It hasn't been a week since the Republican Party began serving as the majority in the House of Representatives and they already look absolutely befuddled.
For example, some elected members of the GOP are choosing to fund-raise instead of attending the official swearing in of the newly elected. Other members are reading the cliff note version of the U.S. Constitution and clearly do not understand the concept of its meaning. The Speaker of the House is boldly challenging, without any merit, the Office of Management and Budget when the non-partisan department factually announced that the GOP's crusade to repeal health care will increase the nation's deficit to the tune of $230,000,000,000. Factor in the mix of the members of the Tea Party and you get a weird warping version of the blind leading the hysterically blind.
This week the Republican Party appeared to look dazed and confused like a duck hit with a rock. This is not a party with many (if any) intelligent, insightful, and innovative members dedicated to building a Republic with a robust infrastructure. Yes! There was a time when the GOP had members that served the will of their constituents and they also knew that "corporations were not people." Today's "conservative" party resembles a lost episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
The Tea/Republican Party members love saying, "The American People spoke by voting them in." An area that these folks have mastered is motivating "weak-minded" Americans to go on shooting rampages and the art of mendacity. Most Americans didn't vote and some of us are all too familiar that when voter turnout on an election day is low--the GOP is a position to be victorious. Stop saying the American people spoke on November 2 by electing you. It’s not true and it’s also pathetic.
Until the citizenry finally cast their fears aside and elect officials at all levels of government that will provide opportunities for every American--The era of "clown-ism" will continue to infect what's left of our floundering democratic society.
"Progressives will bring balance to the Republic."
Anthony P. Johnson
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Thursday, January 6, 2011
“The Republic is Progressive”
• Support for the Public Option: 72% of Americans
• Support to repeal DADT: 78% of Americans
• Opposing “Citizens United” Decision: 80% of Americans
• Support of how to tackle the national defict: Raise taxes on the wealthy: 61% of Americans
Citizens of the Republic; you are Progressives! Embrace your progressiveness.
“Progressives will bring balance to the Republic.”
Anthony P. Johnson
• Support to repeal DADT: 78% of Americans
• Opposing “Citizens United” Decision: 80% of Americans
• Support of how to tackle the national defict: Raise taxes on the wealthy: 61% of Americans
Citizens of the Republic; you are Progressives! Embrace your progressiveness.
“Progressives will bring balance to the Republic.”
Anthony P. Johnson
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
“21st Century Re-Segregation Plan: Wrongly Classifying Students as Special Needs.”
During my tenure as a student in the public school system in the 1970's and 1980's, if I or any number of classmates required additional assistance in reading, writing, or arithmetic we'd receive tutoring to improve in the subject, and we went on with life. However, fast forward to the 1990's, and today more youth, disproportionately African Americans, are being labeled as "special needs" students in which academic achievement is not expected from them.
In the September 2010, the Guardian noted that the number of children said to have 'mild' special needs had increased from 14% to 18% in the past seven years. In some cases, the report described 15-16 year old students who were said to have special needs were at risk of falling short of their GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) grades. After receiving the special needs classification, the students received additional mentoring from senior staff' and improved in their schoolwork. It was suggested that, rather than wrongly classify or 'label,' students as having special needs, it's suggested that better teaching be required. This is not a new phenomenon of the claim that more students are receiving diagnoses of learning disabilities.
In 2011, it might seem more the norm, or nothing so remarkable, for a child to have disorders that represent the alphabet soup of ADHD, ADD, PDD-NOS, ED, LD, SPD, and on and on and to require social services in the form of speech therapy, behavioral specialist, occupational therapy and therapeutic staff support. In the Republic it’s more common to ask, “Hey, does your child have a diagnosis,” than not. Additionally, it is easy to say that students the are classified as special needs lack parental involvement but this doctrine is a generalization that we can no longer afford nor accept because what is clearly occurring is school officials have decided that it is convenient and cost effective--for them to stamp the “seal of special needs” on a child rather than provide the resources to assist them to improve academically and socially.
For example, the parents and students in suburban Philadelphia filed suit against their school district for classifying black children as special education students improperly (Blunt et al v. Lower Merion School District). In July 2007, the African American families filed a class action lawsuit in federal court and claimed the district had failed to provide a proper education to their children. According to Sonja Kerr of the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia and director of the organization's Disabilities Rights Project, "The district is essentially wrongly using its special-education programs to resegregate their schools...Teachers and other staff often have unfairly low expectations for minority students, and they also often misperceive cultural differences as disabilities. What we hear from families is that this has been going on for generations." Those attitudes and misunderstandings lead directly to the racial disparity you see in Lower Merion schools. LMSD has definitely been aware of this problem since 1997 when it first created committees to address the problem, but the system has not improved."
Conversely, no matter how school administrators attempt to "juke" the statistics, the illiteracy and dropout rate among our youth is catastrophic. Further, one out of every 100 children are wrongly being branded special needs because they may require additional academic enrichment in one or two subjects but are relatively good students academically and socially and don’t warrant the stigma. To be issued the title “special needs” it might as well be stated: "If you require any additional academic and social assistance, there will be in essence no opportunities for you...not now or ever!"
“Progressives will bring balance to the Republic.”
Anthony P. Johnson
In the September 2010, the Guardian noted that the number of children said to have 'mild' special needs had increased from 14% to 18% in the past seven years. In some cases, the report described 15-16 year old students who were said to have special needs were at risk of falling short of their GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) grades. After receiving the special needs classification, the students received additional mentoring from senior staff' and improved in their schoolwork. It was suggested that, rather than wrongly classify or 'label,' students as having special needs, it's suggested that better teaching be required. This is not a new phenomenon of the claim that more students are receiving diagnoses of learning disabilities.
In 2011, it might seem more the norm, or nothing so remarkable, for a child to have disorders that represent the alphabet soup of ADHD, ADD, PDD-NOS, ED, LD, SPD, and on and on and to require social services in the form of speech therapy, behavioral specialist, occupational therapy and therapeutic staff support. In the Republic it’s more common to ask, “Hey, does your child have a diagnosis,” than not. Additionally, it is easy to say that students the are classified as special needs lack parental involvement but this doctrine is a generalization that we can no longer afford nor accept because what is clearly occurring is school officials have decided that it is convenient and cost effective--for them to stamp the “seal of special needs” on a child rather than provide the resources to assist them to improve academically and socially.
For example, the parents and students in suburban Philadelphia filed suit against their school district for classifying black children as special education students improperly (Blunt et al v. Lower Merion School District). In July 2007, the African American families filed a class action lawsuit in federal court and claimed the district had failed to provide a proper education to their children. According to Sonja Kerr of the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia and director of the organization's Disabilities Rights Project, "The district is essentially wrongly using its special-education programs to resegregate their schools...Teachers and other staff often have unfairly low expectations for minority students, and they also often misperceive cultural differences as disabilities. What we hear from families is that this has been going on for generations." Those attitudes and misunderstandings lead directly to the racial disparity you see in Lower Merion schools. LMSD has definitely been aware of this problem since 1997 when it first created committees to address the problem, but the system has not improved."
Conversely, no matter how school administrators attempt to "juke" the statistics, the illiteracy and dropout rate among our youth is catastrophic. Further, one out of every 100 children are wrongly being branded special needs because they may require additional academic enrichment in one or two subjects but are relatively good students academically and socially and don’t warrant the stigma. To be issued the title “special needs” it might as well be stated: "If you require any additional academic and social assistance, there will be in essence no opportunities for you...not now or ever!"
“Progressives will bring balance to the Republic.”
Anthony P. Johnson
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
When?
When shall the Republic fall to some transatlantic adversary? Will they in their path bring death and destruction across one of our metropolitan cities or some quiet town in America? Will they trample across the Appalachian Mountains or replenish their war machines in the Ohio or Mississippi Rivers?
Never!
All the armies of Iran and North Korea couldn't by force touch the sands in neither Las Vegas, nor feel the cool breeze from the Pacific on a summer evening in California, or listen to the soft rustling of the wheat fields in Kansas and Oregon.
If the final chapter is the destruction of America, it will be the citizenry that will be its zealous writer concluding its existence.
"Progressives will bring balance to the Republic."
Anthony P. Johnson
Never!
All the armies of Iran and North Korea couldn't by force touch the sands in neither Las Vegas, nor feel the cool breeze from the Pacific on a summer evening in California, or listen to the soft rustling of the wheat fields in Kansas and Oregon.
If the final chapter is the destruction of America, it will be the citizenry that will be its zealous writer concluding its existence.
"Progressives will bring balance to the Republic."
Anthony P. Johnson
Thursday, December 23, 2010
“Welfare Reform…We Can Be the Outcome”
It’s time--yes, it’s time for you and me to address welfare reform. We continue having a discussion on reform, and yet nothing is truly been implemented to change the system. We must begin today to create and implement tangible solutions of a growing concern. Of course we have debated that fact that public assistance was not meant to be a permanent form of income; however, it becomes a way of life for certain people of all nationalities in society.
I advocate for public assistance to aid the less fortunate in society, but more specifically, only people who are unable to work due to illness or mentally challenged. Understanding that jobs are limited at this time in America and incomes among the masses are horrendous, if there are people receiving welfare, they must do community service work in order to continue to receive assistance.
This could include:
1. Classroom aides in public schools.
2. Aides in hospitals, nursing homes, hospices.
3. Aides in after school programs for children.
4. Supports at playgrounds and recreation centers doing activities with children.
5. Clean-up crews in neighborhoods where there is decay.
6. Support for senior citizens who need shopping or assistance in getting to a doctor.
To ensure that public assistance is effectively implemented I also advocate that we include:
1. Home visits required for all forms of assistance.
2. Increase the salaries of social workers and advocates.
3. Proof of community service employment or proof of attendance at a place of education (GED program, college, vocational school).
4. If a person needs assistance because he or she does not receive child support, we must effectively create and implement a system to better help collect that child support.
Conversely, this will be a win-win situation. Let’s be honest, Philadelphia and other cities in the Republic have eliminated so many of these support programs from state budgets. If people are required to work to earn public assistance, they gain a work ethic. No one would get a free ride, pure and simple. Just imagine how many positive benefits would come out of this form of welfare reform.
This is the one hope of doing away with “generational welfare” and the abuse of welfare funds for people who choose not to work, individuals suffering from drugs/alcohol addiction, as well as those who practice irresponsible parenting. The change has to begin somewhere. This is where it should begin.
“Progressives will bring balance to the Republic.”
Anthony P. Johnson
I advocate for public assistance to aid the less fortunate in society, but more specifically, only people who are unable to work due to illness or mentally challenged. Understanding that jobs are limited at this time in America and incomes among the masses are horrendous, if there are people receiving welfare, they must do community service work in order to continue to receive assistance.
This could include:
1. Classroom aides in public schools.
2. Aides in hospitals, nursing homes, hospices.
3. Aides in after school programs for children.
4. Supports at playgrounds and recreation centers doing activities with children.
5. Clean-up crews in neighborhoods where there is decay.
6. Support for senior citizens who need shopping or assistance in getting to a doctor.
To ensure that public assistance is effectively implemented I also advocate that we include:
1. Home visits required for all forms of assistance.
2. Increase the salaries of social workers and advocates.
3. Proof of community service employment or proof of attendance at a place of education (GED program, college, vocational school).
4. If a person needs assistance because he or she does not receive child support, we must effectively create and implement a system to better help collect that child support.
Conversely, this will be a win-win situation. Let’s be honest, Philadelphia and other cities in the Republic have eliminated so many of these support programs from state budgets. If people are required to work to earn public assistance, they gain a work ethic. No one would get a free ride, pure and simple. Just imagine how many positive benefits would come out of this form of welfare reform.
This is the one hope of doing away with “generational welfare” and the abuse of welfare funds for people who choose not to work, individuals suffering from drugs/alcohol addiction, as well as those who practice irresponsible parenting. The change has to begin somewhere. This is where it should begin.
“Progressives will bring balance to the Republic.”
Anthony P. Johnson
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
“How the Citizenry Perverted Welfare Benefits.”
In this country, why are there some people receiving welfare benefits who think they are entitled to keep having children knowing that they cannot afford to support these children financially and socially attend to the children's needs?
Public assistance was created to aid senior citizens and other Americans that were going through a difficult financial period. Welfare was not implemented to become a cultural way of life--but unfortunately, that is exactly what it has become.
What we've been witnessing over the last three decades is how welfare has created a generation of families who have become dependent on it. Are we to believe that over the last 30 years there haven’t been any effective academic and economic resources available for those receiving assistance to become self-sufficient to provide for their families? This addiction-like mentality to welfare has made some of the citizenry 21st century slaves. To be blunt, this is a national disgrace!
Several weeks ago, my students and I viewed the movie "Precious," and at least half the student population knows an individual like the mother of Precious. Male citizens of Caucasian American, African American, and Latino American also increase the rolls on public assistance--young and able bodied men. Yet, we've seen many of these males have two or more children while receiving benefits. So, if people cannot support their families, should they continue producing children for tax payers to support? There are intelligent and tangible solutions to addressing the welfare issue such as educational and entrepreneur resources made available to everyone. But sadly some refuse to seek those opportunities.
Immediate action needs to be taken by lawmakers stopping this insanity of welfare. If people choose to have children while they receive benefits, then the responsibility of the support of these children must revert back to the parents, not the tax payers. Don't reward "welfare pregnancies" by increasing the subsidies for additional children. Instead of giving cash assistance to the parents of children who often abuse it, let the government give housing vouchers instead of cash. Let food stamps for welfare recipients be limited to healthy food similar to the way WIC does it instead of loading children up on sugar and soda pop creating hyperactivity in children so that they can't focus on their school work.
Children who are born into generational welfare also suffer from the symptoms of poverty which include physical illnesses such as asthma, learning disabilities, and emotional problems. Children born from drug users suffer neurological problems creating a myriad of health and behavioral problems taxing the cost of medical care and behavioral specialists. If people are not able to take care of themselves, how can they possibly take on the responsibility and extra burden of caring for more children? Quite frankly, they can't. They need to be discouraged--not encouraged.
Let me be perfectly clear--Public assistance was created to aid senior citizens and other Americans that were going through temporary financial hardship of no fault of their own and they should continue to be aided. However, for those that think they are entitled to these benefits are misguided and are perverting a system created to help Americans in need.
"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance."---Cicero, 55 BC
“Progressives will bring balance to the Republic.”
Anthony P. Johnson
Public assistance was created to aid senior citizens and other Americans that were going through a difficult financial period. Welfare was not implemented to become a cultural way of life--but unfortunately, that is exactly what it has become.
What we've been witnessing over the last three decades is how welfare has created a generation of families who have become dependent on it. Are we to believe that over the last 30 years there haven’t been any effective academic and economic resources available for those receiving assistance to become self-sufficient to provide for their families? This addiction-like mentality to welfare has made some of the citizenry 21st century slaves. To be blunt, this is a national disgrace!
Several weeks ago, my students and I viewed the movie "Precious," and at least half the student population knows an individual like the mother of Precious. Male citizens of Caucasian American, African American, and Latino American also increase the rolls on public assistance--young and able bodied men. Yet, we've seen many of these males have two or more children while receiving benefits. So, if people cannot support their families, should they continue producing children for tax payers to support? There are intelligent and tangible solutions to addressing the welfare issue such as educational and entrepreneur resources made available to everyone. But sadly some refuse to seek those opportunities.
Immediate action needs to be taken by lawmakers stopping this insanity of welfare. If people choose to have children while they receive benefits, then the responsibility of the support of these children must revert back to the parents, not the tax payers. Don't reward "welfare pregnancies" by increasing the subsidies for additional children. Instead of giving cash assistance to the parents of children who often abuse it, let the government give housing vouchers instead of cash. Let food stamps for welfare recipients be limited to healthy food similar to the way WIC does it instead of loading children up on sugar and soda pop creating hyperactivity in children so that they can't focus on their school work.
Children who are born into generational welfare also suffer from the symptoms of poverty which include physical illnesses such as asthma, learning disabilities, and emotional problems. Children born from drug users suffer neurological problems creating a myriad of health and behavioral problems taxing the cost of medical care and behavioral specialists. If people are not able to take care of themselves, how can they possibly take on the responsibility and extra burden of caring for more children? Quite frankly, they can't. They need to be discouraged--not encouraged.
Let me be perfectly clear--Public assistance was created to aid senior citizens and other Americans that were going through temporary financial hardship of no fault of their own and they should continue to be aided. However, for those that think they are entitled to these benefits are misguided and are perverting a system created to help Americans in need.
"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance."---Cicero, 55 BC
“Progressives will bring balance to the Republic.”
Anthony P. Johnson
Thursday, December 16, 2010
“Entitlement Be Damned.” Part I
Why do some Americans believe that they are entitled to stuff? At first glance you might be thinking “Yeah! Why do poor people always think they are entitled to stuff?” Although there are some middle class, low-income, and poor citizens that embrace the philosophy of “something for nothing;” some of America’s wealthiest have also purchased a ticket to this rhetoric. We are not entitled to anything other than--in the words of Anthony “Tony” Soprano“ informing his wife, “You’re entitled to sh*t.”
1. Why does the GOP feel the wealthiest of Americans are entitled to a tax cut?
2. Why do some Americans believe that if they make $8,000,000 or more they should not have to pay any taxes?
3. Why does the GOP feel they are entitled to repeal the 14th, 16th, and 17th amendments to the U.S. Constitution?
4. Why does the GOP feel that the 9/11 first responder's bill is yet another “entitlement” bill aimed at helping lazy Americans?
5. Why does the GOP believe the only entitlements Americans need is to serve the banks?
6. Why does the GOP believe they are entitled to send American jobs oversees?
We have elected officials that believe that they are entitled to go on vacation without first addressing the issues that affect millions of citizens and even though many Americans are starving for the basic necessities—well, then they are entitled to their suffering.
As America’s public school system continues to fade further into oblivion, school administrators believe they are entitled to request and receive unlimited amounts of funding to fix the infinite amount of decaying infrastructure the schools face--despite the fact that they are already receiving huge amounts of tax dollars with minuscule academic and social results for the students. At the higher education level, some students believe they are entitled to receive a passing grade in their courses just for showing up to class. Huh?
Why do some middle class, working poor and poor Americans believe that the American government should take care of them instead of demanding that the government provide them with effective academic and economical resources in order to achieve economic prosperity for their families and the nation? America has now become the "entitlement country" of the world. When did the origin of this behavior arise? There is still the “can do spirit” in America and when given the opportunity, the citizenry has produced marvelously while others continue to wallow in self-pity and choose not to partake in the opportunities that are available to them.
The “entitlement toxin” is infecting the fabric of the nation, and only the injection of the antidote of self-motivation, self-worth, and the entrepreneur spirit can cure the Republic of this infection.
“Progressives will bring balance to the Republic.”
Anthony P. Johnson, Progressive
1. Why does the GOP feel the wealthiest of Americans are entitled to a tax cut?
2. Why do some Americans believe that if they make $8,000,000 or more they should not have to pay any taxes?
3. Why does the GOP feel they are entitled to repeal the 14th, 16th, and 17th amendments to the U.S. Constitution?
4. Why does the GOP feel that the 9/11 first responder's bill is yet another “entitlement” bill aimed at helping lazy Americans?
5. Why does the GOP believe the only entitlements Americans need is to serve the banks?
6. Why does the GOP believe they are entitled to send American jobs oversees?
We have elected officials that believe that they are entitled to go on vacation without first addressing the issues that affect millions of citizens and even though many Americans are starving for the basic necessities—well, then they are entitled to their suffering.
As America’s public school system continues to fade further into oblivion, school administrators believe they are entitled to request and receive unlimited amounts of funding to fix the infinite amount of decaying infrastructure the schools face--despite the fact that they are already receiving huge amounts of tax dollars with minuscule academic and social results for the students. At the higher education level, some students believe they are entitled to receive a passing grade in their courses just for showing up to class. Huh?
Why do some middle class, working poor and poor Americans believe that the American government should take care of them instead of demanding that the government provide them with effective academic and economical resources in order to achieve economic prosperity for their families and the nation? America has now become the "entitlement country" of the world. When did the origin of this behavior arise? There is still the “can do spirit” in America and when given the opportunity, the citizenry has produced marvelously while others continue to wallow in self-pity and choose not to partake in the opportunities that are available to them.
The “entitlement toxin” is infecting the fabric of the nation, and only the injection of the antidote of self-motivation, self-worth, and the entrepreneur spirit can cure the Republic of this infection.
“Progressives will bring balance to the Republic.”
Anthony P. Johnson, Progressive
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