I was thinking of two posts.
The first one was my rendition of the changes in California culture over the last century and how these changes have helped to bring us to the current circumstance. There was nothing I stated that is not true or even exaggerated in that text. There was a lot of information that could actually be added to your gripe about proposition 13 but doesn't lay blame at whitey or the Republican party as you would have preferred. You actually could take my statement and show that it was white mainstream culture who are primarily represented by that text but I don't see the purpose of that. To me that would be a 'so what,' but at least it would be a considered response.
The common refrain and complaint about CA is the one you stated.......that its in trouble financially because its a 'socialistic' state, harboring liberals. When I first moved there, that's primarily what I heard. To come to that conclusion takes a strong conservative ideology without doing any research.
However, living there I saw something different. In fact, the longer I was there, the more I realized the popular refrain wasn't anywhere close to the truth. When Prop 13 passed in the 1970s, CA was number 1 in per capita pupil spending; it had the best universities, its infrastructure was relatively new.....it was the Golden State. But each year after Prop 13 passed, there were revenue shortfalls, and the state began cutting back. I could see the effect of the cutbacks after I got there. In my first couple of years, every spring, they would clean the freeways of the junk that had accumulated during the winter. That stopped about after my 3 year there. When I first got there, going to the DMV meant a 20 minute line. Last time I went it took over an hour. Slowly over time, things got worse......state employees became more unpleasant to deal with. They passed the 1,2,3 law and CA began building prisons like they were going out of style. In 30 years, CA has built one univerity and 20 prisons.
Is there waste? Of course, any bureacracy, public or private, experiences waste. Is it out of control? There isn't enough money to go around for it to be out of control.
So when I read the stuff you posted......a shallow explanation for the state's problems that's repeated over and over again ad
nauseum by conservatives who don't bother to dig up the facts, it makes my blood boil. What's happening to CA is a crying shame and it was put on that road by the state mentality that fuels the tea baggers today. The irony is that the tea baggers think they are the real Americans....the good Americans. They are not. Very sad.
Your response was as I described it.
The second post was an anecdotal accounting of an experience I had. An experience I am not too proud of for several reasons; like, why would I have put my daughter in such a setting in the first place, it was a choice. Also, why had I allowed it to get so bad. I am an experienced educator who claims to be an authority on the subject. The story doesn't reflect well on that at all. In addition, I felt like I could punch a guy and never stop over what had happened to my innocent little girl ... thank God for little girls and my fear of prison or I might have. It was a hard personal story to share, I don't think I have told it to anyone else, at least I don't remember telling it before. It was hard because it left me vulnerable to some criticism I deserve and would have a hard time explaining. It contained some personal information I actually cut out before posting, you know hoe I feel about sharing personal information here. It did, however, represent another true and very valid perspective on the topic you were bringing up to discuss, so I felt it was worthwhile if we are truly going to consider the best interests of our society.
Your reaction was one of a steel trap closed mind, and further you acted out with uncalled for character assassination.
First of all, there is no indication in the post that it was a personal experience.......you just dropped it into the middle of your post without an explanation. And frankly, it sounds a bit far fetched......I mean, the teacher told your kindergarten aged daughter that all Americans are druggies. Come on.....its sounds like a conservative fantasy fueled by too much imagination. Anyone of those statements you claim your daughter made would be grounds for the teacher's termination. |
