Everyone Wants to be Rich

The impoverished Of America 

are not just those lacking money,

but include those with

poverty of the imagination.

In a war on the new other

house after house 

and building after building

has been abandoned

rural areas are armed and

inner cities are battle zones

beauty is lost.

We have A disaster like no other

For In our quest for gold

We have obliterated distinctions

The land of individual liberty

Has destroyed our differences.

To create identical things

with replaceable workers 

who go home 

on our pocked streets

bloated with cars 

that all look the same 

staying within the lines looking  for

gas stations, restaurants and motels 

made out of ticky tacky.

Screens with 

with hundreds of channels, 

are unable to show us 

anything to help 

build Our dreams 

instead they manipulate us

to be a part of the collective.

slaves to the whims of those who

control all so that they can live like kings

and we their modern vassals.

Education and Politics

I keep hearing politicians in New Mexico talk about a need for vocational training and the limitations of a college education. One candidate even spoke about universities restricting the majors that are available based upon the ability to pay high enough wages to pay back their loans.  There was an indication that vocational education would cut costs for universities.

These are certainly wrong headed notions about the purpose of universities and the cost of vocational training. All majors can produce enough money to pay back student loans. No one needs to start at the top of a pay scale. They are also wrong headed notions about freedom of choice.  Each person needs to learn to create their own plan for their future, not fulfill somebody else's plan.

What we need to do for education is stop preparing children for college or work. We need to prepare them for life. How to establish relationships and how to manage a household. People should know how machines and things like water systems work. In this way they will learn what they need to know for their future, not the society's past.

To accomplish this, mandatory education should be complete after 10 years of schooling. Students should know enough academic skills at this point to choose a direction to explore. Secondary education should allow them to explore the world of work and academia to learn what is possible and make choices about their future that suits their needs.

The best thing politicians can do is promise to fund an education system that allows for personal growth and development, not one that fits children into boxes and determine their future. Margaret Mead once famously said, "children learn what they need to know for the future." Let us accommodate that idea, not one that determines their future