A Macro Kind of Guy

 I've always been a big-picture type of person, you know, the type that looks at a subject like education as being more than just teachers and students in a school. 

To me, being pro something means you are in favor of it, whole-heartedly.  For example, being pro-education means you want the best education for the greatest number of people possible, so they can succeed and contribute to society in the greatest conceivable way. 

Which is why I think of pro-life in a variety of delineations. For example, a truly pro-life senator would work to rein in exorbitantly high drug prices so all Americans could enjoy the life-improving effects they provide. As a side note, this would also improve his standing with the voters. 

A for-real pro life congressman would stand up and say, "Enough is Enough," and work to enact and enforce gun control measures, because being pro-life means not getting shot up in a shopping mall. The lives he saves with this effort could vote for him in gratitude. 

The House and Senate, working together on a pro-life stance, would increase Head Start and SNAP benefits, programs designed to give less fortunate children a better shot at succeeding in life. When those children grow up, they can talk about the positive life-changing effect those programs had on them as youth. 

The direct correlation between education and a better life is well-proven. How great would it be if the pro-life Senators and Congressmen came together and improved the funding for all levels of education, even so far as providing free community colleges? It sounds like a win-win to me, the building and construction trades are begging for trained employees, and those jobs provide good pay and benefits. It would indeed improve life and provide a way out of poverty for so many people! 

And yes, pro-life does mean providing world class pre-natal and maternity benefits to women, regardless of martial status. It also means providing them a path to adoption or safe, unfettered access to abortion if desired; no government intervention is required, because the woman's life and future are also an integral part of "life." 

I'm looking forward to your comments and opinions! Thanks for reading.

R.M. "Bob" Hartman

   

 

824,000. Who's next?

 I consider myself to be a patriot; although I am not one of those flying a tattered flag from the back of my pick up truck. Fortunate indeed are those individuals who were born in the United States, or have become American citizens, for we have rights and freedoms that are indeed the object of admiration and even jealousy from those throughout the world whom are not so fortunate. While America does have it's problems, and they are many, we also have the ability to solve those problems when we cooperate on solutions instead of aggravation. 

Nothing positive is gained when we grab our flags and scream at each other in the name of freedom; following false prophets down rabbit holes only ends one way: you are tired, dirty and worse off than before.  Our country is gripped by a political, moral, and social malaise, magnificently complicated by the strident voices of a very vocal but ignorant few who willingly replace facts with fiction; reality with alternative universes, social responsibility with political desires.

There have been numerous times in our history when the needs of the nation overrode the desires of the individual; you might consider the sacrifices endured by Americans during the Second World War as an example. You may have wanted to exercise your freedom by driving across the country to visit Aunt Mabel, but the needs of our war machine for gasoline, steel, and rubber denied you this "freedom." 

More than 824,000 citizens of the United States of America have died from Covid-19 in less than 2 years. That is more than the number of Americans killed in all international wars since our country gained it's freedom in 1776. It is a greater number than were killed by the Spanish Flu in 1918-1919. 

824,000 patriotic, voting, loving Americans. Grandparents, uncles, aunts, moms and dads, sisters and brothers. Fellow students, co-workers, the family in the next pew at church. The friend that always had a joke, the one that fixed your car. Your child. Your spouse. They are all dead.

Yet, you stand there and tell me you are a patriot, and you have rights and freedoms; that the evil government can't mandate a vaccine because "freedumb" and all that. You tell me it is against your children's constitutional rights to have to wear a mask in school. I cannot fathom how you have managed to twist saving lives into a rant on Democrat vs. Republican, right-wing vs. left-wing, but I have to hand it to you, you did it. I have been told to my (masked) face, real patriots don't wear masks. Seriously!  

Yes, in America, we have rights and freedoms; as I wrote earlier, they are the envy of the world. Those rights and freedoms, great and magnificent as they are, come with duties. Those duties are not to be neglected for limelight; rather they are to be undertaken whatsoever the cost.  

Our duty now is as clear as Grandmother's crystal glasses. Roll up our sleeves, and get vaccinated. If you have been vaccinated, get the booster. If you won't do it for yourself, do it for your family, for your grandparents, your neighbor, the family in the corner house down the street. 

The President of the United States must speak nicely, but I am not held to such a position, so here it is:

Just roll up your damn sleeve and get the shot. You can bitch and moan about it all the next week for all I care. Man up, Cowboy up, whatever you want to say, just do it. Cut the C**p and do it! The life you save may be your own.

Thanks for reading; your comments are always welcome. 

R.M. "Bob" Hartman

Read Any Good Books Lately?

 I owe an apology to my long-time readers for not creating this article earlier; it has been brewing (fermenting?) for some time. I will not apologize, however, if I upset your particular apple cart with this subject. 

Education, theoretically universally available to all American children, has long been valued as an integral part of the American Ideals; Thomas Jefferson (yes, that Founding Father) thought so highly of education he used his own money as a seed for the University of Virginia. The United States of America was the first country in the world to promote free education through 12th grade. Policies and discussions, sometimes of a very violent nature, have lead to the change and improvement of our system of education over the last 245 years. No one, of any rational thinking mind, can doubt the value of  compulsory K-12 education, or the benefits it has bestowed upon our democracy in general. 

The processes of education allow us to expand our minds, to open our thoughts to ideas outside the current local experience our childhood provides. Teachers, purveyors of wisdom and practice, have for generations waved away cobwebs of myth and illusion; instilling in students far and wide the need of, and appreciation for thought, study, and the practical application of knowledge. From the study of geometry and physics, we put a man on the moon; from literature and history, we learned of the great achievements and colossal failures of past generations. Without literature, history becomes statistics; as valuable as statistics are, they do not create passion in the hearts and minds of men.

It is consequently appalling to me when the desire of some citizens to ban "certain" books from libraries and reading lists becomes commonplace. I will be the first to agree that some subjects of common discourse today are uncomfortable for many; that is the first argument I think of for NOT banning books such as "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer." The vernacular, settings, and themes of books such as these are not of today, it is critical to remember these were the words and scenes of Samuel Clemens' time. A study of this historical literature provides ample opportunity to open discussion among students and parents regarding the realities of life in America at certain points in its past; as well as valuable discussion on our country's future potential. 

In the Canyon School District in Utah, nine books are currently "under review"  and have been removed from the libraries in the high schools until the review is complete; none are part of the required reading curriculum. The nine are: "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison; "Gender Queer" by Maia Kobabe; "Beyond Magenta" by Susan Kuklin; "l8r,g8r" by Lauren Myracle; "Lawn Boy" by Jonathan Evison: "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov; "Monday's Not Coming" by Tiffany Jackson; "The Opposite of Innocent" by Sonya Sones; and "Out of Darkness" by Ashley Hope Perez. (I admit, I have not read all of these books.)  It's not hard to understand why the subject matter of these books makes some people uneasy; sex, race, sexual and racial orientation are not comfortable subjects for most adults. The availability of these books to high-school age students should be of unquestioned value: at worst, the books may encourage conversation between the parents and the teenagers; at best, the books may help students understand themselves, and others, better. I'm going to go out on a limb here, and slap down a common argument: reading a book about homosexual relationships will not make a person change their sexual identification.    

Banning books does not change the historical or social value of a book or a philosophy; rather it displays the ignorance and fear of the banner. It is human nature to fear the unknown; to want to reach back into our comfort zone. Rather than fear these books, and the ideas they contain, perhaps a better use of our time would be to read them and reach into ourselves, to lift up our fear, hold it to daylight, and let the light of reality and reason displace fear. 

Or, if you failed to learn from history, you could go to a meeting of like-minded people, light your torches and march to the library; when you get there, break down the door and burn the offending books on the street. 

Let me know how that works out for you. 

Thank you for reading, as always, your thoughts and comments are welcome. 

R.M. "Bob" Hartman