Being the Change I Wish to See

Imagine (by John Lennon)

The Staten Island PS 22 Chorus did a fabulous performance, and I am again reminded of the vital importance of the educational value of music and other non-core activities in school. The arts fill in the humanity of the core curriculum kids must learn. Without arts and humanities, they have no context or meaning for all the facts they are taught.

Imagine has always been one of my favorite songs, and I believe the ideas expressed are achievable. I hope it comes to pass sooner rather than later.

I believe the people taking to the streets around the world today to peacefully protest dictatorial governments to the large and growing economic inequality gap between the richest 1% of the population and everyone else has finally started the right conversation.

In the U.S., protesters turned the question of why are the poor so poor into why are the rich so rich? How did that happen? The vast majority of us work very hard at our jobs and we don’t get rich. Why not? Those are better questions.

After the last 30 years of trickle-down economics (the economics of greed), the only thing that trickled down is growing economic stress on the middle class, and the middle class shrinking into poverty with stagnant income as wealth trickles up.

It’s become a crime to be poor in this world. What did the poor ever do to anyone to attract such hatred and wrath? Perhaps remind the non-philanthropic mega-rich just how rich they are and how unfair and unjust that is? Do they see how unsustainable the current condition of our planet and its inhabitants has become?

Could greed be educated out of, or at least tempered significantly, in greed-prone people with strong, mandatory programs in the arts and humanities? (By mandatory, I mean students have to pick at least one thing they like, and they can change their minds if their first choice doesn’t work for them).

Could teaching 4th graders to explore their musical and artistic talents give them something far deeper and more meaningful than any amount of money? Could teaching literature and a love of reading make kids more aware and empathetic of the human condition? Could kids who are talented in writing, painting, drawing, singing, dancing, etc., use their gifts to better the world? Yes.

Perhaps the greedy are greedy because they have nothing to fill some void within them. No amount of money can produce the feeling of sheer ecstasy at playing a piece of music beautifully, or nailing a performance on stage. Nothing beats the deep sense of accomplishment of writing or painting a masterpiece, or performing a character in a play with perfection. All these examples are about deep love, and it is intangible. Money can’t buy the love the arts directly feed our souls.

We still need the laws back that prevent the greedy from chewing up the world and spitting it into oblivion, but putting the arts back in schools might help, too.

Technorati Tags: arts and humanities, Education, Education reform ideas, greed, peace, Poverty, Social Change, the 99%, top 1%

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Finally, the discriminatory policy that prevents gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and possibly transgendered Americans from serving our country openly in the military was repealed by the Senate today. The House of Representatives passed the repeal bill earlier this week.

Cloture was approved by a margin of 63 yea to 33 nay votes, and the bill immediately advanced. Republicans ended the debate period after a couple of hours (instead of the maximum 30 hours they could have used) and the Senate voted on the final bill. The vote was 65 yea to 31 nay, and DADT is now repealed by a margin of 14 more votes than were required (after the cloture vote succeeded, only 51 votes were needed for repeal).

The President is expected to sign the bill into law early this week.

This is a huge victory for President Obama, a victory that was difficult and for which he spent a large amount of political capital. The Democratic and Progressive base has been quite upset with President Obama lately, especially over his signature on extending all of the Bush tax cuts yesterday. It’s amazing that about 24 hours later he was able to win a big victory and keep one of his most important campaign promises: getting DADT repealed in 2010 using the legislative process.

If repeal had not happened in the Legislative Branch, federal courts, which have already begun ruling that this law is unconstitutional, would have had to take it all the way to the Supreme Court. I’m not sure what would have happened with that process. If Justice Elena Kagan recused herself from the case, repeal of the law would likely have failed because the final vote would have been 4-4, and in that case the 4th vote against repeal would have decided the issue. If Justice Kagan did not have to recuse herself, repeal would have passed. The final vote would have been 5-4 for repeal.

I’m extremely happy that repeal took place in the Legislature where the policy was codified in the first place. Now there is no doubt that repeal is final and that no one can accuse the court of legislating from the bench.

This is a great day for our LGBT military members, for all LGBT Americans, and for Americans as a whole. Civil rights and justice have been upheld by law instead of judicial enforcement of the U.S. Constitution. For once, public opinion was ahead of both the courts and the law on such an important civil rights issue. In so many cases in the past, it has taken the Supreme Court to grant Constitutionally guaranteed civil rights, but not this time.

This vote restored my faith that America can be great and we can do great things. I was truly beginning to believe we weren’t capable of greatness anymore.

We can bask in today’s victory, but we must return to work on LGBT civil rights on Monday. DOMA still has to be repealed, and equal marriage rights and work-place rights still do not belong to all LGBT Americans.

Technorati Tags: Civil Rights and Justice, DADT, DADT repealed, don't ask don't tell policy, gay lesbian bisexual transgender in the military, LGBT civil rights, U.S. military

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