Small Steps and Christmas

I’m happy to see that Jackie Gingrich Cushman is becoming a regular at Townhall.com.

Below is a link to her most recent article.
-----link-----
http://townhall.com/columnists/JackieGingrichCushman/2008/12/07/its_still_a_wonderful_life
---------------
It is eerily similar to the article I just wrote over on my Live Dangerously Blog the day before.
-----link-----
http://conservativeinmuskegon.blogspot.com/2008/12/happy-friend-20000-happy-party.html
---------------
I think we both used the same source material. Now if I could only write as well I would stand a chance.

Jackie in her article says. “A reframing of our thoughts away from monetary and economic matters might help remind us as well that there is much good in life and much to be happy about.”

How do we reframe our thoughts? We all don’t have an “Oldbody” willing to fake a suicide to stir us to action. Some of us are too far gone to try to save anyone anyway, we may find ourselves saying something like; “it’s not our job”, let the government to it“. Or “Boy if that guy lives will he ever have a great law suit against the city.”

Well the answer lies in “small steps”. I’ve blogged entirely too much about that already, but it was nice to see someone else with the same thoughts. It’s coincidences like this that rekindle my hope.

The idea I want to explore is how does our party become the party through which we can learn to take those small steps. What can I do today to further that effort. Here at the local level is where it must start. It is in the joy or contentment we receive in giving that will become the agent of change for our party. It will be what will allow us to pass it on.

It is in this simple joy we receive in “getting out of ourselves” and participating in the lives of other that we can “reframe” our thoughts about ourselves. This new perspective will be reflected in our relations to neighbors and our place in society. This can be the nexus of our Party’s rebirth. The bedrock of our efforts.

It should be the reasoning behind our policies going forward.

It should be the Logic behind reforms in education. For example; in education, the children of this country, (our children, our neighbor’s children), need our help. They deserve all the help we can give them, by making sure our schools prepare them for their futures. By making sure our teachers are teaching. We do that the same as everything else. We pay by what they put out. Our graduation rates are a sin against the future of our children. We should learn how to demand change. I am learning.

Back to “What Can I Do Today?” and small steps. This morning I’ve been reading “A School Privatization Primer” which along with “A Michigan School Money Primer” and “A Teacher Quality Primer” make up the literature I’ve received from The Mackinac Center. Below is a link to the part of their site dealing with education. Look through the site and you’ll see a lot of this can be downloaded for free. That is the point of Mackinac Center. To come up with new studies new primary research that they can then get out to those that matter. Parents of children I think qualify as someone who matters.

-----link-----
http://www.mackinac.org/articlewef.aspx?ID=7962
--------------

The reading may be dry and formal but the reasoning behind it and their conclusions are the stuff of revolutions. It is the ammunition needed to storm the bastion of the entrenched MEA and NEA, who have complete control and should bear the complete responsibility for the resulting crimes against our children. The place to do that isn’t in Lansing or Washington, but in our individual backyards. At our School boards when they are negotiating contracts have the legal power to change things. We need to study and start presenting our case. We need to come up with a case for change to help our school boards, to watch the backs of those who favor change.

Remember, it was not the government that made Jimmy Stewart claim “It’s a wonderful life“, but his “common sense” he received from viewing his life and seeing the good through the bad that was in it, along with the help of those of his friends and neighbors he had interacted with through his life.

It is this kind of thing I feel which prompted Jackie Gingrich Cushman to claim “It’s Still a Wonderful Life”. Can You see it?

Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative