We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Government Favored Oil Companies Over Shelter For Children

Click here to access article by Pam Brammann from The Progressive Press.

People all across the US are starting to realize what corporate rule means. In this piece the author points to a lack of concern for the lives of children in Oklahoma. 

Under the drive to pare down teaching to a factory-like system , a Chicago teacher can no longer function in a school system that dis-empowers teachers in favor of mandated teaching plans that prepare students to take standardized tests. Aside from the immediate benefits to computer technology corporations, the orientation of this type of education is to prepare young people to work in corporate environments in which what they do, how they do it, and what they think about what they are doing will be carefully controlled by their masters in the One Percent. 

In my own state of Washington people are seeing the effects of cutbacks everywhere in public services: state and national parks charge fees and limiting visits, bridges collapsing and deteriorating infrastructure, and more young people can no longer afford higher tuition and fees for higher education.