I’m a leading edge baby boomer, old enough to be able to reflect upon a few things. Right now, I’m reflecting on the state of American education. Spoiler alert: it’s depressing.

   Our parents’ generation invented the modern computer and sent us to the moon. My generation created the personal computer and invented the internet, as well as a whole lot of technology that goes with it. Somehow, the two generations achieved great technical advances, despite coming up through an educational system that stressed the 3 R’s and eschewed gimmicks.

   Now, it’s 2014 and, as a conservative estimate, about a third of entering college freshmen need remedial work in math and reading, which means that our public schools are turning out thousands of young adults who lack specific subject and critical thinking skills. Ever watch Jay Leno’s Jaywalking bits with their pathetically ignorant young people who know nothing of history, geography, and current events? Yes, those were real, not scripted, interactions.

   What’s truly amazing about all this is that very little useful is being done to solve the myriad problems we’re facing in public education. To wit:

• The bungled attempt to provide 600,000 software-rich iPads, one for every student, teacher and administrator in the Los Angeles Unified School district: It now appears that the contracting process was tainted, only a fraction of the units were acquired, and in those the software was defective or inadequate. Further, no one really had any clear idea of what to do with the devices, which students quickly learned to re-program in order to surf the internet and access social media.
• Art and music programs have been phased out everywhere: This has led to the loss of important elements of what should be the cultural education of our youth. The reason: the American public doesn’t value cultural awareness and the arts as an integral part of individual development.
• Physical education programs have largely vanished: Students are becoming couch potatoes, the only well developed muscles being those used for texting, in bad English of course.
• Courses emphasizing the development of non-academic but important life and vocational skills have been phased out: Where are the shop classes that used to be available in junior high and high school? Print shop, metal shop, handicrafts, electric shop, auto mechanics? These were classes that prepared some for further vocational training and allowed the rest of us to acquire skills and understanding of the stuff that daily surrounds us.
• Overemphasis on “teaching to the test” and a lack of emphasis on writing: Along with the decline in reading skills has come a decline in writing skills. Multiple choice tests are not tests of critical thinking. Essay based examinations requiring analysis of what has been read are. This is one area in which improvement may be coming with the Common Core requirements, but only time will tell.
• Recent decisions in some schools not to teach handwriting: Really???

   Okay, I’m going to generalize here, and I know well that this doesn’t apply literally across the board to all young people, but the result of the failure of our educational system is that many in the current cohort of graduating high school seniors have become users with little knowledge or understanding of the underpinnings of society and technology. These people will be the leaders of tomorrow, and their ignorance of history, culture, geography, politics, and culture is frightening.

   So, what’s the answer? I’m convinced that it doesn’t lie in the present direction being followed by our schools. I’m no Luddite, but I truly believe that there’s no guarantee that giving every student an iPad, even with functional software, is going to produce an educated generation. Why not take the billions being earmarked for all this technology and faddish teaching methods and invest in adequate textbooks, reopen closed school libraries, restore art and music programs, restore physical education programs, and reopen vocationally-oriented shop courses? If all those things along with solid emphasis on readin’, writin’, and ‘rithmetic got us to the moon, it sure ought to help us to restore the world competitiveness we once had but have lost as other countries, especially China, have captured from us in recent years.

   We’ve just returned from a three week odyssey – ROAD TRIP!!! Remember that movie, Lost in America? Yeah, “Just like Easy Rider.” Well, except that we didn’t do it on motorcycles but in an Acura ILX. We were going to take the SUV, but 50 feet from the driveway as we were heading out, the air conditioner failed, and we were not going to drive across the country in the middle of the summer without air conditioning.

   Now, this wouldn’t have been such a big deal except that a) I’d had the SUV in for $1100 in maintenance three days before we were to leave and, b) the car was loaded to the gunwales with not only our baggage for three weeks, but my travel guitar, boxes of stored stuff we were going to deliver to our kids in the Midwest, and even a child’s rocking chair. Successfully transferring all that stuff into the ILX was a miracle achievable only by my wife. I’d probably never have gotten it all in on my own. Of course, her tolerance for smushing is greater than mine.

   Anyway, after the initial setback, we were on our way. I’m not going to describe the trip in detail, although it was lots of fun: 5600 miles in three weeks, visits with the kids and grandkid, and lots of sightseeing both on and near I-40 (Route 66), I-80, and Nevada 50 (the loneliest road in America). How many people have been to the Cadillac Ranch? Carhenge? (You can Google them.) Other sights: The Devil’s Postpile National Monument near Mammoth, ancient bristlecone pines near Big Pine, Scott’s Bluff National Monument and Chimney Rock in Nebraska, the Lehman Caves in Great Basin National Park, Palo Duro State Park near Amarillo, TX, Taliesin (for all you Frank Lloyd Wright fans), and more.

   But that’s not what this blog entry is really about. No, it’s actually about the two Americas that we experienced as we traveled (and have noted on prior travels), one being the Northeast and West coastal areas and large cities of America, and the other being much of the South and, specifically on this trip, all the more sparsely populated interior areas that we traversed. In our severely polarized country, the cultural dividing line is abundantly clear.

   Being West Coast liberals, we were struck by much of what we saw in the country’s interior: a culture of religion, guns, tobacco use, poor diet and obesity, and overwhelming Republicanism. As for the Jesus stuff, smoking and obesity, I can only wonder over how so many people can be either oblivious to, or ignorant of, science, medicine, and nutrition in the 21^st century.

   The Republican political affiliation is easier to understand, however. These are people who don’t face the concerns of those living in the larger urban centers, whose lives often revolve heavily around high school sports and other local events, whose daily exposure is to an America that does not mirror the reality of the larger country and world. Living in a cocoon and thus prey to the manipulations of equally ignorant but power-hungry Republican politicians, it’s no wonder they vote the way they do. Except…that these people aren’t really stupid. So why do they so often vote in a way that’s counter to their best interests? Many of them would benefit greatly from universal health care (and “Obamacare”) including readily available family planning services, food stamps, a livable minimum wage, the Women’s, Infants’, and Children’s (WIC) program, among others, and yet they support politicians who consistently oppose such programs. And why, in the face of unacceptable levels of firearms related deaths, do they oppose background checks and support the NRA?

   One is led to ask, what’s wrong with these people?

   I don’t have the answers to all these concerns. I only know that the severe polarization we face today isn’t healthy for the nation. The reflection of this, aided and abetted by the demagogues of Congress, is a society headed for third world status. Unless contemporary Republicanism can find a way to rise above its philosophical dependency upon the maintenance of a sheep-like underclass that is willing to support it despite self-inflicted harm by doing so, things are going to get much worse. Eventually, anger and frustration boil over, and no one needs to be told what can happen then.

   But, oh, apart from the foregoing, our trip was wonderful.

This is the 31^st entry into seductivepeach.com, and it’s been a fun ride since January, when I started these weekly entries. And yes, I haven’t missed a week since the inaugural posting.

As regular readers know, the blog has focused on writing for the self-publishing author, with occasional – OK, frequent – excursions into politics, religion, and whatever other thoughts cross my mind.

This week, I’m taking a break from the usual topics because we’ve just spent the past several days on the road, taking in some of the beautiful and occasionally odd sights of our country.

A couple of our “for instances”: The Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo, Texas. Yes, in a pasture alongside Interstate 40, one can view ten old Cadillacs half buried and semi-vertical with tailfins pointing upward at an angle approximating that of the slope of the faces of the Great Pyramid of Giza, and painted in psychedelic colors and patterns. In fact, visitors can add their own artistic inspiration if they bring their own spray cans. Or, how about the world’s second tallest crucifix: 19 stories high, standing just outside of Groom, Texas, east of Amarillo. A true monument to wasteful religious commitment, but ya gotta love it.

So, no deep thoughts for this week. Just a bit of a break from more serious subjects. More next time.

When I was a kid and going to summer camp, I used to love shooting guns, and I was pretty damn good at it, too. Could pick off cans and hit targets dead center like nobody’s business. Then on November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated. I was 17 years old and, upon hearing the news, I cried. The very same day, I resolved never to shoot live ammunition again. Over 50 years later, I’ve kept the promise I made to myself, and I’ve never felt any desire to revisit that decision.

We live in a violent society. Gun violence is a major part of it, but the troubled kid who recently became a mass murderer in Isla Vista adjacent to the University of California at Santa Barbara also used a knife and his BMW to injure and kill, demonstrating that guns aren’t the only problem we face when it comes to violence. Still, gun violence is so prevalent and so lethal that it commands the largest of concerns when it comes to how people are being knocked off.

The nut cases of the NRA and the cowardice of elected officials in facing them down in order to enact reasonable controls on gun and ammunition availability present the largest obstructions to progress in reducing the slaughter. Let me state my position clearly: Wayne LaPierre and his ilk are people who believe that the only solution to the killing is more killing, that there should be no restrictions on any type of firearm including the most deadly automatic, assault-type weapons with large ammunition clips. These people generally adhere to the most extreme right wing agendas and seem to savor violence as the answer to violence. Nowhere in their agendas do we find any intent or desire to address underlying issues and factors leading to violence; nor do we find anything but the desire for revenge in the punishment of violent offenders: rehabilitation be hanged, along with the perpetrators.

From where in the darkness of the human soul does this frontier mentality with its predisposition to vigilantism and vengeance arise? Some of it is a harkening back to the myth of the Wild West, what one might call John Wayne-ism and the image of the justifiably self-righteous, entitled to take the law into one’s own hands. The other problem – the elephant in the room – is that damned second amendment.

Arguments over the meaning of the second amendment’s wording are never ending. Did the nation’s founders truly intend that the right to bear arms truly apply only to a “well regulated militia”, or did they intend that everyone should be entitled to his or her own private arsenal? If they had been able to foresee the types of weapons available today, would they have created the second amendment at all? Does the present National Guard constitute a well regulated militia and, if so, obviate the need for private ownership of guns?

These questions are constantly debated in the U.S., the most violent of any of the industrialized western nations, but progress toward reasonable controls is continually and effectively opposed by the fanatics of the NRA and the organization’s extortion and bribery of both national and state politicians. So, no matter how many lunatics shoot up kids at school, commit slaughter in shopping malls, movie theatres, and the streets of our cities, nothing will be done until the impossible happens.

And what is the impossible? The repeal of the second amendment. It isn’t going to happen, and because it isn’t, the problem will not be resolved. But, let’s imagine for just a moment what repeal would mean. It would mean that there would no longer be any constitutional basis for preventing states and local jurisdictions from regulating the sale and use of firearms and ammunition. It would facilitate confiscation of automatic, assault-type weapons from gangs and right wing fanatics. It would enable extensive restrictions to be placed upon who might be entitled to own guns. It would make life safer for law enforcement officials. And, finally, it would kick an important prop for the NRA’s lobbying and propagandizing activity

Note here that I am not suggesting a total ban on the ownership of firearms but, specifically, I’m advocating for strict controls on the sale, ownership, and use of them. The current carnage and inability to do anything about it are infuriating and should be intolerable in a civilized society. The U.S. is far behind much of the rest of the world in recognizing and acting upon what should be self-evident, namely, that we are long overdue in stopping the killing. Until people rise above apathy and vote out the obstructionists, things aren’t going to get any better. In the meantime, I’ll keep dreaming of a country without the second amendment.

(Note: Due to a personal schedule commitment, this week’s blog entry is being made earlier than usual.)

By training I am a physician, although now retired. A board certified obstetrician and gynecologist, to be specific. Partly because of this but mostly because, simply, I am a human being, I cannot but express revulsion and horror over the ignorant, immoral, politically and religiously motivated kidnapping of those 300+ girls in Nigeria by the radical Islamic insurgency, Boko Haram. This group, which seeks to replace the sitting Nigerian government and institute strict sharia law, is opposed to anything it deems “western”, such as secular education, including the education of females, and any other elements it determines may be a part of “western culture”. The group is a living anachronism, a throwback to ignorant barbarism so far removed in time as to be almost incomprehensible in the 21^st century. Or is it?

In recent years, Islamic fundamentalism has been the cause of much worldly mayhem, but it would be wrong to view it in historic isolation. Religion has been associated with, and frequently has been the primary motivating factor, in much human cruelty throughout the ages and, to strike what may be a sensitive nerve for some, Christianity has certainly been responsible for its share of historical havoc. It just happens that today it’s Islamism.

Before we sit back smugly and pat ourselves on the back for having come so far and become so civilized, however, we should look around at what’s happening right here and now in the U.S. As I wrote in my last blog entry, the Supreme Court has just given the go-ahead to sectarian public prayer at governmental meetings, which will result in violation of the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution by providing de facto endorsement of Christianity, it being Christian prayer that is being pushed by religious bigots in local jurisdictions. The Tea Party and other fundamentalist Republicans largely behave as a Christian Taliban, attempting to impose their irrational, inconsistent, neo-puritanical morality upon us all through restrictive and often punitive legislation. To wit: the mandating of transvaginal ultrasound prior to elective abortion, a measure designed both to deter and humiliate in its violation of both corporeal and mental autonomy. What’s next? Stoning?

The terrorism of Boko Haram, then, should horrify but not leave us feeling particularly superior. Bad things could happen – are already beginning to happen – here at home, and all it will take for the triumph of evil is, as has been noted so many, many times in the past, for good people to do nothing. Speak up. Vote. Stand for our common humanity. Let’s be sure that the legacy we leave for our children and grandchildren is not a theocratic police state.

Today’s Annoyance: Those idiots who agitate to “keep the government out of Medicare”.

Apparently, the Supreme Court, or at least five of its members, have misplaced their copies of the U.S. Constitution. This must have been some time ago, considering some of the screwy decisions we’ve been seeing in the past few years, but the most recent outrage, the court’s decision on prayer at government meetings, is a real doozy, arguably worse than Citizens United.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…

So reads in part the first amendment. It is the embodiment of a concern held by the country’s founders born of bitter past experience with religious intolerance and persecution and, until now, it has been a bedrock assumption of the American ideal.

Despite the protestations of many conservatives and, especially, the Tea Party Taliban, the United States of America was not founded as a fundamentally Christian country. The founders were largely deists with varying degrees of religious belief, and the first amendment was created to prevent the adoption of any formal state religion or endorsement thereof. The recent decision by the Supreme Court, however, has thoroughly undermined this essential principle by explicitly enabling any governmental body to begin its meetings with a prayer that allows reference to a particular faith. In practice, this will most often lead to a specifically Christian prayer, leaving atheists, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Mormons, Voodoo practitioners, Scientologists, Rastafarians, and Pastafarian Flying Spaghetti Monster believers, among others, out in the cold.

Why, you might ask, will Christianity be favored? There are two reasons. First, Christians, in aggregate, constitute the religious majority in the country, and American Christians are the most persistent of U.S. religious groups in pushing their views upon everyone else in the public and political arenas. Second, there seems to be some sense, especially in the city governments of conservative communities across the country, that board and committee meetings should begin with a prayer, and this is generally a Christian one. As has been widely reported, other religions have had great difficulty in trying to gain equal time in the “begin-with-a-prayer” ritual.

The last thing in the world we need is an American theocracy imposing its own twisted world view upon everyone. If what’s going on in the Middle East, Africa, and elsewhere isn’t enough to frighten you over the threat of an American fundamentalist Christian hegemony, just remember the Inquisition. It could happen here, but don’t let it. Regardless of your party preference, take a stand for America’s traditional “wall of separation” between church and state. Speak up and vote accordingly, or you could find yourself the next one being stoned to death in the public square for __________ (fill in the blank).

Today’s Annoyance: The local weatherman who keeps telling us in redundant language about weather fronts that are “exiting out” of the area. How about just “exiting” or, maybe, “leaving”? Sheesh. It’s like back in the 60’s, when folks were trying to get into “where you’re at”. Come to think of it, “where you’re at” is still with us. It makes my ears hurt.