Saturday's Million Handout March in Washington

                                          Doug Ross


Hat tip to Before it's News and Doug Ross for the photos


I had not intended to watch C-Span's coverage of the liberal event at the Lincoln Memorial Saturday. I did know that President Obama had given it his thumbs-up. I also knew that the Communist Party USA was attending.  By chance, I caught an hour or so, and let's say I was underwhelmed. The crowd was nowhere near the Glenn Beck crowd in terms of attendance. I did manage to catch Jesse Jackson trying to recapture the oratorical glory of long ago, but it was hard to even understand what he was saying. But when your keynote speaker is MSNBC's butter and egg man, Ed Schultz, you're really in trouble.

And Harry Belafonte??

Some of the speakers (not Belafonte) seemed well-intentioned-though clearly on the left. There were some references to "they", and you know who that referred to. One main theme was trying to make education accessible to everyone-a worthy goal-but one that requires the cooperation of those we are trying to educate.

Here are some photos that were posted by Doug Ross.

http://beforeitsnews.com/story/199/496/15_Photos_From_the_OneNation_Rally_Youll_Never_See_In_Legacy_Media.html

Get the idea? Looks like a few socialists showed up.

Of course, the unions were represented by groups like the National Federation of Teachers  and SEIU etc, as well as the open borders crowd who wanted that DREAM Act passed. One Randi Weingarten, the progressive head of the National Federation of Teachers,  gave what she thought was a stem winder on educating every child. Several other speakers used the same theme.

I have no quarrel with that except there seemed to be an implication that someone is trying to make sure that poor kids are not educated. Who in the Hell would that be? Don't we have laws that every child must go to school until they are 16? Are there areas where there are no schools? Are there schools where there are no teachers?

You can talk about being understaffed, underpaid, and lacking resources all day long. Yet the point is that our society is making every effort to educate children. This is not an area of my expertise, and perhaps our co-respondent, Lance, a middle school teacher in California will have some comments. Yet, I do have some opinions.

My opinion is that many large metropolitan school districts are run by incompetents. The Los Angeles Unified School District (of which I am a product) is one such example. One of the reasons for this problem is that most of those cities are run by incompetents.


My opinion is that too many school districts and schools are spending too much time devoted to teaching kids politically-correct niceties instead of teaching them what they need to know in the real world. (Universities are also guilty of that.)

My opinion is that busing has been a colossal failure, yet it is still used in many districts.

My opinion is that schools and teachers are forced to spend too much time, energy and resources dealing with the societal problems that students bring to the schools. When you have violent gangs in your schools, bringing weapons to school and having no desire to learn or respect adults/teachers, learning will not occur.

My opinion is that when you have children in school from broken families, with absolutely no positive male role model and no interest on the part of the family in the child's academic success, it's going to be difficult to teach that student.

My opinion is that when kids are using drugs, learning will not occur.

My opinion is that when half of your class speaks no English, learning will not occur.

So we all agree that education is the answer. We all want to see poor children get that education that can lift them out of poverty. But tell me who wants to prevent that? And don't say it's those evil tax-payers who don't want their taxes raised in the name of education. If the US Department of Education has proved anything, it is that more money and more bureaucracy cannot solve these problems. When you have a bunch of incompetent boobs running the LAUSD, giving them more money doesn't help. Did you know the drop-out rate for LAUSD is about 50%?

So you say, "Well, Fouse, what is your solution"?

I don't have one. First, I have to find a solution to the drug problem. (I tried that for 25 years and never succeeded.) Then I have to find a solution to the problem of Southwest schools being packed with children of illegal aliens who don't speak any English. Then I have to find a solution to the gang problem.

Then I have to find a solution to the breakdown of the American family-especially in black America where the rate of children born out of wedlock, once about 25% in the dark days of discrimination and Jim Crow, has soared to 70%. Black conservative talk show host Larry Elder describes this as the root cause of the problems facing black America, and I agree.

Of course, I missed some of the speeches from the rally, but I didn't hear anybody talking about those things. It was very easy to say that every child has the right to a quality education, but it's not a matter of having a law passed. The laws are there. How do you make it happen? I don't have the answer, and I don't think they did either other than the government pouring more money into education (as if we have not already) and of course, raising teacher salaries. And where does it all come from? You know the answer; more taxes and income re-distribution. Problem is that it won't help.

If you want to sum up this event, it would be that it consisted mostly of folks who want the government to solve all their problems, which it can't.