# 102
What’s ahead…
IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray
January 24, 2012
There is something very soothing about soft light in the morning. After a long, dark night you awaken to or greet that soft light as you begin your day. So, too, is the rebirth of ideals long buried under political rhetoric.
If you have the time, read The Federalist Papers and The Five-Thousand-Year Leap.
Nothing is quite so amazing as delving into the original wording of our Founding Fathers and developing a finer appreciation for limited government.
What we have seen over the last three years is precisely what the Colonists fought to escape: over-arching government that, in laymen’s terms, stomped all over personal rights and denied liberty to citizens.
Moving forward, we enter a critical period of time in which we will point this country in the direction of smaller government or lapse into an abyss of huge government that completely skirts the basis for our US Constitution.
When you begin to hear “what’s fair” as an excuse for taking money from those who earn it and giving it to those who do not, you enter another realm: socialism. We don’t teach the basics of governmental systems in our schools anymore. Ask any young person what a socialist is and you won’t get much of an answer. Socialists appeal to groups they deem “disenfranchised,” yet it is our own government that continues to fuel their dependency.
I once had a great professor of African American history. She lamented that the basic building blocks of black society disappeared with integration and the huge slide into one parent families came when unmarried women could get money for dependent children. Before these seminal events, nearly all black families were units of mothers, fathers and children.
Poverty was a way of life for many, but within their own neighborhoods there were black merchants and professionals who served as role models for the children. When blacks with sufficient financial resources could move to the suburbs, the stratification virtually disappeared and what was left was not pretty. Once vibrant, busy areas fell into decay and breeding grounds for drugs, gangs and trouble.
I’m not sure there is an easy answer to this ghastly situation, but it will not self-correct. We are on the third generation of children of whom a good percentage has never seen a father in the home or even one parent go to work. Money comes in a government check and the schools are decrepit. Say what you wish about education, when black schools were a fact of life, many had faculties that rivaled colleges. I give as an example, Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis. That school, at its zenith, had more PhDs on its staff than any school in the state.
With the demise of the neighborhood school, in the wake of busing, parents were hard put to attend functions and the sense of belonging was gone.
Today, we see charter schools springing up in major cities, some of which are sponsored by corporations. They are successful because they fly in the face of public schools. Parents participate in lotteries just to get the chance to send their children to them. Uniforms are standard. Students face high expectations from teachers and administrators. Pride is endemic and success follows in its wake.
When we dumbed down education, we sentenced millions of children to bleak futures. Use two letters to spot huge gaps in what should be a basic education today. H is for history. History is cyclical. So, too, is human behavior. With a good understanding of history, one has the ability to spot red flags in current events and see what may be around the corner.
The other letter is E. Economics is much more than the old cliché guns and butter. Economics instills the importance of work and reward — of saving and establishing good credit — and a basic understanding of banking and finance.
We have lost our way educationally. With poor educations, voters are uninformed. You figure it out. The aging population with a good background in history and economics is dying out, and with it the common sense they live by. Move for early education — and not just in the ABCs. Move to infuse economics and history from kindergarten forward. Teach saving and the benefits of savings. It may take a generation, but without it, we are doomed. Think about it.