I am thankful for...
by Nancie J. Carmody
...the mess to clean up after a party
because it means I have been surrounded by friends.
...the taxes I pay
because it means that I'm employed.
...the clothes that fit a little too snug
because it means I have enough to eat.
...my shadow who watches me work
because it means I am out in the sunshine.
...the spot I find at the far end of the parking lot
because it means I am capable of walking.
...all the complaining I hear about our government
because it means we have freedom of speech.
...that lady behind me in church who sings off key
because it means that I can hear.
...lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning and gutters that need fixing
because it means I have a home.
...my huge heating bill
because it means that I am warm.
...weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day
because it means that I have been productive.
...the alarm that goes off in the early morning hours
because it means that I am alive.
There are three kinds of days:
Good days,
Great days, and
Outstanding days.
Litera scripta manet. - Unknown
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Saturday, September 3, 2011
A Letter To My Students -- Prof. Michael O'Hare
A letter to my students
Michael O'Hare, professor of public policy | 8/24/10 | 272 comments | Leave a comment
Welcome to Berkeley, probably still the best public university in the world. Meet your classmates, the best group of partners you can find anywhere. The percentages for grades on exams, papers, etc. in my courses always add up to 110% because that’s what I’ve learned to expect from you, over twenty years in the best job in the world.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that you have been the victims of a terrible swindle, denied an inheritance you deserve by contract and by your merits. And you aren’t the only ones; victims of this ripoff include the students who were on your left and on your right in high school but didn’t get into Cal, a whole generation stiffed by mine. This letter is an apology, and more usefully, perhaps a signal to start demanding what’s been taken from you so you can pass it on with interest.
Swindle – what happened? Well, before you were born, Californians now dead or in nursing homes made a remarkable deal with the future. (Not from California? Keep reading, lots of this applies to you, with variations.) They agreed to invest money they could have spent on bigger houses, vacations, clothes, and cars into the world’s greatest educational system, and into building and operating water systems, roads, parks, and other public facilities, an infrastructure that was the envy of the world. They didn’t get everything right: too much highway and not enough public transportation. But they did a pretty good job.
Young people who enjoyed these ‘loans’ grew up smarter, healthier, and richer than they otherwise would have, and understood that they were supposed to “pay it forward” to future generations, for example by keeping the educational system staffed with lots of dedicated, well-trained teachers, in good buildings and in small classes, with college counselors and up-to-date books. California schools had physical education, art for everyone, music and theater, buildings that looked as though people cared about them, modern languages and ancient languages, advanced science courses with labs where the equipment worked, and more. They were the envy of the world, and they paid off better than Microsoft stock. Same with our parks, coastal zone protection, and social services.
This deal held until about thirty years ago, when for a variety of reasons, California voters realized that while they had done very well from the existing contract, they could do even better by walking away from their obligations and spending what they had inherited on themselves. “My kids are finished with school; why should I pay taxes for someone else’s? Posterity never did anything for me!” An army of fake ‘leaders’ sprang up to pull the moral and fiscal wool over their eyes, and again and again, your parents and their parents lashed out at government (as though there were something else that could replace it) with tax limits, term limits, safe districts, throw-away-the-key imprisonment no matter the cost, smoke-and-mirrors budgeting, and a rule never to use the words taxes and services in the same paragraph.
Now, your infrastructure is falling to pieces under your feet, and as citizens you are responsible for crudities like closing parks, and inhumanities like closing battered women’s shelters. It’s outrageous, inexcusable, that you can’t get into the courses you need, but much worse that Oakland police have stopped taking 911 calls for burglaries and runaway children. If you read what your elected officials say about the state today, you’ll see things like “California can’t afford” this or that basic government function, and that “we need to make hard choices” to shut down one or another public service, or starve it even more (like your university). Can’t afford? The budget deficit that’s paralyzing Sacramento is about $500 per person; add another $500 to get back to a public sector we don’t have to be ashamed of, and our average income is almost forty times that. Of course we can afford a government that actually works: the fact is that your parents have simply chosen not to have it.
I’m writing this to you because you are the victims of this enormous cheat (though your children will be even worse off if you don’t take charge of this ship and steer it). Your education was trashed as California fell to the bottom of US states in school spending, and the art classes, AP courses, physical education, working toilets, and teaching generally went by the board. Every year I come upon more and more of you who have obviously never had the chance to learn to write plain, clear, English. Every year, fewer and fewer of you read newspapers, speak a foreign language, understand the basics of how government and business actually work, or have the energy to push back intellectually against me or against each other. Or know enough about history, literature, and science to do it effectively! You spent your school years with teachers paid less and less, trained worse and worse, loaded up with more and more mindless administrative duties, and given less and less real support from administrators and staff.
Many of your parents took a hike as well, somehow getting the idea that the schools had taken over their duties to keep you learning, or so beat-up working two jobs each and commuting two hours a day to put food on the table that they couldn’t be there for you. A quarter of your classmates didn’t finish high school, discouraged and defeated; but they didn’t leave the planet, even if you don’t run into them in the gated community you will be tempted to hide out in. They have to eat just like you, and they aren’t equipped to do their share of the work, so you will have to support them.
You need to have a very tough talk with your parents, who are still voting; you can’t save your children by yourselves. Equally important, you need to start talking to each other. It’s not fair, and you have every reason (except a good one) to keep what you can for yourselves with another couple of decades of mean-spirited tax-cutting and public sector decline. You’re my heroes just for surviving what we put you through and making it into my classroom, but I’m asking for more: you can be better than my generation. Take back your state for your kids and start the contract again. There are lots of places you can start, for example, building a transportation system that won’t enslave you for two decades as their chauffeur, instead of raising fares and cutting routes in a deadly helix of mediocrity. Lots. Get to work. See you in class!
UPDATE: Like your political science in musical form? Here’s the way people thought about this stuff back in the day, and maybe should again. Bet there’s a good rap along these lines waiting to be born…
Cross-posted from the blog The Reality Based Community.
Michael O'Hare, professor of public policy | 8/24/10 | 272 comments | Leave a comment
Welcome to Berkeley, probably still the best public university in the world. Meet your classmates, the best group of partners you can find anywhere. The percentages for grades on exams, papers, etc. in my courses always add up to 110% because that’s what I’ve learned to expect from you, over twenty years in the best job in the world.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that you have been the victims of a terrible swindle, denied an inheritance you deserve by contract and by your merits. And you aren’t the only ones; victims of this ripoff include the students who were on your left and on your right in high school but didn’t get into Cal, a whole generation stiffed by mine. This letter is an apology, and more usefully, perhaps a signal to start demanding what’s been taken from you so you can pass it on with interest.
Swindle – what happened? Well, before you were born, Californians now dead or in nursing homes made a remarkable deal with the future. (Not from California? Keep reading, lots of this applies to you, with variations.) They agreed to invest money they could have spent on bigger houses, vacations, clothes, and cars into the world’s greatest educational system, and into building and operating water systems, roads, parks, and other public facilities, an infrastructure that was the envy of the world. They didn’t get everything right: too much highway and not enough public transportation. But they did a pretty good job.
Young people who enjoyed these ‘loans’ grew up smarter, healthier, and richer than they otherwise would have, and understood that they were supposed to “pay it forward” to future generations, for example by keeping the educational system staffed with lots of dedicated, well-trained teachers, in good buildings and in small classes, with college counselors and up-to-date books. California schools had physical education, art for everyone, music and theater, buildings that looked as though people cared about them, modern languages and ancient languages, advanced science courses with labs where the equipment worked, and more. They were the envy of the world, and they paid off better than Microsoft stock. Same with our parks, coastal zone protection, and social services.
This deal held until about thirty years ago, when for a variety of reasons, California voters realized that while they had done very well from the existing contract, they could do even better by walking away from their obligations and spending what they had inherited on themselves. “My kids are finished with school; why should I pay taxes for someone else’s? Posterity never did anything for me!” An army of fake ‘leaders’ sprang up to pull the moral and fiscal wool over their eyes, and again and again, your parents and their parents lashed out at government (as though there were something else that could replace it) with tax limits, term limits, safe districts, throw-away-the-key imprisonment no matter the cost, smoke-and-mirrors budgeting, and a rule never to use the words taxes and services in the same paragraph.
Now, your infrastructure is falling to pieces under your feet, and as citizens you are responsible for crudities like closing parks, and inhumanities like closing battered women’s shelters. It’s outrageous, inexcusable, that you can’t get into the courses you need, but much worse that Oakland police have stopped taking 911 calls for burglaries and runaway children. If you read what your elected officials say about the state today, you’ll see things like “California can’t afford” this or that basic government function, and that “we need to make hard choices” to shut down one or another public service, or starve it even more (like your university). Can’t afford? The budget deficit that’s paralyzing Sacramento is about $500 per person; add another $500 to get back to a public sector we don’t have to be ashamed of, and our average income is almost forty times that. Of course we can afford a government that actually works: the fact is that your parents have simply chosen not to have it.
I’m writing this to you because you are the victims of this enormous cheat (though your children will be even worse off if you don’t take charge of this ship and steer it). Your education was trashed as California fell to the bottom of US states in school spending, and the art classes, AP courses, physical education, working toilets, and teaching generally went by the board. Every year I come upon more and more of you who have obviously never had the chance to learn to write plain, clear, English. Every year, fewer and fewer of you read newspapers, speak a foreign language, understand the basics of how government and business actually work, or have the energy to push back intellectually against me or against each other. Or know enough about history, literature, and science to do it effectively! You spent your school years with teachers paid less and less, trained worse and worse, loaded up with more and more mindless administrative duties, and given less and less real support from administrators and staff.
Many of your parents took a hike as well, somehow getting the idea that the schools had taken over their duties to keep you learning, or so beat-up working two jobs each and commuting two hours a day to put food on the table that they couldn’t be there for you. A quarter of your classmates didn’t finish high school, discouraged and defeated; but they didn’t leave the planet, even if you don’t run into them in the gated community you will be tempted to hide out in. They have to eat just like you, and they aren’t equipped to do their share of the work, so you will have to support them.
You need to have a very tough talk with your parents, who are still voting; you can’t save your children by yourselves. Equally important, you need to start talking to each other. It’s not fair, and you have every reason (except a good one) to keep what you can for yourselves with another couple of decades of mean-spirited tax-cutting and public sector decline. You’re my heroes just for surviving what we put you through and making it into my classroom, but I’m asking for more: you can be better than my generation. Take back your state for your kids and start the contract again. There are lots of places you can start, for example, building a transportation system that won’t enslave you for two decades as their chauffeur, instead of raising fares and cutting routes in a deadly helix of mediocrity. Lots. Get to work. See you in class!
UPDATE: Like your political science in musical form? Here’s the way people thought about this stuff back in the day, and maybe should again. Bet there’s a good rap along these lines waiting to be born…
Cross-posted from the blog The Reality Based Community.
Litera scripta manet. - Unknown
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
No Bull
Lately I realized that you are my happiness
What I'm saying is, with you I'm happiest
And without you I'm sad
And few knew that I had
The potential to love so much, me being in that few
I never thought I could love and do
Everything that I do with you
But you make it so flipping easy
You understand me. Others just see me
And I understand because I don't just see you
And I know now that she's through
And therefore I know that I'm done
And you are she so I've found one
That I know I cannot do without
And I don't have a clue about
How to love anyone else because you are my definition
1 Corinthians, 13. You are what was mentioned
In you I see God's kindness and his blessing
And I'm not Catholic but to you I'm confessing
I'm so far from perfect but you made me better
From now on I'm dotting and crossing all the right letters
See, I know it's just a matter of time
And though my words avoid it, my heart's saying "It's fine."
From helping me with Trending Topics to helping me last night
From giving me back rubs to turning off the lights
And all the other things you do to let me know
That you're never going to just let me go
I'm all in and I want the world to know
This here is real. None of it's for show
And when she smiles because she shares my last name
Know that I finally Wizards-Jordan tired of the game
Litera scripta manet. - Unknown
What I'm saying is, with you I'm happiest
And without you I'm sad
And few knew that I had
The potential to love so much, me being in that few
I never thought I could love and do
Everything that I do with you
But you make it so flipping easy
You understand me. Others just see me
And I understand because I don't just see you
And I know now that she's through
And therefore I know that I'm done
And you are she so I've found one
That I know I cannot do without
And I don't have a clue about
How to love anyone else because you are my definition
1 Corinthians, 13. You are what was mentioned
In you I see God's kindness and his blessing
And I'm not Catholic but to you I'm confessing
I'm so far from perfect but you made me better
From now on I'm dotting and crossing all the right letters
See, I know it's just a matter of time
And though my words avoid it, my heart's saying "It's fine."
From helping me with Trending Topics to helping me last night
From giving me back rubs to turning off the lights
And all the other things you do to let me know
That you're never going to just let me go
I'm all in and I want the world to know
This here is real. None of it's for show
And when she smiles because she shares my last name
Know that I finally Wizards-Jordan tired of the game
Litera scripta manet. - Unknown
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Humocentric
You know what I hate? I hate this Eurocentric thought process that Americans have. Not just white Americans, but all of us. We have been brainwashed to think that White is right and it really irks me. I was watching the weather just now and the weather lady just said that a storm was coming off the "coast of Africa and headed to Mexico." Really? Africa is a continent. Mexico is a country. So why not say some of the African nations that it originated in? Because, in the eyes of the American education system, learning specifics about Africa is one of the least important things in the world. Aside from Egypt, how many African countries did your teachers mention? I heard about Ireland, Korea, China, India, Russia (and all of it's subsidiaries), Spain, Greece, Italy, England, France, Belgium, Brazil, Australia, Guatemala, Argentina, and probably 30 other nations, but when it came to Africa, I learned about it because I wanted to learn about it. I won't lie, it's pretty frustrating.
Litera scripta manet. - Unknown
Litera scripta manet. - Unknown
Friday, August 19, 2011
Realization
Last night I went to the club for the first time in a while and I realized a lot. I realized that these other girls really aren't attractive. They're good looking women and all but I've gotten past being attracted to them on a level that I say "If I were single, I'd talk to her." I am past thinking about "If I were single" because if I were single, I think I'd still be pursuing Des.
That was a hard reality for me to accept. For those of you who knew me as I was during my single period, I explored many of the eligibilities that being a bachelor with a promising future (and the most elite of all Greek letters) offered. These days, I'd much rather just lay in bed and watch a Redbox DVD with my Red. Crazy how things change. I can't wait to see where this takes me.
Litera scripta manet. - Unknown
That was a hard reality for me to accept. For those of you who knew me as I was during my single period, I explored many of the eligibilities that being a bachelor with a promising future (and the most elite of all Greek letters) offered. These days, I'd much rather just lay in bed and watch a Redbox DVD with my Red. Crazy how things change. I can't wait to see where this takes me.
Litera scripta manet. - Unknown
Monday, August 8, 2011
America's Worst Nightmare
Disclaimer:
FYI, I'm America's worst nightmare: Young, black and rich with a degree, a plan, a great attitude, a successful lady supporting me and a relationship with God. If that disclaimer scares you, keep reading.
No race in the United States of America will ever go through what black people have gone through and are going through. This country never has and never will be fair. But that doesn't mean we cannot succeed. Whereas other races have had to pull themselves up by the bootstraps, we must pull ourselves up by our bootstraps so that we can climb out of the grave we were placed in. This nation was not made for us. We are, in all actuality, the antithesis of what was intended to be the face of American success. America was built for white men to thrive on the backs of slaves. Black men were supposed to be farm tools and house servants. Black women had the same burden to carry, along with that of child birth, rearing, and suffering as victims of rape at the hands of their oppressors. This lasted for generations. So, not to belittle the atrocities suffered by the Jews in Nazi Europe, the Japanese in WWII, or the Arabs in a post-9/11 United States, but since we set foot on this land, a positive portrayal of a Black person has always been the exception instead of the rule. Well guess what? I am the new rule.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Litera scripta manet. - Unknown
FYI, I'm America's worst nightmare: Young, black and rich with a degree, a plan, a great attitude, a successful lady supporting me and a relationship with God. If that disclaimer scares you, keep reading.
No race in the United States of America will ever go through what black people have gone through and are going through. This country never has and never will be fair. But that doesn't mean we cannot succeed. Whereas other races have had to pull themselves up by the bootstraps, we must pull ourselves up by our bootstraps so that we can climb out of the grave we were placed in. This nation was not made for us. We are, in all actuality, the antithesis of what was intended to be the face of American success. America was built for white men to thrive on the backs of slaves. Black men were supposed to be farm tools and house servants. Black women had the same burden to carry, along with that of child birth, rearing, and suffering as victims of rape at the hands of their oppressors. This lasted for generations. So, not to belittle the atrocities suffered by the Jews in Nazi Europe, the Japanese in WWII, or the Arabs in a post-9/11 United States, but since we set foot on this land, a positive portrayal of a Black person has always been the exception instead of the rule. Well guess what? I am the new rule.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Litera scripta manet. - Unknown
Thursday, August 4, 2011
What's Your Why?/Work Harder
"How big is your why?" -- Bro. George Acheampong
Why do you work? Why do you workout? Why do you read? Is it so you can make money? So you look good next week at the beach? So your vocabulary allows you to get women? What will you do when you make "enough" money? After you leave the beach? When you are married to the woman who you tricked? Why not work so that your kid's kids are wealthy? Workout so those kids can spend time with a healthy grandparent? Read so you can pass your love of reading on to a younger generation? How big is your why? If it's not big enough, why are you doing it?
If you think you worked so hard that you deserve something, get off your high horse b/c there are people who worked twice as hard and got nothing in life. No one is owed anything. The only thing someone might owe you is honesty but we are so frequently robbed of that that I can honestly say it too is a luxury.
This is not to say don't work. Keep working. Please. You can get what you deserve but the hunger has to be there. You have to have a certain drive about you that sets you apart from your competition. What makes you better than the next person in line? What sets me apart is the fact that I'm a Daniels. I write that with all sincerity. You see the confidence that is in that line? There is no excessive verbiage. It is simple and to the point. It is not boisterous but instead certain. That is what I am... Certain. I am certain that my great-grandmother didn't bestow all of her wisdom upon me for me to be making minimum wage. I'm certain that my grandmother didn't shower me with love so I could flip your burgers until the age of 37 (even though she made sure that I maintained a level of humility so that I would if I ever had to). My parents didn't have me go to one of the nation's best public school systems so that I could drop out of college. I am a Daniels and, if no one else believes in me now, everyone else whose blood I have running in my veins made sure that I would make them all believe in my ability to succeed. That is why I work so hard; so they can claim my successes as their own because they are their own. A pretty big "Why?" if you ask me.
Always remember: People who don't stand out don't stand out.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Litera scripta manet. - Unknown
Why do you work? Why do you workout? Why do you read? Is it so you can make money? So you look good next week at the beach? So your vocabulary allows you to get women? What will you do when you make "enough" money? After you leave the beach? When you are married to the woman who you tricked? Why not work so that your kid's kids are wealthy? Workout so those kids can spend time with a healthy grandparent? Read so you can pass your love of reading on to a younger generation? How big is your why? If it's not big enough, why are you doing it?
If you think you worked so hard that you deserve something, get off your high horse b/c there are people who worked twice as hard and got nothing in life. No one is owed anything. The only thing someone might owe you is honesty but we are so frequently robbed of that that I can honestly say it too is a luxury.
This is not to say don't work. Keep working. Please. You can get what you deserve but the hunger has to be there. You have to have a certain drive about you that sets you apart from your competition. What makes you better than the next person in line? What sets me apart is the fact that I'm a Daniels. I write that with all sincerity. You see the confidence that is in that line? There is no excessive verbiage. It is simple and to the point. It is not boisterous but instead certain. That is what I am... Certain. I am certain that my great-grandmother didn't bestow all of her wisdom upon me for me to be making minimum wage. I'm certain that my grandmother didn't shower me with love so I could flip your burgers until the age of 37 (even though she made sure that I maintained a level of humility so that I would if I ever had to). My parents didn't have me go to one of the nation's best public school systems so that I could drop out of college. I am a Daniels and, if no one else believes in me now, everyone else whose blood I have running in my veins made sure that I would make them all believe in my ability to succeed. That is why I work so hard; so they can claim my successes as their own because they are their own. A pretty big "Why?" if you ask me.
Always remember: People who don't stand out don't stand out.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Litera scripta manet. - Unknown
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