musing minds

My personal thought is that your child should go to his or her neighborhood school. The school that the student can walk to. The school where the neighbors go.

If you live in a homogeneous neighborhood then you will probably have a homogeneous school.

If you live in a diverse neighborhood then you will probably have a diverse school.

A child was denied a place in his neighborhood school because he was white and by going to that school he wouldn’t maintain the diversity that the school board was attempting to maintain.

In my school district, all the children go to the same school for kindergarten. There are five elementary schools (1st-6th), one middle school (7th-8th), and one high school. Children are generally assigned to their “neighborhood” elementary school unless the child is registered late and there is no more room at the closest school. If a child lives within 1.5 miles of his/her neighborhood school, the child walks, otherwise the child is bussed. In our district children aren’t assigned by race or first language spoken at home.

I think that’s the proper way. People segregate themselves all the time. The school districts say that some of this “self segregation” is caused by affordable housing or lack thereof. That may be so. But people still have a choice of where to live. People could choose a more diverse neighborhood. They can choose a more homogeneous neighborhood.

The school districts in the cases before the SCOTUS want to balance the number of white and black students at the schools even though some students may spend an inordinate amount of time traveling from home to school and then back again. The school districts maintain that diversity is more important for the early grades, kindergarten, first, second grade. This means that a 5-, 6-, or 7-year-old may be spending from 1-1/2 to 3 hours daily on a bus. That seems a high price for the child to be paying.

You’d also think that parents might want to make that decision for themselves.

Update: I just heard one woman (on Fox) from the protests today at SCOTUS saying “we can’t return to segregated schools”.

That reminded me. Weren’t segregated schools specifically designed that way? Weren’t children bussed to a school for ‘their color’ no matter where they lived? Isn’t this almost the same in reverse?

Quite a while back I read St. Patrick’s Gargoyle by Katherine Kurtz. The story of a Gargoyle named Paddy for the Church in Dublin that he guards, stolen alms basins and a roughed up verger, and the desecrated grave of a Knight returned from the Holy Land.

The gargoyles of Dublin meet once a month, on a moonless night, to discuss what’s happening with their various charges (the churches) and what may be happening in the city. The gargoyles explain (both to one another and Paddy to a human, Francis Templeton – an elderly Knight of Malta who helps him out – that gargoyles were once avenging angels. In the Old Testament avenging angels were seen frequently, but they aren’t around in the New Testament.

Templeton sees Paddy’s reflection in the black door of a Rolls Royce…

Reflected briefly in the car’s polished black door, just as his visitor ducked back into the sheltering shadow of the shutters, was not a darkly menacing shadow-shape laced with fire, but the stern, majestic figure of an armored warrior, with a diadem of stars across its noble brow and dark pinions sweeping from powerful shoulders to trail rainbows behind. And what its strong hands were cradling to its armored breast was not a radiator mascot but a tiny winged cherub.

“Oh”, Paddy said apologetically, as Templeton gave a wondering little gasp, slack-jawed with awe. “I guess your car door’s a black mirror. You weren’t supposed to see that. That’s the only way mortals can see us in our true form — unless, of course, they’ve really pissed us off. Then you don’t wanta know. Like I said we used to be avenging angels.

“Not anymore, though. We don’t get to kick ass like we did in the old days. The Boss has mellowed a lot, since the days when He was a Old Testament God. I think it started when His Son joined the Firm. The Son was human for a while, you know, so He’s inclined to be a little softer on sinners.”

The advent of Christ does obviate the need for avenging angels. The Old Testament God punished. After God gave us his Son, there was no need for avenging angels. Through Christ, we are forgiven and saved. Let us remember this as we come into this most Holy season.

Merry Christmas to one and all.

cross posted at The Anchoress

Today the Little Guy is making snow angels and the Shih Tzu is shorter than the snow…

Minneapolis radio station KDWB‘s host Dave Ryan asked if people would trade a baby for a PS3. He didn’t expect that he would have any takers. He was mistaken.

The station received many calls offering to trade a baby for the PS3 system.

The station started with just the offer: trade a baby (for a while) for a PS3. Then, after they received such a high response, they started an “auction” to get the youngest baby for the longest time… The parents were told that they could not check up on the welfare of the child and they were also told that the station did not have a child safety seat for the car.

These parents were still willing to trade their child. The “winner” was a one month old baby for three days (no children or PS3’s were traded).

Fox News played a recording of one mother this morning. She said she had a one month old baby named Alex that she would trade for a PS3. The host asked if the baby’s father agreed. She said he was right there with her. The host asked how old she was. She said she was 22. The host said that Alex was probably her first baby then. She said the baby was her third.

Trading your child to strangers for a period of time for a video game system. What is this world coming to?

cross posted at The Anchoress (where I am guest posting for the weekend – Thank you Anchoress!)

This election followed a typical outcome in the sixth year of a presidency. Based on historical patterns it appears the Dem win was average to a little below average – particularly given the fact that if they take the Senate it will be by a hair.

Historical patterns notwithstanding, is there any doubt that the media played a huge role in this election? Consider the following:

Iraq was a “major” issue to most voters. Given that Iraq is on the other side of the planet, the only source of information for most is through the news, and for many busy folks the only source is regrettably a perusal of the headlines of the day. The coverage was constant stories of failure. Isolated incidents of U.S. military abuse received round the clock coverage while stories of real life heroism (of which there were many) were ignored. Every terrorist bombing made the headlines, but stories like the re-irrigation of the Marsh Arabs were ignored. When milestones were surpassed (like the daily output of oil, or the electrical grid standards) they were ignored where previously those respective “failures” were the stories of the day. To be sure there was chaos. But there was also redevelopment, and normalcy, in many areas of Iraq. As for history, the media slowly but inevitably erased any Democrats’ involvement in the decision to go into Iraq such that, in the end, it was Bush’s decision, and Bush’s decision alone. The support for the invasion by many democrats was erased from the public record.

Only one side of America’s most important story of our times was told. In an election where outcomes have come down to each vote, there can be no doubt that such one-sided coverage affected the election. The “Vietnam formula” whereby the media abuses its position by taking sides in an armed conflict is alive and well.

Welcome Radio Equalizer readers! Please have a look around while you’re here.

Just watching Fox and a Democratic strategist was chastising Republicans for attacking Kerry, since he’s……………get this…………not even on the ballot in this election.

Meanwhile Kerry, and the rest of the Democratic party, continued with their attacks against Bush throughout the day.

In other news, a man convicted of murdering his parents plead with the court for mercy, arguing that he’s had to deal with the hardships of becoming an orphan.

That, my blogging friends, is chutzpah.

Don’t believe Kerry’s actual words, he says. Rather, we are to believe his after-the-fact nonsensical characterization. You see, he was actually referring to Bush.

Let’s put this in context, shall we: There Kerry was, offering guidance to the young bright minds around him, admonishing them to work hard, study well, lest they one day …………………… become president of the United States and engage in bad foreign policy?????

Alllllrightythen.

If you aren’t, DJ Drummond has the future if the Democrats win this election cycle.

Be afraid.

Vote GOP November 7^th

For the second Halloween in a row, the Democrats have taken over the Right Place blog. Go check it out.

Can you guess who I was?

I must say that I had a great deal of fun doing this again this year. Thanks Mr. Right!

This is a wonderful program that supplies voice activated laptop computers for wounded soldiers from all branches of service. As I am an Army Vet, I have joined with Blackfive on the Army Team.

Each branch is competing with the others for donations between now and Veterans’ Day, November 11^th.

Use the link above and donate today!