Domestic Psychology

Election Night Pictures

// November 8th, 2011 // No Comments » // flickr, politics

Whaddya think about OWS?

// October 23rd, 2011 // No Comments » // me, people

Every person I have met the past five days has asked me almost immediately what my opinion is about Occupy Wall Street. Based on the sheer amount of discussion it has inspired, Occupy Wall Street has already made a difference. It feels like the test question of the year. How you answer it determines if you are economically illiterate, a socialist hippie or some other umbrella category. I feel slightly restrained from being able to say exactly how I feel about this movement, where it is now and where I see it going. This is what I am willing to say.

Whenever something happens that causes people to take sides, you consciously pick a side or you remain silent and support the side that is loudest. It works the same with voting. If you don’t vote, you are supporting the candidate or issue with the most votes.

When Occupy Wall Street began, they were working all the social media angles while mainstream media went out of their way to ignore the movement. So, I amplified their social media noise until they finally got press. In doing so, I chose a side. I chose to agree with the people who want their voices to matter more than corporations (whose employees are primarily overseas). I do think politicians have become representatives of their corporate overlords. Those same corporate donors are orchestrating control of public education. I do not think the education reform movement is currently moving in the best interest of all children. I believe it is instead being used by the wealthy and powerful to destroy public education.

I support the original ideas and concepts of Occupy Wall Street. I sincerely hope that while they are digging in roots, they are also sprouting wings.

D is the new R

// August 3rd, 2011 // 2 Comments » // people, politics

My father is an extremely conservative, white, Southern Baptist male. He also loves Drudge Report and has a 1950′s attitude about race and gender. Tomorrow, he is driving to what Newscoma lovingly terms as Hoots for the funeral of his cousin. My father will be one of the most liberal people at that funeral.

Today’s Democrats are yesterday’s Republicans. There is a Bachmann in every Southern Baptist congregation. Our country is tilting furiously as the oligarchy fight to separate themselves from responsibility. Using the Southern Strategy to gain control of the country for maximum greed, many Americans now endorse the dismantling of social services and the infrastructure that helps us work toward safer air, water, food and pharmaceuticals.

Social media makes the world feel small, but it also makes it easy to forget that there is a large portion of the world who are not political junkies plugged into the Matrix. Most people could care less about the back and forth in DC. Do you know why the President asked people to tweet their elected officials? Because nobody else cares.

Those of us who want all children fed, clothed, sheltered and educated regardless of their parents’ place of birth or employment status are the minority. We need to stop acting shocked when our fantasy of a healthy, educated populace gets dealt political blows.

We have a choice. We can act like emo teenagers blaming a President who is constrained by the reality of being black in America and help get a Koch owned politician elected OR we can elect politicians who are not bought and paid for by lobbyists. We can give our President intelligent team players who care about ALL Americans or we can rage against the good guys because they had to compromise with racist, sexist creeps and corporate overlords.

Realistically, the best and brightest thing we can do for the future is to educate all children and raise our own children to care about others.

Just a girl

// July 20th, 2011 // 2 Comments » // people

“She gets migraines” is the new “but what if she’s on her period” and it’s equally silly.

because Twitter isn’t my real estate

// June 2nd, 2011 // No Comments » // politics, social media

“Things I don’t care about: 1. A twitpic of underpants. 2. How someone eats their food.”

“Things I do care about: 1. My children wearing clean underpants. 2. All children having healthy food to eat.”

A few minutes after I tweeted, I saw this.

“strategies”

// May 11th, 2011 // No Comments » // people

When the southern strategy was cleverly played to use fear and ignorance for political gain, did people know it was happening the way we are currently aware of the religion strategy being used for the same political game?

social media reactions

// May 2nd, 2011 // No Comments » // politics, social media

Far left: Rapidly tweeting the one-liners that late night comedians will use all week. No credit will be given to original authors.

*Far right: Scolding left on their disrespectful use of humor on such a serious occasion as the creation of a worse enemy.

Bush fans: The President had nothing to do with this event. All credit goes to our military.

Obama fans: 2 > 8.

Missing the big picture: Why isn’t my gas cheaper now?

Tin-foil hats: He’s been dead for a decade.

TeePees: Waiting for their corporate overlords to tell them how they feel.

*The same people who once invoked Psalms 109 while praying about America’s President.

But this is what you wanted

// April 7th, 2011 // No Comments » // people

Democrats in America are frustrated, aggravated and annoyed. We have a President who isn’t refusing to support, endorse or vote on anything the Republicans demand. Our President is constantly trying to reach a compromise exactly like he said he would when we elected him. While he keeps doing what we said we wanted, we are not happy. I don’t want legislation that supports the plutocracy, fuels class warfare are promotes the wishes of the American Taliban. I only got what I wanted.

Republicans in America are frustrated, aggravated and annoyed. They have a President who is a Socialist, Muslim, immigrant and almost certainly the anti-christ. Nothing he supports, endorses or votes on could possibly be anything but evil. So, even though the President keeps saying yes to Republican demands, every yes is something they no longer want. When he does what they want, they are not happy. They want to say no to Democrats more than they want Democrats saying yes to them. They only got what they wanted.

If only there was someone sensible who could sit with the squabbling children and help them figure out solutions. Teachers used to be able to do that. Too bad we are driving the good teachers away with our national teacher blame game. The unexperienced replacement teachers don’t have time to help anyone. They are too busy teaching students how to score well on standardized tests so that they can continue teaching students how to score well on standardized tests. We only got what we wanted.

Noah voted

// August 11th, 2010 // No Comments » // kid quotes, politics, teenagers

Until they invent a “family” sized voting machine that all the children can squish together and watch, the children take turns accompanying us to the voting machine. Last week, Noah was my voting buddy.
“Why isn’t it a touch screen?”
“Where’s the keyboard?”
“How old is this machine?”
“What if you don’t like either one?”
“If only one person is running, why do they put them on there?”
“You want ME to push the big button? Is that legal?”

This year, our school system has decided two of the school days will have special themes. One is Constitution Day and the other is Civics Education Day. Either day will be the perfect day to put voting machines in the schools and let all students turn the dial and ask questions. Have a school-wide election about a relevant issue, like selling ice cream during lunch. Let’s raise a generation of of voters.

local elections – school board version (pt 2)

// July 23rd, 2010 // 3 Comments » // politics, school

If you live in the 9th district, your School Board choice can be narrowed down to one simple question. If you want to continue with the representation you have now, Bratton is your candidate. If you want something different, Trainor is your candidate. If you live in a cave and don’t know that both of your candidates are well-known figures in the Knox County education community whose careers speak for themselves, then consider the candidates’ responses to the following question.

Should school foundations be allowed to fund specific classes? Bratton’s response was that it wouldn’t be fair to allow that, because it would create have and have not schools. In other words, if we can’t have it, nobody can have it. Trainor stated that if foundations can help schools keep from losing classes, they should be able to do so.

Neither candidate stated that the current funding already gives disproportionately to schools from lower SES communities to balance the communities that can afford to provide more themselves. Why would you cripple the schools that are getting less government resources from using the community resources that eliminate them from additional government funding? That’s like shooting yourself in the foot because shoes don’t fit on your hands. Moreover, why wouldn’t any School Board member have the maturity and intelligence to allow each and every school to be the best that it can be?

The 9th district needs a School Board representative who cares about all schools and all students. That representative needs to be Trainor.