Tag Archive for Obama

I Have to Vent

I’m sorry, but today I need to vent. I’m watching all those kids who are alone although warehoused with hundreds of other kids, scared, wanting their parents, not knowing what’s going on or what will happen to them five minutes from now, feeling that they must have done something really bad to be in the situation they’re in.

And what am I hearing from the adults who can do something about this? Depending on who’s speaking, it’s the fault of 1) the President, 2) Democrats, 3) Republicans, 4) government agencies, 5) the kids’ parents, 6) Obama, 7) Obama and Bush, 8) current law….

It really, REALLY bothers me that the only activity going on to alleviate these kids’ misery is a bunch of hot air–blame rather than action. Yet, if politicians set aside their political bias, narrow allegiance, and eye toward re-election, they CAN do something. The President can sign yet one more Executive Order in his long string of them. The Democrats and Republicans can stop bickering and pass legislation with enough of a majority to override a possible Presidential veto. Government agencies can do what they’ve done recently to create this  problem in the first place, namely reinterpret the pretty broad law. It’s too late for the parents to help their kids, because they’re already here. But where are all the other adults?

Call me a bleeding heart liberal, but even my conservative friends are crying along with those children.

Obama on Change

In today’s Thursday Thought, Barack Obama warns what happens when we wait around for somebody else.

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”  —  Barack Obama

I’m Suffering Whiplash

I just watched Letterman’s new Netflix show, “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.”  He interviewed an unemployed man who is positive, human, warm, humorous, appreciative, humble, logical, hopeful, thoughtful, intelligent, and who believes in unity, brotherhood, and equal justice.  Former President Barack Obama.

I now realize that my discontent and uneasiness is a severe case of whiplash.

Lots of Jobs!

Great news, in case you missed it.  U.S. jobs have been growing for 80 straight months!  Good for our economy AND for many people struggling to find work.

Looks  like the economists are right. Since 80 months = roughly 6 years under Obama and half a year under Trump, Presidents have little to do with job growth.  Who  cares who gets the credit?  As long as more American workers are finding employment and their families are having improved quality of life!

 

Mining the Grand Canyon?!

I’m really concerned by possible uranium mining in our precious Grand Canyon.  It was threatened before.  Then a coalition of conservationists, Native American tribes, and activists banded together to get the Grand Canyon protected via a moratorium on mining there.  However, as power shifts and special interests put on pressure (uranium mining is very lucrative), that could change.  This is, after all, an election year.

There’s a movement to protect the Canyon forever by having it declared a Heritage National Monument.  If you’d like to learn more and/or sign a petition to President Obama, go to Support the Greater Grand Canyon Heritage National Monument.  (If the link doesn’t work, go to http://grandcanyontrust.nonprofitsoapbox.com/grandcanyonnationalmonument.)

 

 

A Powerful, Sunny White House

Solar panels on the White House roof 35+ years ago?  Yes, they were there.  President Jimmy Carter installed them in June of 1979 at a cost of a mere $28,000 (a very small amount in the governmental budget).  In addition to saving on utility bills, it was a symbol of our government’s attempt at getting our country away from depending so much on foreign oil.

President Ronald Reagan had the panels removed.  He wanted to get rid of solar tax credits.  Later, when it was suggested that they be put back up again, his press secretary Dale Petroskey said it would cost too much.

At least, though, in 2006 one panel found an appropriate home–at the Carter Library in Atlanta.

Happily, in 2013 President Obama had solar panels reinstalled.

No commentary from me…just a bit of sometimes-sunny American history.

 

 

Time to Teach? Wow!

President Obama wants to revamp “No Child Left Behind” in part by limiting time spent on standardized testing.  As a teacher who spent untold hours administering those tests, I cry “Hallelujah!”

As new fads and regulations fall upon classrooms, teachers have more and more special-interest slants to add to their curriculum.  Not that most of them aren’t important.  In fact, they often pull in segments of our population that have been ignored or underrepresented in what kids are learning.  But they take time to teach.  The standardized tests steal time from the actual teaching/learning process.

The value of the tests lies in cold, hard numbers that bureaucrats can see on paper, report to the world, and use for decision-making.

However, I question that value.  I remember my students asking, “Will this count on our grade?”  Because the answer was “No,” a portion of the kids didn’t bother trying.  Another portion included those who simply were not good at taking objective tests or who, as immigrants, handled spoken English fine but written English, not so much.  Or they had trouble understanding because their growing-up experiences didn’t match those described on the test. In other words, a significant number of kids had learned a lot more than their standardized test results showed.  Is that valuable data?

Go for it, Prez.  Let’s allow time for teachers to teach and kids to learn.

 

 

Malia Obama’s Hand in Marriage

How much would President Obama’s daughter Malia fetch in a marriage contract?  Hey, she’s 16, practically an old maid.

A Kenyan lawyer has offered her dad a tidy sum:  50 cows, 70 sheep, and 30 goats to gain Malia as his bride.

This isn’t a hasty decision on the part of Felix Kiprono, who has been interested in her since she was 10 years old, at which time he decided to be faithful to her and wait for her.  Consequently, he hasn’t dated in all that time.

It’s coming out now because Kiprono intends to put his proposal before President Obama when he visits Kenya this July.  He is writing a letter to ask that Malia come with the President on his Kenyan trip.

He wants to live the simple life with his bride, teaching her how to milk a cow and cook ugali (maize porridge) and other traditional Kenyan dishes.

Why do I pass on this story to you?  Because I thought I’d break up your week with a deeply romantic, heart-felt story.  That’s the kind of thing I do for my faithful readers.

 

 

Unemployed FINALLY Put in their Place

People who lost jobs in the recession got hit twice: once when losing their jobs, then again when nobody would hire someone who had been out of work for six months or a year.  I guess the reasoning was that if people wanted to work rather than sponging off of unemployment insurance they would have found jobs by now.  This may have been true for some people, but certainly not for the majority, who were trying to feed their families on unemployment money, let alone have luxuries like rent and health insurance.

President Obama is trying to change that by going to large employers and asking them to place the long-term unemployed back in line for jobs.  He’s doing it publicly enough that maybe companies who refuse to give up their unreasonable prejudice against the long-term unemployed will be “outed” and embarrassed enough to reconsider.

It’s about time these willing workers are put back into their proper place–the workplace.

 

 

A Tortured Anniversary

Saturday is an anniversary worth taking note of: 12 years ago on Jan. 11 the first prisoners arrived at Guantanamo Bay.  It’s still operating 5 years after the executive order that should have closed it.

Why is this important? Because its existence points to America’s hypocrisy.  That is, we abhor cruelty, lack of due process, and torture when it’s done by others, yet condone it on a daily basis at one of our own prisons.

You have a few days before this anniversary. Please use them to urge President Obama to transfer most of the prisoners out of there—he has the power.  Decreasing the population at Guantanamo is a large step toward its closure…and allows us to hold up our heads again in the world.