Dark Waters

Maybe I’m not as hard as I think

Maybe it’s tiring to be the rock

That everyone anchors to

When I know how crumbly

The center of that rock is.

Dark waters surround me again.

It’s nothing new

I’ve been through them so many times

I’ve lost count.

Good thing I have time off to hide in my house.

People don’t have to know.

People won’t know.

People don’t want to know—

I’m the rock, remember?

Dark waters surround me again.

It’s nothing new

I’ve been through them so many times

I’ve lost count.

In a few days, I’ll emerge

To go into work

To be that rock again.

No one will know.

But I will be on the outlook for the kids in the dark waters.

It’s what I do

It’s who I am

It’s why I will not let the dark waters pull me down.

The Man-Crush: Trump and Putin

It is one of the more puzzling truths of the times we live in: Why does Donald Trump have an obvious man-crush on the murderous, tyrannical Russian president, Vladimir Putin?

The Helsinki press conference is only the latest example of Trump's deference, nay his obsequiousness, toward Putin, who lamented that the demise of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century and followed that by annexing territory from a neighboring nation, starting a war to take more territory, exploiting the internet and social media to weaken the democratic institutions of Western nations, including the belief in free and fair elections, and murdering by poison Russian nationals in England who had fallen into disfavor.

"I don't know any reason why it would be Russia." In future editions of the Diagnostic and Statisical Manual of Mental Disorders, this will be cited as the classic statement of a co-dependent.

What is it about Trump and Putin?

It is not a bromance. Putin is exploiting Trump for every advantage and propaganda moment he can; the love is not returned. Putin's goal is the repeal of the Magnitsky Act, which sanctions the men who committed human rights violations in the arrest, torture, and murder of the Russian lawyer by freezing their assets and leaving them unable to travel around the world. It is possible these sanctions also threaten the personal wealth of Putin, located outside of Russia, as he may be within the reach of the Magnitsky Act.

Dark fantasies erupt. What does Putin have on Trump? Is it the alleged pee-pee tape? Or something worse?

Did Trump's campaign, even Trump himself, collude with Russian operatives in the 2016 campaign?

Or is it a fascination with authoritarian leaders and a disregard for the Constitutional division of powers among three branches of government? Or maybe a narcissistic personality out-of-control as no one has ever been able to tell him no?

Let's take Occam's Razor to the question. It is really very simple, but we need to recall the business history of Donald J. Trump to get to the point.

He has used bankruptcy as a business strategy to jettison his properties that do not produce a profit. He has used it so often he entered the 21st century unable to gather investment dollars or loans from any Western bank, institution, or wealthy person.

To continue, he turned to Russian oligarchs flush with cash after taking advantage of the post-Soviet chaos and state-shedding of industries. Ordinary Russians who were given shares in newly privatized corporations and industries did not have the experience to know how to protect these assets. Oligarchs quickly consolidated ownership of key industries and resources into their hands.

Trump offered investment opportunities and they took them. Now the Magnitsky Act threatens to freeze their investments, that is, they cannot pull out their money or even a return.

If the Russians stop investing in Trump properties, he has no one else to turn to.

It's that simple. There was no collusion. Oh, the Russians tried to help Trump, but like dark-money funded Superpacs, they had no need to coordinate efforts.

BUT! One word from Putin and Trump's Russian sources of investment dry up overnight.

Everything crashes around him.

So sucking up to Vladimir Putin, despite the universe-too-small-to-contain-it ego, is the sensible thing to do.

Now you understand Donald J. Trump's affinity for Vlad the bare-chested KGB revanchist Russian president.

Independence Day 2018

One week, seven days, a quarter of a moon cycle, and we will celebrate the publication of the Declaration of Independence on its 242nd anniversary. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness, ..."

Among these: Notice that the Founding Fathers did not limit our unalienable rights to these three, among these, there are others not mentioned.

Among these rights, I would add the right to raise one's children, that children will not be taken from their parents without a compelling interest of the state in their behalf, namely that their life or welfare is endangered.

The furor over the policy of the president, his attorney general, and the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to separate children from their parents who have been detained at our borders caused President Trump to issue an executive order a week ago to stop the practice.

A week later, confusion abounds has to how and if that policy has been implemented. Children remain separated from their parents and despite the assurances of government that they have all the details in hand, U.S. government agencies and officials seem confounded as to how they will reunite these families. They don't seem to know who belongs with whom and even where everyone is.

Reports emerge that border security (ICE: Immigration and Customs Enforcement) do not have the facilities for the detention of families. But they were well prepared for the separation of families.

Government officials, from the low-level routine to the highest levels, say they are struggling to deal with the logistics of reuniting children with parents. Yet they were well-prepared for the separation.

Sorry, but I'm not buying it. We are the nation that put men on the moon. We are the nation that developed vaccines for polio and smallpox and eradicated these diseases from our continent, even the world. We are the nation that invented semiconductors and silicon chips and set off the computer revolution. There is nothing we can't do if we put our minds to it. Yay, America! Trump glories in it.

Oh wait, but we can't figure out after a week how to get 2,300 children back to their parents.

I'm not buying it.

Remember this moment? For the first time, I'm proud of my country ...

She was pilloried for the statement. And I'm expecting the same because now, for the very first time in my life, I am ashamed of my country.

It isn't only the cruel, inhumane, and barbaric policy that Donald Trump and his minions, among them Jeff Sessions and Kirstjen Nielson, have implemented. It isn't only the number of people who are defending the indefensible violation of human rights by the United States of America. It is the justifications that are being offered as if anything could defend this.

Logic and reason do not support the policy of separation because military personnel die in battle nor that first responders sometimes pay that price as well.

One might as well say that sometimes people die in automobile accidents and their children are now orphans and that justifies deliberate orphan-making actions when that does not need to take place.

Shameful.

In the mid-nineteenth century, Alexander de Toqueville visited America and then published his conclusions on what he found. Among them was this very cogent observation: America is great because America is good; if America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.

We are no longer good. Drop the pretense, the world is not buying it.

#MAGA. What a joke. We have ceased to be great and, frankly, I don't see how we'll ever get back.

Social Security Explained

No, the money is not there. It never was and that was by design. Only the most foolish would collect an excess and lock actual cash in a vault. Or worse, buy gold, which is a risky investment that often fails to provide an adequate return on investment.

By law, when Social Security taxes were increased in excess of benefit payments for the purpose of building a surplus for the years when those born between 1946 and 1964 (popularly known as the Baby Boom generation) would retire and their benefit payments would exceed projected tax revenues, the excess or surplus in funds was invested in U.S. Treasury securities: bonds, t-bills, etc.

I thought then and still believe now that a unique opportunity was missed. The surplus could not be invested in the stock market, the traditional vehicle for the greatest growth over time, because it was too large. We would have achieved backdoor socialism, whereby the federal government would come into ownership and control of all publicly traded companies.

That was not acceptable then and most of us would not welcome that now.

But the surplus could have been invested in roads, bridges, railway infrastructure that would generate revenue via tolls. It could have been used to fund homeownership for low-income and middle-income families, mortgages that would generate revenue via the interest rates. These would be investments that even now would be generating revenue for Americans' main retirement plan rather than be drains.

The opportunity was lost. It will not come again.

Thus, we have reached the point where the Boomers are retiring and beginning to claim their social security, as did their parents before them and their grandparents before them.

Understand that Social Security is not an investment. You hold nothing, no bond, no stock, no asset, no I.O.U. signed and legally enforceable in a court. Social Security is a wealth transfer program for those who are working to those who used to work but no longer do.

There is nothing wrong with that. Social Security is a promise, a promise from one generation to another, that we will support you in your old age in return for a promise that future generations will do the same for us. Facilitating and enforcing this generational promise is the federal government.

It has worked since its inception. It will continue working, except for the avarice of the uber-wealthy, whose drive to hoover up all the wealth of middle-income and low-income families boggle the imagination.

It is the political class, now the servile instruments of the uber-wealthy, who seek to finance an unsustainable tax cut by eliminating the generational promise of Social Security.

This meme is beginning to make its way across social media. While they have voted to cut benefits, almost totally Medicare and Medicaid, the Social Security cut is only $4 billion, they are not stealing anything. There is nothing to steal.

They voted to begin a slowdown in the reduction of the fund balance, so small as to be almost unnoticeable. But now is the time to remember the fable of the camel's nose. Start small, so small no one will notice or, if they do, how could they object?

If the cut becomes law, it will only be the beginning. As for Medicare, the cut will gut the program and hasten the crisis when we will either give up on health insurance or go to a single-payer system. (My money is on the latter.)

There is a difference between cash and bookkeeping. The $2.9 trillion surplus is actually only a bookkeeping entry: how much more has been collected in Social Security taxes than has been paid out. There is nothing to steal. But if Congress votes and the President agrees to wipe out the balance with a bookkeeping entry, that is huge.

The generational promise is gone.

Heart of Darkness

Author: Joseph Conrad.  Year of Publication: 1899.

Heart of Darkness chronicles the tale of Marlow, the narrator of the story, who recalls for a few seamen a time of his life when, as a young man, he went to the Belgian Congo to captain a riverboat for the company in charge of trade in the colony.

Yes, a colony, the infamous colony of King Leopold II of Belgium, the Congo Free State. To understand this book, you must understand the background which Conrad did not have to explain to his contemporary audience.

Africa resisted colonization until the last decades of the 1800s, mainly because its interior was full of people to resist and exotic diseases that killed Europeans in less than a year. While European countries gained a toehold on coastal cities, they could not penetrate the continent with success until two things happened: military technology advanced to produce automatic weapons, guns that did not need reloading but could deliver a spray of bullets to mow down advancing Africans armed with only clubs, spears, and arrows; medical advancements that discovered drugs like quinine that could provide protection against disease.

Outnumbered 2 to 1, 3 to 1, maybe even 10 to 1, European armies were able to defeat native armies and establish colonial control.

Europe foresaw what they could do. By this time, they had colonized the western hemisphere and experienced the numerous revolutions that freed the continents of North and South America, not to mention several islands in the Caribbean, from their control. I refer not only to the U.S. revolution, but the Haitian revolution and the many revolutions driven by Simon Bolivar.

They had established hegemony in Asia including the domination of China. As land is limited upon the Earth, only one great opportunity was left: Africa. Technology delivered it into their hands and the scramble was on.

That is what it was known as--the Scramble for Africa. It culminated in the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, where the European powers split the continent among themselves to avoid warfare over territory and boundaries.

Unlike the British, French, German, Portuguese, and other European governments, which ruled their colonies through the auspices of their officials, the Congo Free State, that part of Africa given to Belgium, was taken by its King, Leopold II, as his personal fiefdom and colony.

Originally, the King scoured the territory for ivory as the quickest way to score profits. That is the period in which Marlow takes up a job, goes to the Congo, works his way upriver, and later recounts his experiences.

But by the time his readers were devouring his words, Leopold had established rubber plantations as a better way to maximize his wealth aggrandizement from the colony. His rapacity and brutal treatment of Africans were infamous across Europe. Fail to meet production goals and hands were cut off. There are photographs surviving from this time in which piles of hands can be seen. Rebel and worse treatments were handed out.

Even given the very low standard of morality regarding the people of Africa that all Europe held at the time, Leopold's cruelty was so aberrant that heavy pressure from the other European powers forced the Belgium government to wrest control of the colony away from Leopold in 1908.

Now let us come back to the novella. It is short, only 38,700 words by the best estimates. That is enough.

The atmosphere is bleak. At the outset, the sky and water are described as one sheet of steel gray, so like one another that the observers cannot tell where one ends and the other begins. Dusk is falling as they wait for the tide to turn and run out. (This is a time of sails, not motors, and timing the tide for departure from port was essential.)

Themes of death and darkness are established as the words go on. Even in a city supposedly full of bright opportunities, Marlow describes it as a whitened sepulchre, that is a dark tomb that is painted over to distract the eye from its contents.

Everything that happens comes to a meaningless or purposelessness. On the journey to Africa, we find a French warship firing off cannons into the land. Why? We do not know. But battleship bombardments fail in effectiveness even in our day, so we can appreciate the continuing gloom of uselessness of effort that Conrad describes.

This is a psychological story, driven by the author looking deep into our souls, through his narrator, to see what is there.

Marlow begins the inquiry early when, before taking his listeners to Africa, he asks whether the experience of exploring a new land, such as penetrating into Africa, is any different whenever it happens? He asks if the Romans, invading Britain, did not have the same experience? Weren't the peoples of the island just the same, just as primitive, just as savage, and wouldn't they have resisted the Romans the same as the Congolese resisted their invaders? Abandon their river homes, flee inland, wear down the invading force?

He arrives in the Congo. He encounters three individuals of interest, the third of whom I will describe last although Marlow finds him first.

The manager: the man placed in charge of managing all the stations and bringing out the ivory. He is a man without feeling, a man who only looks after the profit, who sees the natives as a pool of labor not quite human, to be exploited as one would put an ox to a yoke to plow a field.

The scenes of death that are described are stunning. The grove of trees, where Marlow goes to escape the heat and finds natives, beaten or worked beyond the capacity of the human body to recover, lay dying. The clink of chains that bind together a group of men, fastened around their necks, as they are driven up the road with heavy burdens that they carry. The savage beating of a man, who accidentally set a fire that burned up a hut full of cheap goods for trade (calico and bolts of cloth), and the abandonment of that man to let him lie and die.

But we have not yet approached the heart, the residing place of darkness that Conrad is taking us to.

The second person is Kurtz, the man with high connections, the man who didn't have to go to Africa but did. He was slated for greatness, at the moment only an agent in the wood, but soon to take over the manager's position before going back to Europe to rise high in the Company.

Everyone knew of Kurtz, some admired his work with the natives but most scorned it.

Kurtz, who came to the colony with the high motive of civilizing the savages. (Now today, we would find that attitude objectionable, but at the time, it was seen as altruistic and noble.)

But dark rumors about Kurtz disturbed Marlow and tension is built as the story moves on: is he true to this ideal or what is he really doing?

Spoiler Alert! Stop reading now if you intend to read the book.





We find that Kurtz has been participating in unspeakable rites with the natives in the dark of night. He has not traded for ivory although he has sent down the river more ivory than all the other agents combined. No, he does not trade; he goes raiding for it. In other words, he steals it.

In those dark, midnight rituals, we find that Kurtz, who has a charismatic personality that finds expression in his voice, is allowing ... encouraging ... compelling the natives to pay him homage as a god.

In Kurtz, we find the heart of darkness and the message of Conrad. European colonizers, so superior in their smugness of civilization, are no better than these African people. The wilderness does that. Stripped of the structure of civilized society, those customs and laws built up over centuries, put into the wild, one must look into one's soul to find what is there ... if anything.

In the emptiness of Kurtz, who had nothing to resist becoming savage in his own way, Conrad accuses his society: Everything you imagine them to be--you are no better.

Postscript: While this is the accepted meaning of the novel, I have to wonder if Conrad himself understood it. The third character, which I have saved to the last, is the accountant. He dresses every day in a starched white collar, dazzling white linen shirt, snow white pants. It is not easy maintaining this standard. As Marlow recounts his tale decades in the future (so he has had time to evaluate each personality and decide upon it), this is the only one he admires. Reason? because the man maintained his standards. He was able to preserve his principles despite the degenerating influence of the environment.

BUT! the text also tells us that he was only able to do so by coercing a native woman into the necessary laundry practices. She was unwilling, but he made her do it. I hope you join me in recoiling at that. I would rather dress in rags than forcing anyone into labor that they do not want to do.

Second postscript: I took up this book because a colleague mentioned it. In the disturbing suicide of Anthony Boudain, it comes out that this was one of his favorite books. I leave this comment right here. Make of this fact what you will.

Summit in Singapore

Or maybe the Singapore Summit. Either way, it sounds like a great movie title.

The Kim-Trump summit. The Trump-Kim summit. The way those two names rattle together, it makes me wonder why all the pundits praising or condemning the meeting between the two leaders are missing on the great punning opportunity.

The Trumpkin summit. Wait, wasn't that the name of a dwarf in Narnia?

To borrow a Trumpian phrase, it was a big nothing-burger. They met, they talked, they ate; Trump showed off 'The Beast,' his presidential limo (this phrase did not originate with him), maybe in the hope that Kim Jong-Un would swap three nukes for it on the spot?

At the end, they issued a joint statement that said they would continue to talk, at least their staffs would.

Trump canceled U.S. participation in training exercises (can we stop calling them war games?) with South Korea's military, but that was a move he was planning to make anyway with the excuse of saving money. Well, yes, he does have a need to find DOD budget to fund his military parade. So he gave nothing away; he only tried to make it look like it was a concession to North Korea.

Given the history of both men to shake hands on an agreement and disavow it soon afterward with the claim that it did not mean what everyone took it to mean, the summit would not have done much regardless of what deal was made.

The real hope for progress is that all the issues have opened for discussion and negotiation. As I think over the past failures of the 6-way talks with North Korea, the ones that included Russia, China, Japan, and South Korea, it was the limitation of the talks to telling North Korea to stop developing nuclear weapons or we would hurt them. We did, but they kept on.

None of the other issues were brought up. In March 2017, in the midst of the fire-and-fury and American-dotard exchange, when many were thinking that war would be the only way to resolve the situation, I advocated for renewing the talks. I was scorched by social media that the talks have not worked. I replied that we needed to think about what the other side needed and maybe offering an end to the war would be a good incentive.

No one thought it a good idea, but that is where we have progressed and that is a good thing. Has no one noticed that for all the threats, North Korea did not and has not fired a missile test toward the U.S. mainland, Hawaii, or even Guam?

The country is not led by a madman. He is a brutal dictator, he has murdered rivals to secure power, but he is not insane.

He has a need to secure his regime and that is what he wants. He realizes that, for him to achieve that, he needs to reduce the threat of war on the peninsula and to improve his country's economy.

If we keep those needs in mind, we have a chance to move ahead and make a huge reduction in the tension between the parties involved: both Koreas, Japan, and the U.S., which has the treaty obligations to defend both Japan and South Korea.

I am not naive and I am no Pollyanna, but I am optimistic that we could achieve a breakthrough in the coming years.

Postscript: the real wild card in this is China. North Korea depends upon China in most ways, yet resists its influence. How far can Kim Jong-Un go given China's goals in the region? They have backed him because North Korea is a useful check on American power and influence in the region. the last thing China will accept is a complete rapprochement between the U.S., its allies, and North Korea. Reunification is out of the question.

China's purpose is to use their economic power and developing military power to push the United States out of the eastern Pacific, maybe, in their most optimistic dreams, all the way across the Pacific back to our western shores.

Will China support or sabotage talks to reduce tensions, formally end the war, and relieve sanctions in a return for denuclearization of the Korean peninsula?

Teacher Appreciation, Year Three

It's that time of year again. Grumpy, old teacher is back, but has more to say than in previous years because he has more than one audience in mind.

In anticipation of Teacher Appreciation Week, when (in theory) the public, parents, maybe students, never legislators (with sincerity), and you will die if you hold out for a sincere appreciation from Betsy Devos, tell teachers how great they are, before we get there, this grumpy, old teacher first wants to say whom he appreciates.

1. Custodians who clean the room daily. Students are messy even when they are not doing it deliberately: paper dropped on the floor, gum stuck under the desk, all types of refuse put into all the wrong places because it's too much trouble to get up and walk to the trash can to drop it in. Every day you sweep it up and carry it out. Thank you. This teacher appreciates all you do to keep my classroom clean.

2. Cafeteria workers who feed children daily. Students often do not eat before they reach school, sometimes their choice, sometimes they have no food to eat, sometimes things happen. You make sure they have hot and nutritious food to eat. At my school, you make sure the milk is not spoiled and the fruit is not rotten. You make sure that no child comes to my classroom hungry and unable to learn. Thank you. This teacher appreciates all you do to feed my students.

3. Security personnel. Students need continual urging to get to class on time, to get back to class when out for a bathroom break, and intervention when their emotions get the better of them. You keep our students safe. You come when a student melts down in the classroom to take them out so they can recover. Your eyes constantly watch our perimeter for intruders who do not belong on campus. More than that, you establish relationships with students so they feel comfortable sharing their concerns and fears with you. Because of that, we head off most trouble before it can start. Thank you. This teacher appreciates all you do to keep our students safe.

4. Caring administrators. You may have moved up the ranks, but you have kept your teacher's heart. You remember what it's like to teach, to struggle with reluctant learners, to deal with all the problems that walk in the door that have nothing to do with school, and you do not blame teachers. You support them. Thank you. This teacher appreciates all you do to support his efforts to create an environment where children choose to learn.

5. Counselors always at the ready. I detect the problems, but don't have time to find solutions. Often, it is far beyond a classroom teacher's ability or resources to help a child despite the desire to do so. When I bring someone to your attention, you go to work. You find counseling for a child stuck in grief, you deal with the trauma of their personal life's situation, you probe when we know something is going on but we don't know what, you give advice for success, you have the time that I do not. Thank you. This teacher appreciates all you do to provide students with a support system that they need.

6. Office clerks who keep the school running. You deal with all the needs of the school and children: administering medicine, tracking tardies, answering the phone, meeting parents, checking to see that people who show up to take a student are authorized to do so, maintaining records ... if you were not around, the system would dump all those tasks on teachers. Thank you. This teacher appreciates all you do so he can focus on teaching.

7. Parents who do not blame teachers when children do not perform according to expectations. We are a team and you know that. You don't call the school to complain about me; you call me so we can discuss how to help your child. You recognize we have the same goal: the success of your child. You cannot do what I do, but I cannot do what you do. You are the most significant person in your child's life, even if your child is a teenager and is busy telling you that you no longer matter (hint: the louder the protest, the more you know it is not true), and your support makes all the difference. I can't make a child do homework, I can only record a failing grade, but you can AND you do. Thank you. This teacher appreciates all the ways you support him.

8. Lastly, the public who supports a robust, strong public education system of schools. I'm not talking about fake public schools (charters). I'm talking about the real thing. You call legislators, you hold school board members accountable, you don't have children in the system any longer but are happy to pay the taxes needed to support public education because you realize its crucial role in supporting our society. Thank you. This teacher appreciates the support you provide.

Oklahoma! Where the Teachers Beg for Art Supplies

I'm not sure how to react to the story: OK Teacher posts pic of broken chair.

People have donated $44,000 worth of supplies in response.

Part of me is amazed and grateful at the support Americans provide to public education, willing to go beyond the cheap parsimony of state legislatures that have been defunding public schools for two decades in the hopes that ALEC, the Koch Brothers, Eli Broad, and others will bless their careers and give them new opportunities to build personal wealth through power.

Much of me is angry that this is what we have come to.

In my school, we can't get enough desks for our classrooms; therefore, another teacher and I pass desks between our classrooms every day to accommodate the number of students that will be in the room.

I have broken furniture that will not be replaced. Every teacher does. For the lucky few who get noticed, go viral with a social media post, and are blessed with an abundance of donations, I am very happy.

But I will note that for every one of those, there are a thousand teachers who go without.

See, that's the problem with private charity. It does its best, but it can't be as effective as a comprehensive, universal effort that is fair to all. That takes government and that takes taxes.

Private charity is controlled by the donor. Donors are generous, but they also act according to their beliefs, their histories, and their life histories.

I hate to say it, but the racial dynamics of our country come into play. We are much more likely to be generous with someone who looks like us than someone who does not.

That's why we have a government bound by constitutional principles (equal protection under the law and due process, among others) that must be fair. Even with those principles in place, we don't live up to the promise.

Sadly, though, this is what we have come to--teachers must beg for help. Nobody seems to question it. I know a lot of teachers who maintain Go Fund Me accounts. There are enough teachers doing such fundraising that school districts are reacting with prohibitions. I guess it's too embarrassing for them. However, I have never heard of a district banning Go Fund Me that hands a teacher a $5,000 expense account for classroom supplies, either.

Does your doctor have a Go Fund Me for bandages, syringes, and rubbing alcohol? Does your accountant have a Go Fund Me for a laptop computer and adding machine tape? Does your auto mechanic have a Go Fund Me for tools, motor oil, and antifreeze? Does your hairdresser have a Go Fund Me for combs, curlers, and hair dye? Does your bus driver, even a school bus driver, have to have a Go Fund Me to put gas in the bus?!

When did we accept that this is the norm for a teacher's life?

I've made up my mind. I appreciate the generosity of Americans, but this story makes me angry.

Planet of Exiles (Ursula Le Guin)

Ursula Le Guin was a science-fiction author whose works, written in the 1960s and 1970s, were said to lift the genre to a new level of excellence much in the same way that J.R.R. Tolkien did for the fantasy genre.

Planet of Exiles is a story of two different peoples, one light-skinned and one dark-skinned, who are faced with a crisis of existence and must find a way to work together or perish. Given that the author penned the work in the 1960s at the height of the civil rights movement, the choice to make the two peoples black and white cannot be a coincidence or anything other than a well-thought-out choice.

Without spoiling the story for you (and I recommend that you read it), I will mention many of the features of the plot that examine and perhaps turn on its head what we experience in our race relations.

Most notable is how both peoples regard themselves as human and the other as something less even though they both share the same body form and function with the same intelligence. Le Guin lets us wonder until halfway through the novella when we learn that the black people are immigrants to the planet from the League of All Worlds. That reference clues the reader to her first book, where the League of All Worlds is the interplanetary allegiance and government formed by humans from Earth after they colonized other planets.

The black people have the true claim to the label 'human.' They call the white people, native to the planet, hilfs. As the League humans explored planets, they catalogued the species they found. Hilf means a highly intelligent life form. When the white people hear the acronym, they bristle as they think it is an insult.

The black immigrants are immune to the diseases that plague the native peoples. This is explained by a doctor that both people are almost identical in their genome. There is only one variation, but it is enough so that the immigrants cannot be sickened by the planet's bacteria and viruses. However, it also prevents the two races from conceiving a child together.

Both peoples are under threat from another life form that is retreating through their lands into southern places as a long winter is arriving. (The planet's orbit around its sun results in seasons that we are told last for 24 years of our time.) These Gaal are doing something new. Instead of raiding and passing through, picking off the vulnerable but avoiding the strongholds of walled cities, they are organized and attacking the cities. The Gaal are committing genocide and taking over the cities.

A black leader proposes an alliance with the white people. But it goes awry due to a love affair between the leader and a white girl. As a result, the only chance both peoples have to turn aside the Gaal is squandered as the white people react with rage and refuse to cooperate.

Later, as the Gaal sack the white city, the black people attack them and rescue as many white people as possible. They regard it as an essential responsibility that springs from their very humanity.

As the story ends, the doctor and others are left to wonder at the disease that is claiming the lives of their people wounded in the battles with the Gaal. A young white woman, the lover and now wife of the black leader, explains that they are observing the planet's diseases kill.

Does that mean that the black humans are evolving? Does that mean that the black leader and wife will be able to conceive children after all? Is that a good thing? How will both peoples react?

Le Guin leaves us wondering as we finish the last page of her story.

The Witches Were White

Now that's a tease of a headline!

Yet it's what I heard in the hallway--one of those moments when people don't think they are being overheard.

A student was complaining about the movie, A Wrinkle in Time. That's the movie for which I offered extra credit if students went to see it a few weeks ago.

I had a purpose for the movie viewing beyond the mathematical angle (I am a math teacher, for those who don't know me.) I wanted students exposed to the interpretation of a well-known and much-loved story by an African-American female director and to see an African-American female in the lead role as well as supporting roles.

I wanted students to see a fresh and different perspective on the story and wondered if that would challenge their assumptions.

I promoted my offer with a movie poster prominently displayed on my hall bulletin board.

"The movie was terrible. [I am paraphrasing.] In the book, the witches were white. They had a black witch. She was a bad actor. They ruined the story ..."

The student's friend, to whom she was complaining, shushed her. He was trying to tell her to be quiet--don't let her race-based complaint be heard lest it bring trouble.

Unknown even to her, the student's complaint was race-based. She didn't like the fact that there were black actors playing roles that she imagined were white characters when she read the book.

In a way, I rattled her worldview and that is part of the job of a teacher: make kids think more deeply about what beliefs they have absorbed from their subculture. In another way, it shows the challenge we have in building a better society.

The witches were white. I too have read the book and no, Madeleine L'Engle never specified a race for the witches. It is the privilege of the dominant race of a society that everyone, including the minority members, will assume that the characters of a book are from the race of the dominant race of the society.

Even if the book had said the witches were white but someone had a new vision and changed that attribute, why would someone complain?

People, we have work to do.

After my first year at my current school, my principal gave me a 'needs improvement' rating in one area: knowing the background of my students. That really surprised me because of all the teachers at my school, I am one of the few, a very few, who thinks about my students, who they are, and how their personal histories play into the dynamics of the classroom.

It took me a long time to figure out that what he meant was that I was not using data (test data.) Actually, I was but he didn't know. When I showed him the research I did on my students, the rating changed for the next year.

I brought it up in my annual review meeting the following year: how it took me a while to figure out what he meant, that I was one of the most culturally aware ('woke' in the current linguistic coin) of his teachers. He replied that he did not think there was a problem regarding the interactions between white people and black people at the school.

For the record, my principal is black.

But we do have a problem, the same problem of all America, that when white and black people interact, the racial history of our country plays a role in how we hear and understand one another.

(Please do not try to figure out what school I teach at and who is who. I am trying to address a larger issue.)

In my school system, in my county, in my state, a southern state with a complicated and difficult history of race relations, we don't want to address this. We would rather pretend that the color of the skin doesn't matter; we treat everyone the same. Nothing more needed.

Except we hear the whispers in the hall: the witches were white.

It's time to stop the pretense. It's time to stop avoiding the painful conversations that must take place if we want to move forward and establish a more just society.

The witches aren't white. They are only what you imagine them to be.

Reflections on the Last Few Days

I. I admit it. I'm the weird one. Long before Parkland, long before Sandy Hook, long ago I began the practice of keeping my classroom door locked and closed at all times. What makes me weird is that I do not allow anyone except me to open the door.

You read that correctly. I answer the door, not students, not teenagers, not children. ME. Only me.

Teens see a classmate or friend through the window and throw the door open not stopping to realize that someone they cannot see may be ready to come through the door.

Only me.

It's routine for me. I hear a knock or a student alerts me that there's someone at the door. I go to the door, scan as much of the hallway as I can, assess the situation, and make the decision. If I make the wrong decision, I'm the one in the doorway dealing with it while my students jump out the window as fast as they can.

Weird ol' Mr. Sampson. It's the best I can do to keep my room secure.

II. Calls and plans for school walkouts have begun. Three days are mentioned: March 14, April 20 (anniversary of Columbine), and May 1. I have made no decision as to what I will do. I could be fired if I walk. At 60 years of age, it will be difficult to find another job and 60 is too early to retire. But a moment has arrived where one must make a decision whether to stand up and be counted.

Enough about me. This is a call for civil disobedience and that is what I will help students understand. There are times when rules and laws must be disobeyed, either because the laws and rules themselves are immoral or because something of tremendous importance requires action that would normally not be considered.

Students taking action, demanding change, demanding reasonable laws, insisting that their lives be protected, organizing protests in whatever form, walk-out, sit-in, or a march, these students are making the decision to engage in civil disobedience for a cause that matters: their lives.

There will be consequences and they need to understand that. That's the point of civil disobedience: authorities impose consequences until they are so shamed by the lack of resistance that they cannot ignore the issue anymore.

Remember these days: March 14, April 20, May 1.

III. You cannot enter the U.S. Capitol Building without undergoing a screening of your belongings and passing through a metal detector. Congress Protects Itself

Yet those senators and representatives won't even try to engage in writing laws to protect schoolchildren.

IV. Out of thousands of responses I've read over the past two days, I've only found two teachers saying, "Hell, yes , let me have a gun."

I'd like to say no teacher is saying that, but I have to be factual.

That almost no teacher wants a deadly weapon in their classroom should give all the self-appointed experts, who think because they once went to school they know everything about education, pause.

V. We can stop these tragedies. But it takes the will to do so. It takes the ability to find solutions and do it! It takes giving up all the divisions that our elite have devised to keep us apart and fighting when we the people should come together, give the elite the boot, and "form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity." (Preamble to the United States Constitution, 1788)

Hollywood Heroes

John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson, Samuel Jackson, Bruce Willis ... the list goes on. These are the heroes who stepped up when the world was blowing up around them, when people were dying right and left, and saved the day with their heroics. Facing enormous obstacles and can't-beat-it odds, nevertheless, they pulled their guns out and blazed their way to glory.

The music world celebrated the hero complex this way:

Now we turn to teachers: our new heroes. We want to arm them, require them to carry weapons as a police officer does, because they will save the children.

(Never mind that we were just shaming them, falsely, as being unable to teach our children to read and do math.)

Yes, the average, anonymous teacher will be the new Hollywood hero. With no training, no experience in violent situations, and no evaluation as to qualifications, we now expect teachers to leap into action if a shooter is active in their school. Rather than try to shelter children or get them out of harm's way, we want our teachers to pull their weapon and blaze away.

It is time, long past time, to stop viewing our world like a Hollywood movie. Real life is nothing like one.

Think of a police officer, someone who is authorized to carry lethal weapons. That officer has undergone training, pondered what-if situations to think in advance of the best way to respond, spent hours on a range honing skills in using a firearm, <I have asked my local police agency, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, for an idea of the training a police officer undergoes. When they respond, I will update this post. But I'm too eager to wait. Sorry.>

Teachers get none of that. Priorities, people. Should your teacher receive training in being a pseudo-soldier or SWAT officer? Or should their training be focused on your child's learning needs?

Teachers don't have enough time as it is. Go ahead and force them to spend their time preparing for a role that is not appropriate for a teacher. Then, when nothing happens at your schools, condemn your teachers for poor test scores.

If that doesn't convince you, consider this. While school shooting incidents are isolated, teacher misconduct occurs in every district every year. In my district, about a dozen out of 8,000 teachers are disciplined or fired for acting inappropriately with children every year.

That teacher (recent incident) terminated for swatting a young child on the back of the head? You really want that teacher carrying a gun when her frustration overwhelms her?

That teacher disciplined for taping children's mouths shut because he doesn't know how to make them stop talking? You really want that teacher having a gun to pull out and aim at the class?

We don't need heroes and we don't need teachers packing heat.

We need to address the root causes: the availability of guns that no one needs in domestic life, the trauma of our violent, urban neighborhoods, the dysfunction of families, everything that causes a child to make a horrific decision to exit life by taking as many others with them as they can.

Thoughts and Prayers

Like the steady ticking of a clock, another school tragedy has occurred. Wednesday, February 14, the day of love, a 19 year-old former student acted on his impulse to shoot up his former school. This day, seventeen lives were taken.

We used to offer our condolences. It was a stock phrase and remains so, yet its utterance is understood: I don't know the words to say, but we know what this means, and I can say it to keep my emotions checked so I don't break down in utter despair and sob my way through the hours of awfulness while I process how horrible this is.

My condolences to the families of the victims, the other students and adults traumatized by the event.

However, the usual response of media, politicians, and others is to say, "My thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends."

Let the social media nastiness begin.

And it has.

Therefore, let us dissect this carefully.

First, the thoughts. People caught in a camera used to offer their prayers, but then took second thought that this may offend atheists and those of other faiths. They added thoughts so those who don't want prayers would not object.

People calling out the 'thoughts and prayers' on the internet are correct about this. Thoughts do nothing to address underlying causes and to devise solutions that effectively work to prevent a tragedy from happening again.

But the prayers? That takes a deeper dive.

It depends upon your theology. If you have a superficial belief and give token obeisance to the prevailing Christianity, then your prayers (if you really offer them) are no better than offering a formal expression of sympathy that does nothing for anyone except you.

If you don't think a Creator God is still actively involved in the world, stop telling people you will pray for them and say it better: I'm sorry, My condolences, This isn't fair.

But there remains in this world people of faith, people who know that the God who created the world has a very real interest in its well-being. This is not the time to discuss free will. When death strikes without warning and in intensity, it is never the time to discuss free will.

It is time to remember that for whatever reason God allows evil to happen, this is the same God who joined himself to human flesh and was willing to die for humanity.

That is what Christianity means. No other faith offers that.

If you don't believe that God died 17 times Wednesday afternoon, February 14, 2018, you don't understand Christianity and you should not judge it. (But by all means, judge the fake versions; God does.)

That God is so involved in human affairs, so passionately in sympathy with human suffering, that prayers will cause God to act.

When true people of faith say they will offer prayers, that is what they mean. They will pester and bug and bother God (not that God needs it, and please forgive the awkward phrasing as I'm trying to avoid the pronoun issue) because they know God cares and will act.

Isn't that what our young people are demanding? Make them safe; enact reasonable and intelligent gun-control laws.

God works through human agency. God will find the right people. Keep praying.

My prayers are with you and for you.

Teacher of the Year: In My Dreams

My district would never dare to make me their new TOY: Teacher of the Year. But if they did, here is the speech I would deliver at the banquet.

"Thank you, thank you. This is a great honor. I'm not sure why I was chosen to be behind the podium tonight. There are far better and greater teachers than myself to honor.

"I'm not the best teacher in the district. In fact, I'm not the best teacher at my school. My saving grace is that I care deeply about the wellbeing of my students, all of it, not merely their academics, and I am the most kid-friendly teacher in the building.

"Teaching is one of the most difficult gigs a person could undertake, and if done right, most of what makes a great teacher is not only unrecognized, it is scorned.

"The teacher who notices that a child is absent too much, calls the parent, and discovers the cause, and then follows up with the guidance counselor, social services, child abuse or bullying hotline, whatever, wherever, to see that the child receives the help she or he needs, whose efforts go unrecognized because that does not translate into higher test scores, for that teacher I accept this award.

"The teacher who spends thousands of dollars of salary to provide food, clothing, and other needs because others cannot or will not, even though that will never be captured in a Value Added formula and therefore will not be appreciated, for that teacher I accept this award.

"The teacher who helps children to a better future but did not score high enough decades ago on their SAT exam, whom the political leaders of the state scorn as not being among the 'best and brightest,' yet their work qualifies them as 'best and brightest,' for that teacher I accept this award.

"The teacher who comes from another country, who is an excellent teacher, who is loved by all her students, but cannot pass an exam in English writing but wait, is teaching children how to speak and understand her language and therefore does not need to be knowledgeable in writing an essay in English, and thus loses her job, but is a great teacher nonetheless, for that teacher I accept this award.

"The teacher who is now spending thousands of dollars to pass qualifying exams because a for-profit company, whose name is now a swear word among professional teachers, is in charge of the exams and has set the passing rates at a level which does not serve to identify competent teachers but does serve to maximize said company's profits, for that teacher I accept this award.

"For teachers of color, and I hope the term is not offensive as it is the current linguistic coin of the day, who are pushed out of their jobs because they teach where they are needed most, in our most challenging schools ... they are great teachers and are the best hope our students of color have, for those teachers, I accept this award.

"For the teacher who forgoes the easy way, that of test prep, and tries to expose children to new ideas and experiences, who wants them to think deeply about what they are learning, and therefore will never have the best scores in the building, suffer the approbation of administrators who are only driven to achieve high scores and a school grade, and are under threat of termination although they are doing the real job of teaching, for that teacher, I accept this award.

"For the teacher who knows how unprepared a Teach for America colleague is, helps them become a qualified teacher who is effective in the classroom, and then has to listen to criticism about how bad they are and what a great teacher the TFA colleague is, for that teacher who grins and bears it, I accept this award.

"For every teacher who is told that their union, their only protection and help against the daily assault that they face, is the enemy of the people, for that teacher I accept this award.

"For every teacher, and this is all of us, who have to fight off the stupid ideas of self-designated experts who have never spent a day in the classroom, but think because they made some money in a tech industry that they know better than anyone else, but every idea they have ever had has failed, but they don't stop with their destructive efforts, for all those still fighting, I accept this award.

"For every teacher who can't help but give the 'teacher look' to the wealthy and powerful elite in their city as said wealthy and powerful elite explain why they would never send their children to a public school to suffer under the conditions imposed by the policies they push, for those teachers I accept this award.

"Public education is facing a crisis of extinction. The uber-wealthy have come out of the shadows and taken over government. They seek to establish an American Feudalism. We are in their way. They seek to destroy us.

"We must fight. We must fight them on the beaches; we must fight them in our towns. We must fight them in the countryside and in every city. We must yield no inch of soil uncontested. There are millions of us but few of them.

"The time is upon us. These next years are critical if we are to preserve our democracy and our freedom. We must use our vote, while we still have it, and remove from power every enemy of our freedom and our right to self-government, for this is what the destruction of public schools is really about.

"I see many scowling faces in my audience. Good, because you are not educators. You are the ones who hijacked this process to name a Teacher of the Year. You don't want to be called out, not yet, because we can still make a difference.

"And we will."

Knowledge Is Profit, People

Oops, it's supposed to be KIPP: Knowledge Is Power Program.

The Florida Times-Union, having fired up its gaffe machine, can't help itself. After the disastrous Wednesday editorial demanding the sale of the school board building to private developers, it followed up with this:

Florida Times-Union KIPP editorial

Where to begin? Maybe with this: Kids in Prison Program

Or this: KIPP for Miami? “My expectation for KIPP Miami is one that needs to be wildly different from what we have seen in Jacksonville,” [Superintendent Alberto] Carvalho said.

He's referring to KIPP's uneven performance by even the most flawed of measures, Florida's school grades, which must give anyone pause ... well, anyone but the Florida Times-Union editorial board.

I have already established that they are sell-outs to corporate privatizers: https://stoneeggs.blogspot.com/2018/01/florida-times-union-education.html

Let's start where the T-U does: that impressive campus you see if you drive by on 5th Street that turns into MacDuff Avenue. That old run-down dog track with a KIPP banner hanging off the roof is long gone. New buildings, great athletic facilities--they even have covered their outdoor basketball courts with shelters so KIPP students can still be outside in the rain.

Amazing what a school can do when it's receiving a million-dollar-a-year, specially earmarked subsidy from the state.

And now they will get capital dollars from taxpayers because they don't have enough money already. Meanwhile, at my school, we are finally getting the peeling paint scraped off the walls and a new paint job. We have waited years for this.

Give my school a million dollars a year and see what we can do with it. Give every school in Jacksonville an extra million dollars a year and then compare. Without that comparison, the Times-Union's editorial board's point is disqualified as there is no valid basis for comparison.

The proof is not 1000 people on a waiting list; it's in the attrition that KIPP experiences like many charter chains. There are many issues involved in the operations of charter schools and many on all sides of the issues have informed opinions. Sadly, it seems that the Times-Union's editorial board doesn't do its homework (pun intended.)

KIPP is good at drill and kill instruction. That produces good test scores at times. But drill and kill will never lead to student understanding and true learning. Teach for a couple years and you will know how to game the system: test prep the students and reap the praise from good test scores. But that teacher who has to teach those students a few years later? They know that the students have little understanding and will struggle to succeed and proceed to more advanced courses.

If we want children to develop those 21st century thinking skills we keep hearing are important, then programs like KIPP are misguided.

KIPP is a zero-tolerance school. They demand compliant children at all times. Every educator knows that compliance does not equate to engagement. KIPP punishes children who do not SLANT at all times: Sit up, Listen, Ask questions, Nod, Track (which means your eyes should be on the teacher at all times.)

That's unrealistic. Children fidget, they scratch where they itch, they laugh when a classmate farts, they turn their heads and look at one another because of the intense social focus of their developmental age, and more important, they are still listening to their teachers even if they look away for a moment.

I wonder how KIPP would handle one of my students. He's extremely intelligent, scores well on tests, but doesn't sit normally at his desk. He likes to curl his legs under his body so he more kneels than sits in his seat. Does that qualify as sitting up? He doesn't track my movement with his eyes. But he's listening. Once I've said it, he knows it. Would KIPP tolerate his non-tracking because he's learning?

As I implement his IEP* strategies, he is showing more success--coming out of his shell to contribute to the class discussion, which is the stated goal of the IEP. Would KIPP consider that successful? Or would they see him as someone not fitting their rigid model and needs to go?

What say you, Times-Union?

Let's move on to the militaristic culture that the editorial celebrated. Veteran serviceman and officers bring a wide, varied, and excellent skill set to new careers when they re-enter civilian life. That makes them well qualified for many positions of leadership with manufacturers, logistical firms, and others.

However, the military culture, necessary for success on the battlefield, does not translate to the schoolhouse. Following orders without question is necessary for a military force to execute a battle plan, operate a large and sophisticated warship in crowded shipping channels, or coordinate a tight formation of jets in the air.

But education ... education is all about questioning and challenging. The question why is one of the greatest questions a child can pose for learning. Yet we are told that KIPP is a no-excuses school. "Because I said so," is the only answer a child will get for questioning as the child heads out of the classroom for a suspension.

The Times-Union editorial board names two leaders: Zach Rossley and Jennifer Brown. They say that "both have had distinguished careers in education after first serving in the military." Yet they don't bother to say what these two have done or why it is distinguished. We have to take their word for it--don't question! No wonder they are in love with KIPP.

Lastly, the T-U cites the support services KIPP students receive as if the traditional school system hasn't been crying for the same services to be provided for their schools. KIPP is only now catching up to what the rest of us know about children in poverty experiencing trauma. But KIPP is superman and the Duval school system is crap.

Shame on you, Times-Union. Shame on you for ignoring and belittling our schools, which have been doing an excellent job under trying circumstances. Shame on you for not studying the evidence that the traditional public school outperforms all others: The Public School Advantage.

You don't do your homework. Wait, you don't do your journalism work; you parrot the line you are handed by your corporate masters.

We're not forgetting your infamous endorsement of Donald Trump. Combined with Wednesday's editorial and a previous one in which you backed the wealthy elite's demand to choose the next Superintendent, this is your third strike.

You are not an independent voice. You are a shill and a once-proud newspaper becomes a rag.

Florida Times-Union + Education Editorial = Major Gaffe

Once again, this equation holds true:

Florida Times-Union + Education Editorial = Major Gaffe

In a recent editorial, the newspaper for Jacksonville, Florida opined that the first and top priority for the new superintendent of schools, yet to be hired, should be to sell the building on Prudential Drive and move its headquarters somewhere else.

http://jacksonville.com/opinion/editorials/2018-01-16/wednesday-thumbs-why-won-t-school-board-consider-selling-its-building

Here is the key quote: "But here’s why neither of those two problems should be an obstacle for the School Board anymore:

• Because the building is paid off, it can be marketed without the burden of having to slap an unrealistic price tag on it to cover existing debt.

• The economy is now doing well —and the Southbank area in particular is a hot spot.

In fact, the proposed $433 million development for The District is right next door."

The sale of the school board building, with the required relocation of district personnel, has arisen periodically across the years. Each time the idea has been rejected for one reason: Study after study shows that it would cost the school board AND therefore Duval County taxpayers more money to sell and move than the school board would receive for the property.

The Times-Union offers no evidence or analysis to support its opinion. But hey, private development, why not? Don't wait to count the cost. In fact, they say the sale is the "next logical step" but offer no logic to support the assertion.

They reason "The school district already owns plenty of property and buildings in Duval County that could be used for administration."

C'mon, Times-Union Editorial Board, you can't be that dense. That's like saying you can produce the newspaper at my house because I have an internet connection. Can you squeeze what's left of your writers and editors into 900 square feet? Didn't think so.

To suggest that a headquarters could be plopped anywhere into a surplus school building is ridiculous. Schools are designed to be schools, not office buildings and meeting space. In fact, if it's not a high school, there won't even be an auditorium sufficient for school board meetings.

Also, the school board needs to be centrally located in the county. Did the T-U board bother to look at a map of actual property owned by the school system before sitting in front of a keyboard and blithely type away?

But the best is yet to come. They close with this eye-popper: "A diligent effort ought to be made to sell the building and move elsewhere. In fact, it should be one of the first jobs of the next superintendent."

With all of the challenges facing our school district, the loss of capital funds to charters when DCPS has a large backlog of maintenance needs, the possible closure of three schools in a few months and more to follow next year, the continuing lag in closing the achievement gap, the Times-Union asserts that the first and top priority of a new superintendent should be to sell public assets to private developers.

I'm going to leave a lot of space here. This is the written equivalent of a teacher employing wait time--to give everyone time to think over what was said before responding.

It's not the first time the T-U editorial board has committed a major gaffe. The Trump endorsement comes to mind. They cried they didn't agree, but the owner forced them into it. Well, people of integrity would resign in protest. Hmm, is this why Littlepage retired?

Sorry, Times-Union, but you're not getting away with this. It's not your first gaffe, so it's time someone called you out. True journalists don't dance to the tune of their corporate owners. True journalists are not marionettes jerking according to how the wealthy elite pull their strings. True journalists would never serve the interests of Wall Street and hedge fund managers.

But here we are. A major city newspaper backs the sale of public assets, bought by taxpayers with tax dollars, to serve the needs of private developers.

(BTW, I'm not canceling my subscription. You (T-U) people need to be watched.)

Person of the Year

On my way home from my weekly trek to the grocery store, I wondered who Time had named as its Person of the Year. I couldn't think of a single personality who had dominated the news cycle for a full twelve months that would be a slam-dunk, 'yes, that's it,' choice.

Then I thought of what I believed had dominated the news and I'm about to share my pick. Time did not concur and I have already shared on my Facebook page their choice and article about Time's Person of the Year. Although they chose a worthy selection and I won't quarrel with the #metoo and their analysis of how an outing of the sexual abuse women have suffered since forever has finally received its due condemnation, building over the course of a year, I want to offer something different.

For the 2017 Person of the Year, I offer you ... Robert E.Lee.

Remember that Person of the Year is not someone admirable or execrable or somewhere in between. It is not an honor, but a recognition of that which had the most impact on events during the year.

The long pall of the Confederacy and its shadow dominated news events during 2017 and there is no one person who represents that era and place more than Lee. Indeed, it is rather unusual that a man who has been dead for almost 150 years dominates the present era. But there we go.

The election of Donald J. Trump, under the auspices of Steve Bannon, self-proclaimed leader of the alt-right, has given the neo-Nazis, KKK knights, angry young white men, and in general, the long-festering, hidden racism of too many people, the permission they craved to emerge into the light of day.

Robert E. Lee. Propose to remove a statue and all hell breaks loose.

In scenes reminiscent of Kristallnacht, men march through a college town, bearing Tiki torches from a local big box store (thus ruining forever anyone else's party theme of Polynesia), scream out their hate. Later, in clashes with counter-protesters, one will lose his mind and drive his automobile at high speed into the crowd, killing a woman.

The protest of Colin Kaepernik grew throughout the year as NFL and NBA players increased the numbers taking a knee. It grew to gargantuan proportions when the president deemed himself possessed of the authority to dictate personnel policies to NFL owners, who are private business owners, after all. Oops, he kind of forgot that, didn't he.

Black men protesting the systemic racism black men experience every day of their lives, every moment, they cannot escape it.

The horror!

The ghost of Robert E. Lee hovers over the landscape. As he was told at the end of the war, when he dithered whether he had the authority to surrender and thus effectively end the war without the concurrence of Jefferson Davis and the Confederate government, "You, sir, are the South."

It is the battle flag, not the national flag, of the Confederacy that the neo-Nazis and re-energized knights of the Klan wave.

The battle flag.

The protests will grow. Not only was 2017 dominated by the protest, but it will grow in the years to come.

Everyone will have to take a stand. Do you protest and condemn the killing of innocent black men, some of whom laid on a sidewalk with hands in the air or were retreating?

Do police departments continue in their systemic racism because the fear of a cop that his life is in danger excuses all?

Do we notice that the infant mortality rate of black women exceeds that of all others because of the racism that still carves itself into their flesh, their genes?

Will we say enough?

This news dominated not only 2017, but it will continue to drive events in America far into the future.

For that reason, I nominate Robert E. Lee as Person of the Year for 2017.