Leelanau Whippersnapper

Once again, Bill Maher has penned an honest portrayal of the idiocy in this country.  I admit, I’m a bit biased when it comes to this but lets talk about education for a minute.  First, my background.  A significant number of my immediate and extended family members are teachers or have been teachers at one point or another in their lives.  Growing up, education..or more to the point, GETTING ONE, was the number one rule, ahead of anything else despite my pathetic attempts to think otherwise at times.  My folks made time for reading every night to my sister and me whether it was reading TO us or allowing one of us to read to THEM.  They both struggled along with us trying to figure out ways to tell a 14 frustrated year old that Algebra is actually relevant and to just suck it up and learn it and they RE-LEARNED it with me.  My folks went out of their way to provide Sarah and me with educational opportunities, not because they wanted genius children (hopefully that was not their wish) but because they both knew and understood the importance of a basic education.  They sent Sarah and I to enrichment programs, they participated and helped us to participate in Cub Scouts, Brownies, plays, programs, events, museums, and yes, even instruction about shoveling shit on the farm.  Education is important.  It was important to my parents and it was eventually important to me.  I’m not talking here about post-secondary education but the basic shit.  Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic — K-12 public education.

Today on the Huffington Post

Firing all the teachers may feel good – we’re Americans, kicking people when they’re down is what we do – but it’s not really their fault. Now, undeniably, there are some bad teachers out there. They don’t know the material, they don’t make things interesting, they have sex with the same kid every day instead of spreading the love around… But every school has crappy teachers. Yale has crappy teachers – they must, they gave us George Bush.

According to all the studies, it doesn’t matter what teachers do. Although everyone appreciates foreplay. What matters is what parents do. The number one predictor of a child’s academic success is parental involvement. It doesn’t even matter if your kid goes to private or public school. So save the twenty grand a year and treat yourself to a nice vacation away from the little bastards

Click on the link above to read the rest.

I get so sick of the bullshit in the papers and on line criticizing teachers for ‘failing kids’.  Bullshit.  The only teachers who are failing kids in this country ARE THE PARENTS.  Yes, there are bad teachers, AND bad doctors, lawyers, and scientists but come on if you are going to take the time to write in to the newspaper editor, at least show your kids that you know how to use a spell checker or that you can FINISH a fucking thought in a single sentence!  So, the next time you get an urge to criticize a teacher, stop and think for a minute about what you are doing.  Is little Jimmy’s failure to learn his times tables the fault of the teacher OR is it YOUR fault for failing to make sure little Jimmy got home after school to DO HIS HOMEWORK!  OR, is it YOUR fault for failing to drill them into his head like you were asked to help do by the note you got from the teacher BECUASE YOU YOU COULD NOT BE BOTHERED TO SHOW UP FOR PARENT / TEACHER CONFERENCES!

One reason, among many others that I got out of the Education thing for myself was that I had a very difficult time understanding the lack of involvement of parents in their kids lives because it was SO foreign to me. Growing up I couldn’t shit without one of my parents asking me about school and about my life and good Lord there were times when I absolutely HATED their incessant nagging, prodding, and scornful stares and I would slam my books on the table and leave for coffee at Denny’s just to piss them off more. My parents were doing their jobs, THEY were being teachers, never mind their own backgrounds.  THEY were demanding accountability from me and THEY were going to stand by me and help me even while frustrated with me to make sure that at the VERY least, I got my ass through High School with an education.  Yes, I know everyone has shit going on in their lives but come on, you do not have to be a scholar to be a teacher to your child, you only have to be there and show that to your child.  They will know your expectations, you don’t even have to explain what they are,  that’s the beauty of a parent / child relationship.  The kid WILL come to you for help even when they know you won’t be able to give them the answers.

Lack of parental involvement is the #1 reason that our education system in this country is shot.  It is not however broken and it is not un-fixable.  It is also not the sole responsibility of teachers in this country to raise YOUR CHILDREN.

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because it involves a state that I don’t live in.  There are reasons that I tend to be a New England boy and not a Southern Bell (haha).  It makes little sense, ESPECIALLY at public and secular institutions for discrimination to exist on any level.  Academia is the only bastion for thinking people left in this country and it just pisses me off to no end when mis-informed fools turn back the clock on progress.  What happened Virginia?  You voted a BLACK man into the White House and then elected the Klan to run your state.  Believe it or not, the analogy works.

Here: The closet door cannot be fixed once it’s kicked off of hinges. Virginia’s AG has just told the homophobes to get out the torches and pitchforks!

And Here: “Virginia is For Haters”

The idea here is certainly not to offend the better taste of my extended family living in Virginia but certainly they don’t live in a bubble.

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I’m linking below to a 45 minute Bill Moyers Journal TV show on PBS that is a must see for those of you who may not know the background, details, and importance of the recent Poposition 8 trial that took place in California last month.  Closing arguments have not been scheduled however they will be very soon.  In the video, Olson and Boyes lay out the case, why it matters, what the legal issues actually are and they provide detailed information on why this case is so strong.  They are also presented with some tough questions that many supporters of discrimination ask, you can see them defend the position of equality and make the case that this issue has everything to do with the Constitution and has nothing to do with religious beliefs.  It’s a long discussion but it’s worth watching.

Click THIS link to go to the Bill Moyers Journal web site to view the video.

Below is a YouTube preview of the broadcast.

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The reason that equality for the GLBT community is visible in my life time:

“I have described myself as being ‘gently eccentric’ and slightly different as a person just because I’ve had a very different set of influences growing up than anybody else in my peer group did. I think it’s important for somebody from a big, commercial movie series like Harry Potter and particularly because I am not gay or bisexual or transgendered. The fact that I am straight makes not a difference, but it shows that straight people are incredibly interested and care a lot about this as well.” - Daniel Radcliffe, speaking from the NYC headquarters of the LGBT teen suicide prevention hot-line The Trevor Project, for whom he has just made a promotional film.

15 years ago when I was in high school, there were no major Hollywood celebrities willing to step up to the plate and go to bat for me.  Those who did were on the fringes.  For me personally, I’m not sure it would had much of an influence in my life, I was never a big celebrity follower but here we have Harry Potter, entirely straight with a HUGE following, and willing to put his money where his mouth is.  The Trevor Project was founded not long after I got out of high school and there is a link to it on my sidebar here on this blog.  It’s one of the few charities that I’d consider making a donation to.  Perhaps you might as well.

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Four Christians on Tuesday filed a federal lawsuit challenging the recently enacted Hate Crimes Prevention Act, arguing that it seeks to criminalize deeply held religious beliefs that are in opposition to homosexuality.

Read Box Turtle Bulletin’s take on this story here.  Find out exactly the only thing these Christians must want.

This shit get’s old, luckily so are the people espousing this bile.

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Today out of Washington DC:

“No matter how I look at the issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens,” Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. He said it was his personal belief that “allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do.”

Now, I’m no army boy.  I have about as much interest in fighting a war as I do eating glass.  That said, with all my pacifist tendencies, I still will typically go out of my way to support those who are willing to risk their lives to defend the ideals of this country.  Granted, there are “just” wars and “unjust” wars but that is a political distinction not a practical one.  Regardless of the justification for wars in general, millions of individuals are called on by our government and by a deep sense of personal commitment to the ideals of this country to serve and protect that which we all cherish.  Freedom.  One of the great travesties of Bill Clinton’s time in office was the passage of “Don’t ask Don’t Tell”.  This, in effect, allowed openly gay men and women to serve in the armed forces as long as they were not “out” and did nothing to suggest that they were gay.  If it was discovered they were gay or if they were forced out of the closet by a third party, no matter the reason, they could be discharged…. dishonorably.  Since it’s implementation nearly 17 years ago, between 12,000 and 20,000 GLBT soldiers have been discharged at a cost to tax payers well into the 10’s of millions, many of those kicked out were critical players in the wars this country is fighting, NONE of whom did anything wrong…except be gay.

The implementation of this policy was a big deal.  I was a senior in high school and it was a campaign issue for Bill Clinton.  He would be the first president I actually got to vote for and this “compromise” was, in retrospect, forced on him by bigoted homophobes within the ranks of the military.  It has always been a bad policy, even other major military countries have proven over and over again that allowing gays to serve openly is not an issue.

Finally we are seeing some progress towards repealing this law with hearings that started today.  The big thing out of this is that Joint Chief’s are on board with a repeal.  The question is not IF the policy will be repealed, it is simply a question of HOW it will be repealed.  That’s huge because it means that a repeal is a fact, not a pipe dream.  That they are debating only HOW to repeal the law and not WHY is important.  Stay tuned over the next several months for updates.

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The only state in the country to have this.  How is it that Sarah and Brian ended up in the middle of a corn field full of liberals?

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Every year the HRC (Human Rights Campaign) publishes an index of the best and worst companies to work for in the United States based on their level of of equity towards the GLBT population.  Factors included in the ranking include whether or not the company has any anti-discrimination policies protecting GLBT employees, whether or not said companies offer health benefits to partners of GLBT employees, Corporate structure and political activism by said companies (what they support politically through monetary donations etc.) and the overall perception of GLBT employees of their employers.  There are many other items that go into the rank, you can find them all here.  I thought you might be interested in seeing how my company ranks as well as a visual of the worst employers in the country for GLBT people.

Keep in mind the rank is on a scale of 1 -100.  1 being the worst, 100 being the best.

In 2008 (the most recent year published) Menards Ranked 43 – From my perspective this is pretty accurate.  Menards is a pretty quiet company when it comes to politics.  Their primary objective is to make money, end of discussion.  That said, they do have anti-discrimination policies and anti-harassment policies that well exceed other companies I’ve worked for in my lifetime.  It is nearly impossible to have a successful retail business and not be somewhat tolerant and supportive of diversity.  Menards does not go out of it’s way but they do not actively contribute to a hostile climate for it’s GLBT employees.

Below is a list of the bottom of the barrel.  You’ll notice that Meijer (a company that I worked for several years ago and the company that Jirar worked for) received only a score of 20.  2 of the worst 10 companies in the country are Michigan based.  Michigan isn’t all bad, in the top 20 where companies such as the big automakers (GM, Ford), and Dow Chemical ranked with in impressive 100 score.  You can say what you like about HRC (they are a politically movtied and very active group) however their rankings do have significant importance, particularly to those companies that value the contributions of their GLBT employees.  Most of the Fortune 500 companies in this country far exceed private companies when it comes to fairness, all Fortune 500 companies exceed our Federal government when it comes to fairness and equality.

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Today, we saw the introduction of the Prop 8 backers first witnesses (of only 2 that have not dropped out of the case).  Prior to that, our side rested after introducing into evidence thousands of documents and other related materials that without any doubt strengthens this case in fundamental ways.

“This evidence is not just a smoking gun. It was an arsenal of incendiary devices directed at the LGBT community and voters. This is how the Prop 8 side won — through fear and lies.”

I wish I had the where-with-all to take all the testimony I’ve read over the past 2 weeks and condense it down to a few paragraphs.  Alas, I’ll let others do that for me.  The next few days will be quite interesting ans Prop 8 proponents put their witnesses up on the stand to testify.  I wish this trial could have been televised.  It is so important that what happened in California be made known to the rest of the country and the rest of the world.  I still can’t say if things will go our way when this reaches the Supreme Court but I can say that this trial is doing mountains of good for highlighting the discrimination we have faced in this country for decades.  It’s very hard to ignore, this trial changes everything.

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