Written by: Taylor Bertino
1954 was the year that segregation in public places finally saw its rightful demise. The ruling didn’t have an immediate affect over the entire nation, but it did lay the groundwork for others to follow and build upon. More than fifty years after the landmark legal battle dubbed “Brown vs. Board of Ed” the school system still remains largely flawed and separated by class and amount of wealth rather than separation of race.
The forced separation that took place up until the mid 1950s was deemed illegal but was replaced by another kind of separation that is forced upon people in a different perhaps not so clear manner and form. Across the nation schools systems vary largely from region to region and state to state, but one thing that remains enormously constant is the horrible reality and that is the poor rural areas or poor inner city areas have a greatly different school system than that of a suburban town or wealthy community.
People of wealthier areas can afford to be pay more in taxes than those people of rural or inner city areas can afford and the are taxes required by law for schools to keep their programs well founded and buildings maintained. These schools also have opportunities to receive additional grants for high performance in students and teachers or other exceptional performances. In school systems with a larger budget teachers are often more than qualified for their applying positions, and with salaries higher than that of the norm and there is a larger pool of applicants to draw from. Than there is the simple fact that inner city areas can not afford high taxes often times people rent rather than own and it is simply due the reason of a tight budget that only allows for what is at hand resulting in less in taxes for the school system. The inner city schools are often over populated and under founded. These schools also have a hard time drawing in teachers because of the lower pay than competing schools and the environment in which they would have to teach in has a sharp contrast to that of another school. In most cases in these communities if a parent could send their child to a better school than the public one provided the parents would jump at the opportunity but the costs of doing that are often times ridiculous.
For those that live in the inner city communities but can afford to send their child to a private school that is a right they posses. The problem does not lie in the private school systems either and their existence does nothing to fringe upon the public school system. The problem with the private school systems lies in the government founding being given to private businesses, in this case private schools. The founding that is being given comes from the public but yet it is not accessible by the public; to sum things up people pay for something that they can use meanwhile what is provided to them is greatly under founded. This same problem lies in rural areas as well but perhaps in different variations.
Charter schools are another interesting part of the American school system. In the 2006-2007 school year there was just under 4,000 charter schools in 40 states that served more than one million students. These schools are founded with public money but also by charity organizations and private donors. These schools have to meet certain criteria in exchange for not having to abide by certain rules and regulations. The students of these schools must go through an application process in order to be accepted. The public funding of these schools is only at best a temporary solution. Often times these very schools are founded by teachers, community organizers and activists frustrated with the public school system in their local community but the heart of the issue lies in the public school in that community. The immense amount of money required to retool the school district in some of these communities is passed on from super attendant to super attendant, mayor-to-mayor and generation-to-generation. The charter schools are often out preformed by public schools in the surrounding area but the charter schools often times due take upon the children that are deemed “at risk”, low-income or minority students. The reason for this is sometimes attributed to public school environment and the manner in which that individual child learns.
The separation that has taken place since the abolishment of segregation has been a slow yet steady one that has only come in to full view the past decade or two. The schools that have the most problems are in communities of poverty over wealth. Places like Milwaukee, New York City, Chicago and Los Angles are just a few of the cities that face a growing problem with the performance of their students and the funding needed for their school district. The wealthier people living in those same cities send the children to private schools because they can afford to. Parents in poverty are forced to send their child to the school provided in their community despite any protest that might arise in doing so. While this a tough problem to deal with the problem doesn’t lie in the ability for a wealthy parents to send their children to a different school; that is a choice that is their own and should not be impeded upon. While the argument can be made that the growing separation between the rich and rest of the classes has an effect on the overall situation. The problem lies in their insurmountable difference in the education being provided inside that poor inner city and poor rural area schools. Public schools are not the problem; outside all of those cities there are suburban public schools that are like comparing apples and oranges when compared with the inner city schools and poor rural schools. Again in these suburban towns and wealthier communities the high taxes are accepted because of the people’s ability to afford the increase and sustain a reasonable living.
CNN is now reporting that the senate talks about the loans to the auto-makers have crumbled and now more than likely the bill will not pass despite the bill moving right through the house. The big three auto makers are worthy of this loan but must make drastic changes in order to survive as a company. A lot depends upon these car manufactures and without them Detroit, Michigan and other cities and states like it will be hit extremely hard. Michigan already has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country and has experienced tough times for quite sometime now.
Although, problems are just opportunities in disguise and now is a chance for President Bush to right some wrong he might have done in his time at White House. In the coming days if this bill truly does die it would be rather interesting to gage President Bush's reaction to what develops on Capital Hill. The President has an extraordinary opportunity to really led the way for President Elect Obama as the transition dwindles down to it's final days by getting legislation passed to aid the car manufactures and set up the next administration as easily and best as possible.
Violence only breeds more violence, and that can be seen blatantly in Israel, Palestine and the occupied territories. There is a great need to understand the history of the violence in order to grasp a true understanding out what is taking place in those lands today.
Recently things have gotten much worse implying that serious attention needs to be devoted to the crisis before it sparks a larger controversy. Making the situation even more complex is the fact that when discussing Israel and Palestine the nation of Iran needs to be addressed as well.
Iran and Israel have been escalating what seems to be a "cold war" of sorts but, like every "cold war" there is an enormous chance that a true war will develop and this situation is no different. Recently Israel has ran war games simulating an attack on Iran and just a week ago Israel's leaders said they are prepared to attack Iran with or without United States support. Iran has also fueled the fire by testing several missiles and by their constant progression towards nuclear weapons. Iran's leaders have also called for the destruction of the Israeli state and their is wide speculation that Iran has been funding extremist groups in Palestine and the occupied territories.
Just last week Israel had a blockade on the Gaza strip punishing a whole population by the actions of a few. Journalists were only allowed back into the occupied territories a few days ago. Although recently Israeli police evicted Jewish families ,in the city of Hebron, from their home because it was illegally bought. The fifteen families are part of the settler movement that is ,an extreme right wing group, increasing encroaching on Palestinian land. Jewish extremists opened up fire on palestinians after an altercation as a result of the evictions served to the fifteen families. The Israeli high court order the evictions showing some signs that the government will be taking a harder stance towards extremist in their own country as well. There is an endless list of violence the breeding more violence in this region and something needs to be done soon.
In an age as modern and self righteous as most western civilizations claim to be the mass killings that continue to take place in Africa is a horrific monstrosity, and what only makes it worse is the blind eye half the nations turn while the other half send enough peacekeepers through the United Nations to barely even provide security inside the massive refugee camps.
The conflict in Sudan has become a huge crisis leaving more than one million people homeless and hundreds of thousands dead in what the media has dubbed the Darfur genocide, Darfur bring the western region of Sudan where most of the conflict is taking place.
The Sudan crisis is not something that has recently erupted and in fact the same struggle can be traced right back to the second and first civil wars. The interesting fact that separates this recent explosion of violence from ones in the country’s past is the fact that the fighting is not based on religion, rather it’s based on tribal and ethnic differences.
The causes of this conflict are immense and extremely complicated. Some of the conflict stems from animosity from the second civil war. The second civil war left approximately 4 million people displaced at one point or another during the 22-year conflict and 1.9 million civilians ended up dead as a result. Another reason for the conflict is the changing climate and environment inside the country. The lack of fresh water is pushing Baggara nomads further south to feed their livestock.
The Sudanese government is said to have allied themselves with the Janjaweed militia, which comprised of the Arab-Baggara nomads. In the southern portion of the country a variety of rebel groups including Sudan Liberation Movement and Justice and Equality Movement among others have taken arms against the Janjaweed militia and Sudanese government. Officially the government has said they haven’t taken in sides in the matter but reports have said that they have been providing money and support to the militia and acted in a joint attack.
John Holmes, The United Nations Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs, warned the United Nations at a conference to discuss the matter in Sudan that the death tool might be closer to 300,000 since records started being kept on the crisis in 2005. The United Nations Ambassador to Sudan, Abdalamahood Abdalhaleem, “In our own calculations, the number, total number, does not exceed the thousand.”
It is extremely tough to predict the future of the refugees. Repatriation is a tough concept to grasp because of the constant fighting in the country it’s hard to believe that people would risk returning to their, cities, towns and villages in the middle of a extremely violent conflict. A tremendous amount of the refugee population for the time being is being locally intergraded in the Chadian society. While more hope to wait out the conflict in refugee camps that have been springing up all over eastern Chad. Resettlement would most likely be the safest option for the refugees fleeing the country but the amount of money and effort required to relocate to far away country is immense.
The crisis in Chad and Sudan is only one of many have that left millions dead and millions more homeless, if our next president can not convince the world and our Congress to take action against such obvious crimes against humanity the continent will become a haven for brutal regimes and millions more innocent people will suffer at the hands of ruthless leaders.
The shooting death of a 15 year old boy, Alexandros Grigoropoulos, by Greek police has sparked a wave of violence in Athens that hasn't been seen a long time. This is the forth day of protests and riots in Greece and the government seems to have very few options on how to quell the violence. This current situation in the country has a very likely chance of ending in the same way the riots did during the 1970s.
The riots in Greece are just another example of the turmoil all across the globe, people are taking very real and drastic measures to get a response from their government. There were riots in Bangkok, Thailand just a few weeks ago, also riots in Spain between Moroccans and African Immigrants. Not to mention the constant clashes in Israel, Palestine and the occupied territories.
The war in Afghanistan can not be won by simply injecting more troops in the country and i believe many top officials would agree that it's a different sort war being fought. However it is clear that the troop levels need to be increased to provide reinforcements for some strategic outposts while readjusting the overall manner in which the war is being waged.
Two separate wars are being conducted and neither of them are having a positive effect for the people and government of Afghanistan. One being the war against the drugs the second being a war against Al Qaeda and other tribes. Both need to be realigned to arrive to a point where the Afghani people will be able to rule their own nation.
Civilian casualties have been a prolific result of the war being waged and that has played into the hands of Al Qaeda. Most of the civilian casualties have been a result of bomb campaigns committed by the United States or killings attributed to terrorists. The war becomes more complex given hostile nations surrounding Afghanistan that have been on the tip of the foreign policy's spear during the President Bush's administration and much of the other presidents. Troop levels are a small adjustment when looking at the overall picture and how the needs to be readjusted but troop levels is a thing that might need a slight increase especially if key allies are going to be pulling out.
Cleaning up Washington is a enormous task to take on. By cleaning up of course i mean getting rid of the people the drowned out the voter's voice and swindle deals with Congressmen to vote one way or another on particular bills as well as doing other favors.
For far to long there has existed a type politics that simply went around every election cycle making promises and than forgetting about the people that count. This issue goes further than lobbyist although those people do play a significant role in corrupting politicians. Often times individuals that hold office have stakes in companies that are effected by the way a bill passes sometimes creating serious conflicts of interest and this is only a really crude example. Many people have benefited from the current wars being fought and the politicians that are making a few extra dollars aren't exactly the people a person would think of. Further more a lot of politicians are still benefiting in huge amounts during this rough economic crisis taking place. There is a reason why most people don't trust politicians and the fear didn't come at birth it was learned proving a number things.
Real action needs to come from the Obama Administration when he is sworn in but more importantly real action needs to come from supporters of all political parties in calibration with grass roots networks and other organizations. The ethics reform the needs to take place is drastic and there will be harsh criticism from all over the political spectrum but the voters must push for reform or else our voices will never truly be heard.
The main stream media is the tool that is used to convey information to millions of homes regardless if the information is truthful or not. Not much faith can be put into a main stream media outlet because of the small number of huge corporations that control a large portion of the mainstream media. The consolidations of media outlets that is taking place now only allows for a more unified reporting style wether be conservative or liberal.
The main stream media is used to gain consent from the public for the government to take actions that ordinarily would be unacceptable and examples would be the domestic spying that has taken or the case for the Iraq war. The American public were led to believe for months that Saddam Hussien had or was making nuclear weapons and the people conveying some of the information were paid pentagon officials that were put on main stream television networks as deemed "experts" without disclosing their professions and employer. People were trusting of the government and the information being provided by the main stream media.
The situation with the current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are very slow to progress and will be for quite some time and it is clear that ancient lands are no where near becoming self sustaining countries and the politicians know that fact as do most journalists. The notion that President Elect Obama or Senator McCain would be able to end two wars is a complete fabrication. What has been ignited in those two countries is now spreading to Pakistan and other countries in the middle east and Africa that for a while the populations seemed less extreme towards western nations particularly the United States and Israel.
I believe independent news sources to be the best form of reporting and the most consistent too. The main stream news sources are very polarized and often don't tackle controversial issues or issues that conflict with the network or sponsors. Steps should be taken to ensure that hard working journalists and the news organizations that they work for are not being bought up or have their voices drowned out by corporate media companies.
Now that former Senator Obama has become President Elect Obama key issues that i feel have had a strongly negative effect on the United States government can be addressed.
One of the main issues is the lack of participation in the Presidential and Vice Presidential debates. I will not bring up the media's coverage of the elections because that is something not relevant to this particular issue. The very notion that America holds free and open elections but at the same time will not allow other candidates the same opportunities to address the American people as other candidates is a very dangerous thing. There needs to be serious changes made to the manner in which presidential candidates debate and what candidates are allowed to attend the debate. I just can not understand why a candidate for president would not be allowed to participate in the debates unless there are greater things influencing the situation.
