At least when it comes to educational innovation:

New Orleans, in a post-Katrina flash, has become the first major city in which more than half of all public school students attend charter schools.

For these new schools with taxpayer funding and independent management, old rules and habits are out. No more standard hours, seniority, union contracts, shared curriculum or common textbooks. In are a crowd of newcomers—critics call them opportunists—seeking to lift standards and achievement. They compete for space, steal each other’s top teachers and wonder how it is all going to work.

The approval of the Patrick Henry charter school is just a first step.

It was humor, but also a statement that the welfare state has never worked.

You are trying to say that liberal attitudes are somehow poisoning the minds of all those poor peeps. Oh my.

Lots of folks do rise out of poverty taking extremely liberal philosophy with them every step of the way. More than a couple but less than a landslide get out with extremely conservative views too.

So, in spite of what I guess you want it to be, it isn’t political philosophy either. I’m only agreeing with you that the welfare state is not the solution. Nothing more.

I can’t comment too much on what the conservative solution to race and poverty is, because I’m not positive your side has one.

Not being sarcastic. I honestly don’t know if you do have a solution unless that be let hurricanes wipe ‘em all out and start over from scratch.

Ed,

Were you trying to make a point or just trying to be creative or funny?

Let’s review.

We know the problem isn’t housing because, as the article points out, even when given the opportunity to move into stable neighborhoods, they still behave the same way they did in the old “hoods”.

We know it’s not that enough isn’t spent on education because the worst schools are in areas, mostly black and urban, that spend far more on education than do their suburban counterparts. Even when the billions spent on daycare and free breakfast, brunch, lunch, afternoon snack and after school dinner are factored in, there’s still more than enough left over that the students should at least be able to point out the 1.5” mark on a ruler. (most can’t)

We know it’s not racism (the liberal definition, in which only white conservatives can be racists)because the worst areas are almost always governed by a liberal-black dominated gov’t and the education system is as well. And most of the crime is committed on other blacks or more recently, hispanics.

It’s not the “availability of guns” because there are over 200 million guns in this country and if simply having access to one resulted in creating a criminal then we’d all be recently robbed or dead.

It’s not genetic because, prior to the 1970’s, the crime rate among blacks was no worse than that of whites.

The same applies to “poverty”, even poverty as defined by liberals, for the same reason. There are poor people of all races (refer to trailer park mentioned earlier)and blacks were even poorer prior to the 1970’s, yet their crime rate was no different than anyone elses.

So, if it’s not poverty, education, guns, genetic or racism.....then what could the cause possibly be? And keep in mind that the rise of crime and illegitimacy took off in the late sixties and early seventies, well before the gov’t started spreading AIDS and smuggling crack into peaceful areas.

“I dare not speak it. I dare not speak it. Ahhh, the sunlight. It so burns me. I slink into the comforting shadows...”

Actually, that was a decent link, not so hard to speak at all, considering the obviously political and overly pointed nature of the website.

Not such a bad read all considered.

I have said before that I think the creation of the welfare state was a monstrous idea that looked good on paper but just failed at every step, and did not even serve the needs of the people it was designed to help, but entrapped them instead into what they used to charmingly label “cycles” of poverty.

Essentially, poverty and social decay feed on themselves, and breed future decay on into the next generation. 

I’m not certain liberals are as reluctant to admit their crimes as Roger would think, certainly considering cons are notably reluctant to admit “their” crimes against humanity too.

However, each new generation breeds not only cycles of poverty but cycles of fuzzy headed liberalism too. New dewy-eyed young folk, cute, sweet, stupid liberals, who cut their teeth on idealism, false guilt, and the burning desire to erase terrible social problems that have resisted the best of efforts for centuries, all in a flash.

Each new generation produces new George Bushs from their underground Crawford dens and burrows as well. As they crack open their shells in the sweltering heat of the arid global warming clime, their scaly Republican bodies glistening with Texas tea, their tails whipping furiously, the beady reptilian GOP eyeballs scan the horizon for new meat and they emit a blood curdling screech into the primitive Richmond primordial miasma.

Each new generation repeats the mistakes of the previous with the same old over-simplistic solutions to ever-resistant problems.

Some data to highlight my earlier point.

http://cheatseekingmissiles.blogspot.com/2008/06/delaying-that-dialog-on-race.html

The truth no lefty dare speak.

Richmond still is not adequately addressing ADA...or the digital divide for that matter.

It is falling behind everywhere else.

I am sorry but I really don’t blame parents when they move out of the City. How can I when the City Council and Times Dispatch still thinks art centers and convention centers are more important than education?

Well said, Roger.

Not saying I agree with any single part of it, just saying you articulated your point very well and I understand it, and it makes perfect sense where you are coming from.

“The difference between R.Smith and my position is that Roger seems to imply that ghetto folk are willfully obstructionist and choose to be losers. Maybe he does not mean for that impression to be let out, but that is how some might read what he says. Why so hostile?”

That’s exactly what I mean, your implication that to say so is somehow unspeakable notwithstanding. They glory in being from the HOOD and enforce the new Black Code. No snitch’n or you’re a race traitor. That’s why black people who want to better themselves get the hell out as soon as possible. BUT...they still abide by the Black Code. Racial Solidarity comes first...at least in public. In private it’s a different story.

There’s a trailer park behind where I work. It’s mostly white people with a growing number of hispanics. Other than the occasional drunk in public or domestic dispute, it’s a pretty quiet place and safe to walk thru. On the street behind is the HOOD. Same area...same income levels but mostly black. I can stand at the door to our building and point to 3 murder sites. All black shooters and victims (exceot the mexican who was shot in the Apple Grocery parking lot...in front of his family), within 100 yards of the building. I’ve actually had my dog lick what I found out later was human blood off the ground behind our building during his morning walk! A women from the trailor park(who always waves and says Hi) called out “I wouldn’t let him lick that! A guy got shot there last night”. The trailer park kids...white and hispanic...play in the same lot and always giggle and say hello...as do their parents who are never more than 10 feet away. Little black kids, on the other hand, walk by and stare with a depth of hate in their eyes that is just incomprehensible. These are 8-9 year old kids. Usually in small groups with no adult in sight. Where do they learn that hate? I doubt any of them even know any white people since they go to Ruffin Rd elementary...not far from where the ice cream man was shot in the face.

The difference between Ed and I is that I’m speaking from experience, not just voicing an opinion tailored to fit a centrist image.

The difference between bob and I is that I realize it’s no longer 1968 and that eras calcified old remedies are aimed more at making guiltly liberals feel good about themselves than they are at confronting the pathology and politically driven cultural breakdown that created this situation.

Also, to respond to Bye, Bye,

I don’t see anything wrong with Chief Monroe’s statements.  Community progress is what we have been talking about in different ways.

However, I think crime stats are cyclic. They ebb and flow with how well the economy is doing, or how many drug wars are flaring up, or any other reasons.

He was probably an ok chief because he took care of business. Did he deserve kudos ? I don’t know, but entirely possible he got credit for work his predecessor put in place. If he had stayed police chief for 20 years we might have a better reading on just how well he “really” did.

You can’t blame him for going on to better things and putting a shiny gloss on his success. Smart move. It just makes it hard for us to evaluate what he accomplished.

Bob,

Did I say that ? The only thing worse than a conservative is two conservatives, but you liberals are very close behind. Very.

Sorry for the insult, but I just had to get it off my chest. Since you aren’t Christian, well, just forgive me anyway. As Bill would say, I know not what I say, and we all know Bill is right about everything.

The difference between R.Smith and my position is that Roger seems to imply that ghetto folk are willfully obstructionist and choose to be losers. Maybe he does not mean for that impression to be let out, but that is how some might read what he says. Why so hostile ?

I think it is normal human behavior, nothing unusual at all, for folks to adapt to their environment and call it home. If said environment is a toxic wasteland ghetto, the natural impulse is not to put down on it but to adapt to it, to fit in and make it work for you.

Of course blacks are not dummies. MPW lives in Mechanicsville. He isn’t ghetto, and yet he speaks for the ghetto. How can that be. I don’t think liberals, either black or white, are helping the cause nearly as much as they could if honesty ruled the day over political correctness, but I totally agree that middle class blacks abandoned the ghetto ages ago. Do the inner city folks realize that they have been left behind ?

Probably not. Too busy calling the ghetto “home”.

If you live in a foul environment, you have to adopt upward mobile attitudes in order to get out of it. It can’t be your “community” or your “home”. Your real home is in Mechanicsville, your real home is education, a good job, no prison record, no drug marks. Jackson Ward is just a speedbump on your path to redemption in the promised land.

Sorry to pick on Jackson Ward, which may have several lovely properties and much good living to offer. I’ll pick on Windsor Farms next time. No wait. I already “do” pick on them too. So unfair. Uh, lily white Hanover County. Stupid people with their stupid tomatoes. (I’m getting silly) Regardless, did not mean to stereotype that neighborhood. Substitute “ghetto” or “place where disadvantaged people are reputed to live and work”.

The same goes for any other minority, of which Richmond has many. The only ones who are successful are the ones who see their life as transitional, messed up, and only a way station on the path to the middle class.

The minute you adapt to dysfunction you are lost. Your head disappears beneath the waves. Roger is a canary in our coalmine. A very ugly thoroughly unloveable canary, but a canary all the same.

According to outgoing police chief Rodney Monroe, Bob Powell is closer to to being correct. Monroe stated, just days after his being hired here, that you “cannot just police crime away.” Seeds have to be planted; police must work to “gain the community’s trust.”

And the Times-Dispatch editorial page wholeheartedly agreed. But then again they’ll agree to anything that doesn’t make sense to the average working human being.

According to Monroe (and Wilder), yes, crime was already rapidly declining under former police chief Andre Parker. However, Parker could not obtain the blessing of the community—the crooks & the sleaze did not like him. So Parker had to go.

And this is why I say GOOD RIDDANCE MONROE! Crime here was already plummeting in the year before you came here! Now let’s get back to putting the fear of God into low-life violent criminals.

Post Your Comments: