Posted on 04/17/2006 10:09:23 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
If one pays close attention, to what is going on in this country and the world there are lessons to be learned from the news. For example, the Bush administration has a 38 percent job approval rating according to the latest polls.
The low approval rating comes after Americans learned there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11, that the Department of Defense has been inept and incompetent in conducting the occupation of Iraq, that nearly three years after the president who never fought in a war landed on an aircraft carrier and announced "mission accomplished, nearly 3,000 American soldiers have been killed and as many as 100,000 Iraqis are dead and Iraq is headed toward civil war.
On top of those mistakes and deceptions there was the Katrina fiasco, the high cost of gasoline and the revelation that the president directed the vice president to leak information from the White House to the press. It therefore stands to reason, that Vice President Cheney, while being introduced to throw out the first pitch at America's favorite past time — baseball — was booed by the crowd.
Let's hope that the November elections change the make up of the House of Representatives before this administration can beat the drums of war for the invasion of Iran. The lesson: You can fool some of the people sometime but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.
Lesson two. The specter of having your parents deported is ample incentive for a high school student to walk out of school in protest of government policy that could lead to attempts as mass deportations.
Spanish-speaking radio stations and DJs played a key role in mobilizing the largest mass demonstration in American history. The Internet and cellular phones also played a vital role in getting the word out about an issue that cuts across American life.
Immigration may be the tip of the iceberg but there are the also the issues of globalization, fair wages, working conditions, the future of health care, the social safety net for all Americans, education and the global inequality.
I am still waiting for Lou Dobbs, the people on Fox television and other mainstream corporate media to explain to the American people why the conditions in Mexico and South America are so wretched that millions of people risk life and limb to escape to the United States. Does the immigration issue in the U.S. have anything to do with the rejection of economic policies implemented in South America at the behest of American presidents and their economic advisers?
The immigration rights movement provides us with another lesson — how to mobilize from the bottom up to dramatize your issues and concerns.
Lesson three. Countries in South America appear to be using nonviolent democratic methods to educate, organize and mobilize people. In countries like Argentina, Ecuador, Uruguay and Venezuela social change has occurred while in places like Florida, Ohio and Cook County, Illinois elections have been flawed by technological glitches resulting in votes being lost, strayed or stolen. Incidentally, the United States has one of the lowest voter participation rates of the western democracies in the world.
Some pundits worry that low levels of citizen participation in elections and other issues affecting the quality of life in communities in need of positive social change are ominous signs that democratic institutions in the U.S. have been weakened. At a time when democratic involvement is needed, we seem to be moving in the wrong direction.
Shopping has become the alternative to social discourse and involvement. In the African-American community too many young men are enamored with "bling-bling" or gaudy jewelry that is suppose to indicate the possession of large sums of money.
If you know someone who owns a car with spinning hub caps or a television screen in the back seat then you know what I am talking about. These are examples of the materialism in the extreme.
It reflects a warped sense of individualism that is a caricature of American materialism and inequality. On the other hand, during spring break there were college students who sacrificed their time to go to New Orleans to help homeowners clean up and rebuild their homes.
The lesson in all of these examples is that through broad based democratic education, organization and mobilization that new possibilities are within reach. It is a choice between being a spectator who revels in personal materialism or one who enters into a social, nonviolent democratic process for something larger than you.
David Johnson's "Subject to Change" appears every other week in The Star. Johnson is a professor at South Suburban College in South Holland and a former mayor of Harvey. He may be reached at djohnson@southsuburbancollege.edu.
- Not to depend on phony info that most newpapers have already retracted
- Learning that the living conditions in Mexico and South America are so "wretched" because of their socialist government policies that have been proven to fail time and time again.
- And the biggest lesson is that Johnson really doesn't believe any of this crap himself because he chooses to stay here rather than move to one of these "nonviolent democratic" paradises.
Johnson sounds like one of those guys back in the 30s who was convinced that Nazi Germany, Commie Russia, and Fascist Italy were the progressive future.
CHICAGOLAND PING
And how's that newspaper revenue treatin' ya?
Looks like the only meaningful change the author is going to be making is looking for a new job soon. Bush's fault!
Standard issue moonbat propaganda.
No, it's the Chicago south suburban newspaper. Johnson was actually mayor of Harvey at one time, of all the Godforsaken places, which kind of explains where he's coming from.
Blah blah blah blah.
Yet another application for the Barking Moonbat club.
Earth to Planet Zongo! High school students don't need ANY excuse to walk out of school, especially if it's a nice day in the spring.
Just what is it with these tweezer heads that they have to believe this bilge when every day more and more evidence comes out that proves that old Sadam did have WMDs and was up to his ears with Al Quida? It's almost pathological!
HOW COME I NEVER GET CALLED UPON TO ANSWER POLLS???? IS IT BECAUSE THEY CALL THE SAME 15 LIBS AND ASK THEM?
"I have been over into the future, and it works."
I love a guy who can compare the Dade county elections procedures with those of Venezuela and find the former crooked and the latter honest. That takes a disconnection from reality that one needs a PhD or heavy medication or both to accomplish.
this guy is a pathetic leftist. If he is so enamored by those countries South of us, then why the hell is he remaining here? Most of South America is a Socialist hell where capitalism isn't allowed to flourish. I would like to ask this dirtbag why some many want to come to America? To idiot leftists all that is good begins with the worship of the State. I utterly despise all these leftists types because they desire to enslave the productive with arm of the State. The elites in Mexico and all the other trashy communists governments brainwash and keep their citizens in poverty all while blaming it on the exploitation by capitalists. It would all be laughable if we had an impregnable wall along our borders. The survival of our Republic requires an wall be built along our borders. If all these slimy leaders South of the border (Fox being the worst) hate the US, then we should make sure NOT ONE of their citizens be allowed into our great land. They want our Republic destroyed-- the sooner we realize this the sooner we can protect our nation for our descendants.
The leftists are the conservatives now. They yearn for the good old days of Joe Stalin, or his imitators.
Marx cooked the books looking at one unsuccessful tribe, and developed his religion from that. No learning from the real world was necessary after that. Turn off your brain. Shut your eyes.
The moonbats seek the good old days when they would be right based on the side they chose, not based on work, or experience. Much like the feudal barons. So long as they don't go after the big prize, they are left along to oppress their local serfs.
"Johnson is a professor at South Suburban College in South Holland"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Professor Johnson is yet another example of a socialistic educator in an American educational institution. Pity the parents and the taxpayers who are paying this man's salary as he does his best to brainwash students into his warped notions.
I wouldn't worry too much about him. There are probably not too many brains available for him to wash. Folks going to South Suburban are too busy getting their AAS degrees and trying to get ahead, to listen to his BS.
I grew up in the area about 30 years ago, when it was much nicer. South Suburban College (back then it was known as Thornton Community College) was a decent community college. About the mid 80s, some of their administrators and faculty started pushing it to be something it couldn't be. They had the name changed to South Suburban College. That's when we started to refer to it as the "South Holland Institute of Technology".
FWIW it might be improved now. They are offering a Massage Therapy certificate.
I didn't even get past the first paragraph: blatantly incorrect use of commas, and an immediate ad-hominem attack. That's what I call a lack of credibility right out of the gate.
We called it University of South Holland. I went to TCC 30 or so years ago when I still lived in da Heights. I needed to transfer a freshman level science course to get my bachelor's degree and, like an idiot, I took Organic Chemistry. That was a struggle. Do you remember Jimbo's Drive-In at 162nd and Indiana?
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