The Danger Of The Christmas/Easter Christian

I was raised in the Christian church, but not just as a casual believer. My parents were and are deep thinkers on the subject of religion, spending far more time studying the faith outside of the church than they do in those few hours on Sunday morning and perhaps the occasional Wednesday night.

Suffice to say, Sunday morning was only one small part of my religious education.

The thing is, as I have grown older and continued advanced studies in the history of the Church, the history of the Bible, and the context of both, I find it harder and harder to identify with the modern Church. The focus is too often on issues that were non-issues to Jesus Christ and his followers. We allow the public discourse to focus on wedge issues like abortion and sexual preference - which were not even on Jesus' radar - and largely forget his primary messages of loving our neighbors as we love ourselves and doing unto others as we would have done unto us. Turning the other cheek is unheard of; we seem to prefer to embrace the "an eye for an eye" philosophy of the Old Testament.

In fact, much of the dogma surrounding Christianity today is directly from the Old Testament (see, particularly, Leviticus) and avoids the New Testament - Christ's story - entirely. We all agree and celebrate the birth and death of Jesus, but all of that other stuff that came between seems to be lost on many Christians.

My second Dad (I am lucky enough to have two) is now a Presbyterian minister, and he penned the following sermon for last Sunday's message. So today I bring a guest writer to the blog . . .and without further ado: A Battered Gospel, by Mike Lamm.

A Battered Gospel         

Isaiah 50:4-6  ⁴ The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens-- wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.

 ⁵ The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backward.   ⁶ I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.

Matthew 26:47-53 ⁴⁷ While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, arrived; with him was a large crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people.  ⁴⁸ Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, "The one I will kiss is the man; arrest him."  ⁴⁹ At once he came up to Jesus and said, "Greetings, Rabbi!" and kissed him.  ⁵⁰ Jesus said to him, "Friend, do what you are here to do." Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and arrested him.   ⁵¹ Suddenly, one of those with Jesus put his hand on his sword, drew it, and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear.  ⁵² Then Jesus said to him, "Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.  ⁵³ Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?

A Battered Gospel

            Last Tuesday, Michael Blythe spoke at the Lenten Devotional Service.  My ears really perked up when I heard Michael say, “We all have our way of shaping the gospel to our convenience and even, at times, battering it in the process.”  Often, as people living in the twenty-first century, we can forget just how different life was in the time of Christ.  News was by word of someone’s mouth, not printed or broadcast.  As Christians, when we read of Jews, we think of others, but Jesus was speaking to brothers.  In many ways, we're hampered by the distances of time and space and cultural changes that separate us from Jesus and the early disciples.  We assume elected government; they assumed kings of royal descent or appointed governors.  We assume that everyone has a say about choosing their faith and their rulers.  They assumed that government and faith were essentially inherited.  And so, Michael legitimately asked us if we will let the gospel overcome our prejudices, our knowledge, our opinions, our desires, or will we batter the gospel, consciously or unconsciously, reshaping it in large and small ways, fitting it to our lifestyle and our viewpoint?  

            Many of us can look back now and see a clear example of how our view of life has affected our view of scripture.  So long as society and the male ego declared that women were the weaker and more befuddled gender, we read the Bible with that assumption and we found verses that confirmed what seemed to be plainly obvious truth.  So in history we ignored Catherine of Aragon, Isabelle of Spain, and Elizabeth I of England.  In scripture we ignored Deborah, Naomi, Miriam, Phoebe, and several Marys, to name a few important women of faith.  Despite the texts and examples to the contrary, we failed to understand that in Christ there was neither male nor female, failed to accept Phoebe as a deacon or Junia as an apostle, failed to love half of our neighbors as ourselves, and we blindly thought nothing of it.

            For a couple of years I have been considering the possibility that we have a similar blindness problem with parts of the story of Holy Week.  Let's take another look at some of the moments leading up to Christ's death.  The Gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John tell us that when the authorities came to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemene, someone drew a sword and cut off a man's ear.  Immediately, Jesus stopped the sword play.  What's more, Luke tells us that Jesus healed the ear of this man who had come to arrest him.  If we only see this moment in the Garden as part of a pre-determined series of events, then it has little to do with us.  But then we recall that on the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught, "I say to you, 'Do not resist an evildoer.'" That's what Jesus taught.  That's what Jesus did.  

            There in Gethsemane, Jesus went on to say, "Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?"  Jesus said that he had the option of calling in overwhelming forces, yet he chose not to do so.  Jesus, in the midst of danger, lived as he had taught others.  On the mount he had said, "If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also."  When push came to shove, Jesus chose to walk the walk in unity with the talk that he had talked.

            Later that night, Jesus was brought before Pilate, the Roman governor of Palestine and the issue of armed resistance came up again.  Pilate asked Jesus, "Are you the King of the Jews?" If someone claimed to be king of the Jews, Rome would see that as treason and sedition.  Rome was in charge, and Rome would decide who ruled Palestine.  Jesus replied to Pilate, "My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me" free.  Jesus taught, "Do not resist an evildoer." That's what Jesus taught.  That's what Jesus did. 

            After his appearance before Pilate, Jesus was led away to be executed.  He had been beaten.  He had been spit on and ridiculed.  What sort of person taunts and tortures a man who is about to be executed in the most hideous and painful way that had been devised at that time?  Stripped naked, he hung there helplessly as the guards gambled for the clothes they had ripped off of him.  He hung there naked, humiliated before his mother and the women who had supported his ministry out of their own purses.  Helpless, humiliated, and hurting with every breath, he prayed, "Father, forgive them."  In the very horror of dying, he not only lived as he had taught, he died as he had taught, for he had said, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."

            We view the events with some detachment.  They happened so long ago.  We weren't involved.  The events leading up to death on the cross are less disturbing if we think of them only as a pre-planned series of events, predicted long before, everything unfolding as arranged.  As terrible as things were, we aren't involved.  Nothing is demanded of us.  We only have to be grateful for the benefits that we receive from the death and resurrection of Jesus.  We hear that we're washed whiter than snow by the blood of the Lamb - and we blithely fail to even consider what a violent and gory image that is.  We're content to see a divine plan in Holy Week so long as it's about people back then killing Jesus - and us reaping the benefits of forgiveness and salvation.  But there's more going on than we want to consider. 

            We overlook the moments in scripture that point to this whole story being something other than a divine drama with all of the characters playing their parts exactly as the script had been written long ago.  In fear and anguish, Jesus prayed for a way out that night in the Garden of Gethsemane.  If there was a script, Jesus was asking for a rewrite.  "Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me."   What had Jesus taught about prayer?  "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."  That night in the garden, evil was on the prowl.  Evil was approaching with torches, coming to arrest Jesus, and temptation would arrive at the same moment. "Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?"

There's the temptation.  There's the option.  It only takes a request and it's a done deal.  It really is the obvious choice.  Use the force at your disposal to vanquish evil.  Talk about shock and awe!   Picture the headlines.  "Heavenly Host invades Jerusalem to protect Jesus.  Not a single Roman survives the night.  Roman ships sink in the harbors on the coast as Roman soldiers stampede and overload the ships.  Caesar begs for a cease fire and grovels before Jesus and his radiant winged bodyguards."  Jesus doesn't have a script; he has a choice.  And he chooses to live the way of life that he has taught.  "Do not resist an evildoer.  Love your enemies."

            During Holy Week we want to forget that Jesus was wholly and completely human.  We only want to think of him as wholly and completely divine.  God can do those hard things, make those painful choices that we read about.  But don't remind us that Jesus was human and that a human made those hard choices, a human was begging to be delivered from evil, but refused to wield power in his own defense.

            It's a fearsome thing to hear the message of Jesus that he taught in the Sermon on the Mount.  It's inspiring to watch how he lived the way of life that he taught.  It is awesome and frightening to watch him chose to die rather than abandon the way of life that he taught.  And we really don't want to hear that Jesus not only invites us to hear his message, he calls us to follow his example, live the life he showed us, and stay on the path wherever it leads.  But he reassures us with the promise, "Fear not, for I am with you."  Fear not.  Amen.

Luke 22:50-51 NRS   ⁵⁰ Then one of them struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear.  ⁵¹ But Jesus said, "No more of this!" And he touched his ear and healed him.

John 18:33-36 NRS  ³³ Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?"  ³⁴ Jesus answered, "Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?"  ³⁵ Pilate replied, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?"  ³⁶ Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here."

Luke 23:33-34 NRS   ³³ When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.   ³⁴ Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." And they cast lots to divide his clothing.

Mat 5:38-47 NRS   ³⁸ "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'   ³⁹ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also;  ⁴⁰ and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well;  ⁴¹ and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.  ⁴² Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.  ⁴³ "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'   ⁴⁴ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,  ⁴⁵ so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.  ⁴⁶ For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?  ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

Matthew 26:39 NRS   ³⁹ And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want."

                There are several passages in Isaiah are often understood as predictive with regard to Jesus, or at least descriptive of his situation.   One is Isaiah 57:8.  "He was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people."  Another translation reads, "He was cut off from the land of the living through the sin of my people, who deserved the punishment.  When we hear this passage as saying that Christ was killed for our sins, we have no involvement in the event except to accept the benefits of his death.  But the word can also be translated as "through" or "because of."  We are quick to say that Jesus died for our sins, but we don't want to read the passage as Christ died because of our sins. For = "by reason of" the transgression of my people 

Isaiah 53:7-8 NRS   ⁷ He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.   ⁸ By a perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people.

Isaiah 53:8 TaNaK By oppressive judgment he was taken away, Who could describe his abode?  For he was cut off from the land of the living through the sin of my people, who deserved the punishment.

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The Absurdity of Basing Teacher Pay on Test Scores

On the surface, it makes a great deal of sense. Today's general population public education student is judged almost entirely by their scores on yearly standardized tests, so it seems rational to establish a teacher pay system based upon how successful students are on those tests.

Teachers whose students perform exceedingly well on the tests are obviously doing a great job, and deserve to have a raise to go along with that job. After all, executives in corporate America get performance-based pay, why shouldn't teachers, whose job is so much more important?

All things being equal, that seems perfectly fair.

But all things are NOT equal. In fact, things are anything BUT equal.

I recently volunteered at a Dallas ISD high school, where I've been doing some work to help administration deal with their most challenging students. I got to know a few of the "bad kids," and really there weren't too many surprises. Basically, once a student has been labeled as a "bad kid" we find that teachers tend to look for ways to keep them out of their classrooms, even to the extent of causing an altercation in the hall before class as an excuse to send the student to the office rather than welcome them into the class.

There are bad eggs in every profession, and teaching is absolutely not an exception.

This "bad kid" scenario has taken a nasty turn for the worse now, however, in the light of test scores being used as a primary means of evaluating teacher performance.

One of the students I was working with was so polite, so eager to learn and so responsible that I pulled the principal aside between activities to ask what on earth got the young man labeled a "bad kid." He said the teacher who sent him out of class that day does so every day, and the primary reason why is because this student doesn't do well on the standardized test.

In my day teachers spent EXTRA time with students who were struggling with the material, they didn't send them to office on some bogus discipline charge to avoid having the student in class at all.

Welcome to the age of test-based pay.

Standardized test are a poor excuse for good teaching, and a standardized curriculum is a poor substitute for education. These methods are driving good teachers away from the field, and what's left are either unimaginative, lazy people who just want the time off, and the dwindling number of incredibly committed teachers who refuse to abandon their posts even in the light of more and more ridiculous educational programs.

Basing teacher pay on test scores may seem like a good idea, but when you're out there in the classroom, where national and  even state level administration types dare not go, you see that it's undermining a public education system that was already in steep decline.

If we're going to rescue education in America we're going to have to ask teachers to think outside of the box, not keep stuffing them inside the tired old box that never fit to begin with.

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Should Every Kid Get A Trophy?

There's an interesting trend in the relm of competition among kids, something that seems positive at first, but could actually be having a definite negative impact on society.

It sounds great to say that every kid should get a trophy. Whether it's a scouting event, a junior sports event or some other kind of competition, these days the thinking seems to be that win, lose or draw every participant should receive a trophy.

Sounds good, right? I'm sure adult leaders all over the country pat themselves on that back every time they hand a "Great Attitude" trophy to a kid who just came in last. Congratulations for finding a way to raise the self esteem of children everywhere!

Or not.

You see, there's a fine line between helping build a child's self esteem and sabotaging their work ethic and spirit of competition. Giving every participant a trophy may maintain a certain level of self esteem, but it also undermines a child's inherent drive to succeed.

Ask any teacher, especially in an inner city situation, and you'll find that one of the biggest challenges they face on a daily basis is the sense of entitlement that has taken over the student population. From a very early age they are taught that grades are gifts, not something they earn, that showing up for school is optional, as is following directions from adults once they get there. Parents often side with their children against school personnel, even when the child is clearly in the wrong, which completely undermines the authority of the adults who are charged with, among other things, teaching students to respect authority.

I'm not sure what has brought about this radical change in thinking since I was a kid, some 30 years ago. Motivation was king in those days, and my parents always set goals and incentives for me. It wasn't just about school, either. If I mowed the lawn or washed the family cars there were rewards. If I had a particular number of A's on my report card there was a reward. There was also a strong disincentive if there happened to be a "C" on my report card, and disincentives are every bit as important as incentives.

The primary objective in parenting and teaching is to prepare our young people to survive in the real world, where competition is still very much king and nothing worth having is ever given away for free. Knowing this, who came up with the idea that every child should have a trophy?

The real world simply doesn't work like that.

In the real world, the most committed and qualified applicant gets the job. If they show up late, dress inappropriately, or choose not to show, they get fired. There are no second chances and there is no reward. There is no trophy for second place, and instilling that sense of competition and pride in accomplishments from an early age is supremely important as we look to prepare our kids to be successful adults.

Giving every child a trophy might sound good on the surface, but the truth is that rewarding mediocrity and even failure actually handicaps our the very children we are looking to build up.

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How To Save The U.S. Postal Service

The United States Postal Service was essentially founded in 1775, when the Second Continental Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin the first Postmaster General. It's primary purpose was, of course, to deliver main from one person to the next.

You know . . .letters.

In simpler terms, the US Postal Service was established to do what you computer does for you now, to deliver what might be called old-school e-mail.

The widespread use of e-mail began in the 80's and in the years since then it has become the most commonly used method of communication in America. If you don't have an e-mail address you can't communicate with the vast majority of the industrialized world. Your friends, your family, and even the companies you do business with communicate primarily through email, and now text messaging, which is a version of the same.

When was the last time you took out a pen and paper, wrote a letter, stuck it in an envelop, licked a stamp and sent it off in the mail?

I'm guessing it has been quite some time.

That's the problem with the U.S. Postal Service. It provides a service that few of us actually need on a daily basis.

On December 5, 2011 the U.S.P.S. announced that it would be closing 252 of its 461 mail processing centers as well as 3,700 local post offices across the country. The move also put 28,000 people out of work.

Today CNN is reporting that there are even rougher times ahead for the U.S.P.S., which reportedly lost $3.3 billion over the last three months of 2011, which included the lucrative Christmas mailing season.  Now they're saying that if they can't slash employee benefits they could run out of cash and hit their $15 billion debt limit this year.

"Passage of legislation is urgently needed that provides the Postal Service with the speed and flexibility needed to cut costs that are not under our control, including employee health care costs," Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said in a statement. 

My question is this: Why are human beings so reluctant to accept change and the reality that change brings?

Over the past two decades the U.S.P.S. has been transformed from an outlet for people to stay in touch with each other to a conduit for credit card companies and advertisers to SPAM the hell out of our mailboxes six days a week. I have often joked that our neighborhood should just install paper recycling bins next to each bank of mail slots so that we could all use a version of direct deposit and never have to bring that crap into our homes.

Personal correspondence is no longer the primary mission of the postal service, and as such, is there really a need for six-day-a-week delivery?

Here's an idea: Since the U.S.P.S. is no longer needed to serve its original purpose, and the purpose it has adopted is an extreme annoyance, why not change the delivery schedule to three days per week? I think we can all wait an extra day or two to get that all-important credit card application, catalog, or desperate advertisement.

We definitely still need the U.S.P.S., even if it's in a limited way. We still need to send an occasional care package or birthday card, and we still need to be able to order our books and movies from Amazon (though that is quickly becoming a thing of the past in the age of digital downloads). But if the postal service is hard up for money they should re-think their business model and bring into the 21st century.

We don't need daily mail delivery, and most of what is delivered we could do without altogether.

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The Lesson Of A Dying Baby Boy

"Your daughter is so beautiful! How old is she?"

My wife and I were at the grocery store, where I ran into the lady who was the nurse at the school where I used to work. She had delivered what seems to be the mandatory greeting for anyone with a baby.

"Thank you," I responded. "She's seven months old."

That's when a voice from behind me interrupted the now-familiar dialogue.

"Seven months? Do you mind if I look at her? My son is seven months and I would like to know what that's supposed to look like."

I turned to find a young woman holding a baby, but I was immediately taken aback. The baby boy was limp in her arms, though his eyes were wide open, and tubes ran from a device in his mother's shopping cart into her child in various places.

"He wasn't supposed to live this long . . ."

. . . and I lost the rest of what she said as I stepped aside to let her admire my perfect, beautiful little girl, who was breathing completely on her own and totally tube-free.

I was speechless for only a moment, and thankfully my wife swooped in to make a fuss over the woman's little boy and tell her how cute he was.

Cute might have been a stretch, but his eyes were certainly bright and wondrous. I gave him a smile and he seemed to smile back, despite the fact that his mouth was taped up and unable to move. It was his eyes, I think. His eyes smiled back at me.

And then the exchange was over. My former colleague returned to her shopping and my wife and I walked away from the young woman with the struggling baby boy.

We looked at each other and tears came to our eyes. That could have been our daughter, our Riley. That could have been our perfect little angel, born with whatever ailed that little boy.

When we found out my wife was pregnant people would always ask me what I wanted it to be, a girl or a boy. My response was always the same: "Healthy." You see, my sister had a baby with extreme medical needs, and while he lived much longer than any doctor predicted, he didn't ever walk . . .or talk . . .or even openly smile. My sister had an amazing relationship with little Andrew and she mourned his death as she would any of her other four healthy children, but deep down inside I couldn't help but wonder if I would be able to cope half as well as she did.

I just wanted a healthy baby, regardless of sex.

I have had a baby girl for seven months, and every second of every day I have been grateful that she is healthy. I stop myself constantly to just look into her beautiful blue eyes and admire how perfect she is. Seeing that little boy in the grocery store, that little boy who is living on borrowed time at seven months, only made me appreciate Riley more. If ever there was a life lesson in the Power of Now, in taking nothing for granted, it was that young mother and her little bundle of joy.

I don't think I will ever take Riley for granted . . .even for a second . . .life is just too precious. And the miracle that is a perfect birth is not one I will ever take lightly.

That said, I will also never forget the way that young woman looked, the same way that my sister looked with her baby. The mother didn't see the tubes at all, only the beautiful face of her baby boy looking up at her, trying to soak every second of his borrowed time.

(Since I don't know the name of that boy I met in the grocery store, I will dedicate this post to my nephew, Andrew Carl Heusinger, whom I affectionately called "Boxes.")

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Is America Really a Democracy?

Ask the average person on the street what form of government is utilized by the United States Of America and they will most likely tell you it's a democracy. We The People, in order to form a more perfect union . . . and all that. Of the people, by the people, for the people . . .we can all remember, if not quote verbatim, all of those great lessons we learned in elementary school history classes.

But is America truly a democracy?

Let's take a look at a couple of definitions:

Government Type 1: A government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections.

Government Type 2: A type of government in which huge corporations, through bribes, gifts, and the funding of ad campaigns that oppose candidates they don't like, become the driving force behind the executive, judicial and legislative branches.

Which one most accurately describes the American government circa 2012?

Your grade school memory is telling you to pick Type 1, which is, indeed, the definition of a democracy. If you're paying attention to modern government, however, there is a little voice in the back of your head that can't help but think that

Type 2 sounds eerily familiar. Type 2 is the definition of a corporatocracy, a relatively new word used to describe - that's right - the type of government the United States currently has.

Money has always been a driving force behind government, and those with money have been able to sway government or even sponsor and write legislation. But now, in a post Citizens United world, corporations and billionaires have free rein to grab as much political power as money can buy . . .which is one hell of a lot.

In reality, the Citizens United decision proved that even the Supreme Court can be bought.

Corporations were already very much in the lobbying business, but the C.U. decision opened the flood gates. Millions have been poured into elections since the decision, with billionaires like the Koch brothers - owners of Koch Industries - spending insane amounts of money to try and elect Republicans who will strip away all environmental protections, all labor unions, and anything else that would stand in the way of transforming America into a banana republic.

The ruling elites, you see, would prefer to keep the 99% from being involved in politics in any way. They use their money to make it more difficult to vote. They sponsor laws for poor people and the elderly - who can't afford a car or can't drive, and so have no need for a driver's license - to have to obtain a driver's license before they can vote. They use their influence to close voting locations in poor communities because, of course, the vast majority of poor people vote Democratic. They have spent millions to pass laws that say college students can only vote in their home communities, rather than on their college campuses, where they most certainly are in early November. College students, you see, are much more likely to punch the blue hole than the red one.

I could go on, but these examples are enough to give you an idea of what a corporatocracy looks like. More and more it looks a great deal like the U.S. of A.

Americans are not powerless to stop billionaires from dismantling the working class. Just look at what's going on in Wisconsin, where governor Scott Brown took power and immediately went to work making labor unions a thing of the past. The people of Wisconsin were so enraged at his policies that they have turned out in record numbers to demand a recall election to remove him from office. The Koch Brothers have poured even more millions into Brown's cause to try and dissuade voters, but to no avail. Not everyone can be fooled by misleading advertising and bogus "news" programming.


As it turns out, you can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.

What it's going to take for America to once again resemble a Democracy is for We The People to get our heads out of our asses and start participating in the process. We've got to turn off the reality TV long enough to see what our elected officials are doing. They love it when we don't pay any attention - just ask Texas governor Rick Perry, who used Texas taxpayer money to fund his presidential campaign. Perry has been funneling taxpayer money to his rich donors for years, but it takes a presidential campaign and a national audience for Texans to reach any level of outrage regarding our governor's pervasive corruption.

Take the first step right now - sign the petition linked here to reverse the Citizens United decision.

It's time to wake up America. If we don't wake up soon we won't have anything left to fight for. It will all belong to huge corporations . . .and they won't stop until they've destroyed everything we love about this country, all in the name of adding another billion to the piles of billions they already possess.

Greed is a disease, every bit as damaging as alcoholism. The cure starts with you, and you can start by adding your name to the petition. Just make sure it isn't your only step towards helping America find a cure. Spread the word!!

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Prison: The Texas Education Solution?

In Texas, we have a funny way of looking at children who can't read on grade level at the end of third grade.

We decide they're going to jail.

Crazy, you say? I completely agree. But that doesn't make it any less true.

The story has gone viral now, but in case you've missed it, Texas and California are among the states who begin planning the need for more prison cells based on the number of third graders - specifically, third grade boys of color - who are unable to read on grade level at the end of third grade.

You see, statistics show that children who fall into that category - boys of color who can't read on grade level - are more than likely going to wind up in prison.

It's a startling realization; impressive, even. What is NOT IN THE LEAST BIT impressive is the reaction to the statistic. We identify a very specific group of children who are on a path to destruction that will damage society at least as much as  it will the children themselves, and our collective response is to start building new prisons?

Sounds expensive.

It sounds a heck of a lot more expensive than just spending extra time teaching third graders to read!

Setting aside for the moment that many prisons are private corporations, and thus make large donations to public officials who also make decisions about educational programming, let's take a rational look at what should be the obvious solution to this problem.

The estimated cost of housing a prisoner in Texas is roughly $15,000 a year, and that's not couting the cost of building the prison, merely the cost of feeding and clothing a prisoner for a year. That's money taxpayers are shelling out to provide room and board to someone who, 85% of the time, is functionally illiterate.

How many teachers could be hired with that money, considering the average public school teacher in Texas has something like 150 students under their care per semester?

Some simple math reveals that if we gave each reading teacher the money that would otherwise be spent making students future wards of the state, we could pay them something in the neighborhood of $150,000 a year if they only taught 10 students.

How many great teachers would return to the profession for that kind of money?

I know more than a few.

It would be more than a cost saving, of course, because if the program results in preventing crimes before they are committed there is a tremendous savings to society in the forms of crimes that aren't committed.

The other factor is that teaching third graders to read can be REALLY fun! I know. I've done it. Heck, I've taught ninth and tenth graders to read, and from the moment they decode their first word they tend to get hooked. Granted, I didn't teach this ridiculous word recognition method that so many schools use today. I used the good, old fashioned method of teaching sounds first and words second. There's nothing like a Dr. Seuss book to teach words like "cat," "hat," and "mat," and once you have kids excited about The Cat In The Hat the possibilities are endless.

So sign me up. Let's take that $15,000 a year we're spending to house illiterate criminals and put it to work preventing them from become criminals in the first place.

It makes a lot more sense than giving up kids after third grade, passing them through the education system so Rick Perry and his ilk can take campaign donations from private prisons and then use taxpayer money to run them.

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