Tools of Freedom

The Tools of Freedom are damaged.

Facts are the tools of Freedom. President Truman once said “The only thing new in this world is the history you don’t know.” A study of the past – knowledge of what works and what doesn’t – helps us all understand and deal better with the choices we are confronted with.

The Media and the Education system seem to be conspiring to limit our exposure to the facts of history. I think this is to limit our ability to judge what they tell us as truth.

In the past, we the prime movers of the American Experiment in Self Governance have made our decisions on facts – on historical facts. We could find them in libraries and in schools but mostly we learned from our self-experience in life. Those life lessons learned along the way. When I borrow money I learned early I have to pay it back or bad things happen. If I tell a lie it always comes out and bad things happen. You know - the lessons of life and how we survive it.

So to our government. We learn by the doing, from studying what worked for us in the past we can learn at least what not to do in the future. For example we as citizens need information to rightly judge a Candidate’s policies. We need a knowledge of history to do that.

Below is a great article in the NYT’s Magazine about the decline of the quality of history being taught in schools and why it is important? This is worth taking a few minutes to read through. Remember this was published in 1985 before the Times went off the cliff.

http://www.nytimes.com/1985/11/17/magazine/decline-and-fall-of-teaching-history.html?pagewanted=all

The Time’s article talks of how our Democratic form of government is dependent on an informed citizenry. It has always been my contention that we learn best by making and correcting our mistakes. History is our tool to learn from the mistakes of others and conversely from the triumphs of others.

This is a great article surprisingly or not, from the New York Times Magazine. The article quotes Naomi Miller a professor at Hunter College as saying: ''My students have no historical knowledge on which to draw when they enter college, they have no point of reference for understanding World War I, the Treaty of Versailles or the Holocaust. They think that everything is subjective. They have plenty of attitudes and opinions, but they lack the knowledge to analyze a problem.''

Sound familiar? Try seriously discussing anything with nearly anybody and what you end up with is an argument not based on facts but attitudes and opinions.

This brings me to the most important tool in our kit that helps keep the individual freedom inherent in “Self-governance” sharp and handy. That tool is simply, how to think. Not learning what we are taught to think but to learn how to think for ourselves. To succeed personally and as a country we must learn how to think through problems using the facts. We do that by learning how to find then weighing all the facts and by knowing which facts are relevant to the situation and which ones aren’t. What helps solve the specific problem and what doesn’t?

Our children need to know how to cut through the clutter which confuses problems and see the relevant facts.

How can they learn this if they are not taught this in school? In fact if they are admonished for doing this by their teachers how will they ever learn? Or even worse by the State/National bureaucratic structure dictating how and what local teachers teach?

What has caused this decline in the teaching of History and how to think?

The article goes on to say the combining of History and Social Sciences was the culprit for the diminished importance placed on history. One telling quote I pulled follows: “Those (History) studies that do not contribute directly to the goal of training students to take their place as members of society ''fail in their most important function,'' said the Committee on Social Studies, formed by the prestigious National Education Association.

Again the Social Sciences are seen as telling students where they fit into society, instead of giving them the tools to make their own decisions.

Further on the article talks about the importance of “Critical Thinking Skills”. “These are important reasoning skills, but it is difficult to understand why they should be learned at the expense of history.” Indeed it is my opinion that History and the facts learned are the very glue – the context that allows “Critical Thinking Skills” to succeed.

Teaching kids anything depends more on the teacher than the subject. A good teacher in the early grades needs to bring history to life and make it exciting. At that age the learning of the facts needs to be taught with a good story to make them stick. Good teachers make that effort. Later after accumulating enough facts the older students can then learn why great leaders did what they did with the facts they had. 

The good teacher at this point will ask their students, what they would do in the same situation. Their following discussion if based on facts is the start of “self-governance”. The students need to learn the good feeling that comes from thinking for themselves.  This feeling is the same as one feels in doing a job well. A contentment of self if you will. The Amish believe that simple “Honest labor, providing for oneself and one's family, is a calling that leads to greater Godliness,” 

Honest thinking through of a problem and coming up with a solution gives that same sense of contentment to a person and collectively to a society. The media and the hub bub and churning of big city life has forgotten the need for that skill. Our sense of contentment individually and as a nation seems to have been slipping away for a while now.

One side note on facts.  They are a convenient face saving excuse for admitting you might be wrong.  "I used the wrong facts and now in seeing your facts I agree with what you say." 
After getting ready to publish this post I received my local Newspaper the weekly Oceana’s Herald-Journal and on the front page was an article titled “Proud to be an American” by Amanda Dodge. 

The article was about Miguel Quinteros a legal immigrant from el-Salvadore. What caught my attention was that Mr. Quinteros was a High School History teacher in Pentwater. While the article was about his life history and his immigration struggles I lifted one quote that seemed appropriate in this blog. It is a quote from Miguel. “I like to show my students how we can connect a historical event to something that is more relevant, and how the foundation of this country have led to what we are as a country.”

That is what I like to do, that is what I think History is for; to show us what worked in the past and how we can make it relevant today.

Or as Harry Truman said, “The only thing new in this world is the history you don’t know.”

I and teacher Mr. Quinteros might add. “Learn from it”.



Regards, Bob Carr
Live Dangerously, Tell the Truth
231-728-3455
glhotdogs513@gmail.com

Who's to Blame for the "Silent Majority"?

Freedom of expression? – For Whom?

This is America. We all have freedom of expression. It says so in the Constitution.
  
Amendment I

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."  Underlining and Italics mine.

Let me ask this to illustrate a point, why is the “Silent Majority” considered silent? Who labels it silent, who is responsible for its silence? I’ve considered myself to be in that “Silent Majority” – I’m not too silent. I bluster in my blogs and at political meetings and have taken it to the streets on occasion. But that isn’t the question.

Why wasn’t my voice and others heard?

Again the “silent majority” by definition is a majority of Americans. Are they really silent? Who determines their level of silence? What noise or commotion is it they make that causes some to feel the need to label them with such a moniker? Why are they thought to have such power?

Simple – They vote. Once every 2 years. The Media has to pay them attention then - and seemingly only then.

More precisely it is when they vote contrary to the way the Media thinks they should that Middle America gets labeled such by the Media. – That labeling somehow seems to justify the Media’s own ineptness. At least in their own mind. (“Look the “Silent Majority” suddenly said something!) That coincidently is the only time that the Media pays them any mind – during an election cycle.

It is not that they were silent but that the Media and decision makers found it easier to ignore what they were saying the rest of the time. The “Never Silent Media” otherwise is too busy to actually listen, they are too busy telling the decision makers what they don’t know (making it up) – about how Middle America really feels, what they really think. Then as with this last election the media and all who believe them are dumb founded when the “Silent Majority” stands up to be counted.

Again – That the “Silent Majority” is only paid attention to during an election – that is a great failing of not only the media but the Parties as well. It is however a great opportunity for anyone who sees that failing.

Barack Obama saw it and as the “Community Organizer” he was, took full advantage of it. While we think he may have had advantages (adoring Press etc.) he had fewer in the beginning. Remember Hillary was the “Anointed One” by the Media before Obama out organized her. He didn’t have all the media etc. on his side in the beginning. He created his own.

The media as with all “big groups” are too top heavy and bogged down with what they want reality to be, instead of what it is. (Read they begin to live in their own virtual reality or bubble).

Just like computers that have too much garbage in, eventually the garbage comes out.  It's not pretty when they step in it.

Then as quick as a politician kisses a baby, the “Silent Majority” after it wasn’t “Silent” in the only venue it has (the election) the Majority again becomes silent at least to the ears of the Media. The power structure goes back to business as usual, the Media back to singing its same old tired tune and the majority is forgotten again for another 2 years.

The point I’m trying to make is that the only time average Americans have a real voice that is counted is during an election. Once the vote is over so is their voice and the media goes back to telling us the news they deem fit for us to see.

Middle America/Rural America/Working America had become upset and angered by this Media ignorance this lack of respect in the past and it has done some good. 

The biggest tool fighting this has been the confluence of the internet all its various forms of news, as a welcome myriad of different sources of news cutting into the media monopoly. That has spawned some alternative news sources to the main stream media. Again Americans are being offered a choice to pick and choose from which news to trust in. 

Americans by nature love that freedom and are using it.
Imagine Americans being trusted to decide something for themselves and not needing to be told what to believe by the Media. Again trusting Americans to be able to “self-govern” and not be dictated to.  (sarcasm intended).

Sure I’m a blogger and have my own prejudices, and what I write isn’t the greatest of journalism. But it is honest and I try to check my sources. The public can feel free to read this or not. Sometimes the lone voice in a free market rises to the top. My picking Trump as winning the election was way ahead of the regular professional media.

Our American experiment in “self-governance” is protected by the Constitution. For it to work we need to adhere to its rules.  There must be freedom speech, religion, and all the other freedoms backed up by a “Rule of Law” in which everyone knows the rules and what their punishment will be if those rules are broken. This country works when free markets are not curtailed by monopolistic stifling government regulations. 

Free enterprise is the surest fastest and most successful engine propelling people out of poverty that the world has come up with yet.

For that however, free enterprise needs to be free for all to attempt if so inclined.

The same is true of the news. The more news sources the better – the more sources to choose from the better chance the honest news brokers rise to the top. It forces people to think.  When people have a choice to see both sides we generally pick the best one. America is based on the idea of the people knowing the truth or at least knowing a lie when they see one. Our Republic is based on our electing representatives that hold these truths self evident.

It is when the will of the people is denied that trouble starts. What kind of guts does it take to start a business? To risk all knowing that you’ll have to live “poor” and work long hours with only a small chance of success? What guts for a “nobody” to run for office? What guts to start an action committee for a cause? Why should you want to do that? Why should America want you to?

The answer is that this constant churning of people failing and succeeding at the small level is what raises that cream to the top. Plus mistakes made at the bottom are a lot easier to correct than when you wait to make them at the Federal level.  

And that cream that 1% if you will are the Microsofts and Googles and Amazons of the new age. Here I must add the Intels who announced with Trump they are finishing a $7billion plant in Arizona hiring 3,000 workers.  Yes these fledgling ideas started as ideas and rose to the top and now employ millions of people. 

They keep our economy ticking. They pay the majority of the taxes. The same churning in local politics is how a myriad of ideas battle it out to see which ones work and which ones don’t.  Which Candidates rise which ones don't. 

Where individual freedom reigns, the cream has the best chance of rising to the top.
But I digress. In our American Experiment the burden of success lies not in the President or the leaders but in the choice the voters make on Election Day. It is the responsibility of the voter to pick and choose wisely. 

But it is more than that it is the responsibility of the voter to make their voices heard all year and not allow themselves to be labeled the “Silent Majority”  As Barack Obama recently said “It is fine for everybody to feel stressed, sad, discouraged, But get over it. move forward to protect what we’ve accomplished.”

I agree with him on that.  As we see the never ending Trump bashing, I'm getting over it real quick and moving forward to protect what we've accomplished.  A Trump President.

Hey You should too.

Regards, Bob Carr
Live Dangerously, Tell the Truth.
glhotdogs513@gmail.com
231-728-3455

For further reading to be up for my next post try these links.

Trump economic progress. http://www.forbes.com/sites/aarontilley/2017/02/08/intel-gets-cozy-with-trump-investing-7-billion-into-us-chipmaking-facility/#59bf49ed7874

How to get Trump supporters organized by the king of Community Organizers, Barack Obama. https://www.ofa.us/

He is back in the news with OFA and he’s setting up an Obama Foundation. Yikes did he learn something from the Clinton Foundation.