Fear of a Black President

To me it should be Education. Freeing up monies to fund school lunch programs, after-school programs, making sure that every school has the equipment (computers, books, etc.) it needs to run properly. Putting the focus on education, getting music and art and physical ed back into the schools and producing well-rounded, healthy individuals and not just fat little robots repeating words and numbers with no idea of what they mean or how they relate to one another.

yes more governmental programs where liberal thoughts get pounded into their poor little heads.

whatever...

this WAS an interesting thread..

and it can be interesting again. just ignore the riffraff.
(hope you don't mean me.)

cjh, You're probably forgetful, because when we were children, we had all the necessary scholastic and craft classes to choose from. We were introduced to music early in our childhood; flute, the "potato" and other simple musical instruments were offered.

Even though we grew up in the "ghetto" of Sacramento, many of my contemporaries ended up being professionals, and my younger brother is even a politician in Sacramento.

absolutely not

I'm talking about the new administration leveling the playing field, once and for all, for all children in the public school system. Suburban schools, inner city schools, all of them. If there are state of the art computer labs in the suburban schools, the same equipment should be in the inner city schools.
With means to protect the equipment if necessary.

I agree.
I never EVER understood how the education system could go 'unfunded' while cities , I will use austin as an example, but while cities could constantly pop up with stupid crap like 3 million dollar pedestrian bridges..


There is on here in Austin..
Because people dont know how to cross the street.
that three million could have gone to the several dozen schools with low test scores and the above average amount of poor families..

America has the money.
It is just spent keeping people cushioned and spoiled..

It seems most politicians lose their common sense the longer they stay in office. Here in San Jose (Santa Clara County), they want to spend more to add 20 more police officers and cut education and health care.

Everything they do is ass-backwards. If they don't invest in our children and health care now, it doesn't matter that we're spending 15 million dollars more for police officers.

I think most of us cannot comprehend how different black people are
perceived and treated in situations that are quite normal to us (meaning
whites).

A routine traffic job does create anxiety in all of us, but the treatment
a white man receives from an officer will be quite different than a black
man receives, and we all have seen some of the mishandling.
Just the other day I saw a video on CNN where a black youth in custody was smashed against the wall by a white police officer. That was in Kalamazoo.
You don't hear of this kind of mistreatment given to white youth.

Like eoe, I also think that in neighborhoods where ethnic minorities live, schools are in desperate needs of good teachers and good programs. The better educated the kids are, the greater their chances to succeed in life.

On a side note: my 12 year old daughter has a new friend who came over to the house last Saturday. When I opened the door, I see a black
girl standing there and I was surprised, since my daughter had not mentioned at all that her friend is black. She sees her friend as someone
she likes to spend time with, and couldn't care less about the color of
her skin. It never occurred to her to mention this to me, as she is completely oblivious to that, and I like to keep it that way, color doesn't
matter.

Hopefully one day, we all can see the person before we see the color
of their skin.

I thought bully pulpit as well...but can't think of any programs that would exclusively benefit blacks---as snood suggested.

Thinking of eoe's post--

Education is important to all Americans. Free lunches and head start programs and aftercare programs are being funded out the wazoo. Leveling the playing field is the motto for Teach For America--a great program that sends impeccably qualified graduates to teach in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods.

These things are a reality.

I guess snood will rethink or withdraw his affirmative answer that he thinks Obama will somehow favor the segment of Americans who are black with exclusive policies/programs...

These are ECONOMIC issues....not black issues.

Because it isn't reported by the media who is looking to start a race riot. Kalamazoo has its share of problems, it also has "the promise". When black youth take advantage of that, if ever, the problems will certainly decrease.

Now I dont remember who said it.. but it was a great point.

You can fund schools with in an inch of exploding with money.
You can create as many grants as there are racial combinations
You can put a new computer every six months in class rooms and have teachers who excel at what they do


but... PEOPLE.. all the way down to the elementary school children.. PEOPLE have got to want to change.
PEOPLE have to understand that using those tools will better their life.

If PEOPLE dont get that, what does all that funding do?

I agree. It's time for people to stand up and honestly determine each and everyone's part in the problems of this country. None of it is just one person's fault or one race's fault or one agency's fault. Everybody can take a piece of that blame pie.
But now we're talking responsibility. And that's usually where it all begins to fall apart.

I have done my share, eoe, to make this country great, so I am not willing to take responsibility for its demise.

I have to draw the line. Sorry.

having a vasectomy is just the beginning gus..

but thanks for taking one for the team

good one.