College Education - Inmates and Citizens

You have all probably heard about Governor Cuomo's new plan to give inmates a college degree for free, the result was outrage from some and full support from others.  It seems at times people are split on two sides of an invisible fence that does not allow for compromise or alternate solutions. So let me attempt to look at this from all aspects.

My first reaction to this plan to spend a potential $137 billion on giving inmates free college education was complete outrage.  I worked hard, went to college and I am am now tens of thousands in debt, to make matters worse I didn't find a job that could pay remotely what I needed to support my family and pay back all of these loans, I have to deal with ridiculous interest rates, harassing phone calls and all the stress that comes along with it.  So, I hear this proposal to give inmates FREE college education, and yes I was outraged!  You are going to give a criminal, who made bad decisions and committed crimes a free education while I and my fellow students struggle.  You are going to give a criminal who made bad decisions and committed crimes a potential $137 billion while our schools and libraries are underfunded and constantly cut, yes I was outraged.  Yet, let's take a look at all sides of this, if you stick with me, I might have some alternate suggestions worth looking at.  I am still outraged, I still have much more to say about it all in my closing.

One of the few articles I have found in favor of Cuomo's new plan was a Forbes Opinion piece, I read through it, considered the points and then noticed it was written by an Academic Coordinator in partnership with Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison, hardly an unbiased opinion, but we will consider her point nonetheless.

Emily Patka of Sienna College is a supporter of Cuomo's plan, she says prisons should not be used only as a tool of punishment but of rehab.  She also chastises society for being "stuck in revenge mode" and encourages us to set aside the possible "moral repercussions" of having that mindset.  She also lets us know that not every inmate will be accepted into the program, in fact she says each person is "thoroughly vetted through a rigorous application process to determine inmates who are academically talented and prepared for college."  To support her point she let's us know that 95 percent of those currently incarcerated will be released in the future, if they return to prison the state expects to shell out $60 thousand a year, and Cuomo's plan would translate to $5 thousand a year.  She furthers her point by letting us know her partner Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison has a less than 1 percent recidivism rate for 168 graduates. (Forbes Opinion Article)

A NYTimes article claims that Nationwide as many as half of all inmates released end up back in prison within three years.  The article attempts to explain why this might be, citing reliable and cost-effective education behind bars as the main reason, and lets us know that nearly 40 percent of prisoners do not have a high school diploma.  Another point they make is the decision in 1994 to deny federal Pell grants to people in prison (who received only 1 percent of the Pell grants) dropping prison degree programs from 350 to about 12.  This same article claims there is a direct correlation between the higher rates of employment for those who receive an education.    

Want more statistics on the benefits of inmate education check out https://www.bja.gov/Publications/RAND_Correctional-Education-Meta-Analysis.pdf.  This link gives you all the research on how educational programs substantially reduced the risk of returning to the system within three years.

Finding opposing views of the Governor's move was not difficult, so I am only citing two that I have come across.  The Democrat & Chronicle has a plethora of quotes from officials criticizing the plan.

• Sen. Greg Ball of Putnam County says "In a world of finite resources, where we are struggling to find funding for education for our kids, the last thing New York state should be funding is college tuition for convicts"
• Assemblyman James Skoufis of Orange county says "Our students face out-of-control costs and crushing debt if they decide to pursue a degree — hardworking families need help going to college, not prison inmates"
• Sen. Mark Grisanti says "I support rehabilitation and reduced recidivism, but not on the taxpayer's dime when so many individuals and families in New York are struggling to meet the ever-rising costs of higher education"
• Assemblyman James Tedisco says “Rewarding criminal behavior with free college education reinforces their actions and makes them smarter criminals, ... This is definitely ‘Breaking Bad’ by potentially turning a bunch of Jesse Pinkmans into Walter Whites – all on the taxpayer’s dime.” (Inside Higher Ed) ***Now I have to watch this show to get the reference!

In the same  Democrat & Chronicle article we learn NY actually has a 3% lower recidivism rate than the nationwide average according to the a 2011 report, and New York has quite a few flourishing (since the decision in 1994 to end tuition assistance in prisons) privately funded programs to provide college education to prisoners.  Not to mention changes in laws have lead to a fall from 72,600 in 1999 to about 54,200 and the closing of nine prisons. 

Alternative Solutions:

• Ball said he has proposed legislation that would establish a state income-tax deduction on student loan payments.
• Colleges like Cornell, and Cayuga Community College have a prison education program they fund with a grant, why isn't this the standard. 
• A common Consensus is that Education in prison give prisoners jobs when they are out preventing them from ending up back in - So offer a job program, or offer vocational training, but do so on grants.  
• Find committees and foundations willing to work towards securing funds and grants for programs for inmates, so as not to use public funds. 
• Put public funding back to the schools and libraries, make it possible for everyone to attend college  without incurring outrageous cost. 

Let me argue a point here for a moment, the prison system is supposed to be punishment of course, but also reform, it is NOT supposed to be a reward, offering a FREE college education would be a reward, and one that you are not offering to many students that have incurred student loans so steep they can't breathe when they think of it, but they worked hard sometimes working a multitude of jobs and raising a family so that they could get that degree complete with it's debt and now you want me to take pity on prisoners who made the bad decisions and did the bad things.  I am a compassionate person, I truly believe they should receive an education if they want one, but NOT before you address the people in this world who have worked hard and find themselves struggling because the jobs are not there or don't pay enough to pay back the high interest rates of student loans.  Further, I believe we should be working towards educating people BEFORE they are in the prison system and not AFTER they are in, and if you are so concerned about them ending up in prison an alternative might be to give them a college education scholarship of some kind upon their release.  

So there you have both sides of the fence and a few, although not a completely comprehensive list, alternative solutions.  However, the real issue, the root of the issue has not been addressed.  I find it astounding that American's seem to blithely ignore the root of issues, every system is covered in band aids until one day all of those band aids leak so badly the entire system starts to feel it, the entire system starts to break down.  The root of the issue here, is how can we prevent people from committing the crimes that put them in jail, the root of the issue is how do we extend education to everyone BEFORE they choose this deteriorating life.  The answer to that is very simple and in fact in The Corruption-of-our-Education-System.html, the answer is educating, and facilitating pride in education.  We as a society need to stand up united under the goal of becoming a smarter more educated nation.  There are other countries that do not have the same massive gaps based on socioeconomics, so let's stop trying to blame people, or coddle people.  Let's make sure our society says education is important! Let's ingrain it in every young person, let's ensure that our future is one in the top percentile because we banded together and fostered a sense that learning is the best thing you can do for yourself.  Learn a trade, learn a hobby, learn whatever you are interested but for the love of this country LEARN SOMETHING.  

Let's stop putting band aids on our society, lets stand up and make a difference, let's make America great once again, innovative once again.  It starts with you, the person reading this right now, don't wait for someone else, you can foster this love of learning, it does not matter how poor you are libraries are free! Let's raise our voices, and be heard, put funding into our schools and libraries, reduce interest rates for college students or better yet give them the funding to get their degree and not be mired in debt. 

Go read a book, visit your favorite library and write your legislators!

The Corruption of our Education System

Education, the most fundamentally important aspect of progressive life.  We must learn to survive and advance.  If you can learn you can do anything. That's right anything can be done with the drive and desire to learn and make it so.  Countries all around the world are comparing themselves to each other, it's a global competition.  Whomever has the smartest, most educated people will drive the world into the future.

So, who will be driving us into the future?  Perhaps it will be Shanghai since they scored highest on Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which was administered last fall 2012.  In fact, according to the same source, American scored below the international average in math and slightly below average in science and roughly average in reading, compared against dozens of other countries (Although in a 1,000 point system no country scored higher than 613. (NBC)

What does this say about the importance we put on education?  What does this say about our attitude towards education?  What does it say about out drive? It looks pretty bleak to me folks.

According to another article "Black and Hispanic adults in the United States are three to four times more likely to have poor skills than white adults, according to an OECD analysis. About 35 percent of black adults and 43 percent of Hispanic adults score low in literacy, compared to 10 percent of white adults. In numeracy, 59 percent of black adults and 56 percent of Hispanic adults score low, compared to 19 percent of white adults." However, "The report found that socioeconomic background has a stronger impact on proficiency levels in the U.S. than in other countries. The association is weaker among 16- to 20-year-olds, which could reflect more equity in the education system or the delayed impact of parents’ education." (Inside Higher Ed)    

I acknowledge that there could be quite a few different reasons for socioeconomic backgrounds to have a lower impact on proficiency levels in countries other than the U.S.  Regardless of the reasons, I think we can take one thing away from this, socioeconomic factors do not need to have a strong impact on proficiency levels.  So let's stop trying to play the poverty card.

What is different in other countries, how do they progress while we continue to fall behind.  In Shanghai
"Beginning in 1985, in an attempt to move away from the high-pressure exam system and increase the quality of education, Shanghai began to allow students to take elective courses, which led to new textbooks and materials. Implemented in 2008, a renewed effort to encourage student learning rather than accumulation of knowledge, led to eight curricular “learning domains”:

• language and literature
• mathematics
• natural science
• social sciences
• technology
• arts
• physical education
• practicum

Schools were then encouraged to create their own curriculum and outside groups such as museums became partners in education. Part of the new curriculum includes an emphasis on inquiry-based education. Students independently explore research topics of interest to themselves in order to promote social wellbeing, creative and critical thinking, and again, learning to learn.

To support the new education changes, certification processes for teachers were implemented. Teacher professional development requirements also increased – teachers in Shanghai must now complete 240 hours of professional development in five years. An online database provides help with design and implementation of curriculum, research papers, and best practice examples. Teachers are now encouraged to allow time for student activities in classrooms rather relying solely on presentations."  (http://asiasociety.org/education/learning-world/shanghai-worlds-best-school-system)

Interesting, so you mean they don't have a "common core" they encourage creative and critical thinking, learning to learn, and facilitate a societal and family pressure to do well academically? Perhaps they have figured out that the real key is to motivate young people at a young age, the key is to support education and encourage it, the key is to foster a love of learning, the key is to come together as a society and present a united message that education is important.  

Today in America there are a lot of excuses, socioeconomic, political propaganda, budget constraints, declining family structures, and the list goes on.  Let's not forget the deprecation of competition, everyone is a winner, so why bother trying, you know you will get the prize.  Parents are not emphasizing education, content to let the TV or video games occupy their child so they can earn a living or worse yet because they have no desire to truly parent their kid.  You are not your child's friend, you are their parent and hopefully a good role model, turn off the TV from time to time and have them read a book!  

Let's stop making excuses, it does not matter how poor you are, it does not matter if you are in a broken home, nothing should stop you from learning.   What does matter is that we as a society start to say Education is important, let's make our schools and libraries our priority.  Let's make a commitment to be the best of the best again.  

"One interesting strategy employed by Shanghai to improve weak schools is the commissioned education program. Under this scheme, top performing schools are assigned a weak school to administer. The “good” school will send a team of teachers and a principal to lead the school and improve it. This has been happening within the city but also as a type of exchange program with poor rural schools. Such a system assists the poor schools and benefits Shanghai schools by allowing them to promote teachers and administrators."

Let's start looking at what those in the top ranking of education are doing, learn from that and move forward.  Let's give our kids incentive to go to school, and then continue with school to vocational schools or colleges, and let's be sure they(or their parents) won't have to incur massive amounts of debt to do so!

It all starts when we are children, but you are never too old to learn.  Yet, the cost of continuing education is critical as well, a parent who wants an education so they can pass that on to their kids shouldn't have to go knee deep in debt, so we can not continue to look at a segregated education system that slices higher education into a different place.  I started writing this article because I was outraged over my student loans, which cost a fortune and only landed me a job for a fraction of what I owe, but upon searching out sources this article formed, more on our college education and student loans next!

Now that you are thinking, I take my leave to catch some shut eye, read a book!

The Most Common Mistake – Real vs. Fantasy

The Most Common Mistake – Real vs. Fantasy.

I have done a lot with my life, more that many not as much as some, yet I still find there is more to do. There is always something I can write about, some question that keeps coming up, some answer that seems elusive until someone else comes along with it. Today, while sitting down reading about writing habits, I came across a movie about a writer who made on of the most common mistakes that I see people make. I fell prey to this mistake as well, and I hope if you read this that I can inspire you not to make that mistake.

What is the most common mistake?

• It is foregoing your dreams and passions for what the perceives as something more realistic.

• It is ignoring that passion and innate talent and forcing yourself into an average job you are unhappy with.
• It is believing that your passions, no matter how rare, are somehow less than what the average people are doing.
• It is choosing to take a path that makes you unhappy simply because you do not believe you can do what you love.
• It is choosing the humdrum over the outrageous.

I could go on, instead let me give you advice I wish I had, advice that I wish I would have been smart enough to take if it were offered during the times in my life when I was pursuing my dreams.

The Advice:

• Be outrageous! Add in a sprinkle of realism and you will do just fine!
• Do what you love, find your passion and pursue it! Try and find a job in or related to what you love so you can support yourself while you pursue your passion.
• Do it for the love of doing it! Don't do it for the money, the fame or the fortune. Do it because you love it. I believe the saying goes something like a man who loves what he does, does not work a day in his life.
• Don't listen to the naysayers, surround yourself with supportive people who want to see you succeed. Constructive criticism can be very valuable, negative criticism is worthless.

The Story:

You might be sitting there reading this wondering who is this to give advice. Well let me tell you a little story about myself. I was always a writer. It all started when I was very young, I loved to read, I would sneak under the covers with a flashlight to finish reading a book every night I could. Most writers have a similar story. I had a vivid imagination, I loved to read and imagine the stories coming to life. I could smell, hear, taste and see everything in the stories I read. Sometimes I read to get away from my life, other times it was to find a friend, whatever the reason, I was in that story somehow. I started writing my own stories, daydreaming making up stories in almost every waking hour that I wasn't responsible for school work. Even average chores turned into magical experiences. By the time I hit High School I turned to writing poetry to express my angst, to work through all the trauma life had given me, and largely to deal with my mom's death. I was published in several anthologies, and awarded several editors choice awards. My confidence grew, I was a writer! I was going to go to school and major in English and minor in Music and Theater and I was going to follow my dreams!

What were my dreams? I wanted to be a writer, a singer/songwriter, a dancer, a model an actress and artist. Notice a common theme? I even received an award from the Governor for my digital art display that was entered into a traveling display. I went to the big state concerts for Cello and Choir, I was ready to go after my dreams in college. I went to college and I enrolled in English, and Music, and took art classes, and I worked full time and several jobs, when you work that much your grades do suffer, there is not much help for it. Eventually, after hearing:

• What are you going to do with that degree?
• Why don't you do something more realistic?
• Don't you know the likely hood of you making a living at that are next to impossible?
• How will you support yourself with that degree if you can't get a job?
• That industry only works for people who know people?
• Your passions are just hobbies?
• You'll never make it.

All these things were said, and much more cruel things that I don't bother to give much thought to nowadays.

What did I do? I changed my major, I went on to get my Bachelor's in Science in Business Management with a computer science minor. Then I went on to get my Master in Science in Information Science an American Library Association accredited program. I bought myself a newer car, then a house, then a motorcycle, but something was still missing. I wasn't happy. Because I wasn't doing what I loved to do.

So, faced with this new reality, having everything I was supposed to have, and still feeling somewhat empty I took a new approach. I kept my job as a dispatcher for several years before I took a programming job, but I started to work on my writing and music again. Shortly after I got my studio set up, I had to tear it down to take in two wonderful children, my niece and nephew. I changed jobs to another firm for programming so I could be at home with them but the company fell on hard times and I was laid off. So I wrote, I self published a few books of poetry, I worked on music and sold a few songs, and I started a novel. I graduated with my Masters degree just in time to take a part time librarian position with a wonderful library that became my springboard. I went from that librarian position to being the director of a small library. It wasn't where I thought I would be but it was where I needed to be. More importantly it showed me where I was supposed to go.

I had it wrong when I was younger and I wanted the fame and wealth, I had it wrong even a few years ago when I wanted the fame and wealth because I wanted to drive change and save the world (yes I am one of those people, insert giggle here). I wanted it all and I wanted it right then, but I missed the point. I loved to write, I loved to create, so what does it matter if I get paid for it. I love being a librarian, I have always loved the library, and for the first time I was doing something that fit in with my dreams, even facilitated them.

I found a job where reading and writing were part of it, I found a job that reminded me that it was the passion of putting the words out there, of seeing your name in print, or getting a comment that you helped someone, or writing that song that helps someone because the identify with it. That was when I realized the most common mistake people make is not to ignore their dreams and passions but also to pursue them for the wrong reasons.

Pursue your dreams and passions because you love to do them, don't try to make them a job, but do try to find work that compliments your dreams and passions and reflects you. Surround yourself with supportive people, welcome constructive criticism but do not welcome abuse or negativity. It really is easy once you get to this point, but I took a rather long difficult road to get here! I hope I can help you avoid some of those difficult paths with this tidbit of my experience.

Namaste,

Michol Mae

Politics - Guns, Welfare, Society & Education

Let's talk about politics. I know, I know, you groan, and think is that all we every talk about these days. Well, I talk about much more but since it keep coming up, let me lay my position out for you.

Recently I had a man tell me that I couldn't talk politics without personally slandering a person.

Wrong!

I talk policies, I talk about parties, I talk about my opinions, which everyone has.  It is all relative.  And Cue argument here.  This man says to me the world was filled with people who believed everything was relative before they were persecuted.

Now, we have a debate.

It truly is all relative, but that does not mean I don't have an opinion! That doesn't mean that I don't speak out about the policy changes and parties in office.  Quite the contrary, I write as often as time permits about America and my opinion on where this country is going, I write for this blog and for a website www.writingliberty.com. Some of the article's I have written on the website include;

• Finding America
• The Softening Potbelly of Society
• The Decline of Personal and Societal Accountability
• Finding Integrity Accountability in America

I never much cared for "politics" to be honest it wasn't until the last election that I really started to dig in and form my own opinions free of media conglomerates and social media muck.  I try to stay open minded, open to information and educate myself on as much as I can.  That said this is where I stand (not in it's entirety because I could write a good deal on each topic but in a nutshell and on the fly).

On Voting:

• I am sick of only seeing the two main parties in the media, there are many other parties and people that run.  I sometimes think the Democrats and Republicans all get together in a room, sit down at a card table, and divvy up all the policies so that we are always torn. 
• I am even more tired of people telling me that they vote for the "lesser of two evils" then whining about it when they don't like the person in office that they voted for.  YOU made the vote!  
• I am tired of people telling others they are wasting their vote if they vote for any party other than the two main parties.  Your civic duty is to vote for the person that best represents you.    

It is your duty to vote for the person that best represents you as a citizen.  If people would stop facilitating this two party system, if they stood up and demanded someone else, we might end up with real change.  

On Guns:

• Guns don't kill people, people kill people.  Simple and yet true
• Drug dealers and criminals are not going to turn in their guns, so why would you want to disarm the law abiding citizens of society. 
• It is a constitutional right to bear to keep and bear arms, and I am of the opinion that no one should take this right away from law abiding citizens.
• Worried about death's from gunfire, well what about dirty bombs made from household materials, no matter what you do if someone really wants to harm people they will find a way.  According to the FBI More people were killed with hammers and clubs than rifles.  More on this in another article where I will give you Government verified statistics. 
• Want to know the real defense against what appears to be senseless violence?  The answer is: education, compassion and tolerance.  

On Welfare:

• Our welfare system is broken.  I'm not saying get rid of it, I am saying we need to take another look at it. 
• Criminals and less than honest people know how to exploit it and they have the time to do so, while honest people trying to make a living are left behind. 
• You are paying people that don't work, increasing minimum wage, and leaving the middle class to further suffer. 
• In some circumstances it is more rewarding to stay "on the system" than it is to get out and find your own way, the system is enabling people, not encouraging them to get out and do something. 
• People that don't pay into the system ever should be the ones who receive the scrutiny, not the law abiding citizens who have been working their whole lives and finally break down and ask for help. 
• In the end, most of this comes down to society and having self respect and pride. 

On Society:

• There was a time when people took pride in their neighborhoods, their family and their work.  We have seen a decline in all of these areas. 
• The library used to be a well used and popular facility, it facilitated learning and community, now it's one of the first to be cut from the budget, instead we should be putting our resources into Libraries and Schools to educate our young people and give them options and alternatives to the dark roads we fear they will take.
• More and more families are broken than ever before we would be foolish to think that this doesn't have a large impact on Society as a whole.  Now it takes a dual income to survive but more and more families are faced with single parenting or strained and separated parents, this leads to further complications when the parents each want to be the good guy, so they don't enforce rules or consequences, giving children a skewed sense of justice and the world. 
• There has been a steady decline in accountability, more and more laws passed to tell people what should be common sense. More and more people passing the buck or suing companies or people for things that they ought to have known better in the first place. 

On Education:

• The hot topic right now is the bill to give inmates free college education.  
• I'm not saying they shouldn't get an education, I would be more apt to give them vocational training, but I am saying it is not right to reward a criminal with a college degree while making the rest of the law abiding citizens pay for theirs. 
• I am saying that if you want to make a difference in the world you should be educating the young, starting in the school and utilizing the libraries to support families, and children long before they are faced with the possibility of turning to a life of crime.
• I am saying be proactive not reactive.
• I am saying let's no reward bad behavior.  If your kid throws a baseball through the neighbors window on purpose, you don't give him an ice cream. 
• Education is the foundation, what we do and how we act is based on some sort of education, so if we focused on quality education, quality in our schools and libraries as well as various other faculties of education are the key to a successful future.  
• A great deal is taught in school where the minds of the young are mailable, who are the people teaching our kids?  Where is the funding for our kids? Who can homeschool their children under the current system as a single parent?  How to public schools hold up?  I could write forever on this.  But alas, I am out of time for the day. 

It is very likely that many will agree with my opinions, it is also likely that some will disagree or make counter points, I welcome your opinions in either case, I welcome information that confirms or counters my opinions. Please feel free to comment! 

Namaste, 

Michol Mae

Navigating through the muck: Trying to interpret the Affordable Care Act AKA ObamaCare Part 1

Navigating through the muck: Trying to interpret the Affordable Care Act AKA ObamaCare Part 1

By Michol Mae

October 21, 2013

I have been considering writing an article on the Affordable Care Act, AKA Obamacare, for some time now but I have simply not had the time to wade through the befuddling resources available.  However, since it is such a major topic with impacts on the large majority, let us begin on the healthcare.gov site (https://www.healthcare.gov/where-can-i-read-the-affordable-care-act/).  This particular page states “The law has 2 parts: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act. We provide links to them in PDF and HTML formats below. We also provide a link to an unofficial, consolidated version that is more readable.”  Already I am confused, but I note the 4 items mentioned: Patient Protection, Affordable Care Act, Health Care, and Education Reconciliation Act.  Okay, the Affordable Care act has a certified full-text version at 2.41MB and the Reconciliation Act is a mere 257KB.  I’m tempted to start with the Reconciliation Act because it’s not only smaller, but I have not seen or heard nearly as much on it, but the lengthy nature of the Affordable Care Act means I will have to break it down, and write an article at a time, in sections.

Oh, here is a clarification! “This Act may be cited as the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act”. Terrific! Moving on, you can tell a lot about a book from the Table of Contents and it is no different in this case, 130 page table of contents! Ouch!  

There are parts of parts, subparts of parts, subtitles, I have to say I have my work cut out for me, and as a writer and a librarian I don’t mind a good read and analyze, but I am concerned that the majority of the citizens affected by this would not be so keen on reading it, not to mention at 906 pages an entire college course could be taught on it!

Let’s start at the beginning.  It appears that we start with amendments to the Public Health Service Act in regards to Individual and Group Market reforms for Improving coverage.  The topics that appear here are no lifetime or annual limits, prohibition on rescissions, coverage of preventive health services, extension of dependent coverage, development and utilization of uniform explanation of coverage documents and standardized definitions, prohibition of discrimination based on salary, ensuring the quality of care, bringing down the cost of health care coverage, appeals process  For the sake of keeping the articles short we will cover only a few items in each article, it is my hope this will make it easier to digest and research.

We will start with improving coverage, this says that those offering health insurance coverage cannot establish “Lifetime limits on the dollar value of benefits for any participant or beneficiary or unreasonable annual limits on the dollar value of benefits for any participant or beneficiary” However, if a group health plan or health insurance coverage does not provide essential health benefits they can place annual and lifetime limits per beneficiary on those specific covered benefits. (Page 131 of Public Law 111-148)  One question here, who decides what essential health care is?  Okay, two questions, how is essential health care defined?  Perhaps this is answered in the remaining 775 pages.

The prohibition on rescission tells us that those offering group or individual coverage cannot take back the plan or coverage once you are enrolled unless of course you are fraudulent or intentionally misrepresent yourself, “such plan or coverage may not be cancelled without prior notice to the enrollee.” Be sure to read the terms of the plan and coverage to be safe!

Coverage of preventive health services is a bit more meaty.  It looks like those providing group or individual health insurance coverage  will have to at least provide coverage for ‘‘(1) evidence-based items or services that have in effect a rating of ‘A’ or ‘B’ in the current recommendations of the United States Preventive Services Task Force;”  What does that mean, what is A or B, evidence based items?  Wait, I found a resource (http://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/uspsabrecs.htm).  So it looks like it’s mandatory to include coverage of the following;

• ·         Abdominal aortic aneurysm screening: men
• ·         Alcohol misuses: screening and counseling
• ·         Anemic screening: pregnant women
• ·         Aspirin to prevent cardiovascular disease: men & women
• ·         Bacteriuri screening: pregnant women
• ·         Blood pressure screening in adults
• ·         BRCA screening, counseling about
• ·         Breast cancer preventative medication and screening
• ·         Cervical cancer screening
• ·         Chlamydial infection screening” woman 24 years and younger
• ·         Cholesterol abnormalities  screening men and women ages vary
• ·         Colorectal cancer screening
• ·         Dental caries prevention: preschool children
• ·         Depression screening: all ages
• ·         Diabetes screening
• ·         Falls prevention in older adults: exercise or physical therapy
• ·         Falls prevention in older adults: vitamin D
• ·         Folic acid supplementation
• ·         Gonorrhea prophylactic medication: newborns
• ·         Gonorrhea screening: women
• ·         Healthy diet counseling
• ·         Earing loss screening: newborns
• ·         Hemoglobinopathies screening: newborns
• ·         Hepatitis B screening: pregnant women
• ·         Hepatitis C virus infection screening: adults
• ·         HIV screening: non-pregnant all
• ·         Hypothyroidism screening: newborns
• ·         Intimate partner violence screening: women of childbearing age
• ·         Iron supplementation in children
• ·         Obesity screening and counseling: all
• ·         Osteoporosis screening: women
• ·         Phenylketonuria screening: newborns
• ·         Rh incompatibility screening: first pregnancy visit: fist visit and 24-28 weeks gestation
• ·         Sexually transmitted infections counseling
• ·         Skin cancer behavioral counseling
• ·         Tobacco use Counseling and interventions: all
• ·         Syphilis screening: all
• ·         Visual acuity screening in children

It also looks like immunizations such as Anthrax, BCG, DTaP, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, hib, Hib and DTP, HPV, Influenza, Japanese encephalitis, measles, Mumps and Rubella, MMRV, Meningococcal, Pneumococcal, Polio, Rabies, Rotavirus, Smallpox, Tdap/Td, Typhoid, Varicella(Chickenpox), Yellow Fever, Zoster(Shingles) (http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/acip-recs/vacc-specific/index.html) must be covered.  Women are covered for additional preventive care and screening mentioned in the list above.  Breast cancer screening, mammography, and prevention is mandatory based on the most current recommendations of the United States Preventative Service task Force.  Anything not mentioned above is not required and there are not limitations for insurance issuers on these additions services.  There is a mention that the Secretary can develop guidelines to permit those that offer health insurance a plan to utilize value based insurance designs, but in this I am not clear on what that means.

The extension of dependent coverage states that those providing health insurance to dependent children will continue to make coverage available for an adult child who is not married until the child turns 26 years of age.  Regulations to not appear to be set at this time, instead it states that the secretary will make known regulation to define the dependents that the coverage should be made available, and the definition of the dependent in the IRS will remain as it was for tax treatment purposes.

 Well folks we made it to page 132 of Public Law 111-148 and I think that is quite enough to digest at the moment.  Check back each week for more, or subscribe to my RSS feed.

Finding Integrity and Accountability in America

I am a writer, I try to write an article every week and aim to increase that to 2 or 3.  I look for like minded individuals or those who are more open minded and free thinking.  While discussing some of my views one day someone said to me that I probably never take sides one way or the other, there are two sides to this (no pun intended).  One I am a writer, a free writer, I try to look at all angles as unbiased as possible, I try to present from a neutral stand point; something modern media seems to have forgotten, and I aim to educate, or at the very least challenge people to think on things from different perspectives.  That said there are some topics that I have leaned to one side or the other.  In regards to all these topics I have come to realize that there is one underlying thing, one underlying issue, one underlying attribute, one underlying source to all of things that I write about. 

Let’s explore some of these things shall we.

You may have read my article about Guns and Gun Control where I leaned, I argued for upstanding citizens to retain their constitutional right to bear arms.  I argued that Amendments to this Constitutional law would unarm law abiding American citizens while leaving the criminals armed.  I challenged the naiveté of those that believe the criminal element will turn in their weapons.  I leaned, and I leaned toward retaining my right to bear arms, your right to bear arms, and chastised society for not standing up and with a little more integrity, with a little more grit.

I wrote an article about a video I saw regarding an officer who shot a injured girls father where I leaned toward the side of the officer, after reviewing several sources I used my own mind, crazy as it might seem, to conclude that as tragic as the incident was it was not the fault of the officer, it was not even the fault of the 4 year old who ran into the street, no, I concluded it was the parents and society to blame.  It was the lack of parenting and society’s acceptance off this decline, indeed society’s facilitation of this decline that was to blame.  It was the lack of integrity, and the lack of values, the decline of accountability, and the fall of values that once built greatness and now only serve to facility laziness.

In my article Finding America I state  I talked about the Boston Marathon shooting and other incidents and I leaned when I stated “It’s corporal punishment for America, where the general population will now suffer for the actions of a few.  Where the government cajoles and manipulates people into thinking that striping away more liberties is the only way to create more safety.  America, where we are sinking lower in our education and blindly following media and political agendas.  Where we no longer stop to think for ourselves, and have forgotten how to dig down and fight for what we once believed in! “ This wasn’t the only time I leaned against the media accusing them of having political agenda’s and no longer offering us the die hard search for the truth they once did.

One of my favorite and first articles The Decline of Personal and Societal Accountability I accuse the American people of sitting idly at best and facilitating the decline of accountability at worse.  

.  Then of course are the articles I have written about our school system, student loans, and the difficulties children and adults alike face when they decide to take their education seriously, the cost in all facets is staggering.

Have you noticed a theme yet?  Well for one thing every issue could use more integrity, for those who may have forgotten Merriem Webster’s Dictionary defines it as :firm adherenceto a code of especially moral or artistic values:incorruptibility  or:  an unimpaired condition:soundness  or 3.: the quality or state of being com.  The other is the decline of Accountability.  But overall, I feel frustrated because people miss the main point of it all.  Being a good person.  IT really all comes down to being a good person.  Most people have become numb, they have lived this lie too long, they don’t see the benefit in stopping the car for a squirrel, it’s not about the squirrel, it’s about your character.  They don’t stop to protect a person in danger, they walk on, not wanting to get involved even if it is so obviously wrong to them.  They want to pass the buck, blame others and let accountability and integrity die.

I hope that after reading this at lease of few of you will agree that something must be done about the decline of accountability and integrity, I hope even more will take a good look at their integrity and accountability and even more will act on it.  America we are in trouble, we have compromised one compromise after another and now I am afraid we do not know who we are or who we once were.  Let’s find ourselves, our integrity and our accountability. 

Education in America: The Cost

Whole day, half day, whole day, half day, half day, that is October’s schedule for grade school students in New York.  More and more parents and children are being challenged.  Children in grade school are now subject to math we were subjected to in High School, leading to an increase in pressure on children at a very young age.  To make it even harder the schools employ even more half days then most of us saw when we were in grade school, and the reason I’ve been given is that they still get funding if they have school for half a day.  Half of the half day’s that I see are for staff development and the other half are for parent teach conferences, so instead of having them after school hours when most parents can make it without taking time off work, they have it during school hours taking study time away from the children and money away from their household.

At the same time we wonder why more and more children are troubled, why more and more children have issues and why more and more are becoming increasingly violent.  Now holding with the decline of accountability I say it is that they are not held accountable no one is teaching them integrity no one is teaching them core values, they are floundering, left to their own to find their way without anyone looking out for them because their parents are too busy working trying to put food on the table, clothes on their backs, and shoes on their feet to say nothing of shelter and electricity, all of which cost more every year.  No it is not the guns, or the bombs, or the misguided children it is society that is to blame for the increase in violence.  It is society that accepts it and lets the fear run through it.  It is society that cowers in fear and no longer stands proud with courage, how far the mighty Americans have fallen.

I was talking with someone one day about these issues and he said that more households work and slave away because they want two cars, and while I am sure many think having a car a privilege  to many families they would not be able to go to work if they did not have a care and if they are lucky enough to have a two parent home where both parents work it is likely they need both cars.  This person did however make a valid point, more and more Americans are greedy, they want the newest electronics, the newest gadgets, even my 8 year old girl has been asking for a phone and an iPad.  We don’t need these things and we can certainly live without them and many families have to live without them.  Should they?  I know for certain my 8 year old does not need them, but some newer gadgets like e-readers could be beneficial and anything used for learning should be considered less and luxury and more a necessity.  All of that aside, the fact remains there are more and more single family house holds that don’t have the option of a second income, and many are living in the lower to lower middle class income bracket, congratulations on top of being a single parent, you must now deal with low income, and increased child care because once a week your child will be out of school.

I am under the impression the reason we have accelerated our math and English programs is to keep up with the rest of the world, America, it seems, has gotten dumber.  More and more countries are passing us by while we flounder around.  Those of us who do want to get an education do so at a great risk, and at great debt.  If the government is truly concerned perhaps they should make college more affordable, in fact shouldn’t they make if free, if nothing else then by way of a tax credit for all that you have paid.  Instead we earn tens sometimes hundreds of thousands to become educated, to show the world there are some of us left in America that care to learn indeed even love to learn.  In fact so willing are we to learn that we have accumulated this massive mound of debt that makes it hard to breathe when we consider the difficulty with which we are meet in the job market, when we consider how little we make in comparison to how much we owe, and how much these other companies and indeed even the government make off our plight.  Education should not cost use nearly as much monetarily but more importantly it should not cost us our health which surly pays the price from the stress if not from the long hours working to pay off a debt that seems insurmountable.

In the end it looks as though our system for educating America is broken, our society is broken, our integrity is hanging by a thread if not already lost or severed and our family values have declined so far that I am afraid they will vanish completely.  

About the Officer Who Killed an Injured Girl's Father

Based on limited information of opposing articles I would like to take a moment to offer my thoughts on this issue that is making it's round through Facebook.  

Sun-Times Metro News

Oh where do I start.  This is a tragedy, and sadly one that could have been avoided in several stages.  As a parent I understand the fury that must have been present but I know in my case concern for my child would have come first and getting her to a hospital would have been my priority.  The original link that I came across (FreePatriot) it sounds like he deliberately ran her over, when the reporter states she ran in front of him.  Further the Sun-Times reports that "a girl suddenly dart(ed) into the street" As a biker I understand that when a child runs in front of you all you can do is dump the bike, so he willingly dumped his bike and subjected himself to hitting the pavement and sustain injuries to try and avoid a child who ran in front of him. 

Onto the next issue of why she was running into the road, she wasn't holding the 18 year old's hand whom she was with, she didn't look both ways.  As a parent I have my kids hold my hands and when I cannot I stand in the road while they cross to be sure they are safe.  I asked my 8 & 9 year old who was to blame for this crash and they both said the little girl is to blame.  They are not entirely correct, while I applaud my children for knowing that they should not run out into the road, it was not the little girls fault.  It was the parents who never taught her that she needed to hold a hand, it was the cousin who didn't hold her hand, she is a 4 year old, someone should have taught her.  

No according to the FreePatriot article, it would seem that the officer shot the father for no reason, when according to the Sun-Times Metro News "Middleton (the father) struck the officer in the face, knocked him to the ground and continued to hit him, according to Shapiro. Passley (the cousin) allegedly joined in and kicked the officer, Shapiro said. The officer then drew his gun and shot Middleton once. “He was about to lose consciousness to people beating him,” said Camden, defending the actions of the officer, who works in a West Side police district. “He fired in defense of his life.” So the officer shot in self-defense, he was on the ground, being beat, and losing consciousness, after ditching his bike and hitting the pavement in an effort to avoid a 4 year old girl who didn't know any better than to run across the road.  According to the Sun-Times Metro News the officer is expected to recover from his injuries but was left with contusions to his head and body from the attack and a possible broken leg and broken shoulder from the crash, Camden said."  The little girl "suffered contusions and abrasions and was hospitalized overnight for observation."  

So let me break this down for you if I can;

1. If the little girl had been taught not to run into the street it could have been avoided, but she is a child so let’s say she forgot as children sometimes do.
2. The person she was walking with could have grabbed her, when that didn't happen the rider dropped his bike and although she was hurt she was alive (a point I feel to be important since had he not she would have substantially less chance at survival). 
3. At that stage the father could have focused on his injured daughter instead of the biker.  He could have focused his fear and concern to calling the police and an ambulance and attending to his little girl. 
4. As a parent his rage and concern of his child could have made him temporarily insane and so he attacked the officer.  At this point a couple other things could have happened. 
1. The cousin could have tried to keep the piece instead of jumping in.
2. The rest of the onlookers could have tried to keep the men apart.

However, neither of those things happened.  and so the officer had two choices he could have let them beat him unconscious and beyond or he could have defended himself.  Now in defending himself he could have wounded the man, however, with the loss of control over the situation and two people beating on him while he was on the ground and losing consciousness it is possible that his training kicked in and he reacted.  I suspect if he had wounded him to stop him there would have been publicity and a law suit either way, because it couldn't possibly be the fault of anyone else (sarcasm), it couldn't possibly have been an accident, which is defined by Merriam Webster as : a sudden event (such as a crash) that is not planned or intended and that causes damage or injury or : an event that is not planned or intended : an event that occurs by chance.  What I do know is this is not the fault of the officer, or the 4 year old girl.  It is the fault of the parents not teaching their child to run in the street, the cousin for not being a responsible adult and the father for not controlling his temper and putting personal vengeance over the welfare of his daughter and that is to say nothing of his automatic assignment of blame to the man who laid down his bike in an attempt not to harm his daughter and willingly putting himself in danger.  

On Guns & Gun Control

Let’s talk about guns.  This controversial topic always gets people riled up, and by nature any stance I take will be argued by the proverbial “other side”.  That being said I have quite a few issue to address.  The very first and most crucial is the claim that banning guns from law abiding citizens is somehow going to make the world a safer place, it seems the people that claim this take it on faith that the criminal element will be turning theirs in.  Now, you don’t have to be all that educated to see the problem with this logic.  By banning guns from the law abiding citizens of the United States of America you are unarming them and not the criminals, just in case you miss the point,  the criminals will be armed and society will not.  What could possibly go wrong?  Everyone seems to have heard the phrase “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people” I would like to reiterate this.  A gun by itself is not the danger, in fact, it can’t do anything by itself, the person holding it can. 

Now there are many people who will argue that there needs to be more background checks, more security, more regulation, more rules.  No doubt these are the same types of people that likely don’t care about the constant infringement on their right to privacy, they don’t care if they are monitored in everything they do.  Or perhaps they do care, but because it wouldn’t personally affect them I this particular issue they are willing to overlook it.  Here is my opportunity to reiterate one of my favorite quotes, “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety”- Ben Franklin.   

Now some of you are cheering in your seats, some are scratching their heads, and others are at this moment thinking up what they would consider to be clever retorts.  However, there is much more to this issue. 

I will try not to go on a tangent about the bias of the media here, but can someone explain how every single tragedy involving a gun, legally obtained or not, ends up in the news yet the self-defense stories and others that would take away this vilified image are not?  My guess, what many fail to realize is that the media is politically motivated and right now your Politian’s want to disarm you. They want to disarm you of your weapons and in some ways I think think they want to disarm you of free-thinking. 

Now again some will agree and others will be thinking of arguments, one of which is likely the hot topic in the news now about the shooting in Washington D.C.  According to the Washington post, “Alexis was armed with an assault rifle and a handgun, two law enforcement officials said. One said he also had a shotgun. One official said all the weapons have not been accounted for.  According to ABC News "What the 1986 Firearms Owners' Protection Act did was it made it more convenient for gun buyers," said Kristen Rand, the legislative director at the Violence Policy Center. "That's the road we've been on for a while: The convenience of gun owner always seems to trump the right of victims not to be shot." Some of you are nodding your head right now in agreement, but I cannot agree with this statement. The problem is not, upholding the American peoples right to bear arms, no, the problem is with society.  You might be confused right now if you agreed with Kristen but many of a similar mindset to mine already know where I am going with this.  Accountability. 

The problem is not with the guns, the problem is we live in a society where people are not held accountable, the consequences of any potential actions are not real. There is no fear to act improperly because we have set the precedent that someone or something else is to blame.  If a man shot and killed someone I loved (which has happened) I would not want to overhaul gun laws, I would want that man brought to justice.  I would want that person to pay.  Moreover, I have experienced crime, my own loved ones have been attacked viciously, one was stabbed repeatedly, I didn’t demand something be done about knifes, I wanted those two men brought to justice.  So no I do not agree with Kristen Rand in fact I think in many cases of mass shootings, if others were armed casualties would be minimized. 

Now, some are working on a witty reply and others are happy that someone finally said what they were thinking.  Let me continue on to the concern of terrorism.  I really only have one thing to say.  If you start to live in fear, you have effectively let the terrorist win. Our world is changing and it has become increasingly violent, partially because of decline of accountability and integrity. 

I’m not unwilling to concede to some exceptions, but I do not agree with a ban.  Instead I would require the same process that we have for handguns for these so called “assault rifles.” I reiterate that law abiding citizens have the constitutional right to bear arms and the majority of gun owners is not in danger of committing mass murder.  In fact there have been cases of mass murder not involving guns, some were religious groups that used poison.  We don’t base all religious groups on these few, so why hold all gun owners to the few that have committed crimes, in fact I believe many crimes committed were not from legal gun owners.

I could write much more on this topic and no doubt there are quite a few of you looking to reply, but I will wrap this up.  The bottom line is we should not disarm law abiding citizens of America because there are bad people in the world.  The fact of the matter is there will always be bad people, in fact there will be criminals, and criminals and crazy people are going to get their hands on guns or home-made bombs if that is what they want.  If more law abiding citizens were armed there is a better chance they could prevent the bad people from having too many casualties.  Let me be clear, I am not talking about being a vigilantly, let the police do their job, but in certain situations if no police are present and you are in eminent danger you have the right to act. It is time we hold society and individual accountable for their own actions, it is time to stop blaming the guns, the poor childhood, or the myriad of psychological disorders. It is time to be accountable.

Are Our Elementary Schools A Joke?

I found myself with two children one day, one in second grade and one in third grade, I was aware that they came from a difficult school district, and that the one in third grade had struggled through second grade and need help.  I did not know the extent of the help.  So we get everyone enrolled in school and my second grader, she does great, most of her grades are 3 & 4 (don’t even get me started on this number thing), but my third grader was behind form the start.  The school notified me of his difficulty, so I put him in an after school math program, his teacher, counselors and myself were involved.  We worked with him or so I am told through the school year trying to help him get up to speed while introducing course work, by the end of the year these New York State tests determined him to be at a second grade level. 

The school was going to push him right up to 4^th grade when I asked about summer school.  So here we are enrolled in summer school his last resort before I request he be held back.  Now let’s discuss summer school, it’s 3 hours, yes just 3 hours and so far he hasn’t learned a thing, they are on multiplication and division and he is still struggling with adding and subtracting.  So he comes home and I teach him, which begs the question why I send him to school if I am the one that has to teach him anyway. 

So he goes to school for three hours, which means we get up get ready and hope the bus isn’t early as it was today, and we don’t have to make a mad dash to the school.  There is a schedule, but apparently it is okay to ignore the schedule if you are early, if you are early and no one is there just keep going right?  That is what the bus does, so we as parents go out ten-twenty  minutes early for pick up and drop off because half the time we have no idea what to expect, way to set an example!  At least our kids are learning how to be early for an appointment. 

I digress, back to the school, so he goes to the school and they make tie-dyed T-shirts and do whatever else the first week, come the second week I still see no homework sent home.  He says he hasn’t really learned much since starting, and although it is only week two shouldn’t he have ironed out some of his deficiencies?  So here I am teaching my boy how to add and subtract (and he is in 3^rd grade!) because I have lost all faith that the school is teaching him anything.  I ordered the text books, I took time from my schedule, and I sat down and gave him assignments and assessed his learning myself.  Why am I sending him to school again?  So he can socialize, okay that is important, but what is he learning about socializing? He is learning what his peers teach, he is learning the good that bad and the in between, so I teach him tolerance and I teach him how to defend himself, and how to think for himself, but the school does not teach him that I do.  So I am teaching him social skills and I have to teach him core content, then why am I sending my kid to a school?  Why not home school him?  Well because I am a single parent household and society puts little value on family anymore.  Our society has advanced in some ways and degraded in others.  It would be great to homeschool my kids, but sadly society has made it difficult to survive on a dual income let alone a single income, and as a single parent I have to work harder to provide for my family.  It is getting hard not to turn this into a societal blog, but I will refrain.  

Some children don't want to do the work, if they don't and you push them through you are teaching them they don't have to work to progress, that is not a message I would choose to send.  Some children have "disorders" (putting my personal feelings aside) if this is truly the case they need special assistance and a solid foundation not to be left behind. The bottom line is our education system with its ”no kid left behind” policy is a joke, it’s a wonderful concept to leave no child behind, but if you are just pushing a child through when they haven’t the proper foundation, you are failing them in an even bigger way.  What happens to a house without the proper foundation?  It crumbles.

The Zimmerman Trayvon Debacle

What a world we live in.  I am not even sure where to start, as this is a blog I feel I can just dive right in, but let me start with a few side notes and disclaimers.   First I am not a lawyer, I was not in the court room, and all information I have obtained (like most others) has been third party.  I don’t necessarily trust the opinions and information gained through our politicians or media.  I’m frustrated at the ignorance, lack of compassion and intolerance that our society seems to find acceptable.

The only people that know what happened that night are George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin, since only one of them remains with us we have one side of the story. One perspective.  Regardless of how objective George Zimmerman may be, his story will always be incomplete.  He cannot know, as we cannot know what Trayvon Martin was thinking, how he felt, why he reacted the way he did, or if his perception of George Zimmerman was that of a serious threat.   We only have one side of the story and we are left to determine the truth, with the poison of hatred and politics polluting the water.

That being said, let’s go back to the beginning.  Trayvon Martin was walking in a neighborhood, George Zimmerman was acting as neighborhood watch.  George saw an unfamiliar person walking through a neighborhood.  It has been said there were a rash of break in’s in this neighborhood, is this relevant or not, we will discuss.  Here is where it goes sideways, George (possibly more suspicious of any outsider due to increased break in’s) was alarmed at person he did not recognize.  This person was wearing a hoody, it’s possible he didn’t see the person or the race of the person in the hoody, it is possible that no one in the neighborhood goes out walking with a hoody on.  There are a ton of possibilities.  A large possibility is that George approached this man/boy in the belief he could talk to this person, it is a large possibility that he had no expectations of a fight at all.  That is one side of the story to this point.  What is largely known (and again 3^rd and 4^th party removed) is that George Zimmerman  (ignoring the suggestion not to approach the stranger) got out of his car and approached Trayvon Martin.  It is unclear to me how approaching this person escalated into a fight, and it is irrelevant in a way, let me tell you why.  It did escalate, out of control to the point that Trayvon was beating George, repeatedly slamming his head into the concrete.  There is no good reason for this extreme, indeed it need not even come to blows, but the fact that it did come to such extreme blows, meant that George was afraid for his life and he reacted by shooting, whom he thought was a man, that was beating is head in.  Why did it come to blows, what circumstances would be acceptable for it to come to blows?  There really are not any, no matter what someone says to you, there is always the choice to walk away, and like I tell my kids, people can say anything they like, and you may not like it, and you may not feel it is true, but words are no reason to strike someone.

George Zimmerman made bad decisions, he had poor judgment, it is possible he thought he was doing something good, it is possible he thought he could handle things peacefully, but he did not.  Trayvon may or may not have made equally bad decisions, it is difficult for me to say because he is not here to be heard, but if in fact, he did repeatedly slam George’s head in the ground that was a bad decision.  What upsets me, and what I don’t understand is why this came to such desperate acts, why couldn’t George Zimmerman ask this person where they were going, who they were staying with, and not out of a place of suspicion but out of a place of compassion.  Why couldn’t George ask Trayvon if he needed a lift to where he was staying.  Why couldn’t Trayovn have pointed out that he was visiting and ask for a lift, or perhaps he enjoyed his walk and he could express that.  Instead we are teaching people and cultivating a society of fear and out of this fear people react unpredictably and with anger and rage. 

Let’s get to the verdict and the aftermath.  The jury made their decision they were not all convinced without reasonable doubt of George Zimmerman’s guilt, the legal processes were followed, the verdict was found.  Many a person has disagreed with court decisions that were not in their favor but the process was followed, a process put in place to protect the innocent.  I’ve read a great deal of the aftermath of this verdict and I am appalled.  Many are protesting and protests have turned violent, death threats have been issued not only against George Zimmerman but also against random white people, or Hispanics.  Is this the way?  Do people really believe this is how we should behave?  Someone mentioned on a Facebook post that the law was followed and people did not march on the streets when O.J. Simpson was acquitted, and I find this an interesting point if it were to be a racial issue we would have a comparison, but this is not really a racial issue, and if it was I would insist that the media get the race right, he is Hispanic, not just white, but race should not matter.  Am I naive to think that we should be evolved enough not to judge someone by color, not to assume that every issue between different races is a racial issue? But I am not interested in making this about race, I am more interested in making a point about compassion and the lack of compassion in society.  I am more interested in making a point about people resorting to violence before finding a peaceable solution. 

It is normal for the family of Trayvon to feel as they do, they suffered a great loss, and they will have a great many emotions, but for others to take to the street in Trayvon's name, commit acts of violence, burn flags, and make threats there is no good reason for that. The law was followed, the verdict was reached, it was not a mistrial. George Zimmerman acted in self defense according to the law.    

I am afraid that society is degrading, we live in a world where we are allowing our freedoms to be taken from us, we are poisoned by our media and politicians who tell us what they want us to hear, and we are in denial about a great many things.  Worst of all we will fight each other more readily than we will show compassion.  We challenge the court system when it suits us, we use it to our advantage when it suits us, we burn our own flag, do we have any values left.  Is there integrity left in America?  Are we doomed to hate? Why is hate the first emotion? Why can people not find more compassion in their heart? 

Finding America

America, land of the free, home of the brave, or is it?  Certainly, we enjoy more freedoms than many other countries this may be true, it may even be said that we are founded on the concepts of freedom, so why would we allow them to be taken away from us?  Like many of the rare books in libraries our liberty is being eroded in a slow burn, so slow many acquiesce without realizing the full impact of their docile and increasingly dependent ways.  Where is the fighting spirit and independent nature we once had, how far have we fallen from what we once believed, under the belief that we are making things better?

The resistance to change is natural, so it should be no surprise that people still want to believe our media produces the truth, however, they have fallen prey to corporate and political motives, no longer the unbiased truth seeking hero’s and heroine’s they once were.  Instead they feed us lies and half-truths designed to facilitate the motives of their shareholders and political alignments.  Our hero’s have fallen and we have been left to seek out the truth ourselves, sifting through the world wide web, researching and utilizing our life experience to find as close to the truth as we can. Yet when we find our truths do we act?

Even if we could discern the truth of a matter, would we act?  There have been a great many high profile events recently such as, the Boston Marathon Bombing, the Sandyhook shootings, and the Movie theatre shooting that have been plastered and debated with great rigor.  Some using the misfortunes to wrestle more liberties away from law abiding citizens, others claiming conspiracy, and others who have no idea what to believe.  Recently, it seems some government officials are capitalizing on tragedy to further their own agenda, not shocking, but what is shocking is the general acquiescence of the American public. 

During the search for the second suspect involved in the Boston Marathon Bombing officials searched the homes of and vehicles of law abiding citizens.  Videos show families being marched out of their house with their hands on their heads as if they were criminals, several sources within a 5 mile radius have confirmed that some of these citizens felt they had no choice.  On one hand I suppose the bomber could have held a family hostage so searching property may have necessary, on the other hand as a law abiding citizen I would not under any circumstances appreciate being marched out of my house with my hands on my head like a criminal.  Likewise, with the sudden flare up in gun control debates following Sandyhook, is absurd.

 

It’s corporal punishment for America, where the general population will now suffer for the actions of a few.  Where the government cajoles and manipulates people into thinking that striping away more liberties is the only way to create more safety.  America, where we are sinking lower in our education and blindly following media and political agendas.  Where we no longer stop to think for ourselves, and have forgotten how to dig down and fight for what we once believed in! 

Is it really okay to detain a person and give them absolutely no rights?  Is that what we stand for?  Is it okay for the American people to be judge, jury, and executioner?  Regardless of the heinous act committed, shouldn’t due process be afforded.  No doubt, many of my readers are shaking their head in disbelief at my insistence that we treat even Dzhokhar Tsarnaev with fairness and equality.  Yet, isn’t that what we are supposed to be about?  I teach my children tolerance, I teach them love, and after Sandyhook I taught them preservation techniques to the best of my ability, but I did not teach them to judge, I did not teach them hate.  There is a legal system designed to uphold the law and punish criminals, there should not be a way to circumvent that system, to exile a person without due process, we are not a dictatorship yet! 

I do not understand why some of these people have done what they do, but I know some were mentally ill, others misguided, some filled with hate, some dissatisfied with our government and longing to start a revolution and make a change, whatever their motives, they should still be afforded due process.  Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was young and impressionable he was 19, I’ve not yet heard his story, nor do I have proof of his level of involvement but I do know that Unabomber Ted >Kaczynski had a much longer reign of terror and even he was allowed due process, and serves life in prison, and I do know it is not my place to judge.

Are people really so foolish that they believe taking weapons out of the hands of law abiding citizens is the answer, do they really believe that the drug dealers and the criminals, the terrorists and the crazies will give up their weapons and turn in their illegal weapons?  Think about it for a moment.  There is an entire town in Georgia that mandates every head of household own a gun and the crime rate dropped!  Criminals target easy prey, they don’t want to work that hard, if they know a town is armed they are less likely to go into that town with malicious intent. 

Is it really so hard for people to see that they can no longer trust the media, particularly since the media had repeatedly gotten their stories wrong and had to apologize! It is so easy to blame someone else, anyone else, and that is what America is becoming, America the unaccountable.  It is time to soul search America, it is time to look within yourself, find those faults and flaws and own them.  Stop pointing to other people and other countries and look to yourself, take a good long look and become accountable again, become liberating again, find that fighting spirit, the independent nature, that hard worker who will not fail because he has spirit.  Don’t sacrifice yourselves and your liberty for these false senses of security, secure yourself and your household, help your neighbors secure theirs if you must, be united, be the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 

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