Conservatives Need to Get a Clue

I'd like to be shocked and appalled that someone in the conservative region of the political spectrum would say something like this but I'm not. Conservative though I am I am increasingly disappointed with the attitude of many a self proclaimed conservative towards things like education and disabilities. I am particularly disheartened by the cluelessly hard hearted attitude of those who claim conservatism for religious reasons. You would think a little of God's love would rub off on these people but apparently not in the realm of disabilities.

Conservatives whining about how liberals screwed up schools just doesn't cut it for me. All that self righteous anger and vitriol directed against those evil liberals might make some feel good but what does it do for the students? Jack squat. I always wonder what the conservatives were doing while the liberals they so love to disparage were ruining public education. Letting them do it apparently. Possibly even helping them out? Who knows.

Most of what I see being advocated by conservative types with regard to education is pretty unimpressive. The "teach the students who want to learn and screw the rest" mentality I come across so often is a short sighted at best just plain stupid at worst. What are you going to do with these people that you didn't care enough about to try to educate? Sure we can make special schools for those kids, you know the ones who don't immediately cower in fear of every power tripping adult that crosses their path. Hmm, segregated schools. That's worked so well for America in the past.

As an aside, I always wonder at those who work with children and young adults (with and with out disabilities) who seem to despise their young charges, never have a good thing to say about them, and never fail to describe their charges in the most disparaging terms available to them. If you dislike your students so much why do you bother inflicting them and yourself with your presence? Do you think these kids are too stupid to sense your barely veiled hostility towards them? Speaking as a former student those kinds of teachers were easy to spot and they always got back what they gave to their students. Do all involved a favour and find a new profession, please.

Claiming that children with learning and developmental disabilities are nothing but bad ass kids who just need a good [fill in the blank] is lazy, selfish thinking and completely ignores something that effects a large number of people for life. This attitude isn't meant to help anyone. It's meant to beat them into submission or make them go away so you don't have to be bothered with them. Also claiming it is all their parents' fault does not get a school out of its responsibility to actually teach. I guess it's easier to write people off as lost causes or future criminals than trying to teach them to be upstanding citizens.

Railing against legislation (I'm of IDEA in particular) that mandates that public schools teach all of the students they have is some real hard hearted stupidity. Imagine that, being mad that schools actually have to teach somebody something. Why did it take a federal mandate to get schools to teach all of their students? Doesn't it bother anyone that parents of students with learning and developmental disabilities had to lawyer up (and some still have to) to get schools to teach their children properly?

Why do some who claim conservatism seem so hell bent on heaping all of the blame for all that is wrong with public schools on the heads of the students that said schools are so often failing to teach? Failing schools don't teach any of their students so how is it the fault of students with learning and developmental disabilities that the schools suck?

Why must we always pit the needs of the learning and developmentally disabled against the needs of the "typical" population? This is not an us versus them situation. If they fail we all fail. We failed as a society when all we offered to those with disabilities was to lock them away so that they wouldn't be seen by or disturb the "normal" folk. We failed again when we just turned them loose on the streets to fend for themselves. We fail when we decide that "they" are not our responsibility. We most definitely fail when "we" don't want "them" around us and our families. If you don't have the presence of mind to make sure that all members of your community are adequately educated and supported so as to take part in your community then you have done a grave disservice to yourself, your community, and those who will come after you.

Conservatives can do better than that if they would get their heads out of the sand, pause in their gleeful liberal bashing for just a moment, consider that people with disabilities aren't out to put one over on society, and consider that meeting the needs of people with disabilities is the conservative thing to do.

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for/that:

1. I remembered to do this list before I fell asleep.


2. Being able to turn the kids loose in the backyard to play with the garden hose and the kiddie pool.


3. Picking home grown raspberries with hubby and the kids in the backyard.


4. Laughter.


5. We can still afford the things we need (kids really do grow like weeds, Ethan will shortly need a whole new wardrobe) and a few of the things we want (like a small toy shopping spree for the kids every few months).


6. Paraphrasing my OB-GYN, "Any time you feel like going into labour now go for it." I'm trying to hold out until my order of purple flip flops arrives in the mail.


7. Online shopping. Sure I don't get to fondle things in the store and cool off in AC that someone else is paying for but I can shop whenever I want, I don't have to worry about keeping the kids in line in public, and at the rate gas prices are rising shipping is sometimes cheaper than the gas to get to the store and back.


8. Nonstop chatter from ALL of my kids, although their timing (Isaiah singing Sesame Street tunes at 5:30AM or Ethan and Sophia squabbling during the middle of prayer time at church) still needs a bit of work.


9. Written instructions. We have a growing number of signs around the house that, thanks to Ethan's inability to pass up reading whatever he sees written down, may actually help keep the place clean and teach everyone that they are responsible for their living space. I'm sure future women friends will be thankful for the "put the toilet seat back down" signs now above the toilets.

What are you thankful for?

Manhood According to a 3.5 Year Old

Sophia wondered into the room where hubby and I were half listening to NPR while we worked. Some reporters were discussing Barack Obama (it could have been this story or this one), Jesse Jackson's recent comments, Obama's address to the NAACP, and maybe the recent New Yorker magazine cover (see cover and commentary here). The following exchange took place.

Sophia: What's a rockobama?
Me: [Briefly exchanging a "where is this going to go" look with hubby and trying really hard not to laugh.] Barack Obama is a man.
Sophia: What's a man?
Me: [Never does she go for the easy questions.] It's what your daddy is and what your brothers will grow up to be.

Then followed a somewhat convoluted monologue by her about who can be "mans". I think it was something along the lines of, "Only daddies can be mans but boys can't be daddies." I found it particularly amusing given what was actually being discussed on the radio at the time. She maybe young but she seems to have grasped something that a lot of adults have yet to learn, men take care of their kids.

The Family

I listened to parts of this Diane Rehm interview with Jeff Sharlet, author of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power. I haven't got much to say about it except that every time either of them mentioned the family I thought of these guys.



Be afraid, be very afraid.

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for/that:

1. The heat finally broke. The cool pleasant evening we had last night was a welcome change from the sleepless sweat soaked night we all had just two nights ago.


2. Ethan is turning into a thoughtful and protective big brother much to the delight and consternation of his younger siblings. What is one supposed to do with a big brother who will defy mom and dad (and a locked door) to get you another flavorice but will sit on you if you try to walk down the driveway? He's also got classic big brother taunting abilities which make life...interesting.


3. We've almost made it through the first week of summer school. The first day was a bit rough but the school bus was right on time. The volume of work that Isaiah has been bringing home has us hopeful that he will actually be taught some new skills.


4. Garden fresh peas so sweet you can eat them raw. They're almost like candy.

What are you thankful for?

Good Big Brother

Ethan just came running up the stairs on the verge of having a melt down. He was fretting about needing some scissors. When he came rushing into the bedroom (where I'm trying and failing miserably to take a nap) I saw that Ethan had two red flavorices in his hand. He'd managed to get one open for himself but couldn't get one open for Sophia. He was as upset about this as if it were his flavorice that he couldn't open. I opened the thing for him and he promptly took it from me and gave to Sophia (she had followed him up the stairs). I made sure to give him a hug and a kiss for being such a thoughtful big brother. Then I sent him back downstairs to get a blue flavorice for me.

Thankful Thursday

Since I forgot last week, today I am doubly thankful for/that:

1. Vacation!


2. Someone else to chase the kids for a little bit.


3. Someone else to do the dishes.


4. Someone to help with the laundry (even if they did throw an odious dryer sheet into one load in the dryer).


5. Ethan, Isaiah, Sophia, and the little one currently tap dancing on my bladder (enjoy it while it lasts kid).


6. Hubby.


7. The rest of the family, even though I sometimes feel like strangling, drop kicking, exiling to Siberia, or otherwise doing bodily harm to them.


8. Uninterrupted sleep, which I have not seen in a while and will not see again probably until this same time next year. I'm greatly looking forward to it.


9. Pen and paper to write down all of the things I otherwise forget. Now if only I could keep track of the pen and the paper.


10. Prayer. I'd surely be way off in the deep end by now without the prayers of others.


11. clean running water. Had to go with out for a few hours today while a well mechanism was repaired. Not being able to wash my hands whenever I wanted to was a bit trying.

What are you thankful for?

What did you say?

Here's the latest installment of some of the sayings in our house. Everyone has been so chatty lately that I didn't even capture a fraction of some of the interesting stuff said. Hubby recorded some comments and conversations on his blog.

***

Sophia: [Leaping out of the pantry at me.] I'm a monster!
Me: Okay. Would you like a taco?
Sophia: No thanks. Monsters don't eat tacos. They eat kitty cat vitamins.

***

Sophia: [Brandishing a squirt gun.] I'm a squirter! I'm a squirter! I'll squirt everything in the house!

I bought a multi-pack of squirt guns for the kids. They enjoyed them way too much the first few times I let them play with them. They eventually calmed down though. Especially after Ethan spent an anxious night worrying about if his CD player would work again after he shot it with his squirt gun.

***

Me: You'll get a turn when your brother is done.
Sophia: What's a turn?
Me: ...
Sophia: A turn is when you get a screw and a screwdriver and turn it with the screwdriver. That's a turn. If you don't cry you get a turn.

Well I'm glad she managed to answer her own question to her own satisfaction.

***

Ethan: [Standing next to the pump as Hubby gases up the car.] You want a piece of me?!
Sophia: [Standing next to Ethan.] Yeah, you want a piece of me too?!

Ah sibling unity. I'm sure Sophia would have happily done damage to Ethan's antagonsit had there actually been one.

***

Sophia: Why is your butt big?
Me: Because all of me is bigger than you.
Sophia: My butt's not big. It's little see. [Turns around to show me her bottom.]
Me: ...
Sophia: Ethan and Isaiah are half.

I don't know what that last bit was supposed to mean but that is what she said.

***

Sophia: [Through the closed bathroom door.] Mommy what are you doing?
Me: I'm using the bathroom.
Sophia: Why?
Me: ...

I was thinking, do I really need to explain metabolic processes to a three year old through the bathroom door? Nope. Thankfully she quickly lost interest in her line of questioning.

***

Ethan: [Sung while eating the grapes I had set out for after school snack.] We are the grapes of Wrath! We never take a bath!

***

Sophia: [After seeing the first few minutes of a new SciFi channel show not to her liking.] Daddy can we watch Dr. Who?
Hubby: Okay. [Puts in a tale of the third Doctor.]
Sophia: Daddy what kind of Dr. Who is this?

We're raising up a new generation of scifi geeks in our house.

***

On vacation in NH.

Me: Here put this in.[Hands hubby a DVD.]
Hubby: I don't know how to do that here.
Me: Well ask someone how.
Hubby: Ethan! How do you work the DVD player here?

***

Sophia: What's a person?
Me: ...

I should have said, "Go ask your father. That's his line of work."

***

Stay tunned for next time!

Oh No He Didn't

You knew it was coming (and if you didn't what have you been doing for the past six months?).

Obama says Republicans will use race to stoke fear
"We know what kind of campaign they're going to run. They're going to try to make you afraid.

"They're going to try to make you afraid of me. He's young and inexperienced and he's got a funny name. And did I mention he's black?"

Via Baldilocks.

Uh huh. Alright Mr. Post Racial Hope and Change. It was only a matter of time before we started the getting vote for me or you're a racist type of messages from Obama. The fact of the matter is that Mr. Obama is a political lightweight claiming to be above "politics as usual" who is really just inept at playing the political game. Obama has even managed to alienate members of his own party with his race issues,

Why Clinton voters say they won't support Obama
They are mad that everyone believes them to be old, white and racist. They are mad at the people they thought were supposed to be progressives for treating them badly.

Via Instapundit.

How exactly is it transcending race to claim that your political opponent is going to use your race against you (the way Mr Obama is trying to use the race of potential voters and Mr McCain against them) in an election? This is just the same old baseless race baiting nonsense that has had this American rolling her eyes for years.

Did Rev. Wright ever preach any sermons on bearing false witness against one's neighbour? If he did Mr. Obama must not have been paying any attention then either.

As to Mr. Obama's wife,

He said he was also set for Republicans to say "he's got a feisty wife," in trying to attack his wife Michelle.

There is a great American tradition of holding people accountable for the things they say. The American people will challenge Mrs. Obama, the same way they challenge Mr. Obama, when she inserts herself into the political arena. If you don't like it perhaps you should find something else to do.

Faith, Politics, Evangelization

This is a distinction I wish more people would comprehend,

The pope, the president and politics of faith
A religious leader must say, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," while a head of state must follow the maxim, "Do unto others before they do unto you."

There are also the following observations,

For the first time, perhaps, since the time of Mohammed, large parts of the Islamic world are vulnerable to Christian efforts to convert them, for tens of millions of Muslims now dwell as minorities in predominantly Christian countries. The Muslim migration to Europe is a double-edged sword. Eventually this migration may lead to a Muslim Europe, but it also puts large numbers of Muslims within reach of Christian missionaries for the first time in history.

The Lord works in mysterious ways, no?

Muslims are in dialogue with a pope who evidently does not merely want to exchange pleasantries about coexistence, but to convert them. This no doubt will offend Muslim sensibilities, but Muslim leaders are well-advised to remain on good terms with Benedict XVI. Worse things await them. There are 100 million new Chinese Christians, and some of them speak of marching to Jerusalem - from the East. A website entitled Back to Jerusalem proclaims, "From the Great Wall of China through Central Asia along the silk roads, the Chinese house churches are called to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ all the way back to Jerusalem."

I never thought of the rise of Christianty in China that way but praise the Lord and pass the smuggled copies of the Bible.

Via Instapundit.

Thankful Thursday

So I'm late again but still thankful for/that:

1. Hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, bleach, soap, all the stuff that I can use to kill germs.


2. Hugs and kisses.


3. Conversations with the kids.

What are you thankful for?