Ohio Edition

What we can learn by exploring area's poverty - We firmly believe Ashtabula has the tools to be a community that can grown and expand and improve. At the same time, we also know that numerous challenges face the many good people trying to make a difference and help move us forward, and from time to time we need to take a deeper look at some of those challenges — not to dwell on the negative but to make sure we understand where our disadvantages are and where efforts to improve can best be focused.

It is with that in mind that today we explored the issue of poverty as it relates to the Ashtabula Area City Schools District. When it was announced several weeks ago that the district had qualified to provide free and reduced lunches to all students in the district, some readers wondered if the poverty could really be that bad in the district. The answer, of course, is that not all or even a majority of students in the district are at or below the poverty-level. But at the same time, no one can or should pretend that being situated in a lower-income area is not a very real challenge for AACS moving forward…..

My Take – Okay, so what’s their solution?  Apparently we’ve not learned anything we didn’t already know and seemingly the writer’s solution is to spend more money on schools.  Poor schools, underperforming schools - well, I certainly see the emotional appeal of such a plea, but that’s what we’ve been doing for sixty years and the kids are worse off than before.  Since President Johnson’s Great Society programs to end poverty began in the 60’s we’ve spending hundreds of billions of dollars and the numbers have only changed marginally.  If we had given a million dollars to everyone of those people we would have ended poverty and saved billions.  So where did all that money go?  Good question don’t you think.      

This article is a logical fallacy.  The author states: “some readers wondered if the poverty could really be that bad in the district. The answer, of course, is that not all or even a majority of students in the district are at or below the poverty-level. But at the same time, no one can or should pretend that being situated in a lower-income area is not a very real challenge for AACS moving forward.”

By conflating lowering the cost of lunches and the level of poverty in the community the author’s solution to ending poverty seems to be lowering the cost of lunches.  That will not end poverty but it will increase the cost of public education with little or no positive results academically or socially. 

If kids need food they can’t afford (which I find difficult to understand since we spend hundreds of millions in this nation every year to make sure kids aren’t going hungry) and the community wishes to fund it - then do it, but let’s not conflate these two issues making the cost of lunches an important component as a solution to poverty. 

 

In point of fact – it’s not a component at all.  Why would we think the failures of the past will be successes of the future?  What’s so different now that makes anyone think things will turn our differently?  Nothing changes socially until the people decide to make the needed changes in their personal lives that hinder them.  Get rid of the drugs, stop alcohol abuse, get and keep a job, parents must marry, parents much raise their kids with traditional values and big government has to stop creating excuses for their failures and stop funding irresponsible behavior.  In short – if people aren’t willing to change irresponsible behavior no amount money will change anything.   

The important case of Samantha Elauf and the workplace rights of Muslim women - As we await the U.S. Supreme Court's decision on the case of Samantha Elauf, it's important to reconsider our understanding of race, religion, sex discrimination and how history and international perspectives come together to shape our daily lives.  Different forms of discrimination intersect in this case in which a 17-year-old was denied an opportunity she would have otherwise been granted if she dressed differently. The decision not to hire Elauf by a well-established employer -- clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch -- is a reminder that we need to actively engage in ending the historical subjection of women to social, cultural, and corporate looks standards; in the 21st century, such practices are still a reality…..

Loomis response to consent decree requires paperwork: Darcy cartoon - Steve Loomis, President of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association, said that transparency paperwork requirements in the consent decree will endanger officers. Tamir Rice, Timothy Russell, Malissa Williams and Tanisha Anderson are unable to give a response.

The response from Loomis was sadly predictable following his previous examples of excessive denial and tone deafness. Loomis objected to body cameras that are being adopted by departments around the country and welcomed by many officers. Among the reasons he cited were the limited camera angles, and privacy issues of civilians being filmed. He's presumed that civilians would rather avoid having their messy homes being filmed than have body cameras that might prevent their faces getting messed up by a camera-less officer using excessive force……

My Take – Personally I think officers are protected by cameras, but I resent these “consent decrees” imposed by the federal government.  I predict crime will increase because cops will be less interested in putting themselves on the line against black criminals.  Let’s not delude ourselves – this isn’t an overall societal problem.  It’s a race driven, race baiting issue!   And blacks are going to be affected negatively by this in the long run – and why?  Because blacks commit the largest percentage of crimes in this country per ratio to their numbers.  And guess who are the recipients of most of that criminal behavior?  Other blacks!

Are some cops out of control?  Sure!  But the real question that needs asked and answered is this.  Are they out of control because blacks in the neighborhoods they patrol are out of control?  Let’s not delude ourselves on this either.  I feel sorry for the descent blacks in Cleveland living in black communities full of thugs who don’t have jobs and won’t look for a job, and now it’s going to be worse.

Ohio's budget debate could lead to a messy family fight among theRepublicans: Thomas Suddes - Ohio taxpayers should keep a couple things in mind as the Senate and a Senate-House conference committee craft Ohio's proposed 2015-17 budget. Here's one: If pseudo-conservatives monkey with Republican Gov. John R. Kasich's Medicaid expansion, they need to hear what a real Ohio conservative, the late Sen. Robert A. ("Mr. Republican") Taft, once said: "Care by the state of the 20 percent having the lowest income is no interference with the freedom of the other 80 percent." Here's another: "The biggest difference between the zealots on the left and those on the right is that the ones on the right smell better." So said the California Assembly's one-time speaker, Jesse M. (Big Daddy) Unruh, himself a rootin' tootin' liberal Democrat. Notice, Unruh said "zealots." That is, "philosophy" is just a $5 word used to prettify good old American horse-trading: How do I get mine, and you get yours, and both of us end up happy? ….