Should be Required Curriculum

[Gavin Allan]

[Take a lesson from Katrina



American middle and high school students everywhere should be required to watch videotape of the poor people stranded by Hurricane Katrina. Teachers should point out that many U.S. citizens without the financial means to get out of New Orleans wound up floating face down in the water or, at the very least, were subject to gross indignities and suffering of all kinds.



The teachers should then tell the students that the local, state and federal government bureaucracies failed to protect those poor people even though everybody knew the storm was coming days in advance. The lesson should then segue into how the most powerful nation in the world was powerless to stop 9/11 and scores of other natural and manmade disasters throughout our history.



After presenting those undeniable facts, the teachers should then present two questions: Do you want to be poor? And do you believe the U.S. government can protect you if you are poor?



For far too long, charlatan ideologues and dishonest politicians have sold the concept that government can and will make your life better. Well, if a cot in the Astrodome is the standard, maybe the promises are true. But if you expect the government to provide you comfort and protect you - P.T. Barnum had your number when he said, "there’s a sucker born every minute."



The affluent of New Orleans had options. Most of them got out ahead of the storm simply by turning their ignition keys. But a professor friend of mine stayed. However, when things got rough and the levees breached, he was able to drive right out of town in his SUV.



But if you couldn’t afford a vehicle, you might have wound up in the Superdome, where there were few supplies and little security. With 20,000 folks in the building, bathrooms quickly broke down, and so did civility. I covered the story almost nonstop for days. I didn’t see one affluent person in the Superdome. Not one.



The Bible says "the poor, they will always be with us," but it doesn’t have to be that way here in America. Here we have compulsory, free public schools, scholarships and aid galore for higher education. We also have affirmative action, job training, GED opportunities, military training and options all over the place.



It is no accident that millions of poor people from all over the world sneak into America because they can make money here if they work hard. There are opportunities for people who can’t even speak English.



Yet the racial hustlers and far left demagogues continue to sell victimization to Americans living in the poor precincts. The poverty pimps can’t blame the establishment fast enough for ghettos and deprivation and even hurricanes. But you rarely hear the words "personal responsibility" when it comes to attacking the poverty problem.



Here’s the end zone on this: The government can force your parents to send you to school but can’t force you to learn. If you do not educate yourself or develop a marketable skill, chances are you will be poor and powerless. If you react to that situation by committing crimes or becoming addicted, you will sink further into the swamp of hopelessness and your life will be largely meaningless.



Let the kids see the poor in New Orleans and the suffering they endured. Then prod the children to connect the dots and wise up. Educate yourself, work hard,and be honest. Then, when disaster occurs, you will have a fighting chance to beat it.



If you don’t do those things, the odds are that you will be desperately standing on a symbolic rooftop someday yourself. And trust me, help will not be quick in coming.



BY BILL O’REILLY

Published Friday, September 9, 2005

/quote]

 

[EddieS'04]

 

[EddieS'04]

I have no idea why my reply wound up on the side of Gavins post....:wacko: Deleted it and reposted....

 

[EddieS'04]

My wife is an elementary educator, for over 10yrs. She has seen the decline in students willing to learn. Some wont even put their name on a test and turn it in blank. When the parents come for conference, they blame my wife for their kids crap......thats when she finds out why the kid is like that...... is like that......

 

[Big Shiftin9er]

You are ridiculous. The government is not to be blamed for this. How many hurricanes come towards U.S. coasts per year? A lot more than one. Go back into your hole, wait for the next disaster to come, and then come criticize the government until you people can get the majority to vote your choice of president into office. In your theory, the government would have to evacuate everyone out of the cities whenever a hurricane would come, and this would cost millions per year, to protect them for the one big one every 20 years or so. Good call. No one thought this hurricane would actually have massive damage. And not all of those people in New Orleans stayed because they had no way out or nowhere to go. There were plenty of people who stayed, because they didn't want to go anywhere. Not because they couldn't. Now, lets play a game. A game called you make a choice. You have option A, which is you have plenty of money, you drive a sport trac, and you have enough money to go stay in a hotel and stay comfortably (plenty of money for food, room, gas, and other expenses) because a hurricane is coming down on your town. OR, you can take advantage of the government (who in your theory should take care of everyone) and get a free ride outta town, free room, free food. Go ahead and tell me you will take Option A. I'm sure you go to the soup kitchen too cause they have good soup, and you don't go to save a buck that you don't need to save. You are probably the same person that complains about the government whenever you break a nail, saying they should have protected you from that too. If you don't like this country, go to Canada. Buh bye.

 

[Gavin Allan]

10-4 Good Buddy!

 

[TomT]

Good article and so true. Unfortunately many poor people have the opportunity to do better through education but choose not to. Not to harp on black people but to many of them think education is not important. My wife graduated from a predominately black school. The majority of the students there only went because they had to, with absolutely no desire to get an education. Many of them graduated but knowing some I was amazed how few of them could even read and write. It all goes back to the parents and how they were brought up. All these kids will be the same uneducated poor people that their parents were. Somehow the cycle needs to be broken, but how?

 

[Mike Wilson]

To answer TomT's question, and I hate to say it, with all of the controversy

surrounding him, lately (not TomT!), but Michael Jackson. I believe we all need to

look at "The Man in the Mirror", if we are ever to make this country a better place

to live in and raise our children in.

They say "Charity Begins at Home", and I believe this. Whether home is your "house",

community, or the state that you live in.



There are a few basic principals that I believe in:

GOD (HE) helps those who help themselves:

Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, and you

feed him for a lifetime:

"How can ye say ye hate thy brother, yet profess to love Me also? Was not

thy brother, also, created in My image?"



We all need to look at ourselves, and do what we feel is right by our friends,

our family, and our community, and take it from there, without doing any harm

or ill-will to any other person.



Sorry to have gone so far off into this topic, but sometimes desperate times call

for desperate measures (and long posts!).



And, as an afterthought, why are we afraid to speak the truth, just because

it may not be "Politically Correct"... Is not the truth still the truth?



If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, why not just

call it a duck and get it over with?



"The Truth Shall Set You Free"...

 

[Ryan Schaecher]

If you do not want to help yourself, all I can offer you is my prayers.



I have a college education (BS in Electrical Engineering) and am working on my second and third BS degrees(Economics and Business Economics). I have a brother who is working on his PhD (infectous diseases) and another is starting his JD with a MS after that. A Sister-In-Law in third year of med school, Brother-In-Law in the Army Reserves and another is a LEO. My father in law and mother in law do not have a college degree, but have pushed my wife and brothers in law to be more than they are. They are all successful. My wife is a stay at home mom who graduated Magna Cum Laude in Ceramic Engineering. My dad doesn't have a college degree and is extremely sucessful. My mother has a dual college degree and makes a good living in addition to what my dad does.



All of this and no-one has handed us anything. We had to work for it. If you do not want it, fine. But why on God's Green Earth should I hand you something??



I am not Polically Correct, in fact could care less. I'm not going to go out and use the "N" word to call a black man, but you know what? Some people really need to get off their fat ***** and do something. I am all for giving aid when needed. Handicapped so you can't work? Ok. Temporarily jobless? No problem. Elderly? Here's a portion of what you should have. But never worked a day in your life, 10 kids, unmarried? Nope. Sorry.



I would like to see a system that you must hold down a steady job for 5 years for each year of welfare. Either that or if you are on welfare you must perform community service or something to "earn" your money.



When people rely on the government to give them everything, abuse and laziness set in quickly. Compare the people devestated by the Tsunami to those affected by the hurricane. There wasn't looting. There wasn't a reliance on the Feds to get people out. The people did what needed to be done without waiting on "the man" to come get them. They didn't sit on an overpass waiting for food or water. They walked away, often times miles to get some help. Different mentality as those people had to work for what they needed everyday, so they were "used to it" when time came for survival.



Many of the people did not leave NO due to the fact the Mother's Day was comming up, no not the nationally recognized one, but rather Welfare Check Monday and they wanted to be sure to get their check. Do the research yourself and you will see.



Not politicically correct, but truth. The truth hurts at times.