With What Time Is Given

First, I am no expert on issues of education, and I am sure that several of the readers have more insight and experience than myself.  Two topics that are of interest to me are the current debate over voucher programs and the different approaches on how to make for a quality education.  The two certainly tie into each other on both sides of the argument.

Regarding vouchers, it makes sense that a lot of parents want to send their children to private schools.  Catholic schools and private schools in general tend to have far higher rates of graduation and students going on to college.  School is where a child spends the most time, besides perhaps the home, growing up, and the schools are where the mind and character of many youth are formed.  The desire to instill good values in children leads many to send their children to private schools, often at great personal cost and sacrifice.  In some areas, public schools are very good while in others the quality or morals in the school system are wanting.  The geographic differences play no small part in how parents are likely to perceive what is best for their children.

Part of the reason there is such marked difference between some public school systems and others is due to the level of funding.  Counties with high property values and thereby high property taxes tend to have more well-funded schools than even other areas within the same state.  Sufficient funding has some obvious positive impacts on education quality, such as teacher to student ratios, quality facilities, opportunities for field trips to broaden horizons, acquiring computers and other materials and attracting and retaining quality and experienced educators.  Others minimize the importance of high funding, pointing constantly to D.C. as the paramount example of the highest funds per capita and lowest student performance combination in the country.  They assert accountability is far more important than funding.  While I would agree you cannot simply “throw money at the problem,” sometimes, money is the problem.  Conversely, in certain cases, there are some individuals who get into teaching for the wrong reasons, are not good at educating, or simply have students that they are not reaching in the environment in which they teach.  The voucher issue ties back in at this point as these two philosophies come to a head.

On the one hand, vouchers allow parents to take their children out of a “failing” school, that is, to the parents’ estimation either educationally and/or morally deficient for their children.  Some voucher proponents also add that with vouchers, administrators are given private-sector like competition driven accountability, forcing administrators to run a tight ship, fire poor educators and spend money wisely.  They believe this will increase educational quality in the public schools and lower property taxes.  Another subgroup of voucher proponents are primarily concerned with having some control over the who, where, how, and what of their child’s educational formation.  To their credit, I would say that I believe parents have the paramount responsibility for their child’s formation and any time someone else lays their hands on that responsibilty of formation, it is important to afford the parent some degree of control as to what that influence and/or impact will be.

On the other hand, critics of voucher programs tend to fall into several subgroups as well.  First, there are those who believe it violates the separation of church and state.  Over 95% of vouchers go to support students sent to religious schools, they contend, therefore, it is a governmental support of religion, a financing of indoctrination.  They have concern as well over how much money is devoted to education and the formation of other people’s children with government, (and as taxpayers, their own), money.  The courts have ruled so far that vouchers are Constitutional so long as they have some secular purpose, (such as buying math books or computers, as opposed to funding the Church’s renovation), the parents are the ones choosing the school and not the state, and there is no “excessive entanglement,” that is great degree of required supervision by the government over how the money gets spent.  I have little love for the merits of the “preserve the separation” subgroup’s arguments as I believe they reflect a broader general hostility towards religion and believe freedom of religion means freedom from religion, and mean to secularize all areas of public life.  Ultimately, I believe it is the parents, and not the government, who is acting in sending children to private schools and vouchers allow free exercise rather than endorsement of religion.

 A second subgroup is concerned with the financial reality vouchers have upon the public schools.  The more children who leave the public school system and enter private schools, the more money that is channeled from public to private.  In some cases, this may require the layoff of public school teachers, administrators and other staff.  Eventually, the fear is also that such funding decreases will exceed the marginal overhead that is cut by the students’ departure and decrease the quality of public education.  I have not seen compelling statistics either way on this argument, but it stands to reason that to some degreee, this argument is correct.  Voucher propenents are not generally inclined to disagree but counter that this is a good thing because it weeds out through competition the “failing” teachers, the “failing” schools and redirects both funds and children to programs that are more capable.  Generally, the same push for private sector driven competition is pushed along the same vein through standardized testing that tiese government funding to educational achievement.  That would be worth at least another long post on its own, so I won’t take that up here.

 I am curious though as to how our educator readers of this blog feel about these issues and whether I have done a correct outline of the issues as they see them.  I believe there is one public and one private school teacher who visit this site, as well as another public school system employee.

There are few things in this world I would call positively damnable.  I have not been so upset by any Senate vote in my lifetime, and I hope I never will be again.  Today the Senate passed by a 63-37 margin a bill supporting public funding of embryonic stem cell research.  The bill necessarily calls for mass levels of conceptions in laboratorites of human life for the sole purpose of destroying them in research.  Many lawmakers who have professed themselves to be Pro-Life, who have publicly sworn that they believe life begins at conception, that human life begins at conception voted to support this.  Some of the same Senators who have professed to champion the budding culture of life have turned their backs on their own words.  For this, I feel a deep sadness.  By only 4 votes are tens of millions of lives saved.  Bush will veto and the 63 in favor fall 4 votes shy of overriding a Presidential veto.  Nineteen Republicans voted to kill embryos for an utterly discredited venue of research while 1 Democrat, Ben Nelson, voted to protect such life.

The defectors will in large part be swept from office in November.  Your average Pro-Lifer will not go to bat, to volunteer for, to donate to, nor vote for such unprincipled and untrustworthy individuals.  For Pro-Choice candidates, they will not likely suffer because of this particular vote at the polls.  They have already shown themselves to be callous to the value of human life.  “Moderate” Republicans are about to be swept out of power.  In this cycle, they will likely be largely replaced with Democrats.  There is such a thing as casting a tent too wide.  The GOP has disgraced itself.  Thank God for President Bush today.  I will follow up this post with a list of how each individual voted as soon as I can find a copy.  Perhaps the small silver lining is that Frist has exposed himself as indifferent to the destruction of unborn babies and we can now count him out of the running in 2008. 

My anger at this outcome is transparent, but in truth, I feel mostly sadness at this juncture.  Words simply fall short to express my deep disappointment.  With what time is given, however, I will never forget this.  May God save us from this unwelcome turn of events.

In recent days, outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, Hamas, Lebanon and individuals from Palestine has escalated.  Hundreds of thousands of people are hiding with their families in bomb shelters.  Hundreds of rockets have been fired into Israeli towns from its Lebanon border and Israel has struck the infrastructure of Lebanon.  Iran is itching to get into the fight, first stating that any move against Syria, (whom Israel had already stated was responsible), would be an act of war against Iran.  The Iranian president then tried verbally baiting Israel stating it would not dare to so much as make a dirty scowl in Iran’s direction.  The United Nations, again in unsurprisingly disappointing fashion has tried to issue a resolution condemning Israel’s use of excessive force.  Only the United States veto prevented this.  Chirac, again trying to speak for more people than he represents, said that all Europeans felt Israel was being excessive in its response.  Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, stated that the United States defense of Israel could lead to a “real Holocaust.”  Referring to the United States as the “Empire” and again condemning Israel for “its disproportionate response.”  The Vatican itself has called for Israel to exercise more restraint and called its use of force excessive.

It is understandable that people are horrified at the turn of events.  Stories of a family of ten all being killed in a bomb and another family of seven in another, are horrible to conceive of.   Every day, every hour, people are being killed, and nobody wants war.  The Lebanese government seems a sympathetic victim in this whole mess, caught unawares in a crossfire between a militia of terrorists and a powerful Israeli army.  Their own failure to outroot the terrorists that have occupied that border or involve their own militia against the terrorists has played no small part in bringing this whole situation about.  What were Israel’s option’s?

1.  Israel could ignore the kidnapping of its soldiers.  Israel could have ignored the demands.  The kidnapped individuals would have been murdered.  Terrorists would get away with impunity and would continue their attacks until stopped.

2.  Israel could have negotiated their release.  The terrorists demanded 1000 prisoners be released.  Then Israel would have 1000 more nutjobs eager to kill them on the loose.   Further, any success Israel had in law enforcement in the future would be completely undermined because all a terrorist would need to do would be to abduct somebody to get them free.  If you negotiate with terrorists, that begets more terrorism.  Kidnapped individuals cannot be treated as a legitimate bargaining chip.  Israel has made this mistake in the past.  In 1996, Israel released hundreds for a few prisoners and few corpses, to prevent their desecration.  It is likely that some of the very same individuals who were released are busying themselves now with trying to kill Israelis.  Germany brokered this deal, yet Germany does not seem to own any sense of responsibility for the current crisis.

3.  Israel could attack in “measured” response.  If Israel struck where only known terrorists are and no civilians were, the terrorists would simply hide behind civilians, although they do that already.  The kidnapped individuals would be killed.  The civilians harboring the terrorists in their homes and communities are complicit with the terrorists.  The family of seven that was bombed housed Hamas terrorists in their home.  Israel could fire one rocket back for every rocket fired into Israel, but that would not stop the terrorists.  Tit for tat does not win a war.  Evil forces must be defeated. 

4.  Israel has chosen to cut off the escape routes of the abducters.  The responsibility falls on Israel because the Lebanese government has failed to cooperate both in the present crisis and in the past.  If Israel does not destroy the terrorists on the border in this window, it will never happen. 

In the end, there is no winning strategy for Israel however you cut the cake.  Even if they win militarily, new propaganda and recruits will replenish the strength of those who want to destroy them.  Not until peace and understanding exists between peoples will there be a lasting peace.  Those who want war and act to foster it must be destroyed.  The international community must condemn those who foster hatred and support and empower those who work towards mutual understanding.  It is an unfulfilled process that would take years, and much international pressure and military support against the renegades who disturb peace.  Every nation and every comment that refuses to recognize their right to exist must be condemned.  There should be student exchange programs, religious leaders condemning the violence, and a united international community with clear guidelines and united front as to how to stop the terrorists and deter and punish initial aggressors.  These are all long-term objectives.  In the short-run, the soldiers who have been kidnapped should be returned and Israel should be very careful to avoid any collateral civilian damage, if possible in defending themselves.  All of us should pray for peace.

The GOP has two to three Pro-Life measures it aims to pass before the fall elections, after which, it may not be able to.  It also plans on passing one Pro-Choice measure unfortunately, mostly with support of Democrats.

Next week, the Congress will pass a bill funding embryonic stem cell research.  It is hard to understand given the billions already being spent by state governments, the complete lack of any progress or achievement of any sort using embryonic stem cells, most importantly the inherent loss of life as such funding calls for human lives to be conceived for the sole purpose of being aborted, and the taxpayer dollars that are wasted on a pointless research.  At www.nlrc.org you will be able to see a list of representatives in your area and how they voted on this issue.

The first of the Pro-Life bills is, rather unobjectionably, a ban on human cloning.  Only the most dedicated opponents of the Pro-Life movement will likely oppose such a measure.

 The second involves a federal prohibition against travelling across interstate laws to circumvent parental notification laws requiring a parent’s notice before abortion.  It will likely pass, and given the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood, it will survive judicial scrutiny.  The Ayotte case seems to indicate both Alito and Roberts lining up with Scalia and Thomas to form a solid and growing Pro-Life block on the court.  Kennedy also joined the Pro-Lifers on this particular question.

The last, and subject of this post, is the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act.  See http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/fetal_pain/index.html for details.  The law basically requires that women considering abortion be informed of the pain that has been scientifically proven to exist for the baby during an abortion.  Currently, livestock have more protection against such pain than human beings in the womb.  Many women learn too late exactly what happened during their abortion, and this law is a vital part of increasing awareness of the child and the child’s rights.  The link provided in this post also will take you to a page with links to the medical evidence and description of what the child goes through, for those who wish to know.  It is, however, horrific.

As long as I’ve been alive and before, there has been tension in the Middle East between the State of Israel and the Muslim nations that surround it.  Even in Biblical times, the area appears to have been a hotbed of violent activity.  The recent outbreak of hostilities began when a group of terrorists kidnapped an Israeli soldier and an Israeli civilian.  Whether or not they had any defined objectives when the kidnapping was made, they at some point decided that Israel would have to release 1000 prisoners to get their 1 soldier back.  Hamas, who has still refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist, pressed this case before the United Nations.  Israel, in retaliation and effort to get their soldier back has bombed bridges and areas to put pressure to return the soldier.  Israel threatened the Syrian President.  Now, Hezbollah, another terrorist organization, has kidnapped two more Israeli soldiers and demanded release of all prisoners.  Israel condemned these acts as acts of war and bombed parts of Lebanon to prevent the kidnapping victims from being taken further into Lebanon.  The Muslim terrorists believe that Israel’s release of hundreds of prisoners back in 1996 and other times in the past will be replicated to get their soldier back.

 Israel should not release a single prisoner.  Any compromise with the terrorists will only reward such actions and send a signal to the weak-kneed international community that such actions are a legitimate way to achieve results and peace.  If Israel releases prisoners, this type of incident will be happening again in 2016.  Hamas has condemned Israel for refusing to negotiate.  The international community must condemn this as rubbish.  There is no obligation to negotiate with terrorists, and kidnapping is an act of terrorism.  If Hamas feels it has some other moral justification for the act, it can press such claims in the international arena without a terrorist act.  The international community and the UN must condemn Hamas and refuse to recognize its right to exist until it ceases and desists from such activity.

Unfortunately, the UN reaction has been unsurprisingly inadequate.  Some in the UN have condemned Israel’s reaction as “disproportionate.”  I do not even see where Europeans think they have the moral authority to attack self-defense reactions of Jews and talk about proportion given not that unrecent history.  This fails to recognize that Israel is at war, and the communities it has struck are harboring the terrorists.  Where are the Muslim leaders condemning the kidnappings and demanding the return of Israelis soldiers?  Where are the Muslim leaders condemning Muslim terrorists’ use of violence to press an obscure point in the bombing of trains in India the other day, where a coordinated series of explosions suggest the involvement of multiple people, all of whom failed to come forward to warn and save the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians.  Where is the Islamic peace movement?  If you let terrorists hide in your homes, mosques and communities, you are in league with those who commit acts of war.  There is an unfulfilled moral duty to root out such elements of thuggery in any community, but thus far, it is not happening. 

I do not believe that all Muslims are terrorists.  Like any other large group of people, I am sure they are vastly good people trying to make their way, and trying to live good lives.  I will not say, however, like Bush does, that they have a peaceful religion.  Everytime there’s a bombing somewhere in the world, it seems 9 times out of 10 its by Muslim terrorists.  More pointedly, however, where are the condemnations of such acts?  Why are Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the Palestinians not routinely condemning these acts?  Why is Al Jazeera, the major television outlet in the region simply referring to Israel as “the enemy?”  These thugs are not only not controlled, they are treated as heroes.  Their widows and orphaned children are taken care of because of how they became widows and orphaned children.  Instead, these terrorists should be shamed, publicly condemned and imprisoned and brought to justice.

The truth is, however, is that there are and will always be those who want war and conflict.  It is up to the good people to stand up and condemn the violence of those from their communities and fight against their own violent elements first, and not demonize those who the violent would portray as “the other side” but use all creative and selfless means to generate goodwill and understanding, and hopefully, peace.

In recent days, the Pro-Life movement has earned several victories.  From Connecticut to South Dakota to Ireland to Kansas, we are seeing signs of the growing culture of life, and victories that will each save lives in their own right.

In Connecticut, a Pro-Life adoption group has won in court to have its “Choose Life” plates become available at the DMV for individuals who wish to pay the appropriate fee to put the message on their plates.  Dozens of states have similar Pro-Life messages on their plates.  Pro-abortion groups have had a disgraceful history in trying to prevent people from exercising this core 1st Amendment political speech from occurring.  First they sued saying that if Pro-Lifers get to have the plates, so should they.  Fine, the courts said, just meet the same requirements of paying the basic fee and get the requisite showing of interest of citizens in the states you want it.  Dozens of groups, mostly outside the abortion debate context, have such vanity plates with messages ranging from advocating for their favorite sports team to save the whales.  They all met the basic showing of interest in their state.  Abortion advocates realized they could not achieve this.  They sued again, on the theory that abortion messages should not be allowed because the topic was inappropriate for the venue.  Utterly lacking in Constitutional merit, they have been soundly defeated in most states, although a few federal judges have stopped the plates in some areas.  In Connecticut pro-abortion politicians focused their pressure on the DMV to make an exception against Pro-Life plates.  For a few weeks they succeeded, but now the plates are back.  A small victory which will lead to planting small seeds in our country’s most Catholic state yet where pro-abortion politicians rule the roost.  Yet young women will now have one more source from which they can get contact information on adoption and Pro-Life options during a pregnancy.  This is certain to save lives.

In South Dakota, Pro-Lifers have achieved an incredible string of victories over the past decade.  No South Dakota resident practices abortion anymore, but 1 clinic remains that performs 700 some abortions a year with 4 out-of-state doctors flown in from different areas each week.  The child of the last abortion doctor there is now a pro-life activist.  South Dakota outlawed abortion in the legislature and the Pro-Life governor signed it into law.  This legislation is an obvious challenge to Roe.  Most people agree that there is still a 5-4 Pro-Choice majority on the Supreme Court, but some have speculated Justice Kennedy might change his mind given the right case.  In fear of this, and realizing less 0.1% of American abortions are from South Dakota, Pro-Choicers have refrained from taking this through the courts.  They tried to put economic pressure on South Dakota by calling for a boycott of South Dakota tourism.  This ridiculous objective failed.  They got the President of an Indian tribe within South Dakota’s borders, a sovereign nation by U.S. law, to agree to open an abortion clinic.  Young members of the tribe led the way with protests, however, and that particular women has been impeached and removed from power in that tribe, and no such abortuary will open.  Now Pro-Choicers will force a statewide referendum on the 2006 ballot to try to overturn the law.  This effort is certain to fail given polls in the state.  These victories are but a few of the hundreds of difficulties and challenges Pro-Lifers have persevered through in that state to save lives.  Hundreds of lives may be saved by this law.

In Ireland, a brilliant scientist has made an unprecedented breakthrough using adult stem cells in research that can be used to treat diabetes.  No such progress has been or could be made with embryonic stem cells.  If this message can get to those who are deciding how to spend government funded stem cell dollars, it could prevent a useless slaughter of embryos who would be created for the sole purpose of their destruction in research, paid for by you and me, as taxpayers.  The more advances that are made with adult stem cells, perhaps the more people will realize to use adult stem cells and not embryonic ones for research.  This could save millions of lives, and this is a good first step.  Not to go unnoted are the lives of diabetics which might be saved by this successful research, as compared to the complete lack of progress made with embryonic stem cells.

 In Kansas, Operation Rescue has helped to shut down another abortion clinic.  They then bought the clinic and are now making available to the public a chance to see the unsanitary conditions of the clinic.  The impetus for this purchase was the recent veto by Pro-abortion governor Kathleen Sebelius in Kansas of a law that would require routine inspections of clinics to make sure they meet the same safety criteria as other health care institutions.  The clinic is the second abortion clinic in less than 1 year that has closed and found to have been invested with roaches and/or rodents, with electrical hazards, etc.   The other abortion clinic that closed kept aborted babies in the refrigerator with food, and the doctor is now under investigation for cannibalism.  Hopefully this publicity effort by Operation Rescue will alert the governor, or the voters to whom she is accountable, of the reality of unsafe conditions.  It is thought that basic safety inspections would require still other clinics to shut down, thereby saving lives.

According to this article, http://www.omsoul.com/contraception-problems.php, a compelling argument could be made that the most serious Supreme Court case that needs to be overturned is not Roe v. Wade, but Griswold v. Connecticut.  The landmark case establishing a Constitutionally protected right to contraception is often overlooked not only as the stepping stone to Roe, but is perhaps even more devastating in its own right.  There are annually over a million abortions / year in America.  The pill, along with other abortifacient contraceptives could be killing as many as 8-12 million Americans every year.  With the advent of embryonic stem cell, where mass destruction of human life will take place by design, we are looking at tens of millions of deaths every year until the law reflects a culture of life.

It is safe to say that there is no person in America who has not been impacted, directly or indirectly by the pill.  Whether through the loss of those we never knew in undefined absences, in direct loss of life, or suffering from the effects of higher divorce rates, decreased fertility rates, higher rates of breast cancer, these matters impact everyone of us.

Ireland, as a member of the European Union, had its Constitution hauled before a European Human Rights commission to invalidate its provision that recognizes a baby is a human being, just like the mother.  Unable to get the Irish to accept abortion, this was an attempt to get the overarching European council to force it upon them.  The European Council recognized it does not have such authority.  See http://www.lifenews.com/nat2403.html for the story. 

God save the Irish.

Elsewhere in Europe, population rates are on serious decline.  While Russian President Putin recently declared the low population rates of that country the #1 crisis facing Russia, offering heavy financial incentives for women to keep their children, it is yet to be seen whether these limited pro-family measures have an impact.  The abortion rate in Russia is estimated at over 50%.  They lose 700,000 people from their population each year by sheer attrition.  In South Korea, the government has recently invested $20,000,000,000.00 to help combat the declining population rates there.  In recent months, we have seen riots in France ethnic French struggle to reconcile their need for immigrants from Africa to sustain their population and the immigrants’ rejection of secularism.  Things are worst in Italy and Spain, where the population rates are down to 1.2 and 1.15 children per every 2 people.  At least 2.1 children per 2 people is needed to sustain a population.  At this current rate of non-reproduction, Spain and Italy will suffer a 98-99% population wipeout of ethnic Spaniards and Italians within the next two centuries and over 60% decrease within the next half century.  Similar crises face the English, Germans, Japanese, Canadians and other western nations.  See  http://www.lifenews.com/nat2322.html for the story.

Pope Benedict XVI has urged emerging democracies not to model their nations after the secularism of the west.  Sounds like pretty good advice.

So far, all of my posts have generally been of the Pro-Life variety.  Also close to my heart in the social justice arena is the cause of organized labor and justice in the workplace.   Currently CEOs make roughly 250 times as much money as your average American worker.  I support unions because they have, are now, and will continue to bring justice into the workplace.  Unions fight to make sure people can only be fired for a just cause, and not at the whim of an employer.  Unions advise and litigate for employees their legal rights that workers are often unaware of.  Unions empower workers to earn a wage by which they can take care of their families by fighting for better wages and affordable health care coverage.  Unions force companies to make work areas safe.  Through the efforts of unions, workers are more than just a figure in the cost column of a business, they are people entitled to dignity and a fair shake.

A great web site tracking international labor rights issues is www.icftu.org, which is official site for the international umbrella organization for unions, consisting of over 155,000,000 workers around the world. 

 The Catholic Church has recognized the rights of workers and the important role of unions in papal encyclicals such as Laborem Exercens and In Rerum Novarum. 

A new campaign to start 100 new Pro-Life student groups focused on educating about abortion.  To learn more about how to get involved and network your local Pro-Life group, please check out the following links:

 http://www.lifenews.com/nat2406.html

http://www.studentsforlife.org/help_us/

In the past, many social movements for change have started with student groups and coordinated social justice efforts on the university and even high school level.  Such local Pro-Life groups support their Pro-Life crisis pregnancy centers, help women with all the needs they have to keep their baby - emotional, social, financial, housing, baby clothes/items, medical, etc.  The Pro-Life movement has a strong commitment to helping women in crisis and daunting challenge.  These groups also endeavor to disseminate the truth about abortion, what is going on in the world and other life ethic issues such as in vitro fertilization, embryonic stem cell, cloning, etc.  Some groups have organized prayer vigils outside abortion clinics or become volunteer counselors.  There is great need for such efforts in the Pro-Life movement and great need for starting these groups that help get passionate people plugged in to saving lives.  Such efforts have probably saved hundreds of thousands, if not millions of lives through the years.  If you can, please look into becoming part of the movement today!