oldtimeplayer
Member since Dec 11, 2011
Recent Comments
Re: “The Comparison of Detroit and Memphis, Again”
It is ironic that someone would equate using the democratic process with bullying! When the majority vote for something and it passes, that is not bullying, but, rather the American way. remember, "government of the people, by the people and for the people"?
I guess the passage of the voter id law, gun carry on employers parking lots, the msd laws were a form of bullying by the state, right? Let us face it, one cannot have it both ways. I didn't like those laws, however, I never considered it bullying. I thought that it was the majority of the General Assembly working it's will in a democratic way. Was I wrong?
Tennessee is not ruled by referendums. They have no power to enact laws or to repeal them. Only the General Assembly can do that. So, de-annexation groups of individual citizens will not work. The city of Memphis has already crossed the Rubicon on annexations, they will not turn back. If those citizens that dislike being annexed move, taxes will be paid by someone on the homes they left behind. Even in Foreclosure, the lienholder will still have to pay the taxes, so there is no lost there. If one abandon a paid for home, the city will get it and sell it for next to nothing and it will be bought up in less than a heartbeat. The pain for any of these actions will be, mostly borne by the one who does it. If the General Assembly try to change the annexation laws, Memphis will move to do what it did the last time it was proposed; immediately move to annex ther remaining arrears in it's now, annexation reserve. Look out Fisherville and Eads (Greys Creek)
So, ladies and gentlemen of those annexed areas, put on your big girl and big boy panties and drawers and suck it up.
Re: “Two Cheers for the Unified School Board”
GroveReb84
You might as well let that value thing v poverty rest. You are looking at it through your privileged, middle class eyes.
Poverty has a direct effect on values. Poverty teaches one simple lesson, that lesson is daily survival.
Money has never been thrown at the problem. That problem is equality in hiring and promotions. The problem is having access to health care. The problem is not having and/or enforcing laws on equality in pay or instituting a higher minimum wage or repealing the right to work laws.
Grove, I am not going to demean myself going any further with you on something that you just can't comprehend. So, goodnight!
Re: “Two Cheers for the Unified School Board”
ArlingtonPop
I like to pin you down so that you will admit to the truth.
I give references to what I post whether it agrees with my thinking or not. I don't play favorites.
I have said that this nation has been struggling with the education of urban impoverished kids for many years. That is why these schemes like charters and state takeovers don't work. They have been tried before. The problem is with the mindset of the families. These families have no long term thinking, let alone planning. They live in the now for their lives and their mothers and fathers lives and even back further has been about daily survival. Your family have probably never experienced that so it is hard for you to understand.
It is too simplistic to say the key to the door is in their hands. They have no idea of what you are talking about. That is why it takes years for improvement to be seen once the cycle of poverty is successfully addressed. It seems to them that every time they try to progress, "the man" throws a wrench into it. Some of it is overt and some of it is subliminal. When desegregation was being pushed, it was the blacks that did all of the sacrificing. It was there schools closed down and their children bused to white schools. This sent an unmistakable message to blacks that their schools were not good enough and that their children were not good enough for whites to be bused to them. The subliminal message was that black children were inferior. Once bused to white schools, blacks were further segregated by being put into special classes while whites continued in regular classes. Btw, this happens even today. Now, under this conservative U. S. Supreme Court majority, it is happening all over again. Whites all over the nation, particularly in the south are breaking away from integrated schools and forming segregated msds. Shelby County is, by far, not the only place it is happening. That reinforces the message that blacks are inferior and should not share the same stage as whites in an equal manner.
I can understand why people get upset at my posts for it is hard to accept the truth, especially when you have never experienced the backhand of poverty and injustice at the same time. Solutions to problems that seem practical is just the opposite to a people that have been mired in the muck and mire of prejudice, poverty, injustice, indifference and diadactic disdain. An example of what I am saying is the practical matter of the school budget. Cuts had to be made. Outsourcing made sense in a practical way, however, when coupled with the past and even present treatment of blacks, it, to them was just another way of depriving blacks of a decent living with benefits. Yes, because of your privileged status, you understand it, but, I guarantee you that impoverished blacks don't. Being practical to the black custodial workers would have been a cut in pay, more percent of their health care cost required, a reduction in pension or even going to a 401K. That could have been done and still achieved the desired results. But no, to them, it seems as though you pulled the rug completely out from under them. The irony of all of this is that you and I will pay more taxes to supplant the loss of wages and benefits that these workers used to have, food stamps, Medicaid, housing subsidies, etc. In essence, the short and long run, you have not saved anything.
Yes, a lot of what you (not personally) are doing is only making things worse. You still refuse to understand that teachers need training in how to teach these students. You can't say that this teacher is good enough for my child, he/she should be good enough for those kids. That too is too simplistic. Numerous studies have shown that this way of thinking is wrong.
AP, from time to time, I will refer you to more articles and/or studies that buttress my way of thinking.
Re: “Two Cheers for the Unified School Board”
GroveReb84
I have the references to back me up. I have seen nothing from you but your thoughts. So far I have only used a few references whereas you have used none. There are plenty more references and/or studies that I can direct you too.
All you and others do, Grove, is make assumptions and excuses with no research or studies to back you up.
As studies will show, generations of poverty and injustice cannot be fixed in a few years. Once the poverty and injustice is fixed, it takes years to come up to par, with each successive year better than the prior.
Re: “Two Cheers for the Unified School Board”
ArlingtopPop
You seem to think that I am obsessed with race when it comes to this school situation. It is not an obsession, but a reality of what it is.
Read:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-garlan…
The Power of White Privilege in Racially Mixed Schools
http://acadenic.udayton.edu/race/04needs/e…
Then, here is some more on state takeovers:
http://educationnext.org/the-turnaround-fa…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer…
Re: “Benghazi Syndrome”
John Smith
I wouldn't too much be worried by what Fox News rave about. In the scheme of things, their viewership is rather small as is other cable news sources, MSNBC and CNN. The vast public outside of the beltway are not the least bit focused on Benghazi, the IRS or other so-called scandals. They are too busy worrying about the economy, jobs, healthcare, education, etc. Look at it this way, if Fox News were that powerful, Obama would never have been president and the senate would be majority gop.
The fact remains that the late Ambassador Stevens was offered enhanced security (18 man special forces team) as added personal security, he refused it. The fact remains that Stevens, as an expert on the ground, did not have to leave the security of the official embassy (Tripoli) to travel hundreds of miles to a consulate in Benghazi.
The IRS scandal, well, the IRS hires over 20,000 workers. It is no way possible that any president could monitor their activities. Hell, the director could not even do it. No large company director can be on top of everything that goes on in his organization.
The American people, as a whole realizes this. So, let Fox News blow their horn as loud as it wants to, only a small sliver of the population is listening.
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Re: “Two Cheers for the Unified School Board”
ArlingtonPop
I miss-spelled a word that I know you will catch me on. The correct spelling of the word is didactic, not diadactic. the phrase is didactic disdain, made famous by that eloquent speaker, former vice-president, Spiro Theodore Agnew.
I also see that Homersimpson has straightened you out on a few things that I posted. Maybe now you won't be so quick to try and use standardized test as your crutch.