The liberty of education

All over the world one of the most treasured dreams of parents for their children is for them to obtain the best education they can get.
For religious fundamentalists their greatest fear is that the people they hold power over will become more educated. When the Taliban in Afghanistan want to send a message to the people in that country one of their targets were schools that teach girls and young women. There is something inherently evil about any culture that is afraid of its women. Just think in our own country women have yet to have voting rights for a century.
Recently during the haggling over the stimulus package funds for education were reduced so the package would cost billions of dollars less than proposed. Other things stayed in the package but money for education came out.
Having taught in public schools, albeit only as a substitute teacher, I have been amazed at how much is taken for granted by our children. And how unaware they are of what education can be for them. It is a ticket to a better, brighter, and more interesting life. Many times while trying to maintain control in the classroom I would urge them to stay focused and that, life does not offer opportunities, to undo the mistakes of the past. One of my own personal regrets is that I did not devote enough time and energy to education.
When National Socialism took hold in Germany of the 1930s the population was desperate for solutions to the global depression, their loss of standing in the world as a result of the Great War, and other perceived threats, manifested themselves as fears, promoted by a propaganda machine that was unrelenting. Many people have drawn parallels to that period of history in Germany and what we have been going through here in the United States. One of the first targets of the Nazis was education. Another technique was to lay claim to patriotism and that it belonged to the established government and them alone. To be a patriot meant you thought the way they did.
I have spoken out for most of the last 8 years against the policies of the previous administration. I did not believe in going to war in Iraq. This has resulted in a military stretched to the breaking point. I also did not believe in the tax refunds, and the indiscriminate and ill conceived spending for homeland security, so much of it was wasted. It is amazing now that our representatives from Alabama can criticize President Obama for what he is attempting, yet they went along with the fearful extortion promoted by the Bush administration. How many billions or trillions of dollars have been spent? And the whole time they would say that we are fighting terrorism yet we can’t prevent another attack in the future. Talk about having it both ways.
You do not fight terrorism with conventional strategy and tactics. You can’t spend indiscriminately and then refund billions of dollars. You can’t claim to be fiscally conservative and then not know where the money you spend is going. And we can not survive as a nation divided against itself.
In this country’s darkest hours the most unifying force has been that of freedom. For all of our disparities we need to find common ground and lay our foundation, yet again, on that ground. Education should always be the aggregate that binds us together.
God Bless the World the USA is part of.