This is an essay I wrote for the PopMatters tribute section on Michael Jackson.
Michael Jackson, Barack Obama, and the Politics of Inspiration
by David Masciotra
July 8, 2009: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/107581-michael-jackson-barack-obama-and-the-politics-of-inspiration
Exaltation as a result of observation, rather than direct participation, happens so rarely that it typically results in theological speculation on divine intervention from those that feel it. One YouTube comment on a Michael Jackson video reads “God wouldn’t put that much talent in a child molester.” Although it is difficult for many people to go that far in their analysis of the King of Pop, it is equally tough to dismiss the overwhelming sense of mystery that emerges when witnessing natural, untrained creative and performative genius on the scale of Michael Jackson.
Elvis Presley started shaking violently and shouting the blues standard “That’s All Right” (his first hit) ecstatically and erratically by himself when the recording devices were shut off in Sun Studios. The rest is history. At the age of 10, Michael Jackson possessed more vocal strength, emotional understanding of melody, and charisma than most performers ever grasp for a single moment during their careers. He was never formally coached.
Stories of unbelievable human triumph like these capture the imaginations of millions of people not only because they are staggeringly brilliant, but also because they reaffirm essential aspects of human dignity. In a paradoxical way, people who watch Michael Jackson moonwalk know they could never emulate that level of greatness, but they also feel as if they may be able to stake claim to their own moment of greatness, perhaps smaller, but no less important in their own lives. After all, Jackson was merely human, and a deeply troubled one at that. His ability to be habitually amazing simultaneously presents a priceless contradiction that expresses both the limits and potential of all those who admired him.
I have never been much of a Michael Jackson fan. I have written a book on Bruce Springsteen, and have been moved to tears at several Neil Young concerts. My musical tastes can be mostly gained from that information. However, I, like most contemporary music listeners, cannot deny the utter genius of Michael Jackson. It is impossible to not be emotionally elevated by “Man in the Mirror” or physically possessed by “Billie Jean” and “The Way You Make Me Feel”. Skeptics of those songs’s sustaining power need to look no further than a dance club filled with twenty-somethings (including myself) who hit the floor in mass whenever the DJ plays a few seconds of a Jackson hit.
Despite my limited enthusiasm for Jackson’s music, I became increasingly shaken by the announcement of his untimely and unfortunate death, and the reality that an odd man whose reputation was tarnished by a series of accusations, was no longer in the living world. It was for this reason that a friend and I took a drive, not far from my home, to Gary, Indiana, to visit the childhood home of Michael Jackson, just a few hours after the sad news reverberated through every media outlet.
The scene was both expected and unnerving: hundreds of people gathered on a tiny lawn in one of the poorest cities in the Midwest—some in tears, and some dancing to “Don’t Stop Til’ You Get Enough” blasting from a boom box. An iPod was inadequate for this community meeting, as people wanted to listen together according to group appreciation, not listen alone according to personal preference. Only a 1980s technological innovation would fit the bill for people’s mourning of a miserable death and celebration of a remarkable life.
While creeping emotions confused me, many other people were already expressing criticism over how, in the moment of Jackson’s death, fans and the press were allowing his musical achievements to overcome his possible moral shortcomings. Unlike Elvis, who was equally talented, equally isolated, and almost equally weird, Jackson was not merely self-destructive. Even though he was never convicted of a crime, it is possible that he harmed other people, including children. One cannot help but wonder how that possibility becomes secondary, far off in the distance, to Jackson’s musical genius when summing up his life.
A flippant answer about degradation of morals or an emotionally illiterate, Alan Bloom-like quip regarding of the “decline of civilization” is not satisfactory. The only resonant approach to this difficult question must wrestle with the spiritual and psychological implications of what happens when the world loses excellence. There is a spiritual value to greatness that cannot be measured, simply because it cannot be precisely understood. Profound excellence, which not only unsettles and uplifts people, but also brings them together around a common cultural reference and shared experience, emphasizes the triumph that is inherent in humanity, and reinforces the beauty and terror of human agency. All people hold the tools of their own deliverance and destruction. Mysterious genius contained by people like Jackson may mystify, but at its best, it also encourages people to utilize those tools by colorfully displaying their potential rewards. It celebrates life at its most basic and meaningful.
This is the very nature of inspiration. Americans suffer from a tragic deficit of inspiration. Its marketplace, business-run culture encourages obsession with a profit-utility ethic and lifestyle that eschews the artistic, spiritual, and communal aspects of living, which are essential for a balanced life. The market-dictated society, with its technologically enhanced pillars of convenience, flashy trends, and gimmickry, also devalues and diminishes anything that strives for cultural and imaginative longevity. America has lost common points of gathering and reference it once had in icons like Sinatra, Elvis, and Jackson. Even if giants are no longer visible, their shadows are still cast wide and deep, and people still yearn for them, along with the inspiration they often bring.
President Obama, as a candidate, tapped into this overwhelming desire for a figure of gigantic ability and charisma. Hillary Clinton was more experienced and had a political platform that was, for the most part, indistinguishable from Obama’s. She was impressive, but Obama was inspirational. He possessed the rare gift to affirm life for his supporters, which the campaign sloganeered as “hope”, and the strange capability to connect people with their sense of exaltation.
Barack Obama is no longer an inspiring candidate, but the chief executive of American power. Broken campaign promises and hesitance to enact the “change” he promised shows that the politics of inspiration only go so far, and that he must be held just as accountable to a standard no different from the one used to judge a President as ungifted and uninspiring as George W. Bush.
Michael Jackson, on the other hand, has already “made the change” he sung about in “Man in the Mirror”. His executive orders of cultural power will be realized for generations to come as evidence that in music and culture, the politics of inspiration is the artist’s most special and rare gift to the public.
David Masciotra
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Flying Alone: Edward Hopper and America's Night Side
Last summer I wrote this philosophical and cultural reflection on Edward Hopper for PopMatters.
Flying Alone: Edward Hopper and America's Night Side
by David Masciotra
June 13, 2008: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/flying-alone-edward-hopper-and-americas-night-side/
French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy makes the interesting and useful distinction that painting is not a representation of the empirical world, but a presentation of the world—of sense and of existence. This idea remained on my mind while I walked through the Edward Hopper retrospective exhibit that just ended its national tour, making stops in Boston, Washington, D.C., and Chicago.
Hopper was reticent to speak about his own work, and went so far as to self-deprecatingly imply that all he ever desired to do was paint the rays of a sunset bouncing off the roof of a New England house. Like the narratives in his paintings, his “artist statement” is ambiguous, mysterious, and vulnerable to diversely varying interpretations. In an importantly symbolic sense, Hopper’s refusal to speak freely about his work provides a more clear and potent insight than any words could muster.
His silence is complementary to and indicative of the unnerving silence of his characters. The most commonly used word by Hopper’s admirers and critics is “isolation”, and any viewer of Hopper’s art can understand why. A sense of dread, despair, and dejected sensibility can be seen on the young woman’s downward looking face in Automat (1927). Feelings of detachment and loneliness, and the uneasy boredom that accompanies them, are projected on to the onlooker of the usheress staring at the spot where the floor and wall meet in New York Movie (1939).
Isolation is more than merely being alone. It is existential emptiness, deep despair, and a longing for tangible connections with other people who are in sight, but feel miles away. This is why the greatest and most discomforting presentation of isolation can be found in Hopper’s paintings that include more than one person.
Cape Cod Evening (1939) presents two people who appear to be lovers, or at least live in the same house, sitting in their backyard with their dog. There is no eye contact between any of the characters—both the man and woman look out on to the grass, and the dog stares into the landscape. The young man places his hand onto a few spikes of grass to feel the wind blow them against his palm, reaching out for something on his skin even if it is as disloyal and restless as the wind, while another human being stands right next to him. In Office at Night (1940), a woman appears to be longing for her co-worker’s attention and affection, while leering over his shoulder pretending to file through a cabinet. He is focused on his desk, oblivious to her company.
Desolation, isolation, and separation are evoked and emoted most famously in Nighthawks (1942), the classic and perhaps definitive work of American realism. Four people, presumably strangers, sit in an all-night diner. One employee, in a white uniform and paper hat, reaches for something underneath the counter while affixing his eyes straight ahead out the window. The three customers—two men and one woman—appear utterly depressed as they seem to make a strong effort not to look at each other.
Nighthawks has become part of the American iconography and a central part of Americana—reproduced on television, movie screens, book covers, and album artwork; referenced in film noir, The Simpsons, and Tom Waits records. It seems to simultaneously capture and destroy the American myth of self-made strength through “rugged individualism” by presenting its underbelly—its social consequences that manifest in personal and national insomnia. This is the night side of America.
The superpower is tossing and turning, listening to the dull hum of the ceiling fan, glancing at the blood red digital clock, desperately wishing to fall back asleep to visit American dream land. The “nighthawks”, with their grim outlooks, chipped shoulders, and discouraged demeanors are those that have come to realize that the “American dream” is just that: a dream. It is not tangibly attainable. It is fleeting. It is a fantasy.
The nighthawks mourn, along with the Cape Cod family and the New York usheress, as Hopper mourns, for something that never really existed. They grieve for a myth that they once believed in, and in the absence of such a belief they find their loneliness. Unable to find comfort in others, they become isolated. Hopper’s presentations of the world, of existence and of sense, are essential because in them viewers can see Mark Twain, Gore Vidal, Herman Melville, Miles Davis, Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, and many more artists of varying genres and eras that too have mourned for a dream.
When Gore Vidal writes of his grandfather, Oklahoma Senator Thomas Pryor Gore (1870-1949), in his memoirs, he describes a man he loved, but also politics as he understood it in childhood, walking the halls of the Senate holding his blind grandfather’s hand or reading him policy papers and speeches as he fell asleep. Vidal’s work, which has shown the selfishness of American politics, the darkness of Empire, and the costs of imperial hubris better than any other historian novelist, maps the distance between the dream he dreamt during childhood and the reality he grew to understand during adulthood.
When Bruce Springsteen sings of a girl staring into the night with “the eyes of one who hates for just being born” in “Racing in the Street” (1978) or a small-town drifter watching idealized America, but longing for a connection as “girls in their summer clothes” pass him by ("Girls in Their Summer Clothes”, 2007), is he not presenting the same burnt out, passed over, and betrayed individuals that are visible in Hopper’s painting?
Hopper, Vidal, Springsteen, and many other great American artists reveal the dark side of America situated along the fault lines of nostalgic dreams turned nightmares in the middle of nowhere, yet surrounded by people, activity, and noise. They also demonstrate that through art the artist makes a commitment to a vocation of truth telling, and there is no vocation without invocation, whether consciously done or not. Through invocation of great forebearers of artistic creativity and prophetic critique of the status quo, the viewer is connected to the legions of brave men and women who summoned all their talent, intelligence, and spiritual genius to not only strip society of all its self-protective veils, but also offer hope to those who are victimized behind the veils.
Springsteen may sing about people with a perpetual case of the blues, but his choruses are often secular gospel: “Come on up for the rising”; “I believe in the promised land.” Vidal may assault the use and evolution of American power, but at one point he wrote hopefully about the activist movements of the 1960s, and also details alternative ways of thinking, which have the potential to be uplifting and liberating, in such fine novels as Creation and The Judgment of Paris.
Hopper’s grim portrait of the American sociological and psychological unraveling may be entirely missing a hopeful answer, but it does provide an honest mirror for Americans in denial about their own isolation and resistance to real community. One can humbly hope that this mirror will motivate a makeover.
In a country where public institutions are neglected and/or failing, social programs are consistently cut, and civic traditions are weakened with each passing year, concerned citizens must confront, with hopes to conquer, that almost inevitable isolation and emptiness that creeps into the collective American lifestyle. What is essential for individuals, but more importantly communities, is not cheap and naïve optimism that tends to accompany thoughtless consumerism and marketplace madness. The extreme opposite approach—all encompassing pessimism—will also fail to lead people above the fray of American dreams never realized.
A wise and weathered hope, gathered from our artists, and imbued with understanding of the odds and familiarity with the darkness, which refuses to give up or give in is the only possible catalyst for organized people to create a society guided by love, solidarity, and community.
Otherwise, we’re all just nighthawks.
David Masciotra
Flying Alone: Edward Hopper and America's Night Side
by David Masciotra
June 13, 2008: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/flying-alone-edward-hopper-and-americas-night-side/
French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy makes the interesting and useful distinction that painting is not a representation of the empirical world, but a presentation of the world—of sense and of existence. This idea remained on my mind while I walked through the Edward Hopper retrospective exhibit that just ended its national tour, making stops in Boston, Washington, D.C., and Chicago.
Hopper was reticent to speak about his own work, and went so far as to self-deprecatingly imply that all he ever desired to do was paint the rays of a sunset bouncing off the roof of a New England house. Like the narratives in his paintings, his “artist statement” is ambiguous, mysterious, and vulnerable to diversely varying interpretations. In an importantly symbolic sense, Hopper’s refusal to speak freely about his work provides a more clear and potent insight than any words could muster.
His silence is complementary to and indicative of the unnerving silence of his characters. The most commonly used word by Hopper’s admirers and critics is “isolation”, and any viewer of Hopper’s art can understand why. A sense of dread, despair, and dejected sensibility can be seen on the young woman’s downward looking face in Automat (1927). Feelings of detachment and loneliness, and the uneasy boredom that accompanies them, are projected on to the onlooker of the usheress staring at the spot where the floor and wall meet in New York Movie (1939).
Isolation is more than merely being alone. It is existential emptiness, deep despair, and a longing for tangible connections with other people who are in sight, but feel miles away. This is why the greatest and most discomforting presentation of isolation can be found in Hopper’s paintings that include more than one person.
Cape Cod Evening (1939) presents two people who appear to be lovers, or at least live in the same house, sitting in their backyard with their dog. There is no eye contact between any of the characters—both the man and woman look out on to the grass, and the dog stares into the landscape. The young man places his hand onto a few spikes of grass to feel the wind blow them against his palm, reaching out for something on his skin even if it is as disloyal and restless as the wind, while another human being stands right next to him. In Office at Night (1940), a woman appears to be longing for her co-worker’s attention and affection, while leering over his shoulder pretending to file through a cabinet. He is focused on his desk, oblivious to her company.
Desolation, isolation, and separation are evoked and emoted most famously in Nighthawks (1942), the classic and perhaps definitive work of American realism. Four people, presumably strangers, sit in an all-night diner. One employee, in a white uniform and paper hat, reaches for something underneath the counter while affixing his eyes straight ahead out the window. The three customers—two men and one woman—appear utterly depressed as they seem to make a strong effort not to look at each other.
Nighthawks has become part of the American iconography and a central part of Americana—reproduced on television, movie screens, book covers, and album artwork; referenced in film noir, The Simpsons, and Tom Waits records. It seems to simultaneously capture and destroy the American myth of self-made strength through “rugged individualism” by presenting its underbelly—its social consequences that manifest in personal and national insomnia. This is the night side of America.
The superpower is tossing and turning, listening to the dull hum of the ceiling fan, glancing at the blood red digital clock, desperately wishing to fall back asleep to visit American dream land. The “nighthawks”, with their grim outlooks, chipped shoulders, and discouraged demeanors are those that have come to realize that the “American dream” is just that: a dream. It is not tangibly attainable. It is fleeting. It is a fantasy.
The nighthawks mourn, along with the Cape Cod family and the New York usheress, as Hopper mourns, for something that never really existed. They grieve for a myth that they once believed in, and in the absence of such a belief they find their loneliness. Unable to find comfort in others, they become isolated. Hopper’s presentations of the world, of existence and of sense, are essential because in them viewers can see Mark Twain, Gore Vidal, Herman Melville, Miles Davis, Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, and many more artists of varying genres and eras that too have mourned for a dream.
When Gore Vidal writes of his grandfather, Oklahoma Senator Thomas Pryor Gore (1870-1949), in his memoirs, he describes a man he loved, but also politics as he understood it in childhood, walking the halls of the Senate holding his blind grandfather’s hand or reading him policy papers and speeches as he fell asleep. Vidal’s work, which has shown the selfishness of American politics, the darkness of Empire, and the costs of imperial hubris better than any other historian novelist, maps the distance between the dream he dreamt during childhood and the reality he grew to understand during adulthood.
When Bruce Springsteen sings of a girl staring into the night with “the eyes of one who hates for just being born” in “Racing in the Street” (1978) or a small-town drifter watching idealized America, but longing for a connection as “girls in their summer clothes” pass him by ("Girls in Their Summer Clothes”, 2007), is he not presenting the same burnt out, passed over, and betrayed individuals that are visible in Hopper’s painting?
Hopper, Vidal, Springsteen, and many other great American artists reveal the dark side of America situated along the fault lines of nostalgic dreams turned nightmares in the middle of nowhere, yet surrounded by people, activity, and noise. They also demonstrate that through art the artist makes a commitment to a vocation of truth telling, and there is no vocation without invocation, whether consciously done or not. Through invocation of great forebearers of artistic creativity and prophetic critique of the status quo, the viewer is connected to the legions of brave men and women who summoned all their talent, intelligence, and spiritual genius to not only strip society of all its self-protective veils, but also offer hope to those who are victimized behind the veils.
Springsteen may sing about people with a perpetual case of the blues, but his choruses are often secular gospel: “Come on up for the rising”; “I believe in the promised land.” Vidal may assault the use and evolution of American power, but at one point he wrote hopefully about the activist movements of the 1960s, and also details alternative ways of thinking, which have the potential to be uplifting and liberating, in such fine novels as Creation and The Judgment of Paris.
Hopper’s grim portrait of the American sociological and psychological unraveling may be entirely missing a hopeful answer, but it does provide an honest mirror for Americans in denial about their own isolation and resistance to real community. One can humbly hope that this mirror will motivate a makeover.
In a country where public institutions are neglected and/or failing, social programs are consistently cut, and civic traditions are weakened with each passing year, concerned citizens must confront, with hopes to conquer, that almost inevitable isolation and emptiness that creeps into the collective American lifestyle. What is essential for individuals, but more importantly communities, is not cheap and naïve optimism that tends to accompany thoughtless consumerism and marketplace madness. The extreme opposite approach—all encompassing pessimism—will also fail to lead people above the fray of American dreams never realized.
A wise and weathered hope, gathered from our artists, and imbued with understanding of the odds and familiarity with the darkness, which refuses to give up or give in is the only possible catalyst for organized people to create a society guided by love, solidarity, and community.
Otherwise, we’re all just nighthawks.
David Masciotra
Obama Gives Us Second Chance
Throughout 2007 and 2008, I wrote a weekly column for the Herald News in Joliet, Illinois. I'll get things started on this blog by posting a few from the archives.
Obama Gives Us Second Chance
by David Masciotra
The Herald News: November 12, 2008
For those lucky Americans who did not come of age during the soon to be bygone and already besmirched era of George W. Bush, the significance of Barack Obama's election victory will not be fully understood.
Of course, African-Americans and non-racist whites can stand in inspired and emotional awe -- merely a blink ago, in planetary history, someone sharing Obama's ethnicity and complexion would have been deemed three-fifths' human.
Even closer to our current era, he would not have been allowed to walk into a "whites only" business, smile at a white woman or appear in certain neighborhoods after the sun's setting -- much less run for president--without life-threatening consequences. For the multiplying breed of Americans who have evolved to a point of maturity where they are unable to see inferiority in blackness but see potentiality and dignity, Nov. 4 was a seismic, monumental and triumphant day.
As important as America's racial progression is, it would be unfair to President-elect Obama to isolate his race and focus on it entirely. He is a wise, cultured and compassionate workaholic of tremendous accomplishment, who is gifted with an extraordinary ability to inspire, galvanize and energize broad constituencies of formerly cynical, apathetic and indifferent people. Having expanded and enlarged the community of democracy by renewing people's interest in public affairs and faith in public officials -- he has already achieved more than his predecessor.
Hope and excitement have been in short order over the last decade, and those that came of age with Bush learned to accept disappointment, disillusionment and despair as common, natural features of American life. Citizens my age were 16 when 19 men with box-cutters brought the world's last remaining superpower to its knees by demolishing the World Trade Center, striking a hole in its military headquarters and slaughtering thousands of people. Before graduating high school the citizens would witness civil liberties -- supposedly the bedrock of American life-- be systematically stripped away and protestors demonized and intimidated into silence until disaster culminated into an unjust, unnecessary war that continues to drain America of precious life and treasure.
The next unforgettable image to beam out from the television was the Third World -- at home. Hurricane Katrina left poor people on rooftops, suffering in sports stadiums and convention centers, without food, water or public assistance. America was broken, lacking empathy and missing intelligence.
Throughout all of these horrific assaults on American ideals and promises, more and more Americans struggled to afford health care and receive a decent education. Rising inequality finally engulfed the financial system, which has now collapsed and given young Americans cause to doubt if they will enjoy the same quality of life as their parents.
Institutional failure, political mendacity and economic wreckage slipped into the background on Nov. 4, when for the first time youthful Americans found a source of hope and optimism.
This stunning transformation of public psychology indicates that America is on the cusp of something dramatic and powerful. Obama will have to more than succeed in filling the unenviable role just bestowed to him. He inherits all of the problems listed above and more yet to emerge. However, his victory has restored confidence in America, and that is something bigger than right-wingers could ever contemplate.
These hacks spoke in coded bigotry --"Who is the real Barack Obama (this black guy in our white neighborhood)?"-- and outright paranoid ignorance --"He's a socialist I tell you!"
It is not enough to solve our problems, but it may be the first step. A newly engaged citizenry willing to look beyond typical tactics of fear and deception, treading along with cautious hope, under the leadership of a steady, intelligent and eloquent figure, has the potential to reshape this country's political orientation, and revitalize its weakening spirit.
After the election of John F. Kennedy, Gore Vidal wrote that "civilizations are rarely granted a second chance."
Following the Bay of Pigs debacle and the invasion of Vietnam, Vidal mourned that "something mysteriously went wrong."
Whether something mysteriously goes wrong during Obama's administration remains to be seen, but this feels like a second chance, and right now, that feels like enough.
David Masciotra
Obama Gives Us Second Chance
by David Masciotra
The Herald News: November 12, 2008
For those lucky Americans who did not come of age during the soon to be bygone and already besmirched era of George W. Bush, the significance of Barack Obama's election victory will not be fully understood.
Of course, African-Americans and non-racist whites can stand in inspired and emotional awe -- merely a blink ago, in planetary history, someone sharing Obama's ethnicity and complexion would have been deemed three-fifths' human.
Even closer to our current era, he would not have been allowed to walk into a "whites only" business, smile at a white woman or appear in certain neighborhoods after the sun's setting -- much less run for president--without life-threatening consequences. For the multiplying breed of Americans who have evolved to a point of maturity where they are unable to see inferiority in blackness but see potentiality and dignity, Nov. 4 was a seismic, monumental and triumphant day.
As important as America's racial progression is, it would be unfair to President-elect Obama to isolate his race and focus on it entirely. He is a wise, cultured and compassionate workaholic of tremendous accomplishment, who is gifted with an extraordinary ability to inspire, galvanize and energize broad constituencies of formerly cynical, apathetic and indifferent people. Having expanded and enlarged the community of democracy by renewing people's interest in public affairs and faith in public officials -- he has already achieved more than his predecessor.
Hope and excitement have been in short order over the last decade, and those that came of age with Bush learned to accept disappointment, disillusionment and despair as common, natural features of American life. Citizens my age were 16 when 19 men with box-cutters brought the world's last remaining superpower to its knees by demolishing the World Trade Center, striking a hole in its military headquarters and slaughtering thousands of people. Before graduating high school the citizens would witness civil liberties -- supposedly the bedrock of American life-- be systematically stripped away and protestors demonized and intimidated into silence until disaster culminated into an unjust, unnecessary war that continues to drain America of precious life and treasure.
The next unforgettable image to beam out from the television was the Third World -- at home. Hurricane Katrina left poor people on rooftops, suffering in sports stadiums and convention centers, without food, water or public assistance. America was broken, lacking empathy and missing intelligence.
Throughout all of these horrific assaults on American ideals and promises, more and more Americans struggled to afford health care and receive a decent education. Rising inequality finally engulfed the financial system, which has now collapsed and given young Americans cause to doubt if they will enjoy the same quality of life as their parents.
Institutional failure, political mendacity and economic wreckage slipped into the background on Nov. 4, when for the first time youthful Americans found a source of hope and optimism.
This stunning transformation of public psychology indicates that America is on the cusp of something dramatic and powerful. Obama will have to more than succeed in filling the unenviable role just bestowed to him. He inherits all of the problems listed above and more yet to emerge. However, his victory has restored confidence in America, and that is something bigger than right-wingers could ever contemplate.
These hacks spoke in coded bigotry --"Who is the real Barack Obama (this black guy in our white neighborhood)?"-- and outright paranoid ignorance --"He's a socialist I tell you!"
It is not enough to solve our problems, but it may be the first step. A newly engaged citizenry willing to look beyond typical tactics of fear and deception, treading along with cautious hope, under the leadership of a steady, intelligent and eloquent figure, has the potential to reshape this country's political orientation, and revitalize its weakening spirit.
After the election of John F. Kennedy, Gore Vidal wrote that "civilizations are rarely granted a second chance."
Following the Bay of Pigs debacle and the invasion of Vietnam, Vidal mourned that "something mysteriously went wrong."
Whether something mysteriously goes wrong during Obama's administration remains to be seen, but this feels like a second chance, and right now, that feels like enough.
David Masciotra
Ford Heights: Life in the Third World
Ford Heights: Life in the Third World
by David Masciotra
The Herald News: June 4, 2008
Every now and then a reality-detached, empathy-deficient shill for the crime and blunder that is the American occupation of Iraq will boast about the construction of a school in Baghdad and plead for support for allocating additional billions of dollars to police a foreign nation. Policing is what the unanimously and unthinkingly celebrated "surge" was all about --sending in more cops to quell sectarian violence.
Meanwhile, in the richest nation on the planet -- a superpower arrogantly willing to police the world when it suits its own needs --there are long forgotten portions of the country that struggle to survive and suffer from a visible lack of law and order.
Ford Heights, an impoverished south suburb of Chicago, has no police force. The three officers who formerly made up the barely existent Ford Heights Police Department sought transfers after their pay was cut to a mere $12 an hour. With no one to protect Ford Heights' residents or maintain some semblance of order in the high crime town, the Cook County sheriff's police have begun to patrol the streets.
Awful implications of this horror story should be obvious: Poor people in Ford Heights were left entirely vulnerable to the nefarious whims of gangs, drug pushers and thieves. In order to offer some protection, the Cook County sheriff's office must remove officers from important county business and crime prevention and place them in a town too poor and too neglected to pay police a livable wage.
Observers have raised the expected questions over whether or not Ford Heights should continue to call itself a village. Its schools are disgraceful, its services are absent, and it cannot police itself.
If the struggling town were to become unincorporated, the county would be required to manage not only policing but also the schools, fire prevention and other services.
County Commissioner Deborah Sims has expressed great resistance to that idea, which is perfectly understandable. Forcing the county to make up for the failures of national, state and local education and economic policies would not address the real causes of Ford Heights' fatal situation. It would merely place a bandage on a gunshot wound, and in the process cause financial and morale-damaging harm to the county office.
Certain adjectives like "ironic," "insane," and "insidious" do not effectively describe the predicament this nation finds itself in at the moment: We are dedicating obscene amounts of money and blood to occupying a Third World country for reasons that are at best foolish, and at worst, criminal, while parts of our country are declining into Third World conditions.
Ford Heights is not alone in America. Recall the images beamed across television from the lower 9th Ward of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Consider that the Chicago public high school system, which has recently dealt with the murders of 22 of its students, has a dropout rate of 48 percent.
A recent study found that although poverty has declined in Will County since 1980, it has increased in Cook and DuPage counties.
While all of these modern, yet Dickensian tragedies are unmentioned or placed under cover, media elites measure patriotism by the presence of fashion accessories. Real patriotism means supporting the vital public institutions and support centers that grant opportunity, security and dignity to American citizens.
A massive revitalization program is needed to restore hope and equity to public schools, police departments and neighborhoods -- not only in Ford Heights, Chicago and New Orleans, but across this entire nation.
David Masciotra
by David Masciotra
The Herald News: June 4, 2008
Every now and then a reality-detached, empathy-deficient shill for the crime and blunder that is the American occupation of Iraq will boast about the construction of a school in Baghdad and plead for support for allocating additional billions of dollars to police a foreign nation. Policing is what the unanimously and unthinkingly celebrated "surge" was all about --sending in more cops to quell sectarian violence.
Meanwhile, in the richest nation on the planet -- a superpower arrogantly willing to police the world when it suits its own needs --there are long forgotten portions of the country that struggle to survive and suffer from a visible lack of law and order.
Ford Heights, an impoverished south suburb of Chicago, has no police force. The three officers who formerly made up the barely existent Ford Heights Police Department sought transfers after their pay was cut to a mere $12 an hour. With no one to protect Ford Heights' residents or maintain some semblance of order in the high crime town, the Cook County sheriff's police have begun to patrol the streets.
Awful implications of this horror story should be obvious: Poor people in Ford Heights were left entirely vulnerable to the nefarious whims of gangs, drug pushers and thieves. In order to offer some protection, the Cook County sheriff's office must remove officers from important county business and crime prevention and place them in a town too poor and too neglected to pay police a livable wage.
Observers have raised the expected questions over whether or not Ford Heights should continue to call itself a village. Its schools are disgraceful, its services are absent, and it cannot police itself.
If the struggling town were to become unincorporated, the county would be required to manage not only policing but also the schools, fire prevention and other services.
County Commissioner Deborah Sims has expressed great resistance to that idea, which is perfectly understandable. Forcing the county to make up for the failures of national, state and local education and economic policies would not address the real causes of Ford Heights' fatal situation. It would merely place a bandage on a gunshot wound, and in the process cause financial and morale-damaging harm to the county office.
Certain adjectives like "ironic," "insane," and "insidious" do not effectively describe the predicament this nation finds itself in at the moment: We are dedicating obscene amounts of money and blood to occupying a Third World country for reasons that are at best foolish, and at worst, criminal, while parts of our country are declining into Third World conditions.
Ford Heights is not alone in America. Recall the images beamed across television from the lower 9th Ward of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Consider that the Chicago public high school system, which has recently dealt with the murders of 22 of its students, has a dropout rate of 48 percent.
A recent study found that although poverty has declined in Will County since 1980, it has increased in Cook and DuPage counties.
While all of these modern, yet Dickensian tragedies are unmentioned or placed under cover, media elites measure patriotism by the presence of fashion accessories. Real patriotism means supporting the vital public institutions and support centers that grant opportunity, security and dignity to American citizens.
A massive revitalization program is needed to restore hope and equity to public schools, police departments and neighborhoods -- not only in Ford Heights, Chicago and New Orleans, but across this entire nation.
David Masciotra
Drug War Used to Fill Nation's Prisons
Drug war used to fill our nation’s prisons
by David Masciotra
The Herald News: April 9, 2008
The United States currently houses 3 million people in prison. No other nation, not even tyrannies with dreadful human rights records, place as many of its citizens in jail. Possessing the world’s largest prison population is morally outrageous and socially embarrassing enough without considering that it goes unmentioned in mainstream politics.
However, a recent slew of social critics, ranging from Noam Chomsky to Newt Gingrich, have condemned America’s "prison-industrial complex," and have advocated sweeping reforms, albeit from different directions.
There is no better place to discuss the "prison-industrial complex" than Joliet, especially given that the Will County Jail is undergoing significant expansion.
New technologies, which enable a smoother booking process, along with additional sleeping units, either have been or will soon be installed at the jail. If something is to be done, it might as well be done correctly, which makes correctional officer Kyle Hastings’ endorsement of the Will County Jail understandable. He called it "one of the most technologically advanced facilities in the country."
Lost in the expansion and booking is the acknowledgement that while public funds are poured into prisons, public schools, services and infrastructure struggle to function properly and are less likely to become "technologically advanced."
Prisons are big business. Congressional representatives refuse to question prison policy because building a new jail in their districts requires a lot of money, and pork for their districts brings them votes. Besides, one never wants to appear "soft on crime."
Prisons also help the local economy by providing a need to open new motels, add new restaurants and bring in other types of businesses.
As long as prisons keep being built, the cells need to be filled, and this nation’s political leadership has predictably and flippantly decided that the best way to do so is to incarcerate young, black men for victimless crimes.
The Herald News recently reported that "drug-related cases account for about 40 percent of all the felonies charged by prosecutors in Kendall and Kane counties." Kane County State’s Attorney John Barsanti said the "No. 1 felony crime his office charges right now is unlawful possession of a controlled substance."
Kendall County State’s Attorney Eric Weis added that most drug-related crimes are committed by "younger people." Both of these men are simply doing their jobs and are not responsible for America’s public policy failures.
Meanwhile, the Justice Policy Institute reports that although white and black people use drugs at similar rates, blacks are more likely to be arrested on drug charges, more likely to be tried and convicted and ten times more likely to go to prison than whites.
After the power structure has denied inner city blacks the opportunity to attend a good school or find stable work, they are granted some institutional support: food and shelter at Stateville.
The "War on Drugs" is a useless failure that is racist in its execution. Draconian sentencing laws used to fight the war are unfair and harmful to this country’s population and police, who have to dedicate too much time and funds to bang down doors in poor neighborhoods looking for troubled people addicted to self-medicating.
This war should be brought to an immediate halt, taking away the need for hyper prison construction and providing funding and attention for such novel concepts as good schools and workable public support for struggling people. Had such entities existed long ago, perhaps prison expansion would not be necessary and a "war on drugs" would not have seemed worth fighting.
David Masciotra
by David Masciotra
The Herald News: April 9, 2008
The United States currently houses 3 million people in prison. No other nation, not even tyrannies with dreadful human rights records, place as many of its citizens in jail. Possessing the world’s largest prison population is morally outrageous and socially embarrassing enough without considering that it goes unmentioned in mainstream politics.
However, a recent slew of social critics, ranging from Noam Chomsky to Newt Gingrich, have condemned America’s "prison-industrial complex," and have advocated sweeping reforms, albeit from different directions.
There is no better place to discuss the "prison-industrial complex" than Joliet, especially given that the Will County Jail is undergoing significant expansion.
New technologies, which enable a smoother booking process, along with additional sleeping units, either have been or will soon be installed at the jail. If something is to be done, it might as well be done correctly, which makes correctional officer Kyle Hastings’ endorsement of the Will County Jail understandable. He called it "one of the most technologically advanced facilities in the country."
Lost in the expansion and booking is the acknowledgement that while public funds are poured into prisons, public schools, services and infrastructure struggle to function properly and are less likely to become "technologically advanced."
Prisons are big business. Congressional representatives refuse to question prison policy because building a new jail in their districts requires a lot of money, and pork for their districts brings them votes. Besides, one never wants to appear "soft on crime."
Prisons also help the local economy by providing a need to open new motels, add new restaurants and bring in other types of businesses.
As long as prisons keep being built, the cells need to be filled, and this nation’s political leadership has predictably and flippantly decided that the best way to do so is to incarcerate young, black men for victimless crimes.
The Herald News recently reported that "drug-related cases account for about 40 percent of all the felonies charged by prosecutors in Kendall and Kane counties." Kane County State’s Attorney John Barsanti said the "No. 1 felony crime his office charges right now is unlawful possession of a controlled substance."
Kendall County State’s Attorney Eric Weis added that most drug-related crimes are committed by "younger people." Both of these men are simply doing their jobs and are not responsible for America’s public policy failures.
Meanwhile, the Justice Policy Institute reports that although white and black people use drugs at similar rates, blacks are more likely to be arrested on drug charges, more likely to be tried and convicted and ten times more likely to go to prison than whites.
After the power structure has denied inner city blacks the opportunity to attend a good school or find stable work, they are granted some institutional support: food and shelter at Stateville.
The "War on Drugs" is a useless failure that is racist in its execution. Draconian sentencing laws used to fight the war are unfair and harmful to this country’s population and police, who have to dedicate too much time and funds to bang down doors in poor neighborhoods looking for troubled people addicted to self-medicating.
This war should be brought to an immediate halt, taking away the need for hyper prison construction and providing funding and attention for such novel concepts as good schools and workable public support for struggling people. Had such entities existed long ago, perhaps prison expansion would not be necessary and a "war on drugs" would not have seemed worth fighting.
David Masciotra
Hastert's Real Friends Not at Tribute
Hastert's Real Friends not at Tribute
by David Masciotra
The Herald News: December 27, 2007
A n obvious benefit to entering politics is earning the freedom to violate almost any social norm or conventional morality without punishment. Behavioral standards that apply to ordinary people are alien in the world of "public service."
A revealing dispatch from the political world of amorality was sent to viewers of C-SPAN Dec. 15 with a broadcast of a tribute dinner for Dennis Hastert, former Speaker of the House.
There he sat as a poster boy for Weight Watchers, except he was not selling anything because everyone had already bought his favorite product: Dennis Hastert.
Luminaries such as Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley surrounded the former Speaker in awe. They offered him bipartisan praise, never pausing to give their consciences relief.
Although I tuned in 30 minutes late, I don't think I missed an address of gratitude from Jack Abramoff, both a friend and partner to the Speaker. Perhaps, the imprisoned charlatan was too busy dreaming that when he is released he may again be able to swindle impoverished American Indians.
Considering all the cooperation he received from Hastert, who collected more than $100,000 from Abramoff and held fundraisers at his restaurant, Jack at least should have sent a postcard.
Apparently, felons forget their manners on occasion.
Also noticeably absent from Hastert's ball was the Colombian military, condemned by every human rights organization for indiscriminately killing innocent civilians in a "war on drugs," and violently silencing dissenters.
At some point during the national finger-wagging at Clinton over private, consensual sexuality, the former president expressed concerns over human rights abuses in Colombia. Ol' Denny replied by leading a congressional delegation to Colombia, which urged the military to "bypass the American executive branch and work directly with Congress."
How rude of murderous Colombian thugs not to show up to Hastert's dinner and give him a well-deserved "thank you."
When the ceremony ended with a sickly benediction from Wheaton College President Duane Liftin, calling Hastert "the Lord's servant," I was heartbroken that one of Hastert's best friends failed to appear.
Former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley of Florida, maybe still in "rehab" or preparing to "find Jesus" and work as a lobbyist, could not attend the dinner. Certainly, he must have sent a letter or more likely an e-mail expressing his appreciation for the assistance Hastert provided throughout Foley's tenure as congressmen.
For three years Hastert knew that Foley made sexual passes and sent sexually explicit e-mails to teenage boys who worked as congressional pages. Any good Speaker would have demanded Foley's resignation and inquired as to how far these sexual encounters went.
Hastert permissively watched as Foley made television appearances to boast about Foley's plan to protect children from online predators.
Since Foley, the Colombian military and Abramoff failed to pay tribute to the former Speaker and friend, none of these topics were broached during the ceremony.
Daley, congressmen, businessmen, academic and religious figures lauded a man who used his power to aid and comfort the worst kind of con artists, perverts and killers.
But he is such a "nice man," with a "good family."
David Masciotra
by David Masciotra
The Herald News: December 27, 2007
A n obvious benefit to entering politics is earning the freedom to violate almost any social norm or conventional morality without punishment. Behavioral standards that apply to ordinary people are alien in the world of "public service."
A revealing dispatch from the political world of amorality was sent to viewers of C-SPAN Dec. 15 with a broadcast of a tribute dinner for Dennis Hastert, former Speaker of the House.
There he sat as a poster boy for Weight Watchers, except he was not selling anything because everyone had already bought his favorite product: Dennis Hastert.
Luminaries such as Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley surrounded the former Speaker in awe. They offered him bipartisan praise, never pausing to give their consciences relief.
Although I tuned in 30 minutes late, I don't think I missed an address of gratitude from Jack Abramoff, both a friend and partner to the Speaker. Perhaps, the imprisoned charlatan was too busy dreaming that when he is released he may again be able to swindle impoverished American Indians.
Considering all the cooperation he received from Hastert, who collected more than $100,000 from Abramoff and held fundraisers at his restaurant, Jack at least should have sent a postcard.
Apparently, felons forget their manners on occasion.
Also noticeably absent from Hastert's ball was the Colombian military, condemned by every human rights organization for indiscriminately killing innocent civilians in a "war on drugs," and violently silencing dissenters.
At some point during the national finger-wagging at Clinton over private, consensual sexuality, the former president expressed concerns over human rights abuses in Colombia. Ol' Denny replied by leading a congressional delegation to Colombia, which urged the military to "bypass the American executive branch and work directly with Congress."
How rude of murderous Colombian thugs not to show up to Hastert's dinner and give him a well-deserved "thank you."
When the ceremony ended with a sickly benediction from Wheaton College President Duane Liftin, calling Hastert "the Lord's servant," I was heartbroken that one of Hastert's best friends failed to appear.
Former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley of Florida, maybe still in "rehab" or preparing to "find Jesus" and work as a lobbyist, could not attend the dinner. Certainly, he must have sent a letter or more likely an e-mail expressing his appreciation for the assistance Hastert provided throughout Foley's tenure as congressmen.
For three years Hastert knew that Foley made sexual passes and sent sexually explicit e-mails to teenage boys who worked as congressional pages. Any good Speaker would have demanded Foley's resignation and inquired as to how far these sexual encounters went.
Hastert permissively watched as Foley made television appearances to boast about Foley's plan to protect children from online predators.
Since Foley, the Colombian military and Abramoff failed to pay tribute to the former Speaker and friend, none of these topics were broached during the ceremony.
Daley, congressmen, businessmen, academic and religious figures lauded a man who used his power to aid and comfort the worst kind of con artists, perverts and killers.
But he is such a "nice man," with a "good family."
David Masciotra
Illegals Scapegoat for US Woes
Illegals scapegoat for US woes
by David Masciotra
The Herald News: December 20, 2007
America is an extremely terrified country. If political hands press the right social buttons, Americans shriek at such absurdities as "homosexuals will destroy the family unit" or minor threats like "insecure borders." The oddity of over-the-top fear is startling, considering the "last remaining superpower" has financially and militarily controlled the world since World War II.
This historical fact obvious to anyone living in another country is muted throughout political discourse here. The latest primary presidential debates offer fine renditions of politicians performing in their roles as arbitrators of irrational fear and disguisers of real threats.
The best read lines this campaign season are those that criticize illegal immigration. Certainly, problems arise with porous borders and it is unwise for any nation to have millions of unidentified people living among its citizens.
However, the hysteria devoted to this issue is disproportional and would be humorous, if it were not distracting the population from more important discussions.
In situations like these, it is important to remember that whenever the powerful start telling you what to fear, check your wallet.
Wages have stagnated for decades, health care and higher education costs have risen at exorbitant rates, and millions of jobs have been exported.
Instead of acknowledging these misfortunes and properly accepting blame, leaders have found the perfect politically disenfranchised scapegoat: Mexicans who are here illegally.
Conveniently, everything, from the health care crisis to the public education misery, the "strain on the system" can be blamed on illegals.
That discourse then is complemented by an overall distaste, distrust, and dislike of nonwhite people by significant portions of "mainstream" society.
This silly song with bad rhyme has been played before, sometimes even directed toward white immigrants.
Benjamin Franklin croaked about how Germans were going to kill American culture.
Policymakers bemoaned the Chinese for taking jobs away from "good Americans."
Hatred for Irish, Italian and Jewish immigrants was so severe that they were targeted for crimes. The Irish and Italians formed street gangs for self-defense, which eventually evolved into Irish and Italian crime syndicates.
Now, right-wing pundits scream about Mexicans with voices loud enough to overpower a mariachi band.
This is a dramatic reversal of recent Republican policy. President Reagan, now portrayed with a reverance somewhere between Santa Claus and Jesus Christ, said that he could not see what all the "illegal-alien fuss" was about in 1977, and took a liberal approach to the issue while in the Oval Office.
The ratcheted fuss over illegal aliens is justified with vague rhetoric about a "post-9/11 world." Yet, the open Canadian border is largely ignored, despite recommendations by the 9/11 Commission to tighten it.
Corporate interests oppose harsh punishment against employers of illegal immigrants, so Washington opposes it.
The Clinton administration increased security on the Mexican border just before the North American Free Trade Agreement passed because it was predicted that NAFTA would destroy Mexican agricultural businesses and lead to an influx of illegal immigration. Overturning NAFTA is scarcely discussed because Washington's employers profit from it.
Decades ago, a man immigrated to the United States illegally from Mexico and found work. He was here for years without documentation, eventually earned citizenship, found a higher-paying job and started a family. His son will soon graduate from the University of St. Francis.
At what point would deportation have helped that man, his family or this country?
Americans should refuse the smelly canard dishonest politicians are serving to a frightened public.
A policy that allows earned citizenship is not only sensible; it is morally necessary.
David Masciotra
by David Masciotra
The Herald News: December 20, 2007
America is an extremely terrified country. If political hands press the right social buttons, Americans shriek at such absurdities as "homosexuals will destroy the family unit" or minor threats like "insecure borders." The oddity of over-the-top fear is startling, considering the "last remaining superpower" has financially and militarily controlled the world since World War II.
This historical fact obvious to anyone living in another country is muted throughout political discourse here. The latest primary presidential debates offer fine renditions of politicians performing in their roles as arbitrators of irrational fear and disguisers of real threats.
The best read lines this campaign season are those that criticize illegal immigration. Certainly, problems arise with porous borders and it is unwise for any nation to have millions of unidentified people living among its citizens.
However, the hysteria devoted to this issue is disproportional and would be humorous, if it were not distracting the population from more important discussions.
In situations like these, it is important to remember that whenever the powerful start telling you what to fear, check your wallet.
Wages have stagnated for decades, health care and higher education costs have risen at exorbitant rates, and millions of jobs have been exported.
Instead of acknowledging these misfortunes and properly accepting blame, leaders have found the perfect politically disenfranchised scapegoat: Mexicans who are here illegally.
Conveniently, everything, from the health care crisis to the public education misery, the "strain on the system" can be blamed on illegals.
That discourse then is complemented by an overall distaste, distrust, and dislike of nonwhite people by significant portions of "mainstream" society.
This silly song with bad rhyme has been played before, sometimes even directed toward white immigrants.
Benjamin Franklin croaked about how Germans were going to kill American culture.
Policymakers bemoaned the Chinese for taking jobs away from "good Americans."
Hatred for Irish, Italian and Jewish immigrants was so severe that they were targeted for crimes. The Irish and Italians formed street gangs for self-defense, which eventually evolved into Irish and Italian crime syndicates.
Now, right-wing pundits scream about Mexicans with voices loud enough to overpower a mariachi band.
This is a dramatic reversal of recent Republican policy. President Reagan, now portrayed with a reverance somewhere between Santa Claus and Jesus Christ, said that he could not see what all the "illegal-alien fuss" was about in 1977, and took a liberal approach to the issue while in the Oval Office.
The ratcheted fuss over illegal aliens is justified with vague rhetoric about a "post-9/11 world." Yet, the open Canadian border is largely ignored, despite recommendations by the 9/11 Commission to tighten it.
Corporate interests oppose harsh punishment against employers of illegal immigrants, so Washington opposes it.
The Clinton administration increased security on the Mexican border just before the North American Free Trade Agreement passed because it was predicted that NAFTA would destroy Mexican agricultural businesses and lead to an influx of illegal immigration. Overturning NAFTA is scarcely discussed because Washington's employers profit from it.
Decades ago, a man immigrated to the United States illegally from Mexico and found work. He was here for years without documentation, eventually earned citizenship, found a higher-paying job and started a family. His son will soon graduate from the University of St. Francis.
At what point would deportation have helped that man, his family or this country?
Americans should refuse the smelly canard dishonest politicians are serving to a frightened public.
A policy that allows earned citizenship is not only sensible; it is morally necessary.
David Masciotra
NCLB: No Child Learning Better?
Throughout 2007 and 2008, I wrote a weekly political column for the Herald News in Joliet, Illinois. I will get things started on this blog by posting a few from the archives.
NCLB: No Child Learning Better?
by David Masciotra
The Herald News: November 27, 2007
By the time I entered junior high school, I forfeited all interest in performing well on standardized tests. I would answer enough questions correctly to protect me from an embarrassing score and conclude by mindlessly shading in ovals at random. This allowed me to make progress on whatever book I was reading at the time -- probably "Robinson Crusoe" or "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer."
The pages of those books were flipped most often during independent reading time at my Lutheran grade school. Every month my classmates and I were required to write a book report.
No multiple choice quizzes were given on the specific meaning or symbolism. Those exams, along with the oddly Stalinist approach of interpreting literature that provides their foundation, would come in high school honors English classes meant for the "good students." Honors English classes went something like this: "We think you are smart enough to earn the right to be told what to think."
Appreciation for books at Trinity Lutheran did not depend on advanced theoretical arguments that juxtaposed terms like "structuralism" and "postmodernism" while establishing sufficient distance from literary characters to make them invisible.
Reading and writing for Trinity Lutherans was basic: Read something and be able to write intelligently about it. And don't summarize too much. This approach allowed me to foster independent thought and cultivate a critical analysis unique to my own ideas and experiences. To put it plainly -- it let me learn to love reading and writing.
A few years ago, President George Bush and a shamefully acquiescent Congress passed an educational reform called No Child Left Behind.
In addition to being the worst-named piece of education legislation in U.S. history, it is also the biggest failure.
Every teacher, education professor and education major I have spoken to understands NCLB's unfortunate reality. The mere mention of NCLB to anyone in education often provokes rolling of eyes, fits of rage or convulsions, depending on the person's temperament.
The State Report Card is in and some schools have slightly improved while others have slightly declined, which adds up to a big "so what?"
Poor districts continue struggling with even the most elementary tasks. Rich districts assume their children will attend fine colleges. The national dropout rate (now at 30 percent) continues rising, and the Chicago Tribune reported that Illinois colleges are requiring many students to take unaccredited remedial courses to prepare for the freshmen curriculum.
USA Today reported that millions of minority test scores were excluded when tallying many report cards, so as to artificially inflate the results. No Child Left Behind is dependent upon Enron style accounting to appear ... mediocre? What a reform.
Many clueless politicians and pundits blather about the greatness of NCLB. "We need accountability in schools," they say.
Fair enough. Maybe eventually we can have learning in schools. But that simple goal cannot be achieved with a No. 2 pencil and a bureaucratically authored form full of ovals to be completed by a student that has been bombarded by a table of facts provided by administrators praying for high test scores.
Tools of learning consist of a good book and sensible teachers that compel children to think for themselves.
If Washington policymakers cannot comprehend this plain truth, they should enroll in a course at Trinity Lutheran, and write a book report.
David Masciotra
NCLB: No Child Learning Better?
by David Masciotra
The Herald News: November 27, 2007
By the time I entered junior high school, I forfeited all interest in performing well on standardized tests. I would answer enough questions correctly to protect me from an embarrassing score and conclude by mindlessly shading in ovals at random. This allowed me to make progress on whatever book I was reading at the time -- probably "Robinson Crusoe" or "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer."
The pages of those books were flipped most often during independent reading time at my Lutheran grade school. Every month my classmates and I were required to write a book report.
No multiple choice quizzes were given on the specific meaning or symbolism. Those exams, along with the oddly Stalinist approach of interpreting literature that provides their foundation, would come in high school honors English classes meant for the "good students." Honors English classes went something like this: "We think you are smart enough to earn the right to be told what to think."
Appreciation for books at Trinity Lutheran did not depend on advanced theoretical arguments that juxtaposed terms like "structuralism" and "postmodernism" while establishing sufficient distance from literary characters to make them invisible.
Reading and writing for Trinity Lutherans was basic: Read something and be able to write intelligently about it. And don't summarize too much. This approach allowed me to foster independent thought and cultivate a critical analysis unique to my own ideas and experiences. To put it plainly -- it let me learn to love reading and writing.
A few years ago, President George Bush and a shamefully acquiescent Congress passed an educational reform called No Child Left Behind.
In addition to being the worst-named piece of education legislation in U.S. history, it is also the biggest failure.
Every teacher, education professor and education major I have spoken to understands NCLB's unfortunate reality. The mere mention of NCLB to anyone in education often provokes rolling of eyes, fits of rage or convulsions, depending on the person's temperament.
The State Report Card is in and some schools have slightly improved while others have slightly declined, which adds up to a big "so what?"
Poor districts continue struggling with even the most elementary tasks. Rich districts assume their children will attend fine colleges. The national dropout rate (now at 30 percent) continues rising, and the Chicago Tribune reported that Illinois colleges are requiring many students to take unaccredited remedial courses to prepare for the freshmen curriculum.
USA Today reported that millions of minority test scores were excluded when tallying many report cards, so as to artificially inflate the results. No Child Left Behind is dependent upon Enron style accounting to appear ... mediocre? What a reform.
Many clueless politicians and pundits blather about the greatness of NCLB. "We need accountability in schools," they say.
Fair enough. Maybe eventually we can have learning in schools. But that simple goal cannot be achieved with a No. 2 pencil and a bureaucratically authored form full of ovals to be completed by a student that has been bombarded by a table of facts provided by administrators praying for high test scores.
Tools of learning consist of a good book and sensible teachers that compel children to think for themselves.
If Washington policymakers cannot comprehend this plain truth, they should enroll in a course at Trinity Lutheran, and write a book report.
David Masciotra
Smoking Ban Latest in Class War
Throughout 2007 and 2008, I wrote a weekly political column for the Herald News in Joliet, Illinois. I will get things started on this blog by posting a few from the archives.
Smoking ban latest in class war
by David Masciotra
The Herald News: November 15, 2007
Criminalization of substances has more to do with class than chemistry. Despite their medical and social consequences, they only become the subject of domestic "wars" once they are associated with an "undesirable" portion of the public.
Prohibition of alcohol was passed because drinking had become a favorite pastime for blue collar immigrants. Puritanical support from religious groups made it possible. However, the laws were only enforced against lower class people. For example, in New York, beer taverns were raided in cities, but rich families were free to drink wine and liquor upstate.
Prohibition failed miserably, and was overturned in 1933, which left agencies and bureaucrats assigned to the mindless task of penalizing alcohol drinkers with nothing to do. The powerful moved its target to marijuana.
Marijuana had become a social habit of some Mexican immigrants and African-Americans, two groups despised and feared by the government and white population. Drunk and high on racism and xenophobia, lawmakers criminalized the drug under a variety of false justifications, ranging from "it makes people insane" to the still popular "gateway drug" theory.
However, acting "Drug Czar" Harry Anslinger in the 1930s was racially direct in his opposition: "Most marijuana smokers are Negroes and Hispanics. It causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes."
Currently, the fact that the penalty for smoking cocaine (crack-- predominantly used in the inner-city) far outweighs that for snorting cocaine (predominantly done by white people) illustrates the race and class basis for the drug war. Marijuana smokers are targeted in ghettos. But for predictable reasons; college dorm rooms are never raided by armed men in uniform.
The class history of the drug war led sociologists to predict the criminalization of tobacco. They noticed smoking rates increasing among the lower class, and declining among upper classes.
Decades later, smoking is illegal indoors and there have been a few cases of people getting fired for smoking off the job.
The devastating health consequences directly tied to smoking are undeniable, and second-hand smoke is also hazardous. However, recent research by Boston University demonstrates that some of the worst effects of second-hand smoke are temporary.
Regardless, it is fascinating how supposed "healthy environment" advocates ignore toxic air and water pollution, widespread use of pesticides in schools -- which have been tied to increases in asthma and neurological disorders -- and never acknowledge the 51 million Americans with no access to health care, but obsess over devoting public funds and law enforcement to policing the social habits of working people.
Disallowing the use of tobacco in schools, hospitals, banks and similar buildings was necessary. However, in January the smoking ban will be extended to all Illinois restaurants and bars, striking a blow against freedom.
Similar bans in New York City and Phoenix have made exceptions for cigar clubs. One wonders if the same leniency will be granted in Chicago. We wouldn't want to impede upon the fun of rich white guys.
Ultimately, this issue smolders in the ashtrays of freedom and the "free market" that is often trumpeted from heavenly heights. If bar owners choose to allow smoking, customers have the choice to drink or not drink there. The market would dictate what areas of the state are friendly to smokers.
"Freedom" and "personal choice" are novel concepts in the background of the "war on drugs" and the newly launched war on smoking. Let those that still believe celebrate with a favorite drink and if they choose, I dare say, a cigarette.
David Masciotra
Smoking ban latest in class war
by David Masciotra
The Herald News: November 15, 2007
Criminalization of substances has more to do with class than chemistry. Despite their medical and social consequences, they only become the subject of domestic "wars" once they are associated with an "undesirable" portion of the public.
Prohibition of alcohol was passed because drinking had become a favorite pastime for blue collar immigrants. Puritanical support from religious groups made it possible. However, the laws were only enforced against lower class people. For example, in New York, beer taverns were raided in cities, but rich families were free to drink wine and liquor upstate.
Prohibition failed miserably, and was overturned in 1933, which left agencies and bureaucrats assigned to the mindless task of penalizing alcohol drinkers with nothing to do. The powerful moved its target to marijuana.
Marijuana had become a social habit of some Mexican immigrants and African-Americans, two groups despised and feared by the government and white population. Drunk and high on racism and xenophobia, lawmakers criminalized the drug under a variety of false justifications, ranging from "it makes people insane" to the still popular "gateway drug" theory.
However, acting "Drug Czar" Harry Anslinger in the 1930s was racially direct in his opposition: "Most marijuana smokers are Negroes and Hispanics. It causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes."
Currently, the fact that the penalty for smoking cocaine (crack-- predominantly used in the inner-city) far outweighs that for snorting cocaine (predominantly done by white people) illustrates the race and class basis for the drug war. Marijuana smokers are targeted in ghettos. But for predictable reasons; college dorm rooms are never raided by armed men in uniform.
The class history of the drug war led sociologists to predict the criminalization of tobacco. They noticed smoking rates increasing among the lower class, and declining among upper classes.
Decades later, smoking is illegal indoors and there have been a few cases of people getting fired for smoking off the job.
The devastating health consequences directly tied to smoking are undeniable, and second-hand smoke is also hazardous. However, recent research by Boston University demonstrates that some of the worst effects of second-hand smoke are temporary.
Regardless, it is fascinating how supposed "healthy environment" advocates ignore toxic air and water pollution, widespread use of pesticides in schools -- which have been tied to increases in asthma and neurological disorders -- and never acknowledge the 51 million Americans with no access to health care, but obsess over devoting public funds and law enforcement to policing the social habits of working people.
Disallowing the use of tobacco in schools, hospitals, banks and similar buildings was necessary. However, in January the smoking ban will be extended to all Illinois restaurants and bars, striking a blow against freedom.
Similar bans in New York City and Phoenix have made exceptions for cigar clubs. One wonders if the same leniency will be granted in Chicago. We wouldn't want to impede upon the fun of rich white guys.
Ultimately, this issue smolders in the ashtrays of freedom and the "free market" that is often trumpeted from heavenly heights. If bar owners choose to allow smoking, customers have the choice to drink or not drink there. The market would dictate what areas of the state are friendly to smokers.
"Freedom" and "personal choice" are novel concepts in the background of the "war on drugs" and the newly launched war on smoking. Let those that still believe celebrate with a favorite drink and if they choose, I dare say, a cigarette.
David Masciotra
This Doesn't Mean People Can Call Me a "Blogger"
Welcome to my blog. I am a writer, cultural critic, and the author of Working On a Dream: The Progressive Political Vision of Bruce Springsteen(Continuum Books, forthcoming January 2010).
The blog will be updated with all news pertaining to my book and me. I will also nail any article, missive, or over-analysis I can to this wall.
Check back often. It might get interesting around here.
David Masciotra
The blog will be updated with all news pertaining to my book and me. I will also nail any article, missive, or over-analysis I can to this wall.
Check back often. It might get interesting around here.
David Masciotra
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