Ronald Reagan gets falsely portrayed by the Left as a dumb man, but he was actually one of the most quotable figures in American history (Note to self: Do a list of Reagan’s 50 best quotes on the anniversary of his death in June).
Your solution for schools has been tried in some states and did not work. California had a merit pay system for a few years (around 2010 if I remember correctly). I actually was given a $10,000 bonus because my students performed in the top 25% on the state biology test. The state could not afford to pay the bonuses, they cost more than they expected, so it turned into an IOU payable in 5 years. Then they realized that they could never keep up the payments and so killed the program and made all the IOUs null and void. The few other states with those systems abandoned them.
First, we need to get rid of all unfunded government mandates. The Feds only cover about 19 cents for each dollar they mandate. When I was in a teacher training program, around 2003, I learned that there were two states that did not follow the federal mandated special education requirements. They simply refused to take the money because it did not cover much of the services they would be mandated to offer. They streamlined their special education system and a lot of students did not qualify because they did not have a learning disability, they just were not doing school and their parents pressured the schools to put their kid in special education because their kid had not done school for so long, they were far behind. I worked with some of those kids and got a few to actually pick up a pencil and start working. I have about 6 that completely transitioned out of special ed and go to college because they started doing school. After some success, they kept at it because they were getting positive reinforcement. Success breeds further success. I got them to see and experience the positive results of doing school.
The special education population continues to grow because court rulings and federal laws make it harder for schools to say no. Parents just file suit and it will cost the district more to defend against it than it would to place the kid in special education.
Most states give each school a fixed amount per student, no matter what the real costs are. A special education student cost 2 to 10 times more than the average student. So money is taken from the average students to pay for special education.
The entire system needs to be overhauled.
The major issue in education today is student behavior. Teachers do not have the authority to institute effective classroom management. We cannot suspend students who constantly disrupt the education of other students. These are the ones that do not want to be there, misbehave all the time, and make life miserable for everyone. The federal office of civil rights has been instrumental in getting some court rulings that students have an absolute right to an education and so must be in the classroom, even if they are disruptive. Schools have to provide extra support for these students so they can get their education.
I am at a school that works hard to get these students sent to alternative programs. Most schools do not because they will lose the funding that student provides. We still have to deal with these students for a year or two before we can make them move on.
COVID got some of the best teachers to leave education for good. Many were able to get jobs in the private sector and earning much more than their teacher salary. These companies could not find employees. A couple of privately owned employment agencies started recruiting teachers and discovered that most teachers work well alone or within.a team. They are very efficient with their time. When they are not being interrupted every few minutes, they can get an amazing amount of work done in a short time. I have more work to do than the average private sector employee. I have learned through the years how to get things done in the occasional minute or two breaks I get when my students are working and do not need my help. I can also get things done in those few seconds I have to wait on students when I am delivering instruction. I know what I am teaching and by the time I do it for the third or 4th time in a day, I go on auto pilot and deliver the instruction while getting many of the small tasks done.j. Give me 30 uninterrupted minutes and I can do more than I could in an hour when I first started teaching. The private sector loved the work ethic of the teachers they were recruiting. I had 4 coworkers take jobs with private companies and more than triple their salary, get 100% of their moving expenses covered, and given money to find a new place to live. I talked to them later and they loved their new jobs and would never go back to teaching.
ot
This drained many of the best and brightest. Then consider that over 70% of new teachers leave the profession for good within 5 years. Low salary is part of the problem. The biggest reason though is student and parent behaviors. I am assaulted by both students and parents a few times a year, and the district will not do a thing. They are afraid of lawsuits by parents. If I file a police report, I am called out by top level district administrators for taking action that they do not agree with. Some will even place pressure on the local police to not follow through on the reports. I have had to retain an attorney a couple of times to stop the harassment I received for filing police reports. The union is woke and will not back me. So after I prevail, my attorney has to go back and file a suit against the union for not providing an attorney to me as they claim my union dues covers. So I win a settlement from the union as well.
When I first went into teaching, the majority of teachers I worked with had Master's or Ph.Ds, and not in education but in the subject matter they taught. For a couple of decades, there would be 50 applicants for each job opening. That started to change in the late 90s because returning veterans from WWII filled an overwhelming majority of teaching jobs. They were given preferential status when hiring because the feds gave the district money to help pay their salaries for up to 5 years. They started retiring en mass. All of a sudden there was a demand for teachers and not enough new teachers graduating with teaching credentials. I was hired without having to test in my subject area because I had a Ph.D and worked as research scientist for a few years. I was hired and immediately labelled a highly trained teacher (under No Child Left Behind) something that took the average teacher to achieve in 10 years.
Today, the average new teacher has a college GPA of 2.5. When I was hired, the average GPA was 3.8.
Well, the best and brightest are not going into education. They can earn more in the private sector and they do not have to deal with poor behavior from students and parents. For those with science degrees, many are hired onto companies that give 6 weeks of vacation a year and many other perks.
The new teachers are often the ones that cannot get hired anywhere. So they go into an intern program to teach while earning their credential. These are the ones that are most likely to be poor teachers. They are only there for the paycheck. They can assign their students all the assignments from the Internet and sit back and do nothing else. They do not help students, they do not interact with students, they are just a warm body with a credential. They can get poor evaluations and never will be let go. They cannot find a replacement.
With the focus on graduation rates, schools do what they are. best at find creative ways to give students credits without them having to do any real work. They just have to put in seat time in front of a computer. They get as many chances they need to get the correct answer. They also tolerate students using their cell phones to access AI to get the right answers. They meet the expectation by lowering the standards.
I had planned to teach until I was at least 70. It keeps me active and gives me something to do with my life. At the start of this current school year, that all changed. I put in my retirement papers two days before the start of the school year. The district implemented many changes that required I do more and teach an extra class because they cannot hire new teachers. Teaching is the only profession that you get paid less for working overtime than you earn in your regular pay. I am maxed out on the pay scale because of years of experience and educational background. I earn about $180 hour for my contract hours. Now, I am required to put in more time (about 5 to 10 extra hours a week) that is unpaid due to professional duties (IEP meetings, parent meetings, district mandated training, monitoring sports competitions to ensure safety, and much more). Then, if I am assigned to teach an extra class because of a teacher shortage, I get $45 an hour, and that does not include prep time. I know spend an average of 11 hours a day at school. I do not haver time for things like doctor's appointments, taking my car in for repairs, or attending family events.
My health has taken a huge hit. I can retire now, at 63, and take care of my health to live a longer and healthier life, or continue working and expect to not live past 70. I have several health issues that can be managed but I cannot do it while I continue to teach.
I am out and moving to be close to my grandchildren. I will also find a job without the headaches and stress of teaching. I need to work to keep active and enjoy life.
Thank you for this reply; I found it very informative. I am proud of you and your accomplishments; if we could build a system that would foster and support teachers like you America would be in very good hands. As it is now, Oy Ve! There would seem to be little cause for optimism, as no one is willing to buck the societal decline and be tough, HONEST, and smart. It's actually horrifying for me to read what is happening to education as you've lived it. It sounds like most of what happens is total BS, just a way to move kids through and give them the certificate to get them out of their hands where they can be someone else' problem. The Rot; this is not just the legacy of the Left, it is their modus operandi. If they were paid to do this, and it would seem that they are, how could they choose a more society undermining method? God bless you, Jerry, I'd agree that is time for you to step back and manage your health. What you have given was life-affirming yet was treated like pearls before swine. Based on my own experience, I can tell you that physical decline is like a steep cliff round about age 65, with everything I used to rely on starting to go wonky even with proper diet, medical care, and plenty of exercise. Genetics, wear and tear, maybe even God tapping me on the shoulder to remind me that I need to focus on what comes after, "Mr. Man."
I did not go into all of the problems with public education. There is so much wrong I am not sure it can be fixed. It needs to be completely overhauled.
Today, the school is expected to do and be everything for the students. We now offer 3 meals a day, free of charge to all students. Parents expect us to have after school programs to provide babysitting services until they get off of work. We are tasked with providing mental health care both at school and through mental health providers in the community. At the high school level, kids can request medical care without their parent's knowledge and we make the appointment and take them during school hours. It is paid for by the free health care all minors get in the state. I am thankful that the teen pregnancy rate is way down than when I first started. That medical care is usually to get an abortion without parent's knowledge or consent. As a society, we take better care of our pets than our children.
We have to take care of all of their educational needs. We are doing what socialist and communist governments do, the government raises the children so they can indoctrinate them with the government approved propaganda. We have not learned the lessons from Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, China, and North Korea. We want government to take care of us, not get out of our way so we can do for ourselves. Doing for ourselves is what made America the world leader. Now we are losing that.
I went to elementary school in the 60s, back when CA had some of the best schools in the nation. I struggled early on with reading and math. My pediatrician diagnosed me with dyslexia and connected us to a local University that was doing research on dyslexia. They taught me what I needed to do to deal with the dyslexia. After several months I was the top reader in class and in the top math group. I never received any special treatment. I had to perform like every other student and I excelled. It was not easy. It took me twice as long to do math homework than most kids because I had to double check everything to make sure I was not transposing numbers. That extra work though paid off.
Today, a student diagnosed with dyslexia is given accommodations. They get extra time on tests and assignments. They get to use text to speech to have their assignments read to them. They even get help on tests; my students always seem to get 100% on the tests they take in the room with their special ed teacher. If I ask them questions that were on the test, they cannot answer. We are pressured by the special education department and the administrators to give them a pity D- because they tried hard. These students have learned they will get through school with little effort because of low expectations and everything being done for them.
Every year though, I get a few special education students that listen to me when I give them advice on things they can do to succeed. By the end of the school year, these students come and thank me. They are taking their tests in my classroom with the other students and they are earning As and Bs. I tell these students I am just doing my job.
I also have a group that consistently fail and wonder why I will not give them the D- like their other teachers. I tell them that they are awarded the grade they earned. I do not bump grades up when they have multiple missing assignments and have low scores on the assignments they do. It has gotten worse this year, students are now using AI to do their assignments. So I know have the conversation that AI gives you an answer, but it often does not give you the correct answer. Sometimes they use highly specialized scientific vocabulary. I ask them what does this mean and they do not know. So, I give a 0 for this. Then I have to have parent meetings to show exactly where they got the answer and why it was wrong.
I find it telling that many of the high tech executives do not let their children have cell phones or computers. They send them to elite schools where everything is done with pencil and paper. Calculators are not allowed. They learn to think critically. They can actually do math.
I amaze my students when I do math without a calculator. I can add up points on assignments in my head to come to the overall grade. I have watched many teachers use calculators and complain it takes so long to do this. They watch me and think I am a math genius. I tell them I learned math at a time when there were no calculators. I got my first on in college and I rarely used it.
Our education system is now producing students that cannot read, write, or do math and yet, they somehow graduate with all As and Bs. This is why over half of college freshmen drop out after the first quarter. They flunked out because they do not know how to learn. They just want AI to give them the answer so they can go back to their video games.
This is why we are quickly becoming a two tiered society, the haves and have nots.
All of your simple solutions are great, but they require a backbone and honesty to implement, neither of which our basic politicians, too numerous to name, possess.
Exactly right, and this disconnect between knowing the right thing to do and actually doing it- is just EVERYWHERE today. Look at the stupid pope, for Christs' sake! That is not used as a swear word, I mean it literally. "Leo" could claim to be sitting in Peter's seat, I believe, and step into that Power. But what does that gutless worm do instead? He takes ridiculous, Biblically inaccurate political positions mainly to lecture and criticize President Trump personally and to attack American policy. Is this the man who should be defending Christendom against the Islamic hordes trying to tear down the church and western civilization? God, no. Seriously, I'm not Catholic yet I could do a much better job as pope, I think because I actually have read the Book and believe what it says and would rely on the power of the living, active, and always-present Holy Ghost! I think there's only one of Him; could He really be telling me one thing and Leo something completely different? Only God knows for sure, and that schism is very close to the heart of what actually matters most to all of us. I don't want America to lose our blessings and become like Isreal under King Rehoboam, a nation overrun by the un-Godly.
This is why I could never be a Catholic. The Catholic Church wants to appease evil, not oppose it. Unfortunately, too many Protestant churches today do the same thing in the name of inclusiveness.
Jesus was one of the most divisive person on Earth. His message divided people. He was God incarnate or not. You had to choose. He also made it clear, many will reject Him.
Here's a thought: How about bringing back stop-and-frisk, profiling, vagrant rousting, forcible institutionalization, wood shampoos and tune-ups?
Or perhaps giving cops a 24-hour window each month to round up the usual suspects, where they have free reign to just go get the people they know are trouble, during which time shouts of "Profiling!" and "Excessive Force!" will simply be ignored?
Yes, more common sense solutions that would fix bad problems. The fact that they would be violently protested by the Left really tells you everything you need to know about them and what they really want.
Nice essay, John. Every one of those nine solutions would work and make America a better country. Yet we can also say with 100% certainty that every one of them would be wildly opposed by the Democrats. Why do they hate a sane and functioning America? I'd guess they wouldn't have special privileges and power, so these answers must be rejected out of hand. That's why I get so tired of the political struggles; it's like trying to spray water on a volcanic eruption; you just can't stop the flow of irresponsible BS that the Left will spew. I don't get to sit in judgment of who gets let in to heaven, but I do speculate about those who probably will not be invited, and it makes me glad to believe that I will be where I will never, ever, for all eternity, see many of these bad people on the Left again. To never see Maxine Waters, Joy Reid, Whoopi Goldberg, Richard Blumenthal, Zohran Mandami, or Jimmy Kimmel ever again- what a blessing! I think the answers will be obvious to our Creator, and His kingdom will be a place of great and glorious accomplishment!
Of course you’re right, but I think you’re missing two things. Firsy, the left, at least the progress left, doesn’t want to solve any of these problems? They want to run on the problems, demonstrate their virtue by “caring” but keeping the issues alive so they can raise money off of the problems.
Second, and far more sinisterly, they actually welcome the problems because the long game is the destabilization of America and the west so that authoritarian communism can replace our current system, with them in charge.
I agree. The Left is sinister (no surprise that the root of the word sinister is left), corrupt and out and out evil. Why fix a problem when you can manipulate it to your advantage?
Your solution for schools has been tried in some states and did not work. California had a merit pay system for a few years (around 2010 if I remember correctly). I actually was given a $10,000 bonus because my students performed in the top 25% on the state biology test. The state could not afford to pay the bonuses, they cost more than they expected, so it turned into an IOU payable in 5 years. Then they realized that they could never keep up the payments and so killed the program and made all the IOUs null and void. The few other states with those systems abandoned them.
First, we need to get rid of all unfunded government mandates. The Feds only cover about 19 cents for each dollar they mandate. When I was in a teacher training program, around 2003, I learned that there were two states that did not follow the federal mandated special education requirements. They simply refused to take the money because it did not cover much of the services they would be mandated to offer. They streamlined their special education system and a lot of students did not qualify because they did not have a learning disability, they just were not doing school and their parents pressured the schools to put their kid in special education because their kid had not done school for so long, they were far behind. I worked with some of those kids and got a few to actually pick up a pencil and start working. I have about 6 that completely transitioned out of special ed and go to college because they started doing school. After some success, they kept at it because they were getting positive reinforcement. Success breeds further success. I got them to see and experience the positive results of doing school.
The special education population continues to grow because court rulings and federal laws make it harder for schools to say no. Parents just file suit and it will cost the district more to defend against it than it would to place the kid in special education.
Most states give each school a fixed amount per student, no matter what the real costs are. A special education student cost 2 to 10 times more than the average student. So money is taken from the average students to pay for special education.
The entire system needs to be overhauled.
The major issue in education today is student behavior. Teachers do not have the authority to institute effective classroom management. We cannot suspend students who constantly disrupt the education of other students. These are the ones that do not want to be there, misbehave all the time, and make life miserable for everyone. The federal office of civil rights has been instrumental in getting some court rulings that students have an absolute right to an education and so must be in the classroom, even if they are disruptive. Schools have to provide extra support for these students so they can get their education.
I am at a school that works hard to get these students sent to alternative programs. Most schools do not because they will lose the funding that student provides. We still have to deal with these students for a year or two before we can make them move on.
COVID got some of the best teachers to leave education for good. Many were able to get jobs in the private sector and earning much more than their teacher salary. These companies could not find employees. A couple of privately owned employment agencies started recruiting teachers and discovered that most teachers work well alone or within.a team. They are very efficient with their time. When they are not being interrupted every few minutes, they can get an amazing amount of work done in a short time. I have more work to do than the average private sector employee. I have learned through the years how to get things done in the occasional minute or two breaks I get when my students are working and do not need my help. I can also get things done in those few seconds I have to wait on students when I am delivering instruction. I know what I am teaching and by the time I do it for the third or 4th time in a day, I go on auto pilot and deliver the instruction while getting many of the small tasks done.j. Give me 30 uninterrupted minutes and I can do more than I could in an hour when I first started teaching. The private sector loved the work ethic of the teachers they were recruiting. I had 4 coworkers take jobs with private companies and more than triple their salary, get 100% of their moving expenses covered, and given money to find a new place to live. I talked to them later and they loved their new jobs and would never go back to teaching.
ot
This drained many of the best and brightest. Then consider that over 70% of new teachers leave the profession for good within 5 years. Low salary is part of the problem. The biggest reason though is student and parent behaviors. I am assaulted by both students and parents a few times a year, and the district will not do a thing. They are afraid of lawsuits by parents. If I file a police report, I am called out by top level district administrators for taking action that they do not agree with. Some will even place pressure on the local police to not follow through on the reports. I have had to retain an attorney a couple of times to stop the harassment I received for filing police reports. The union is woke and will not back me. So after I prevail, my attorney has to go back and file a suit against the union for not providing an attorney to me as they claim my union dues covers. So I win a settlement from the union as well.
When I first went into teaching, the majority of teachers I worked with had Master's or Ph.Ds, and not in education but in the subject matter they taught. For a couple of decades, there would be 50 applicants for each job opening. That started to change in the late 90s because returning veterans from WWII filled an overwhelming majority of teaching jobs. They were given preferential status when hiring because the feds gave the district money to help pay their salaries for up to 5 years. They started retiring en mass. All of a sudden there was a demand for teachers and not enough new teachers graduating with teaching credentials. I was hired without having to test in my subject area because I had a Ph.D and worked as research scientist for a few years. I was hired and immediately labelled a highly trained teacher (under No Child Left Behind) something that took the average teacher to achieve in 10 years.
Today, the average new teacher has a college GPA of 2.5. When I was hired, the average GPA was 3.8.
Well, the best and brightest are not going into education. They can earn more in the private sector and they do not have to deal with poor behavior from students and parents. For those with science degrees, many are hired onto companies that give 6 weeks of vacation a year and many other perks.
The new teachers are often the ones that cannot get hired anywhere. So they go into an intern program to teach while earning their credential. These are the ones that are most likely to be poor teachers. They are only there for the paycheck. They can assign their students all the assignments from the Internet and sit back and do nothing else. They do not help students, they do not interact with students, they are just a warm body with a credential. They can get poor evaluations and never will be let go. They cannot find a replacement.
With the focus on graduation rates, schools do what they are. best at find creative ways to give students credits without them having to do any real work. They just have to put in seat time in front of a computer. They get as many chances they need to get the correct answer. They also tolerate students using their cell phones to access AI to get the right answers. They meet the expectation by lowering the standards.
I had planned to teach until I was at least 70. It keeps me active and gives me something to do with my life. At the start of this current school year, that all changed. I put in my retirement papers two days before the start of the school year. The district implemented many changes that required I do more and teach an extra class because they cannot hire new teachers. Teaching is the only profession that you get paid less for working overtime than you earn in your regular pay. I am maxed out on the pay scale because of years of experience and educational background. I earn about $180 hour for my contract hours. Now, I am required to put in more time (about 5 to 10 extra hours a week) that is unpaid due to professional duties (IEP meetings, parent meetings, district mandated training, monitoring sports competitions to ensure safety, and much more). Then, if I am assigned to teach an extra class because of a teacher shortage, I get $45 an hour, and that does not include prep time. I know spend an average of 11 hours a day at school. I do not haver time for things like doctor's appointments, taking my car in for repairs, or attending family events.
My health has taken a huge hit. I can retire now, at 63, and take care of my health to live a longer and healthier life, or continue working and expect to not live past 70. I have several health issues that can be managed but I cannot do it while I continue to teach.
I am out and moving to be close to my grandchildren. I will also find a job without the headaches and stress of teaching. I need to work to keep active and enjoy life.
Thank you for this reply; I found it very informative. I am proud of you and your accomplishments; if we could build a system that would foster and support teachers like you America would be in very good hands. As it is now, Oy Ve! There would seem to be little cause for optimism, as no one is willing to buck the societal decline and be tough, HONEST, and smart. It's actually horrifying for me to read what is happening to education as you've lived it. It sounds like most of what happens is total BS, just a way to move kids through and give them the certificate to get them out of their hands where they can be someone else' problem. The Rot; this is not just the legacy of the Left, it is their modus operandi. If they were paid to do this, and it would seem that they are, how could they choose a more society undermining method? God bless you, Jerry, I'd agree that is time for you to step back and manage your health. What you have given was life-affirming yet was treated like pearls before swine. Based on my own experience, I can tell you that physical decline is like a steep cliff round about age 65, with everything I used to rely on starting to go wonky even with proper diet, medical care, and plenty of exercise. Genetics, wear and tear, maybe even God tapping me on the shoulder to remind me that I need to focus on what comes after, "Mr. Man."
I did not go into all of the problems with public education. There is so much wrong I am not sure it can be fixed. It needs to be completely overhauled.
Today, the school is expected to do and be everything for the students. We now offer 3 meals a day, free of charge to all students. Parents expect us to have after school programs to provide babysitting services until they get off of work. We are tasked with providing mental health care both at school and through mental health providers in the community. At the high school level, kids can request medical care without their parent's knowledge and we make the appointment and take them during school hours. It is paid for by the free health care all minors get in the state. I am thankful that the teen pregnancy rate is way down than when I first started. That medical care is usually to get an abortion without parent's knowledge or consent. As a society, we take better care of our pets than our children.
We have to take care of all of their educational needs. We are doing what socialist and communist governments do, the government raises the children so they can indoctrinate them with the government approved propaganda. We have not learned the lessons from Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, China, and North Korea. We want government to take care of us, not get out of our way so we can do for ourselves. Doing for ourselves is what made America the world leader. Now we are losing that.
I went to elementary school in the 60s, back when CA had some of the best schools in the nation. I struggled early on with reading and math. My pediatrician diagnosed me with dyslexia and connected us to a local University that was doing research on dyslexia. They taught me what I needed to do to deal with the dyslexia. After several months I was the top reader in class and in the top math group. I never received any special treatment. I had to perform like every other student and I excelled. It was not easy. It took me twice as long to do math homework than most kids because I had to double check everything to make sure I was not transposing numbers. That extra work though paid off.
Today, a student diagnosed with dyslexia is given accommodations. They get extra time on tests and assignments. They get to use text to speech to have their assignments read to them. They even get help on tests; my students always seem to get 100% on the tests they take in the room with their special ed teacher. If I ask them questions that were on the test, they cannot answer. We are pressured by the special education department and the administrators to give them a pity D- because they tried hard. These students have learned they will get through school with little effort because of low expectations and everything being done for them.
Every year though, I get a few special education students that listen to me when I give them advice on things they can do to succeed. By the end of the school year, these students come and thank me. They are taking their tests in my classroom with the other students and they are earning As and Bs. I tell these students I am just doing my job.
I also have a group that consistently fail and wonder why I will not give them the D- like their other teachers. I tell them that they are awarded the grade they earned. I do not bump grades up when they have multiple missing assignments and have low scores on the assignments they do. It has gotten worse this year, students are now using AI to do their assignments. So I know have the conversation that AI gives you an answer, but it often does not give you the correct answer. Sometimes they use highly specialized scientific vocabulary. I ask them what does this mean and they do not know. So, I give a 0 for this. Then I have to have parent meetings to show exactly where they got the answer and why it was wrong.
I find it telling that many of the high tech executives do not let their children have cell phones or computers. They send them to elite schools where everything is done with pencil and paper. Calculators are not allowed. They learn to think critically. They can actually do math.
I amaze my students when I do math without a calculator. I can add up points on assignments in my head to come to the overall grade. I have watched many teachers use calculators and complain it takes so long to do this. They watch me and think I am a math genius. I tell them I learned math at a time when there were no calculators. I got my first on in college and I rarely used it.
Our education system is now producing students that cannot read, write, or do math and yet, they somehow graduate with all As and Bs. This is why over half of college freshmen drop out after the first quarter. They flunked out because they do not know how to learn. They just want AI to give them the answer so they can go back to their video games.
This is why we are quickly becoming a two tiered society, the haves and have nots.
All of your simple solutions are great, but they require a backbone and honesty to implement, neither of which our basic politicians, too numerous to name, possess.
Exactly right, and this disconnect between knowing the right thing to do and actually doing it- is just EVERYWHERE today. Look at the stupid pope, for Christs' sake! That is not used as a swear word, I mean it literally. "Leo" could claim to be sitting in Peter's seat, I believe, and step into that Power. But what does that gutless worm do instead? He takes ridiculous, Biblically inaccurate political positions mainly to lecture and criticize President Trump personally and to attack American policy. Is this the man who should be defending Christendom against the Islamic hordes trying to tear down the church and western civilization? God, no. Seriously, I'm not Catholic yet I could do a much better job as pope, I think because I actually have read the Book and believe what it says and would rely on the power of the living, active, and always-present Holy Ghost! I think there's only one of Him; could He really be telling me one thing and Leo something completely different? Only God knows for sure, and that schism is very close to the heart of what actually matters most to all of us. I don't want America to lose our blessings and become like Isreal under King Rehoboam, a nation overrun by the un-Godly.
This is why I could never be a Catholic. The Catholic Church wants to appease evil, not oppose it. Unfortunately, too many Protestant churches today do the same thing in the name of inclusiveness.
Jesus was one of the most divisive person on Earth. His message divided people. He was God incarnate or not. You had to choose. He also made it clear, many will reject Him.
Here's a thought: How about bringing back stop-and-frisk, profiling, vagrant rousting, forcible institutionalization, wood shampoos and tune-ups?
Or perhaps giving cops a 24-hour window each month to round up the usual suspects, where they have free reign to just go get the people they know are trouble, during which time shouts of "Profiling!" and "Excessive Force!" will simply be ignored?
Yes, more common sense solutions that would fix bad problems. The fact that they would be violently protested by the Left really tells you everything you need to know about them and what they really want.
Nice essay, John. Every one of those nine solutions would work and make America a better country. Yet we can also say with 100% certainty that every one of them would be wildly opposed by the Democrats. Why do they hate a sane and functioning America? I'd guess they wouldn't have special privileges and power, so these answers must be rejected out of hand. That's why I get so tired of the political struggles; it's like trying to spray water on a volcanic eruption; you just can't stop the flow of irresponsible BS that the Left will spew. I don't get to sit in judgment of who gets let in to heaven, but I do speculate about those who probably will not be invited, and it makes me glad to believe that I will be where I will never, ever, for all eternity, see many of these bad people on the Left again. To never see Maxine Waters, Joy Reid, Whoopi Goldberg, Richard Blumenthal, Zohran Mandami, or Jimmy Kimmel ever again- what a blessing! I think the answers will be obvious to our Creator, and His kingdom will be a place of great and glorious accomplishment!
Of course you’re right, but I think you’re missing two things. Firsy, the left, at least the progress left, doesn’t want to solve any of these problems? They want to run on the problems, demonstrate their virtue by “caring” but keeping the issues alive so they can raise money off of the problems.
Second, and far more sinisterly, they actually welcome the problems because the long game is the destabilization of America and the west so that authoritarian communism can replace our current system, with them in charge.
I agree. The Left is sinister (no surprise that the root of the word sinister is left), corrupt and out and out evil. Why fix a problem when you can manipulate it to your advantage?