They're at it again: GOP wants to privatize Social Security

In an article in the Nation, it was stated,

Privatization of Social Security, a longtime GOP priority, was the first focus of former President Bush and the Republican Congressional majorities the last time they won an election cycle—in 2004. And, with they scheme to lock in Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy, the only way Republicans will avoid creating the largest deficits in American history is by ending the nation's commitment to its seniors and to its most vulnerable citizens—by gutting Social Security and functional Medicare and Medicaid programs.
More http://bit.ly/dnMQHP

In my opinion, the first thing we need to do to protect Social Security is to immediately force the entire Congress to fully participate in it. To claim Congress has a moral right to meddle with Social Security at the same time their own golden pension plans are sacrosanct is appalling and indicative of their own closed-door corruption. What kind of corruption, of sweetheart deals do they have? Post info about congressional corruption on Wikileaks.org

Distracted Driving?

Oprah has attempted to address the problem of distracted driving by inviting people to sign the no cell phone pledge. Certainly, any distraction should be minimized when driving, including eating burgers with shredded lettuce (it always falls out) or disciplining screaming children in the back seat.

But what if a significant portion of distracted diving is actually due to other factors, such as one's staggering efforts to get back on track after continually being thrown under the bus by bullies?

It is my belief that we must accurately describe all of the contributors to a problem before we impose global solutions.

For my own experiences and thoughts about the effects of bullying on my own ability to be an alert citizen, please visit my blog, Bully Fatigue (www.bullyfatigue.wordpress.com)

Finding joy as a respite from bullying

This morning, I longingly looked out the window at my poor garden, overgrown with five-foot tall weeds. The weeds are so pervasive, it is difficult to see the pink and white stargazer lilies, blue balloon flowers, and purple coneflowers that have somehow hidden themselves from the voracious deer’s nightly feeding frenzies. And then, I saw it. An emerald glimmer of beauty darting from one orange lily to another. A tiny hummingbird, and then a florescent yellow goldfinch, visiting my garden which only moments before seemed hopelessly, irretrievably choked off from anything resembling its former self as a source of joy.

I remember how this garden evolved. When my sons were small, I would tend this garden after work as my boys played in the front yard and sidewalk. This garden was always known as "Mom's garden" and it grew like my sons: starting out as dreams hatched while poring over January's blitz of garden catalogs, then planting the tiny bulbs, seeds, and plants, full of promise of what they would become. Despite my organic battles with slugs, rabbits, chipmunks, and squirrels, despite my battles with the school district to provide appropriate educations for my sons, despite my desperate entreaties to prevent my husband from compulsively borrowing yet more money to buy his custom-made shirts while continuing to pay off a corrupt contractor bent on cheating us with an addition that would never be completed, my garden and my sons grew into sources of great joy. I allowed myself to feel pride as my neighbors would compliment me on my garden, bursting with color and surprise pockets of flowers that enticed Monarchs, hummingbirds, and goldfinches. I allowed myself pride as my growing sons achieved in school, sports, and Boy Scouts. Ashamed of my inability to have a home life like my neighbors, I hid my efforts to single-handedly rebuild the kitchen, to patch kicked in doors, to save money while he went off on "guys only" scuba trips to Bonaire, and to fend off the verbal detritus of never being "good-enough."

And so, the festering winter of family dysfunction and divorce that had gradually sneaked into my life took over like dandelions in a yard during vacation. Shoved out, locked out, starved out, and cut off from adequate funds to defend myself in court and to pay my obligations, my garden and my relationships with my sons lay fallow. Occasional fleeting pockets of past joy would peek out as perennial flowers or furtive get-togethers with my sons tried to push their way through the choking weeds of dysfunction to sparkle in the sun before being stomped down by a neighbor's dog-do or a nasty Narcissistic communication from the Ex.

How can it still be such a Siberian winter when it is ninety degrees outside? Even though my ex took essentially everything, the Courts still seem bent on perpetuating, bent on enabling the continued denial of equal treatment, denying due process to those who, like me, do not have funds to fend off scorched earth divorce tactics. Friends ask how this could happen, aren't there laws to protect women in 26 year marriages? Aren’t there domestic abuse laws? Aren’t there laws preventing him from taking essentially all of the assets and retirement funds? What about the contributions I made to the marriage? How can the Court allow the father of my children to get away with taking everything, to get away with continued coercion, to get away with enforcing an unconscionable agreement forced upon me after continually denying me time and funds to hire adequate representation to protect my rights in court?

I only know that our legal system has become so inaccessible to those who don't have deep pockets to fend off abusive legal maneuvers that innocent people, coerced into confessions by the John Burges of the world, sit on death row awaiting vindication. I only know that the Goldman Sachs of the country can avoid admitting guilt as they pay a fine that is a mere pittance of the funds they stole. I only know that students with diverse learning needs only get an adequate education if their parents can afford private tutoring. I only know that women who are abused are only protected if they have their own deep pockets, their own funds to hire top-notch legal teams complete with public relations savvy.

I have come to believe that protective laws without adequate enforcement are worse than no laws at all. Reasonable people believe that, because there are protective laws, if a spouse is denied an equal share of the marital estate or a suspect is convicted of a crime, then it must be due to clear-cut fault or guilt. Claims of coercion are ignored and lives are forever ruined. Only if reasonable people, such as the Innocence Project at Northwestern, persevere to challenge the John Burges of the world, are convictions overturned, but many lives are forever ruined because of our two-tiered system of justice. Most of those who are cheated out of justice in divorce courts are told their only choice is to walk away and start over. Corrupt divorce lawyers, pockets bulging with family assets seized through churning cases, are never reported and move on to the next case.

Unfortunately, my ex is apparently not done with me yet. It seems he will not be satisfied until he has kept his promise to make me destitute and not satisfied unless I am homeless. He continues to use his attorneys to prevent me from reclaiming what belonged to me, to refuse to uphold his end of the unconscionable agreement, and continue his legalized harassment.

However, I also know that in the middle of this July day, this ninety degree winter of domestic abuse, I found a fleeting pocket of joy today. As I longingly looked out the window at my poor garden, overgrown with five-foot tall weeds, I saw that fleeting pocket of joy. The weeds are so pervasive, it is difficult to see the pink and white stargazer lilies, blue balloon flowers, and purple coneflowers that have somehow hidden themselves from the voracious deer’s nightly feeding frenzies. Right there, I saw it. An emerald glimmer of beauty darting from one orange lily to another. A tiny hummingbird, and then a florescent yellow goldfinch, visiting my garden which only moments before seemed hopelessly, irretrievably choked off from anything resembling its former self as a source of joy.

I must remind myself to nurture my garden, to hold onto those fleeting pockets of joy in relationships, and realize that, despite my current life of destitution, I AM capable of new ways to nurture healthy relationships with my sons, of creating things of beauty, and giving to others to make this world a better place.

Stop the bullying: Arizona school principal's letter tells parents their children are lazy or stupid

Today, I read an Associated Press article posted on Education Week website where a principal put in writing what parents report they have heard in meetings and via telephone...

An Arizona school principal who penned a sarcastic letter that chided parents for children who were either "too lazy or too stupid" to complete their assignments in class was suspended after the missive was mistakenly sent home.

"The math we do is really easy," said the letter from Litchfield Elementary School principal Ron Sterr. "If your child is either too lazy or too stupid to finish it in class, I'm sending it home so that you can work with them and judge for yourself whether it is laziness or idiocy that inhibits your child's progress."

Ron Sterr has called each parent individually to apologize and take responsibility, the Litchfield school district said.
More http://tinyurl.com/ycx2vcf

As a parent, I have been the recipient of such language from a teacher at our local high school. When I reported these hostile comments to the administration, nothing was done despite my multiple requests.

Often, we chastise parents for failing to teach their children the morals to prevent bullying. It is my opinion that many school administrations' anti-bullying curricula is primarily "do as I say and not as I do."

Do you need help in determining what your child needs to learn and help advocating for appropriate educational support and curricula in school? visit my website at http://www.techpsychologist.com

Victory via the secret ballot: "No way!" to New Trier Referendum

For those who said you can't prevail against powerful bullies, I quote Margaret Meade:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

Because individual community members from New Trier township dared to join with others to demand transparency by the administration and school board in the secretive process, dared to speak up about the hidden costs of the referendum, and dared to expose the facade that our community members are unaffected by the current economic realities, this referendum was soundly defeated (by over 62%) in the private voting booth.
Some of my remaining questions are these:

1. How many taxpayer dollars were spent on developing, promoting, and other expenses associated with this boondoggle? Did the school board approve of these expenses during an open board meeting?
2. How many taxpayer dollars were spent on political advertising for support of the referendum? Is this an allowable expense?
3. Were taxpayer dollars spent for attorney fees for this referendum? If so, did the board approve this expense?
4. When the school asked former school board presidents to come out in favor of this referendum, were there violations of the Illinois Open Meetings Act?
5. Were there other violations of the Open Meetings Act in promoting this referendum?
6. Do the current administrators for New Trier live within the New Trier district, and if not, why not?
7. Who made the decision to place this referendum on the ballot despite the community survey that indicated that more than half of the community was against this building project? Did the school board approve this referendum with full knowledge that the school's own survey indicated the community was against it?
8. How much do the current administrators pay for property taxes at their own residences?

I hope that we can harness some of the vibrant community energy into building community involvement in improving the quality of the education itself for every one of our students (not just those destined to Princeton) in OUR schools. A "successful" huge empire-building project doesn't matter one iota if we leave behind even one student (who may be a diverse learner), segregated in a team-taught class with others "of his own kind." After all, the administrators don't own the schools, the community owns the schools. The school board is supposed to represent all the members of the community, not the administration's personal desires.

Vote No against the New Trier referendum

The latest bullies on the block seem to be the administration of New Trier High School. Despite a survey conducted by New Trier (and only released when threatened by a FOI request) indicating that more than half of the New Trier residents were against such a costly renovation of the high school, the administration is spending oodles of tax dollars to promote a fiscally unsound project on the backs of New Trier residents whose property values have plunged so significantly that they cannot sell their homes to escape the exorbitant property taxes.

Here is a link to the survey commissioned by New Trier with results about community sentiment regarding this plan: http://www.newtrierchoices.org/NewTrierChoices/Survey_Summary.html


It is a frightening thing to speak up against well-funded and/or well-connected bullies. Character assassinations of those who dare to speak out about injustices in our communities seem to be the status quo for those in power.

Growing up, my family valued public education so much that we always voted in favor of EVERY school referendum. The harm that New Trier is causing by promoting an irresponsible empire-building referendum is great: it is my belief that a substantial portion of voters may, like me, consider voting against future referenda because of a loss of trust in the school administrators due to this particular referendum request.

Families who still have children at New Trier have expressed concern that the administration will find ways to retaliate against their children if they dare to speak out against the referendum. I have to admit that I may not have dared to have such a public face in speaking out, if my own three sons had not already graduated from New Trier. Our communities are full of families who are afraid to speak out, afraid of of the threats if they dare to vote against this fiscally irresponsible construction plan.

Can you afford to speak up? You can not afford to not speak up.

Martin Niemoeller stated

In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.

If you care about your community and neighborhood but you don't speak up now, you may not have any caring neighbors remaining when they come after you, your neighborhood, or your home because you can no longer afford to fund their taxpayer-funded boondoggle.

Contact the folks at http://www.NewTrierChoices.org for more information. If the entire community stands together to force the administration to go back to the drawing board and conduct a study of present and future needs of the entire high school district, within the constraints of current economic realities, community desires, and with full input from the community, we can prevail in taking back community control of our school. After all, it IS our school, not the administrators'.