I recently learned the High School I graduated from in 1977; John F Kennedy in the Bronx has finally closed its doors. I say finally because it has taken an ugly journey all too common with government run programs.
I was in the second graduating class of JFK. I was one of only a few in my neighborhood that attended a public High School. Most of my friend’s parents paid for their kids to go to Catholic High Schools known for teaching and discipline that graduated students competent enough to get a job or go to college. Most public High Schools in NYC were incubators of failure. But JFK did not start that way. That is one of the reasons my parents risked sending their oldest son to the school.
The school was approved for funding based on promises made to the neighborhood residents that surrounded the campus. Our families were told that JFK would be different; if the school was built the neighborhood would be guaranteed a good education, and would not suffer the fate of most of the other public schools in the city. The school was built, and for the four years I attended, many of the promises were realized.
The first principal of JFK High School was impressive and he took a no nonsense approach to education. Show up or get thrown out. Teachers were encouraged to teach and supported in their efforts to do so. Security was heavy to ensure “kids” with ill intent were kept out of classrooms and not allowed on the school grounds. He kept some sense of order.
The kids from the neighborhood came from decent family backgrounds not typical of most students in the inner city. The advantage of having interested and engaged families that supported the principal’s goals was a good foundation for the school’s academic success. For a little while the school operated with relative success for a public High School in the Bronx.
Over the years the school exploded to house over 6000 students. It was built for approximately 4000. The neighborhood changed and the parental engagement was replaced with gang activity. Eventually this activity resulted in a student being murdered at the school. The school achieved the ranking of being the worst High School in New York City. An achievement that I am truly sad to report being an Alumnus. An attempt was made to take the school and divide it into 6 different schools with a focus on different disciplines. The attempt to salvage the school with this effort failed.
So the inner city is left with a building built with hope and promise sitting empty. The public school system has failed another generation of inner city kids that will have less opportunity than their peers. It is heartbreaking to watch. It is really personal for me having seen it first hand and knowing that the answer is to allow private institutions to teach these kids. The answer is not to keep rewarding public schools with our tax dollars. The answer is more complex than just poor schools but if we don’t change the schools we will never break the chain of hopelessness for these inner city kids. We will pay tenfold for the failures of these schools and government dependency.
When will enough be enough? I’m not talking about money because NYC public schools spend in the vicinity of $15,000 a year per student, well over the countries average. When will we face reality that we need a solution that does not count on government bureaucracy? When will we let educational entrepreneurs take a shot at educating these kids? What have we got to lose?
Government run schools and programs always start with good intentions. Government programs always deliver the same results; failure. The government has no soul and cares nothing about the lives they destroy as long as politicians and bureaucrats get paid and keep their jobs. Government has proven test after test that they don’t understand the material and will continue to fail no matter how you mix up the questions on the test. Government does not deserve our trust or the trust of these victims within our cities. They are the most vulnerable because they can’t pick up and go to a better school in a better neighborhood. We need to bring better schools to them through private organizations with a passion to teach.
Trying something new is the least we can do for these kids. As public schools become havens for gangs, drugs, and danger these kids are left to the squalor of government and politics. They deserve a better effort on our part and what is the worst that can happen? These kids get an education that can save them from a life of dependency on a government that has failed them for generations…
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
The Tenth Amendment Rendered Meaningless…
If the governors of these United States don’t start stepping up to the plate in a more aggressive manner, the Tenth Amendment to the United States will be rendered meaningless. The constitution is already on life support, and the Tenth Amendment is the critical arguing point in this battle between centralized tyranny and local independence.
I shudder when I hear governors groveling at the altar of the federal government as Governor Elect Nikki Haley of South Carolina recently did when she asked the president to “allow South Carolina to opt out” of the healthcare bill. This is not constitutional leadership. We need our governors to start studying the history of this nation and start employing the same arguments that were made then, resulting in the Bill of Rights including the Tenth Amendment.
I get perplexed when I read our history and compare the political fights we are having today. It is appalling how weak our state governments have become compared to their domination at the founding of our country. Where did we go wrong? I believe the first fundamental principle we have allowed to slip is our understanding of history and our founding. Along the way politics, civics, and history have taken a back seat to pragmatism, and a casual undermining of our true history.
We have allowed big government advocates to paint big government as a compassionate institution that is there to help people. We have allowed the constitution and its fundamental principles to be undermined by tortured arguments by Supreme Court justices and power hungry presidents, as they mangled the original intent without a true debate of the ramifications these changes would have for future generations. We have allowed blind emotion to drive decisions that have destroyed millions of American lives with government dependency, and the only result; a few liberals feel good about themselves. We have forgotten how to argue on principle and have accepted short term gratification over standing on principle to achieve more difficult but sounder and moral results.
The Supreme Court has been allowed to become too powerful when the founders intent for the court was simply to determine the constitutionality of laws created by congress. It was never intended to be a body that created laws for the nation. It is an equal branch of government that has been used too often to provide cover for weak kneed politicians that don’t want to do the hard work they are constitutionally required to do. The states have become too complacent to bad federal law and have relegated their responsibility to provide for the states, rendering the Tenth Amendment meaningless.
When coal mine expansion in the state of West Virginia is being held up by a federal bureaucracy that is protecting bugs over jobs, and governors accept this as normal, the Tenth Amendment is rendered meaningless. When the federal government believes that a smelt is more important than the farmer in California, and the governor accepts this as normal, the Tenth Amendment is rendered meaningless. When our government is passing bills to force our kids to eat certain foods, and the governors accept this as normal, the Tenth Amendment is rendered meaningless. When the federal government continues to make decisions affecting state budgets beyond the scope of its constitutional authority, and governors accept this as normal, the Tenth Amendment is rendered meaningless.
History proves that the Tenth Amendment was critical in the passing of the United States Constitution, and without it the states would have never ratified the document. The arguments for and against ratification were passionate and revolved around a desperate fear that a central government would one day dominate and limit the freedoms that individuals had sacrificed their lives to ensure. Today we have a central government that people fear is stealing their individual liberty and ability to pursue happiness. The Tenth Amendment is not meaningless, it is the pivotal amendment to return the federal government to a limited role and to protect the liberties our founders fought so hard to achieve…
I shudder when I hear governors groveling at the altar of the federal government as Governor Elect Nikki Haley of South Carolina recently did when she asked the president to “allow South Carolina to opt out” of the healthcare bill. This is not constitutional leadership. We need our governors to start studying the history of this nation and start employing the same arguments that were made then, resulting in the Bill of Rights including the Tenth Amendment.
I get perplexed when I read our history and compare the political fights we are having today. It is appalling how weak our state governments have become compared to their domination at the founding of our country. Where did we go wrong? I believe the first fundamental principle we have allowed to slip is our understanding of history and our founding. Along the way politics, civics, and history have taken a back seat to pragmatism, and a casual undermining of our true history.
We have allowed big government advocates to paint big government as a compassionate institution that is there to help people. We have allowed the constitution and its fundamental principles to be undermined by tortured arguments by Supreme Court justices and power hungry presidents, as they mangled the original intent without a true debate of the ramifications these changes would have for future generations. We have allowed blind emotion to drive decisions that have destroyed millions of American lives with government dependency, and the only result; a few liberals feel good about themselves. We have forgotten how to argue on principle and have accepted short term gratification over standing on principle to achieve more difficult but sounder and moral results.
The Supreme Court has been allowed to become too powerful when the founders intent for the court was simply to determine the constitutionality of laws created by congress. It was never intended to be a body that created laws for the nation. It is an equal branch of government that has been used too often to provide cover for weak kneed politicians that don’t want to do the hard work they are constitutionally required to do. The states have become too complacent to bad federal law and have relegated their responsibility to provide for the states, rendering the Tenth Amendment meaningless.
When coal mine expansion in the state of West Virginia is being held up by a federal bureaucracy that is protecting bugs over jobs, and governors accept this as normal, the Tenth Amendment is rendered meaningless. When the federal government believes that a smelt is more important than the farmer in California, and the governor accepts this as normal, the Tenth Amendment is rendered meaningless. When our government is passing bills to force our kids to eat certain foods, and the governors accept this as normal, the Tenth Amendment is rendered meaningless. When the federal government continues to make decisions affecting state budgets beyond the scope of its constitutional authority, and governors accept this as normal, the Tenth Amendment is rendered meaningless.
History proves that the Tenth Amendment was critical in the passing of the United States Constitution, and without it the states would have never ratified the document. The arguments for and against ratification were passionate and revolved around a desperate fear that a central government would one day dominate and limit the freedoms that individuals had sacrificed their lives to ensure. Today we have a central government that people fear is stealing their individual liberty and ability to pursue happiness. The Tenth Amendment is not meaningless, it is the pivotal amendment to return the federal government to a limited role and to protect the liberties our founders fought so hard to achieve…
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
The War on Wealth…
The left in this country, including this president have waged a final battle against the creation of wealth in this country. Since our founding, the American spirit has been driven by opportunity to better one’s circumstance through industrious labors. The people that came to this great land were lured by only one thing; opportunity to improve their lives through hard work and limited government intrusion.
The world was a different place before America, and opportunity to create wealth for your own consumption was a “foreign” concept. Most citizens of the day worked to improve the standing of the ruling class. There was little opportunity for individuals to prosper in the pre-America world. The world’s economic output was often incentivized through fear, coercion, and force. Not until the new American Experiment did the world have the chance to see how much more effective economic growth could be when put into the hands of the individual and the rewards of that labor left in the hands that created it.
The creation of wealth in America became the fuel that lifted millions of people around the world out of the most despicable circumstances through the generosity and ability created by individual ingenuity and wealth. When individuals are incentivized through private property and keeping the fruits of labor it is no mystery as to why wealth explodes and raises the circumstances of all within a society. It is simply the harnessing of human nature. Our instinct to provide for ourselves actually fuels our instincts to help our neighbor. The problem we have seen in America is that for too long the wealthy have been fueling compassion, and the recipients have forgotten where this charity comes from.
The tax system has become a mechanism to take one man’s fruits and distribute them to another for no sensible reason. We have seen generations of low income Americans become locked in a system that breeds dependency and steals the incentive to make it on their own. This system has become an industry with the captains of that industry being politicians. These politicians have a self interest in perpetuating poverty and dependency. They fund their “industry” by demonizing the wealth creators, creating envy, punishing wealth, and redistributing the wealth through punitive taxation. This war on wealth has created a class of people that now believe they are entitled to the wealth that is created by these individuals.
We are becoming morally bankrupt as a nation when we believe a person’s success should be a source of scorn and disgust. The question is never “when is enough, enough for the individual wealth creators”. The reality is the more wealth they create the more goes back into society in the form of jobs, investment, and charity. It is not the government’s role in America to decide that question. The government has become over reaching and must be returned to its constitutional role once again. These wealth creators should be celebrated as they were at the founding of this great republic. Without the incentives of individuals to keep the fruits of their labor we harvest less fruit. As the fruit diminishes the dependent class gets restless and demands more from the captains of their industry. The captains demand more from the wealth creators and we find ourselves back in a system where wealth creation is driven by fear, coercion, and force. The engine sputters to a halt and collapses on itself.
We are not far from this point right now. Our tax system must be utilized to provide only the services necessary to conduct a law abiding society. Individuals again must be incentivized through the rewards of their labor. Right now the wealth creators are slowing down their activity because they are being punished and demonized. The wealth creators have not received their rewards through any special circumstance but the industrious spirit they pursue. The envy, jealousy, and demonization of the wealthy is going to destroy the American Spirit. Wealth distribution has already destroyed the people dependent on others. If we don’t stop demonizing wealth we will have nothing to demonize in the very near future…
The world was a different place before America, and opportunity to create wealth for your own consumption was a “foreign” concept. Most citizens of the day worked to improve the standing of the ruling class. There was little opportunity for individuals to prosper in the pre-America world. The world’s economic output was often incentivized through fear, coercion, and force. Not until the new American Experiment did the world have the chance to see how much more effective economic growth could be when put into the hands of the individual and the rewards of that labor left in the hands that created it.
The creation of wealth in America became the fuel that lifted millions of people around the world out of the most despicable circumstances through the generosity and ability created by individual ingenuity and wealth. When individuals are incentivized through private property and keeping the fruits of labor it is no mystery as to why wealth explodes and raises the circumstances of all within a society. It is simply the harnessing of human nature. Our instinct to provide for ourselves actually fuels our instincts to help our neighbor. The problem we have seen in America is that for too long the wealthy have been fueling compassion, and the recipients have forgotten where this charity comes from.
The tax system has become a mechanism to take one man’s fruits and distribute them to another for no sensible reason. We have seen generations of low income Americans become locked in a system that breeds dependency and steals the incentive to make it on their own. This system has become an industry with the captains of that industry being politicians. These politicians have a self interest in perpetuating poverty and dependency. They fund their “industry” by demonizing the wealth creators, creating envy, punishing wealth, and redistributing the wealth through punitive taxation. This war on wealth has created a class of people that now believe they are entitled to the wealth that is created by these individuals.
We are becoming morally bankrupt as a nation when we believe a person’s success should be a source of scorn and disgust. The question is never “when is enough, enough for the individual wealth creators”. The reality is the more wealth they create the more goes back into society in the form of jobs, investment, and charity. It is not the government’s role in America to decide that question. The government has become over reaching and must be returned to its constitutional role once again. These wealth creators should be celebrated as they were at the founding of this great republic. Without the incentives of individuals to keep the fruits of their labor we harvest less fruit. As the fruit diminishes the dependent class gets restless and demands more from the captains of their industry. The captains demand more from the wealth creators and we find ourselves back in a system where wealth creation is driven by fear, coercion, and force. The engine sputters to a halt and collapses on itself.
We are not far from this point right now. Our tax system must be utilized to provide only the services necessary to conduct a law abiding society. Individuals again must be incentivized through the rewards of their labor. Right now the wealth creators are slowing down their activity because they are being punished and demonized. The wealth creators have not received their rewards through any special circumstance but the industrious spirit they pursue. The envy, jealousy, and demonization of the wealthy is going to destroy the American Spirit. Wealth distribution has already destroyed the people dependent on others. If we don’t stop demonizing wealth we will have nothing to demonize in the very near future…
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