It is commonly said that how we treat our children indicates the future of our society and if this is true we are failing the next generations with our current education priorities. We are failing not only to prepare the next generation to be competitive in a global market where the number of college graduates in a number of important academic fields, particularly mathematics and science, outpaces American graduates but we are also not educating our children by good policymaking now on issues such as healthcare, the environment and the use of soft power as opposed to hard power in international relations which involve not only the American community but, in most occasions, the entire global commons. In short, our education system is based on an agrarian model that is long gone preparing our students for conditions that have vanished long ago.

And the issue of education does not simply apply to our children. There are millions of adults who used to have secure employment in what was once a major job sector of the American economy: manufacturing. My parents were two of those people. They made high wages for a hard day’s work in a plastic’s factory and a printer cartridge factory respectively for a combined total of 70 years. And on these wages they gave me and my siblings an early life for which we are thankful for to this day. But in the mid-90’s, my mother was laid-off and the factory moved first to Tennessee and then to Mexico. At her next job her wages were cut in half. And soon my father was offered early retirement as his company changed hands and was bought out by a Japanese conglomerate. They faced the difficult task of retraining after three decades in one job sector for new jobs that didn’t even exist when they started their manufacturing careers. My mother, in particular, became one of millions of people that directly experienced the disruptive wave of economic change that globalization wreaked…for while it was creating new industries it was also decimating others.

Our nation faces the dual challenges of educating its children to thrive in a far larger and more complex pool of competitors while also re-training the “unemployed refugees” of industries that are gone and are unlikely to return. While we are talking about “no child left behind”…China, India, Brazil and other rising middle power nations are “leaving this entire nation behind”. The solution is the revitalization of math and science programs in our public schools in addition to the continuing attraction of world-class academic innovators to our universities in order to train the next generation of paradigm-shifters. We need to imbue in our young less idolizing of singers, basketball players and other entertainers and more celebration of those that pursue the wonders of knowledge such as scientists, philosophers and theoreticians. And we need to remind the leaders in the grassroots of our communities (i.e. parents and mentors) that the dinner table and living room are the first classrooms in our nation where such admiration and respect for knowledge is instilled by the people that most young trust the most thereby making the process of learning a parallel journey. It is not enough to just increase education budgets at the Department of Education and among the states…which may not be possible in the wake of our national financial difficulties…but we must also foster a culture of learning from the time that our minds start to form so that half the work of educating us all is already done.

Without an educated populace, how do we have a citizenry that elects enlightened and educated representatives? Without enlightened representatives, how do we get the good policymaking that will address the issues of inadequate healthcare, national security threats, the maintenance of our environmental commonwealth and the establishment of a financial system that ensures that our prosperity endures? And without adequately addressing all of these issues, how do we have a nation that endures in some of the most complex and uncertain times that our species has ever faced?

Of course, I am skipping the thousand tiny discoveries and follies that make up our lives on a minute level. Hope you will stick around for the next round.

This is the first blog post I have seen on the coolness of the Obama campaign’s design portfolio. The stylized ‘O’, etc. all have successfully created a holistic ambience of the campaign’s message. It is an important observation of something that some people may consider superficial.

Via Daily Dish, an interesting story on the issue of race and the Kentucky primary results. As a native Kentuckian I found it very fascinating and wonder why American news outlets are not covering it as in-depth.

 In the present case, it is readily apparent that extending the designation of marriage to same-sex couples clearly is more consistent with the probable legislative intent than withholding that designation from both opposite-sex couples and same-sex couples in favor of some other, uniform designation.  In view of the lengthy history of the use of the term “marriage” to describe the family relationship here at issue, and the importance that both the supporters of the 1977 amendment to the marriage statutes and the electors who voted in favor of Proposition 22 unquestionably attached to the designation of marriage, there can be no doubt that extending the designation of marriage to same-sex couples, rather than denying it to all couples, is the equal protection remedy that is most consistent with our state’s general legislative policy and preference.

        Accordingly, in light of the conclusions we reach concerning the constitutional questions brought to us for resolution, we determine that the language of section 300 limiting the designation of marriage to a union “between a man and a woman” is unconstitutional and must be stricken from the statute, and that the remaining statutory language must be understood as making the designation of marriage available both to opposite-sex and same-sex couples.  In addition, because the limitation of marriage to opposite-sex couples imposed by section 308.5 can have no constitutionally permissible effect in light of the constitutional conclusions set forth in this opinion, that provision cannot stand.

        Plaintiffs are entitled to the issuance of a writ of mandate directing the appropriate state officials to take all actions necessary to effectuate our ruling in this case so as to ensure that county clerks and other local officials throughout the state, in performing their duty to enforce the marriage statutes in their jurisdictions, apply those provisions in a manner consistent with the decision of this court.  Further, as the prevailing parties, plaintiffs are entitled to their costs.

        The judgment of the Court of Appeal is reversed, and the matter is remanded to that court for further action consistent with this opinion.

                                GEORGE, C. J. 
WE CONCUR:

KENNARD, J. 
WERDEGAR, J. 
MORENO, J.

“I want you to get swept away…I want you to levitate, sing with laughter and dance like a dervish. Be deliriously happy…I know it is a cornball thing but love is passion…obsession…something you can’t live without. I say fall head over heels and find someone you can love like crazy and that will love you the same way back.” 

Hmmm. What he describes is something I think many dream of and few achieve but none can live without.

Also, the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission (ZEC) may release results of the Presidential vote sometime this week nearly a full month after the election.