76 Million Ways Our Government Fails Us

If anyone wonders why people like me pull out what is left of our hair over the decisions our leaders make then this should help explain why. Our federal government can come up with 76 million dollars to construct a suicide prevention net for the Golden Gate Bridge but they can't fix our roads or improve our schools to save our lives.

Last year, 46 people jumped to their death from the famed bridge and now our leaders want to make it so no one else can. Lets put that into perspective. The average teacher in California earns $65,000.00 a year and almost 90 percent of them are unable to afford housing in the golden state. Class sizes swell to over 40 students in the typical middle school and high school class room and we complain about not providing a better education for the millions of children who attend our public schools.

76 million dollars is enough to higher 1170 teachers at the average pay and 1727 first year teachers at the starting pay of $44,000.00. It pays for almost 127,000 new lap top computers at $600.00 a pop. It pays for over 2,500 after school coaching/extracurricular stipends at $3,000.00 per position. It pays for 1520 school resource officers who can protect our campuses from further violence. It buys over a million more textbooks at $70.00 a book. That money could go a long way to improving our education system. It could do the same with law enforcement, first responders, senior services, and job development. Just think of how many pot holes that money could fill?

Since the bridge was opened in 1937, there have been an estimated 1,600 people who have jumped to their death. That's an average of just under 21 people per year. That works out to spending almost the same amount per jumper as it would to higher much needed first year teachers in the state.

 

And lets not forget, the Golden Gate Bridge is not the only place a despondent person can jump to their death in California. In 1981, I worked for the housing department while a student at California State University Chico and was given the task of cleaning up after someone jumped to their death from a nine story building. My oldest brother was on the receiving end of a suicidal person who chose his car to jump into from an over pass while he drove to work.

Building a net to prevent one person a week from jumping to their death solves nothing. Anyone in that state of mind is not going to stop and say, “Well, I guess I can't jump from the Golden Gtate Bridge so suicide is out of the question.” They'll find some other way to end their life no matter how many nets our government pays for.

Perhaps, if the 76 million dollars went toward improving our schools, offering more suicide prevention assistance, or better mental heal care, we might prevent some of those suicides. However, anyone who thinks a suicide prevention net on the Golden Gate Bridge will save lives needs to take a flying leap. Just do so quick before a net is built.

Men and Women Are Not Equal

Men and women are not equal under the law despite the efforts of many to make it happen. One of the most common factors sited is women are paid about seventy cents for every dollar a male makes for the same job. There is no justifying this discrepancy and as long as it exists, women will never view themselves as being equal under the law, nor should they.

Still, there are other areas where men and women are not equal and until they too are made so, the two sexes will never be considered equal under the law.

I was in high school when Title IX was passed. This law, among other things, opened up the way for females to participate in sports on a much larger scale. High schools could no longer have a boys basketball team without offering a girls team. Male sports, like football, now had to allow girls to try out for the team if they did not offer a girls team or drop their football program all together. This law resulted in millions of girls being able to excel in athletics, land college scholarships, and led to the rise of U.S. Women dominating in Olympic sports like track and field, basketball, and swimming while also seeing the rise of the U.S. Women in World Cup Soccer.

It was not unusual to see stories about high school girls who played on their school's football team, usually as a kicker but occasionally as a position player too. More recently, I have read stories of girls competing against boys in wrestling. Many times the girl wins her match by forfeit because the boy refuses to physically fight a female because he was raised to believe this is wrong. I have also read stories of girls pitching on their school's baseball team instead of playing on the girls softball squad. However, I do not recall ever reading a story about a boy competing on his high school girls team in any sport. I have, however, read several stories where boys were denied their request to do so. Often times the reason given is the physical advantage the boy has; in other words, the two sexes are not equal.

As a teacher, I was once asked by a student if I believed men and women receive equal treatment under the law. My answer was, “No. Until women are paid the same as men for the same work, they will never be equal under the law.” All the girls clapped their approval and a few turned to the boys to ask them why they can't be as open minded as their teacher. Then I followed with, “Women will also never be considered equal to men until they receive equal punishment under the law.” At this point, the guys clapped their approval.

The fact is, the court system is far more sexist than the rest of our society. For every female behind bars, there are at least ten males in prison. Are men ten times more violent than women? We'd like to think so but if you ever taught at a middle school or high school you'd know the worst fights to break up are those pitting females against each other and their frequency often out paces male fights. Add to that, boys will throw a couple of punches and that usually settles the matter. Not with girls. They never forget and even if a fight is broken up between them, it is rarely fully resolved.

Besides violence, lets look at other differences in punishments. A male teacher who gets busted for having an inappropriate relationship with a female student is sentenced to prison for a long period of time and usually ends up with the other sex offenders. Few will feel sorry for this man for breaking the trust we placed in him. However, female teachers who are found guilty for a similar relationship with a male student are often given very light sentences, six months to a year, before being paroled. The male teacher is labeled a sexual predator or pedophile while the female is often painted as a confused woman in need of counseling and not time behind bars.

So remember, the next time you complain about the lower pay women receive for the same work as men do, they also receive beneficial treatment under our sentencing laws. In other words, had they lived, Bonnie and Clyde would not have received the same sentence. Clyde would have been executed while Bonnie probably would have been released after a few years at which time she would have spent what was left of every seventy cents Clyde gave her for each one of the dollars he kept for himself.

Growing Old

Growing old scares the hell out of me. I am at a point in life where I am closer to death than to birth. In fact, it has been 37years since I graduated from high school and if I live another 37, I will be in my nineties.

We do not make growing old a nice venture for Americans. It seems so wasteful to spend somewhere between 80 and 90 percent of our health care on the final two or three years of life. If our bodies were businesses, we would never do this. What successful business waits until it is on death's door to pump money into it to keep going? The best businesses invest in themselves to remain vital and yet in our country, we wait until the end to spend money on health care. It's a joke.

I also can not understand why we make it illegal for a person to end their life. Most old people are emotionally ready to die long before their body's are and do not look forward to the dying process. They resent seeing themselves lose control over their lives, as well as bodily functions, and hate the feeling of being a burden to others. More often than not, it is the loved ones of the dying who insist on prolonging the life of the elderly because it is them who are not ready to say good-bye to someone they love.

It also does not make sense that we allow women the right to end a pregnancy while making it illegal to allow a person in their 80's with declining health to end theirs. Doctors will tell an elderly person who states they just want to die they are depressed and prescribe them an anti depressant. It is not depressing to not want to have to wait for your time to come when you are emotionally ready to move on; it's only natural. Still, we fill up doctors offices with elderly patient after elderly patient while we do a poor job of delivering preventative health care to those still in the prime of life. Euthanasia should be a legal option for the elderly and terminal, not a crime. This is not to say if you are old you should end your life.  However, if you are old or dying, it should be a legal option.

Why is it wrong to want to leave the world on your own terms, especially when you have out lived almost all the people you have ever known? Religion does a good job of making people feel guilty about this and yet lets face it, we have no problem with it when it comes to a pet. It is considered cruel to keep an aging dog that has lost its ability to function at a reasonable level alive. We are told we are doing the right thing when we take the family dog to the vet or shelter and have him “put to sleep.” However, heaven forbid if we help a loved one to an early end on their terms.

Dr. Jack Kevorkian was painted as a murderer because he helped people leave this world in a dignified manner rather than have to face the slow and painful process of the inevitable. To help end ones suffering is not an act of evil. I am not talking about helping a teenager who hates life to end things. However, people who have lived a long and full life or who face a death sentence due to a disease should be allowed to call it quits on their own terms. And as far as the loved ones who are left behind, if they really do love and care about this person, they will rejoice in knowing a loved one died with dignity rather than have to go through the pain of slowly fading away long after they are emotionally ready to do so.

Whiners Deserve Their Day

     America has turned into a nation of whining brats.  I don't mean a few citizens, I mean all of us. From the top down, we are a bunch of whiners.
     Recently, 50 U.S. senators sent NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell a letter asking him to disallow the use of the name Redskins for the Washington franchise.   Sure, the name is offensive but is has been around longer than most Americans have been alive and suddenly it is offensive.  Special interest groups have failed to convince Redskins owner Daniel Snyder to change the team name but he refuses to budge on the issue.  Good for him.  Besides, doesn't our congress have more pressing matters to solve?
     Buccaneers, Raiders, and Vikings were all groups who used to rape and pillage but I don't see anyone pressuring their owners to change their team names.  America's team, the Dallas Cowboys refers to a group of Americans who Hollywood has depicted, among other things, as people who killed Native Americans.  Does anyone really think Jerry Jones will change the team's name?
     We do not like what Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling says in a private conversation that was probably illegally recorded and then sold to the media and now we insist he sell his team.  Clipper fans want a new owner but love heir team.  Why don't they quit whining and do what fans did when I grew up?  Former Oakland A's owner Charlie Finley was hated by everyone.  The players on his World Series winning teams left in droves and the fans followed because he was so tight fisted.  It got so bad, the A's were lucky if they drew 3,000 fans to a home game.
     Our whining was backed up by our actions.  Meanwhile, the Clippers will continue selling out games because Los Angeles fans love a winner.  However, they won't care how nice their owner is if the team loses; they just won't go to the games.
     Our whining goes beyond sports.  Teachers love to whine, believe me, I know.  For the past thirty years, I taught numerous subjects at several schools and there was whining at all levels, including plenty from me.  The work load for teachers is enormous and requires most to work beyond their contracted hours.  Grading papers, calling parents, and staff meetings are not why people go into teaching but they come with the job.  I guess the pay is miserable too but I could not complain about the $90,000.00 I was earning in my final year.
     Teachers will whine about poorly behaved students, weak administrators, and changing curriculum, but again, those are also part of the job.  However, if you really want to make a teacher complain, just change their classroom and you will get an earful.  I knew it was time to retire when I had to change my classroom three times in one year and I did not complain about.  I no longer cared which told me it was time to leave.
     Lets face it, we all whine.  We will complain about our meal at a place like Applebee's and then go back there the following week because we do not want to cook our own meals.  We will complain about how much we pay for our cell phone service and then rush out to buy the latest smart phone which, as most of you know, comes with a higher bill.  We hate the price of gas but still drive to work rather than take public transportation.  Worst of all, we complain about our elected leaders only to continually reelect them.
     We love to complain about our kids but never change our parenting techniques because it requires too much work on our part.  Instead, our kids problems are the fault of our schools, exes, bosses, or their step parents.  However, it is never our fault.  We are now allowed to bring children into this world, farm them out to be raised by others, and then complain about the way they turn out.
     That's okay because kids whine too.  Finding a kid who does not whine is about as easy as finding a needle in a hay stack.  Their internet you pay for is too slow.  You won't give them the newest cell phone so they can't sit with the cool kids at lunch.  They have to get dressed in front of their peers for PE because the school is too cheap to give students their own private dressing stalls.  It's too hot, too cold, not enough or too old.  And all we do is scratch our heads and whine to our friends about why our kids whine so much.  It's just not fair.
     I propose we change Wednesday to Whinesday.  In fact, I am going to whine about it until congress does something.  I am sure once they become aware of it they will write our President a letter asking him to make the name change.  But first, they have to do something really important and change the name of the Washington Redskins.

Moving On

     Welcome to my newest blog.  If you have been a reader of my previous blogs, you will notice I have not updated them in quite some time.  Now that I have retired after thirty years in teaching, I have decided to take what I have done with my three previous blogs and meld them into a new one. Of course, feel free to visit and read my old postings but for me, I am moving on with a new blog.
     For those of you who have never read my previous blogs, you should know a few things about me. First, I have little tolerance for political correctness.  I prefer to tell things the way I see them and not hold back my thoughts or opinions.  Second, I have no political affiliation.  I think both our major political parties have worked well together to screw things up in this country.  I have no problem pointing out the hypocrisy that exists in our country or the lack of voter knowledge within our country.  Third, everything and everyone is pretty much fair game.  It's easy to target the famous, the controversial, or the unfair, but I will also target the common American who has allowed our country to head toward a path of self destruction through their own ignorance and selfishness.  Finally, I can take it.  By that I mean if I can dish it out then feel free to comment and let me know what you think of my postings.  I do not need yes people who only agree with me to stroke my ego. Intelligent debate and difference of opinions are great so feel free to tell me why you think I am wrong, nuts, or just plain stupid.  Just try and do it in an intelligent manner.
     There you have it.  I hope you will add this to your must read list.  Thanks in advance and enjoy my offerings.

In-Home Jim