Prisons and Schools

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A growing number of lawmakers are indicating they are open to considering new gun control measures in the wake of Friday’s school shooting in Newtown, Conn. But while much of the national debate has focused on limiting access to guns, others are suggesting that schools should arm themselves to defend against attacks.

“Amid Calls For Gun Control, Some Push For Weapons At School,” Wade Goodman

I was grew up, or came into some sort of consciousness, just as the collective rebellions of the 1960’s dissolved into the chaos of individual self-expression. In the early 1970’s my suburban schools were slowly but surely transformed into institutions more like prisons, complete with an almost total lack of social services and armed guards with trained dogs stalking the hallways. This was justified, it was said, by the search for drugs.

This happened over the course of a few years, from around 7th grade or so to around 10th grade. At that point I quit high school to go to a technical school and become a photographer. That school, Houston Technical Institute, although it was in the inner city in Houston, enjoyed a special status that somehow allowed it to escape from the usual constraints of the emerging police state in the public schools.

All of this only grew worse as more and more small-town school districts combined into large consolidated schools in the name of saving money. Meanwhile, of course, the Reagan revolution grew, making a national health care system, much less a national health care system with mental health parity, nearly impossible. Standardized testing drained education of life wherever they were used, and they are used a lot.

So here we are, three or more decades into Reagan’s American Morning. Guns we can get in a heartbeat, medical care not so much. So what’s on offer as the current right-wing leaders fight over the budget? More cuts. Ironically, and perhaps not surprisingly, it’s those rebellious youth of the 1960’s, now nearing retirement, that are their main targets. The right will chase them right to their graves, dragging the rest of us along for the ride.

Posted in: Autobiographical, Professional

Violence

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It’s difficult to write about violence after yet another school shooting; I’d hate to contribute to the sense of mindless obsession that surrounds these things, especially on television. The news channels haven’t been able to talk about anything else, even when there’s little to say; they design graphics and even theme songs around every incident, fighting over ratings and advertisers. It’s all predictable and mostly empty and sad.

At some point in the ritual, sooner rather than later this time, perhaps because very young children are involved, the journalists turn their attention to the debate over gun control. We do need some sensible regulations over guns, of course, especially cheap handguns and automatic (and semi-automatic) rifles, even if we also know that anyone set on mass violence will probably find a way to find a gun and ammunition. We make it too easy.

The culture of guns runs from the posturing of the NRA to the families who keep small armories at home, certain that they are safer against some poorly defined threat. It doesn’t stop there. The same “moneyed interests” who have made sensible gun regulation impossible (and try to destroy unions and privatize schools and…) stand in the way of a comprehensive national health care system with full parity for mental health. We need to connect the dots.

Posted in: Miscellaneous, Writing

Lemonaide

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As income and wealth become ever more concentrated in America, the nation’s billionaire political investors will invest even more.

A record $6 billion was spent on the 2012 campaign, and outside groups poured $1.3 billion into political races, according to data from the Federal Election Commission and the Center for Responsive Politics.

That’s why Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission has to be reversed – either by a Supreme Court that becomes aware of the poison it’s unleashed into our democracy, or by constitutional amendment.

It’s also why we need full disclosure of who contributes what to whom.

And public financing that matches public money to contributions from small donors.

Most fundamentally, it’s why America’s widening inequality must be reversed.

“Why Billionaire Political Investors Will Keep Pouring Money Into Politics — Until They’re Stopped,” Robert Reich

Last night, with the help of more of these billionaires (in this case, the Koch brothers) Michigan’s legislature passed a right to work law, almost in full secrecy, and the governor signed it within hours, as if there was some danger that the ink would fade before he got his pen on it. The sneakiness is the point; these folks are afraid of their own constituencies. As always with the right, if the problem is democracy, dump the democratic process.

Or, perhaps, they are afraid of people more powerful than their citizens: those billionaires again. The right has been working on this for decades now, starting with the election of Reagan and the destruction of PATCO. The billionaires seed the state legislatures with right-wing legislation, written through ALEC, and they push astroturf Tea Party candidates to make sure they have the votes to get their laws passed. It’s a nearly ideal system.

We managed to stop one of them from becoming president, but that single presidential election, and even the gains in the Senate, or even in the Michigan legislature, can’t overcome the billionaires’ political machine, which rolls on, seemingly unaffected. As Riech says, they won’t stop until something makes them stop. He puts his faith in the Supreme Court, or a constitutional amendment. I think the only real hope lies in well-organized people.

Posted in: Economics, Professional, Union