Recently in Politics Category

L-Girl who moved to Canada writes about fear of terror in NY:

Perhaps you are lucky (or stupid) enough to be able to ignore the war. But the fear still effects you. You pass through security checkpoints several times a day. Your neighbour has been visited by the FBI because he attended a peace meeting. A young man in your town was arrested for wearing a t-shirt that said Peace. A sign in your public library warns you that your browsing habits may be reported to the government. The airline you used last month has admitted to sharing their customer database at the government's request, against their stated policy.

If you speak out against these injustices, you are accused of being unpatriotic, even of supporting the terrorists themselves.

In New York City, I used to wander into office buildings that have beautiful lobbies, with interesting architecture or art, or public plazas. Can't do it anymore. Can't bring a backpack into Yankee Stadium. If you carry a backpack (and now a stroller or a briefcase) on the subway, you might be searched.

On any given day, these indignities might not add up to much. But taken together, they must take a toll. And we can imagine what that toll might be. It might start out as stress and fear, but no one can live in a permanent state of heightened anxiety. Stress gives way to acceptance, fear yields to helplessness. Even our righteous anger gives way to cynicism if we aren't careful.

Now imagine living without all that.

I hate to say it, but this is beginning to sound like sinister history soon will repeat itself.

The need for "evaluation" in this country is truly disheartening. Now, kindergartners are to recieve report cards. according to Boston.com.

The children will be scored on a scale of 1 to 4 in three dozen categories, from whether they can recognize the rhyme and rhythms in poems, chants, songs, and nursery rhymes to how well they combine two-dimensional shapes to make other two-dimensional shapes.

''We have not always done a good job in communication with parents on what the expectations are in school," Payzant said. ''Kindergarten should be preparing them to be 5-year-olds in the real world.

Obviously, the 5 years old in the "real world" should adhere to the same strict standards as anybody else around here, based on expectations of course. Perhaps we the older generation were never really present in "the real world" and should feel inadequate because we weren't evaluated in kindergarten? And what about us who never even went!

John Zammito's father, John Zammito Jr., said he looks forward to receiving his son's first report card. ''We ask him every day on the way home: 'How do you like school? What did you do in school?' " he said. ''This way we have it right from the teacher.

Parents of low-scoring pupils should not panic, Barry said. ''It's the beginning of the year. Parents should tell these students: 'It's OK you don't know all these skills. If you did, Mrs. Barry wouldn't be here to teach you.' "

That's reassuring! Just let your five year old know that he/she isn't doing that well in the world outside their homes - and then what? Do we really need compare our children in this way? Isn't even childhood off limits anymore...

.... these two are together...

Michael More makes a statement.