "rules of war" and it's conduct.  I jest; but the ironies here are robust. For women, (and men) this really is good news.  That's because all the discrimination making it impossible for women to hold certain decision-making ranks and positions is now gone.  We're not just talking about the right to be in harm's way, the trenches, or even engage in one on one combat.  This new regulation does not only apply to the infantry, but a host of other opportunities and long overdue careers. Speaking to the press Panetta said:“Everyone is entitled to a chance." According to The New York Times, the Army is now creating gender-neutral standards for all their positions but will

Marvel...in Seconds

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This day is something special.  It's hard not to miss the connection between the Martin Luther King birthday holiday and the second inauguration of Barak Obama as President of the United States.  A great reminder that change is possible and that it often takes time.  Particularly incisive and poignant were the comments of Congressman John Lewis this day.  Having marched with Dr. King and laid his body on the line in the fight for civil rights, Lewis has a uniquely original reaction to all the events and media coverage.  While the pundits scramble for words and superlatives, Lewis need only draw on his personal experiences.  He need only marvel that he is here to take it all in.  When the widow of Medgar Evers, Merly Evers, delivered an invocation, one wonders what must be going through her mind. I wondered what Lewis' mind was doing too. In the last week we've seen many other forms of truth winning out at the end of the day.  From Lance Armstrong's "confession,

Two Steps Back

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Last night's 60 Minutes, the venerable CBS TV news magazine, featured a story which really got me thinking. In short, it was all about the use of robots in manufacturing these days. The segment showed small automated machines, about the size of a vacuum cleaner filling orders in a huge warehouse. The little creatures are so adept they can crawl under large shelving units and pick up stacks of merchandise in neatly stores crates and deliver them to shipping stations. No human labor involved. Of course that means greater profit and greater productivity for management. It means, too, fewer workers needed. Some of the companies now using these robots are even returning to this country to manufacture here at home instead of outsourcing their jobs. By the end of the program the all important question of what happens to people in this country who depend on jobs like that emerged. Just the question, no answer. Hopefully some sort of leadership or vision will also surface by th

Grin and Bear Arms

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Nobody doubts that we here in the USA have a culture of violence. We come by it naturally, born of violent revolution. In fact, if you do the math, we have managed to become involved in some sort of war every 20 years since our inception. Even if you don't count some of those semi-violent interventions in places like Grenada and Panama, it still totals every 20 years. So it is that the more violent components of our already violent culture are being forced under the microscope in the wake of recent school and shopping mall shootings. The NRA wants to investigate the entertainment and video game industry, who wants to investigate the mental illness angle. Politicians and most of the non-gun toting citizenry want to look at gun laws. It's a real whirling dervish these days. Of course, most everybody knows that any answer to what's currently happening involves all three. Still, I've yet to hear a logical explanation for why anyone needs an assault weapon with a magazi

Savings Account

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50 or 60 years ago people had to deal with what was known as a "party line" on their home phones. No not that kind of party, the one that involves a gathering of people. And that's what they often were too: a gathering. Imagine picking up your home phone's receiver, (remember it's the middle of the last century now) and instead of a dial tome, you hear a voice...then two voices. That's right, you've stumbled upon someone else's conversation. The two engaged in chatting may or may not have heard the click when you first grabbed the receiver. If not, and you covered the mouthpiece, you could eavesdrop all you wanted. At your own risk of course. Most who had this experience would simply excuse themselves and hang up. They knew they shared a party line. Actually a two or three party line. That will no doubt never happen again. But I've noticed on some forms of social media there is something akin to it happening. On Facebook, for example, we