Monday, June 25, 2007
Comic Concerns Aren't Comical
What is wrong with our city? We are more concerned over comics in the Post and Courier than we are about our schools. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate my daily dose of humor just as much as the next guy; but this is ridiculous. Maybe if the District 20 board had listed the false addresses used to enter Buist Academy next to "Shoe", the public may have cared. Better yet, they should have listed them INSTEAD of "Shoe" and then the public would have really been outraged. Dr. Goodloe-Johnson's parting comments to Katie Crawford regarding the situation at Buist Academy were completely misleading and she knew it. Yes, fake addresses are used throughout the nation, but how many neighborhood kids are being kept out of their schools as a result?
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3 comments:
People know they won't be attacked by others for complaining about the selection of comics, and the Post & Courier is more than happy to encourage their comments. If we all wrote the editor complaining about the Buist lottery, would the letters would be published? Who knows how many such letters received at the P & C have ended up in the circular file?
That's a valid point to which we may never know the answer. Maybe we should write our letters to the editor and cc the blogs. Either way, it's time we not concern ourselves with being "attacked by others" and stand up for what's right.
An interesting point was made in Michael Moore's film, Sicko that struck a cord with me when I heard it. If you instill fear, a lack of hope and add on top of that a heavy burden of debt, the people will be afraid to speak out and government authorities can keep the masses in check. A majority will be in such despair that they won't even vote. But when the masses are no longer afraid, outwardly possess hope that change and reform are possible and, as individuals, are relatively free from want, the people will rise up and take charge of their governments. Only then can ordinary people pose a formidable challenge to those who identify themselves as being “in charge”. Those who hold power as members of government authorities traditionally fear popular participation. Party labels have almost not impact on this reality.
These are observations were made in Moore’s film by an "Old Labor" party activist in London and a middle aged doctor in Paris. These are not exactly your typical anti-government, no-tax, right-wing libertarians. I wonder if Americans in general just feel overwhelmed (with fear, hopelessness and worry about just holding on to what they have). Is this why we find the P&C’s choice of comics a preferred topic of debate over the potential risks that speaking out on public education issues presents? Poor Mr. French at The Chronicle knows the financial sting for his having stuck his neck out on the school debate downtown. Those who are dependent on maintaining government’s authority and the people’s fear didn’t take long to remind him that he could be hurt.
If we fear reprisals, verbal or otherwise, then it is true that a majority of Americans have been reduced to nothing more than docile and compliant citizens who are afraid of their government at all levels. When I heard this it made sense. We have been brainwashed by the powers that be (and that want to stay there) into believing that we might just loose it all if we speak out. I wonder if that is exactly what every all powerful government authority in America has worked to achieve, from 75 Calhoun St to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
The more I see how access to education, health care and public service in general is being addressed more effectively in communities outside the US, the more I feel this country is on the wrong track...and it's seems to be resigned to that fact as it goes still further down the wrong road. Charleston is just a mirror of a national problem. The hope that remains within me says that with so many positive examples that exist outside the US, it shouldn’t have to be this way.
Yes, as it exists now, most of us are afraid, skeptical about the future and feel like our backs are against the wall. Our school board members are not afraid of us, and they seem to be able intimidate most of us. Yes, in many ways life is definitely better in Paris than in Charleston, but things must be pretty bad here when even Cuba appears to offer more to a majority of its people.
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