I know why economy sank...

After a series of activities, I have to come to understand why our nation is in much of the mess that we are in. I have concluded that one of the main reasons that the economy sank is simply because we are heartless in this country. We are so heartless that we neglected to think about the people that we threw under the bus. We are heartless because we forgot to think about the children whose parents would loose jobs in many of the industries that were mismanaged for years. We are heartless because we didn't think about what it would feel like to loose a home. We didn't stop to think about the money that we were stealing from innocent people. We don't even care about those who are less fortunate that we are or even those who are wrongfully convicted. We also neglect the fact that minorities and women still make less money than their white male counterparts--until we think about our own mothers, wives, and daughters. I guess things don't really hurt as much or even matter as much until it becomes personal for us. Simply put, we were only thinking about ourselves and the almighty dollar.

People began thinking solely about themselves and how to "get over" or how to make themselves rich or "ahead of the game" because many Americans are conditioned to think about how things are doing to work themselves. We think we are "self-made." Let's not even mention the homeless or abused. We neglect them and even ridiculing them because we somehow think it's their fault that they are in the predicament that they are in. We blame the victims of abuse often and not to mention the neglect of our children and the school system. It have become so infectious that we even belittle those who serve. We pay those in the helping professions less money often without paid overtime. We even laugh at those who help people without reservation. To me, that doesn't make much sense. I should know, I am a school teacher.

It truly saddens me when I read about people who embezzle billions and millions of dollars from innocent people or how when given an opportunity to do the right thing people still choose to go wrong. I recently attended a homeowner association meeting in my community and was floored to hear about the complaints that the members had. There were people complaining that the neighbors were changing the oil in their cars in front of their homes. They were talking about who should or shouldn't get assistance due to what the board believed. In the face of a crisis they were also insisting that they foreclose on the home of a man that hadn't paid his HOA fee since December...currently it's April. While I understand that that is simply the way it goes--it isn't right. Shouldn't we be helping each other? I guess this is one of the many reasons that our economy sank.

My biggest beef now is the fact that get angry when we think about where the tax money is going. We get angry when we hear that our tax dollars are going to help other people--i.e. the elderly, welfare recipiants, struggling homeowners, the mentally unstable...ANYONE who needs assistance. I get disgusted when I think about how selfish we have continued to be. We will continue to work in this cycle if we don't do better. I am not naive about this matter, but I do believe that our selfish nature is one of the roots of our evils. Yes, it will eventually get better, but I do wonder if there will be another wave of financial disaster such as this someday because people didn't learn from their own mistakes. This is why I believe the economy sank.

The Village and The Children...

I am a school teacher--an English teacher and a trained counselor. Today, I thought about everything that I believed in in terms of our school system here in the United States. I thought about all of the somewhat abusive slaps that I receive daily as a teacher. Whether it is directly from students, or irate, confused parents, or even people from the outside community, sometimes I feel very devalued and truly misunderstood. There have been numerous people to talk about how our school system is broken. We are indeed living in the twenty-first century with a school system that functions on twentieth century principles. That alone, is a disservice to children and those who seek to make a difference in the lives of children. My concern today was not simply in the system itself, but the people who are in the system--particularly the children and their parents. I have concluded several things:

1. As referenced by a wonderful speaker, yes, it may take a village to raise a child, but "if the village is crazy, the children will be too."
2. It's not necessarily the schools or the homes of these children and families that are broken, it's the people within those homes and schools that are broken.

We tend to blame music, television, and many of us claim to be "products of our environments," but when is someone going to wake up and notice the fact that people are hurting people. It is true that hurt people hurt people, but do we notice what our actions are doing to those in our environments. No one ever thinks about the people behind those startling statistics---people from abusive homes, fatherless or motherless children, children with an incarcerated parent--no one thinks about what happens when those people grow up or possible what happens to them on a daily basis. Those same children arrive in classrooms across the country daily. Yes, we expect them to perform and yes, many believe that our standards are sub par, but have we really considered the emotional aspect of education. We have many students who are emotionally disturb that don't qualify for services simply because they didn't test as so. Simply put, schools are focusing more on standards and accountability than educating the children holistically. Today, it's more about funding per child and being politically correct than it is education. But somehow many politicians say that our teachers aren't doing enough and we are failing children. Yes, we are underpaid, but many simply don't understand education.

What happens to children who grow up with fathers when they go on to have their own children? What happens to those students who have been abused when they grow up? These same people become your bosses, parents, employees, etc. No wonder we have so much corruption and abuse--it literally begins with the children. This is what shows up to us each day. Yes, there are some teachers that do the wrong thing, but I believe the real problem lies in the question of what are we doing to help our children---truly? Our villages are indeed messed up. We really need to address the matters of the home. How do we make homes safe? How do we educate parents? Parents are often as confused as the children, especially at different stages of a child's life. How do we make school relevant, yet rigorous? Not everyone wants to go to college? How do you help a overworked, undervalued teacher cope with the personal stress and hurt that he or she sees with students each day? Many children don't exhibit many manners, many are rude, and hooked to technology. It's as though they forget about the human side of communication--some may even do it on purpose. We need to find ways to help us be humans again. That's not too much to ask--is it? So my thought in all of this is, maybe we should look at ourselves before we start blaming the school systems or the images we see on screen or in radio. Just a suggestion...