White Anglos

On Gun Regulation And DACA, Vast Majorities Are In Support, But Trump And GOP Ignore Public Opinion!

One would think that America was a nation based on the consent of the governed, but apparently not so, in the age of Donald Trump and the Republican Party in control of our government, but only due to the faults of the Electoral College and of gerrymandering.

85-90 percent of the nation in public opinion polls support gun regulation, with the large number of massacres occurring in schools, malls, churches, and other public places, but the National Rifle Association owns the Republican Party, so when mass shootings take place, little is said other than “thoughts and prayers”, and nothing is done, even to have minimal oversight of people who purchase weapons.

The same percent want the “Dreamers” under DACA to be allowed to stay. and to have an eventual pathway to citizenship, but instead, they are being victimized by the racism and nativism of Donald Trump and the Republican Party. These young people have served in the military, attended college, held responsible employment, and have not engaged in criminal activities, but are being threatened with deportation by ICE agents, because their parents came here illegally.

America is now a nation in which these two evils of gun violence and discrimination against people who are not white Anglos has become a norm, with little done to deal with either issue.

This is causing great despair as America becomes a place that resists security for average Americans, and a sense of justice and fairness toward its minority groups.

Add to this the growing misogyny, and America has backtracked so much from the image of America as a democracy that promotes equality, justice, and fair play to all who reside in the country.

National Spelling Bee Champion Brings Up Issue Of Our Educational System NOT Teaching Spelling As Important Skill!

It was thrilling to see 13 year old Arvind Mahankali of Bayside, New York, win the National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC on Thursday evening.

His accomplishment, and the fact that he had competed three earlier years and been in the Top Ten all three times, is something to honor and admire, as much as any athlete doing well in any team or individual sport.

But does such an accomplishment get the kind of attention it deserves, as compared to sports? Of course not, and in that, there is a problem that needs to be addressed.

It is not “cool” to be smart, to be intellectual, to have academic skills, and it might very well be that this talented young man, for all that he has accomplished, might face bullying or taunting, as not being “masculine” enough, because his accomplishment is in that lost art, spelling.

But it is not just spelling; it is also history; it is also science; it is also geography; it is also poetry; it is also ANY intellectual area of knowledge!

And in that fact, we have a long range problem. And it is in the loss of economic growth, competition with other nations, and in the future of our children.

Why is not spelling emphasized in the school system, and why is it allowed that young people, including many of my own students in the past and present, cannot spell, and do not see that weakness as a big deal they need to work on?

Why is it that ignorance is seen as bliss, and that we have people in Congress who display their ignorance regularly, showing their lack of knowledge or acceptance of science, of truth really in any area of learning, and in fact, wish to cut expenditures and investment in education and in teachers?

And as wonderful as it was to see boys and girls of South Asian heritage being the top ten finalists, why is it that white Anglos of European heritage, and Hispanics-Latinos and African American young people did not end up competing with these kids from South Asia, and often in the past, from East Asia as well?

Could it be the role of parents, emphasizing spelling and history and science and geography and poetry and other fields of learning at home, and could it be also the fact that education is the way that past generations of immigrants and their descendants succeeded in America?

We, as a nation, need to look within ourselves, and work to promote the levels of excellence that these children of South Asian heritage demonstrated, putting the rest of us to shame!

Ultimately, we must praise and give honors and attention more to academic excellence than our worship of sports, as good as it is to promote that field of human endeavor!

The Multiple Meanings Of 2012 Election

2012 will go down in history as the year of tremendous movement forward in so many ways.

It is a year that sees tolerance, open mindedness, fairness and equality moving forward.

It is a year that sees a greater accomplishment than 2008–the reelection of an African American President, a reaffirmation of what was done in 2008, and in many ways greater than the initial election, because it gets rid of all doubts that, somehow, 2008 was a fluke, a mistake, that would be rectified.

It is the year that women came to realize true liberation from men bossing them, controlling them, dictating to them, regarding their own bodies, and their own opportunities for fair pay and equal educational opportunity. And so many more women will now be serving in our government, and holding male politicians accountable.

It is a year when Hispanics, Latinos, and Muslims, and really all racial and ethnic minorities, realize their electoral power, and are able, finally, to fight back against racism, discrimination, prejudice, and bias, and take their place in the community of Americans who will have influence and significance, rather than just white Anglos, who slaughtered native Americans, took over North America, and thought they would control America, dominate America, shape America in their image for eternity, which is, happily, no longer the future of this great nation, which benefits from diversity and from equal opportunity for all based on merit, not skin color or nationality or religion or gender!

It is a year when the power of organized religious groups to control and dictate their agenda on America has been soundly defeated, and the danger of theocracy has abated, as a result.

It is a year when American can celebrate, as we are now moving forward toward better times, and with the old power structures that impede us, including corporations, knowing they will face appropriate regulation, and that the wealthy will be required to pay their fair share to this nation, which has given them such great opportunities, and assisted them in their acquisition of wealth!

It is also a time when the hope is that overseas interventions will no longer be the norm, except when a true threat to our national security, and in so changing our view of the world, we are allowing many young men and women to have a normal life after serving in the military, and cutting the waste and corruption of the war industries that cause so much of our national debt.

So for these and other reasons, America has a lot to celebrate!

More On Hispanic And Latino Numbers In American Population! And The Shift In African American Population!

The Census Bureau informs us that Hispanics and Latinos have not just become one out of every six Americans, a total of 50 million in the population in 2010.

They have also become the largest minority group in 191 of the country’s 366 metropolitan areas!

Even in states such as Nebraska and Oklahoma, they have had a growing impact!

A 42 percent increase in their numbers is astounding, at the same time that many African Americans are migrating back to the South after a century of leaving the South for the North!

And the number of white Anglos have fallen in all metropolitan areas, and have seen, for instance a drop in Las Vegas from 60 percent to 48 percent!

So the political effects will be major in scope in coming years, including the reapportionment battle in many state legislatures, which will have a long range effect on the fortunes of the Republicans and the Democrats!