Soon another school year will be coming to an end, and with it will be
ending the careers of countless teachers around the country, their jobs
sacrificed while the school administrators save their own asses, even giving
themselves raises to do it. What
happened America? When did teaching go
from a noble, safe, all but guaranteed profession to the career version of
Russian roulette? Explain to me how
placing the future of our youth in jeopardy makes sense? The country is in bad enough shape as it is, how
in the hell does giving our future leaders less of a shot at a good education
make any sense at all?
What has happened to this country?
When did it become ok for corporate fat cats to run their companies into
the ground and then spend millions of dollars of taxpayer money to bail them
out, when the average American is struggling to get by? Why do so many work multiple jobs to just
barely eke out a living, when so many of our richest citizens refuse to even
pay their fair share? What sort of
future will we be leaving to our children if we continue down this perilous
path? Explain to me why nearly a quarter
of my tax dollars go to national defense, with the bulk of it financing
overseas operations, when less than 4 percent goes to education and job
training? Why does our environment and
natural resources deserve only 2 percent of my taxes? Why is law enforcement and immigration only
worth 2 percent? Why do science, space,
and technology only get 1 percent and natural disaster response less than half
a percent? Do I think that we should be helping to promote peace and democracy
around the world and rid the world of terror?
Absolutely! Should it come at the
cost of our own citizens? Hell no! We have people dying in the streets of
starvation and disease, unable to afford medical care or a decent meal. We have seniors, the very people who helped
to make this country what it is, forced to work into their 80s or older because
they cannot get by on the pittance that is doled out to them each month. Explain to me why this is? WAKE UP AMERICA!
Shame on you Wall Street, shame on you corporate executives, and shame
on you sports stars and celebrities.
Shame on all of you for demanding such high salaries for doing so little
work. Since when did playing a sport or
singing a song or making a movie mean that you should earn more in one year
than most will earn in a lifetime? Shame on you elected officials, shame on you
all for allowing this to happen. Why do
we pay you to serve us and yet you can barely agree on what color the sky is,
let alone figure out a way to keep this country from collapsing.
Shame on all of you who drive gas-guzzling SUVs around with nobody in
them except yourself. Shame on all of
you who live in your McMansions when so many can’t even afford to rent a
room. Shame on our greed-driven society,
shame on the manufacturers and advertisers who insist that we cannot get by
without the latest and greatest new gadget, when the last “next big thing” only
came out 6 months ago. And shame on all
of you who are buying them, encouraging this cycle of greed and waste and
excess to continue. Shame on you for
letting videogames and computers babysit your children, shame on you for not
taking them camping or hiking or fishing. The world is meant to be explored in
person, not in a videogame simulation.
Go and see the ocean, sit out at night and look at the stars, take a
walk in the woods, go and see the world around us, don’t just go and see a
movie about it.
To the younger generations, our future leaders, get off your lazy butts
before you are dead of a heart attack at the age of 20, get out in the world
and see and learn and experience reality, don’t just make due with virtual
reality. Take heed in the lessons of
today, and try not to repeat or continue the same mistakes of our current “leaders”. Learn from our mistakes, learn from the past,
and forge ahead, make this country strong once again, save what is left and
make it worth something, before it is gone and there is nothing to save. Good luck to you, since you will be trying to
accomplish this in overcrowded classrooms with teachers who are over-burdened,
underpaid, and worried if they will have a job at the end of the school
year.
God Bless America? Not good enough anymore I am afraid…. God Help America is more like it.
