those who know what 'our' government is and how it operates still tell you to get involved for change, as if such a thing was possible, and having been involved in community action before i know all this writer speaks of and much more. there can be no solutions within the government unless those who pay for government's actions deem it necessary, and that ain't you, or your community group. government is totally corrupt and broken;

Tonight I am angry. Not a passing emotion brought on by a single circumstance, this anger is a deep, knotted-up, abiding anger created by a mix of frustration, despair, hopelessness, and injustice.

As a public school science teacher in the late 90’s, I watched parents disengage from the learning process of their children and those students gain more and more power over the classroom. I saw the administration allow it to happen and even excuse bad behaviors (“She has a very hard home life, she just needs to blow off steam and we need to give her a safe place to do that. You don’t want her to feel unsafe do you?”). I saw good teachers leave the profession rather than fight the storm brewing on the horizon – the one that would make them constables instead of instructors, the kind that would rely more on technology than instruction. I saw it too, so I quit.

Hoping for the best, I enrolled my children in public elementary school. I watched a son be bullied so badly that he begged to be homeschooled. I watched a son be left behind in math to the point that he couldn’t add single digit numbers properly. I watched a daughter bring home papers about global warming and bad white people who hurt native Americans. I became involved in PTA only to find that fixing these issues couldn’t happen because there were no issues more important than selling wrapping paper to buy a new gymnasium and computers for computer lab to make sure we stayed competitive with other schools. I saw no future for myself or my children, so we quit........read more......