MORE OMNIBUS SPENDING BILL!

This is a letter that I have sent to Senators King and Collins.  I wish there was some way that I could get other folks to do the same.  We, the people, need to stand up and let our views be known.  These people we have elected have a responsibility to us the citizens and not to their corporate donors.

Dear Senators King and Collins,

I am writing to let you know how disappointed and angry I am that you voted in favor of the 1.1 trillion dollar spending bill.  That bill contains many things that are detrimental to our economy and to us as individuals  Number one is the fact that the bill rolled back provisions in the Dodd-Frank bill that now allows the banks to gamble with taxpayer money.  The use of risky derivatives  could crash our economy again and we the taxpayers will have to bail them out!
Number two is the fact that now there will be even more money in politics since the cap on single donor contributions has been raised by a huge sum.  The programs that would have benefitted regular people and the poor have been slashed again.  WIC slashed 300 million dollars, food stamps slashed again, and allowing corporations to cut benefits for current employees of which I am one.  Maybe we should slash your benefits!  How would you like that?  But then most of the people in Congress are so wealthy they do not care!
Provisions that take away the ability of the EPA to regulate  and enforce the clean water act were also in that bill along with many other things that are harmful to out economy.
This bill was a give away to the the big banks, and corporations.  I have decided that the only time you and other elected officials care about your constituents is when you are trying to get elected.  Then you go to Washington and could care less about the general welfare of the people and the country as a whole.  It is pretty bad when a bank like Citigroup gets to write the legislation for you.  I suspect this is more often true than false.
I will try once again to have you listen (yes, i did call your office asking you to vote no on the spending bill and perhaps if enough had done so we could have had a better bill)as I urge you to vote against confirmation of Antonio Weiss for a top job in the Treasury Department.  It is rumored that the company he works for, Lazard Financial Services, will give him a 20 million dollar bonus if confirmed.  If this is true it is just a bigger sign of the corruption that has invaded Washington.  Why would you want another person in the treasury who has been advising Burger King to avoid millions in tax dollars so they can move their business to Canada!  Please do not vote to confirm him.
So you can tell that I am one angry and very disappointed constituent!  Our country has lost most of the values that we were founded on  Corruption is so rampant in our government that one does know who to trust anymore.  It is a very sad situation.

OMNIBUS SPENDING BILL

This is a letter that I have sent to Senators Angus King and Susan Collins.  I will also send it to Chellie Pingree.  I called their offices but those folks who answer the phones do not know what is in a bill so no blame goes to them.  I cannot believe that a spending bill had so many secret provisions added with no debate.  All I can say is Thanks to Elizabeth Warren for giving a blistering speech about the roll back of provisions in the Dodd Frank bill.

Dear Senators King and Collins,
I am so angry and frustrated about some of the provisions in this spending bill.  It is evident that the people of this country do not matter to Congress.  All they care about is getting the big contributions from the big banks, corporations and big donors and the average person's voice is not heard.  The heart and soul has been ripped out of our government by a corrupt Supreme Court and an equally corrupt Congress.
I am very concerned about the items that have been slipped into this bill such as the repeal of portions of the Dodd Frank bill that would protect the taxpayers against paying bail outs for risky bank behaviors.  Also I am concerned about a provision that allows pension benefits to be cut for current retirees.  Do you know what that would do to millions of seniors who are barely making it.  Wealthy donors can now give more money to political candidates.
Then in the area of the environment there is a provision that the EPA cannot enforce parts of the clean water act.  What kind of nonsense it that?
Safety??? Now truckers can now drive without adequate sleep.  That endangers all of us on the road.
What are you people there in Washington about?  It sure is not looking after the interests of the people who elected you!  I am so disgusted and disheartened.  Merry Christmas to the American people!  What a gift.  The only good thing is the government won't be shut down.

Priscilla Payne

HATE! GREED! FEAR!

I am certainly no psychologist but I have to confess that I do not understand the kind of HATE that seems to be rampant in this country at this time.  Has it always been there or are we just seeing it more in the open now?  What causes a man like John Boehner to hate so much that he will obstruct needed legislation in order to spend $500.00 an hour of taxpayer money to sue the President?  Is he so filled with hate that he will ignore the plight of people in this country who are struggling just to survive?  Is it hate or is it corruption or both?
Is it hate that makes a policeman shoot a little black 12 year old boy who had a toy gun?  Is it hate that makes a policeman shoot a bullet into a car windshield of a black father trying to get home to get his daughter's inhaler because she is having an asthma attack? What is driving this senseless shooting of black men and boys?  I thought we had come farther than this.
Power can be a very destructive force and I see those with power being driven by hate and rage.  It is very scary and I believe that chaos will be the result across this country as it has been in Ferguson.
Is it greed that drives people to trample one another trying to get the best deals on Black Friday?  Or is it desperation?  Is it Greed that drives men like John Boehner and Mitch McConnell to abuse their power so that they can line their pockets with huge campaign contributions?
Is it fear that drives someone like Senator Chuck Schumer to abandon his democratic values so that he can maybe keep his place in the Senate?  Is it fear of losing her support from campaign donors that someone like Susan Collins votes against the best interests of her constituents?
I am totally perplexed and concerned about where our country is heading.
Here it is the First Sunday of Advent, a time for waiting and reflecting.  In my mind it is a time to look inward and see where I am failing in my care for myself, my family and my country and then look for steps to correct these failings.  Today many people will light the first Advent candle of Hope yet how many are truly hopeful?

Honestly I am not a very prayerful person but today I would urge people to pray that this country can get back on track and that we can see that fewer and fewer people have to live in fear of being shot by a policeman who they should be able to trust, fear of being cold and hungry, fear of losing their homes, fear of not being able to access health care and fear so many other things.  I would hope that Hate, Greed and Fear can become a thing of the past and that we can be a more compassionate society.

CLARIFICATION

In my previous post I called the Democrats week willed and by and large they are.  But I did mean to point out that in the State of Maine two candidates stood out on their willingness to engage in the real issues and they were Shenna Bellows and Emily Cain.  Shenna ran an excellent campaign on little money taking on Susan Collins who was funded by large corporations and PACs, and addressed the real issues.  Emily Cain did the same and if it had not been the horrible, lying ads produced by Poliquin's campaign I think she would have won.  Kudos to both of these women.
On the national level the Democrats like Al Franken and Gary Peters won because they addressed the issues that people are concerned with  Instead of running away from the good things that have been accomplished during the Obama Administration they embraced them while others were afraid to do so and suffered the consequences.
Now let's hope that the basically corporate owned and corrupt Supreme Court does not take away the benefits of the Affordable Care Act (We need to stop calling it Obama Care and use its real name!) and toss millions of Americans off their health care.  Prayers are sure needed.
So folks maybe petitions and letters do not do anything but let's keep the pressure on and keep signing, writing and calling and maybe we can affect some change.

OUR VOICES MEAN LITTLE TO ELECTED OFFICIAL

I have been lax about posting here on my blog but I feel that time has come to an end.  The recent elections will have disastrous effects on all of us.  People campaigning for office whether it be local, state or national say great things and make good promises but when they take office they really do not represent our views, wishes or desires.  They spend a fortune in money and spread misleading ads on TV which people get so fed up with and then flood you with emails requesting more and more money and make numerous phone calls with unidentifiable  numbers until you are forced to unplug the phone.  Then they get in to their ivory towers and are isolated from the very people who elected them. and never listen to them.

It seems as if everything that is done is done for a political reasons and not because they really care about those who are struggling just to get food and shelter or because they care about the environment or that the banks and big corporations are ruining our country.  Why?  Because they are owned by the big corporations and are beholden to them.  Something is terribly wrong with this country.

In full disclosure, I am an ardent Democrat.  While not a Democrat Bernie Sanders is my hero!  Elizabeth Warren is my heroine! I care about what happens to my neighbors, the environment, the economy and many other things,  It should not matter if my representative is a democrat or a republican they should listen to me and others who contact them.  We are not stupid.  We follow the issues and have valid opinions but little of that seems to matter once they get elected.  Republicans stick to their issues and in my opinion do a great deal of harm to our society.  Democrats on the other hand are weak willed and afraid to stand up for the values of their party.  While many of these folks are really good people they are not responsive to their constituents.

A good case in point is Senator Susan Collins.  If you call her office to ask her to vote for or against an issue and want to know where she stands on an issue this is the response you get from her office.  "I am sorry the Senator has not made a public statement on the issue."  if you ask when she might let her views be known so we would know whether or not to support her position or urge her to vote a different way you get the same answer.  "I am sorry but the Senator has not made a public statement on the issue."  By the time she has  made a public statement the votes have been taken and our voice was totally discounted and not heard at all.

On the opposite side Representative Chellie Pingree's office is very open about her positions and they will actually have an intelligent conversation with you.

On the state level a state senator, who is no longer there, thank God, refused to even answer emails or return phone calls.  Of all the times I have contacted him I received two responses and one was a question about an issue as he was not familiar with and it was coming up for a vote! I was able to give him the information he needed.

The same is true at the local level.  Members of the Town Council have their preconceived ideas so firmly in their heads that they do not welcome any input that may differ from theirs.

So now in Windham we are updating the comprehensive plan and that needs to be done.  There will be two meetings for the public to have input and there is an online survey and these are good things.  But in the end a document will be written with nice language and adopted and then it will sit on some shelf gathering dust and elected and appointed officials will forget it exists just as they have done with the present one and go their own way and again the public's views will be forgotten.

So you can see that I am very disillusioned with government in general.  Now I am getting on in age and will probably not be around to see the devastation of our environment and the worsening struggles of the poor and middle class because of the widening income inequality but I care about what my children and grandchildren and great grandchildren will have to face and unless we make serious changes to the political process I feel we are doomed.  We are no longer the innovative society that we once were.  We are falling further and further behind other countries in education, health care and many other issues.  Racism has certainly reared its head and I would hate to be a young black man living in this country at this time.  Our President, whether you agree or disagree with him, is treated with disrespect and hatred because he is black  Terrible things have been said to him and about him.  I really thought we were better than that.  

Thank God, there are still some caring people who will try and feed the homeless, unless they get arrested for doing that, who will help folks winterize their home and provide fuel either in wood or oil, who will support food pantries, run soup kitchens and try and stop pipelines and save the environment.  But we are too big and it takes the government to step in and help.

Well enough of this rant but everything I said is important and I care deeply about our country and our state and I am sorry that elected officials are so blind to the real problems we face.  I am usually a very optimistic person but I have to say that I do not feel very optimistic at this point in time.

"I Got Schooled :The Unlilely Story of How a Moonlighting Movie Maker Learned Five Keys to Closing America's Education Gap" by M. Night Shyamalan is a book on one persons view of how we could change the educational system to better affect the children we are supposed to be teaching.  Some of the Keys are ones that almost anyone would imagine but the amount of research that went into the writing of this book is amazing.  While I agreed with much of what he said I am also aware of the many challenges to effecting these changes.  

The Five Keys are Teachers (no surprise there!) Principals (again no surprise) Data, Small Schools and More time in school.

Teachers - This could be a difficult one as I have worked in education and I can see problems for change here.  The author also recognizes this but it is imperative that teachers always need to be working at becoming better and finding ways to engage their students.  I understand the anxiety that teachers have about evaluation but the author suggests some different ways to evaluate such as video evaluations, student learning growth and student surveys.  The student surveys might sound threatening but in those surveys the questions have nothing to do with whether or not you like the teacher but questions such as "The teacher in this class encourages me to do my best" or "Our class stays busy and does not waste time" or " My teacher takes the time to summarize what we learn each day."

All of us in other public jobs get evaluated every year and while there is some anxiety it is just part of the job and if one is working hard, has good relationships with their colleagues, the administration and the public and is always looking for new and innovative ways to improve it should go well.  No, I don't live in a fairyland but base my opinions on experience.

Principals and other administrators - The Principal is critical to improving the schools and it is important to hire principals who are not just managers but ones who are out and about the school, in classrooms and who set a positive tone for the school.  The author talks about the importance of creating the principal through proper training.  Leadership may not come naturally but must be learned.  It is also important the the bosses (Superintendents) have the same training so they can be supportive of their principals.  In doing the research the author and his team found that principals spend less time on the most important thing that affects student learning and that is instruction.  Principals in top performing schools spend approximately 80% of their time on instruction.  They model best practices, observe, and spend time in the classrooms.  When this becomes an established procedure it is no longer threatening.
Small Schools - The data shows that small schools with 400-600 students are able to achieve a definite impact on student learning and achievement.  It is easier for a principal to supervise a school with fewer students.  Some people who implement small schools do it over a period of time using one grade at a time and training teachers and changing the culture of the school.  This may be one of the hardest to implement as it would take remodeling or constructing new schools.  Some of the most successful schools in advancing student achievement have begun in the last 20 years.
More Time in School -  The author advocates for longer school days and longer school years.  We no longer need to be an an agricultural calendar as most students are not working in the fields any more.  These longer days and years help those in less affluent families more as those in more affluent families often are offered outside activities that help them to retain and even grow in knowledge.
I have to agree with most of these ideas but I do see problems in trying to implement them over a wide area partly due to cost and then partly due to the existing culture in many schools.  I have worked in education and have seen first hand the rebellion that arises when change is being implemented.  I have also seen principals who put their own goals ahead of those that may be best for the students and I have seen good and bad teachers but most of them are basically good and have the student's best interest at heart but need to be challenged and shown how to change to create a thirst for knowledge and energy in the classroom.
I have also seen parents who want easy grades for the children and have not put the value on good and challenging education.  I have seen an emphasis on athletics that overshadows the academic.  In my opinion this has has come about over the last 20-25 years.  It did not use to be this way.
Regardless of my opinions this is a book that can challenge educators and parents to rethink how they view the educational process ands work to achieve higher student achievement.