Stephen Graff's Blog

Men With Principles

House republicans held hearings recently on the issue of health care and availability of free contraceptive drugs. On the first panel: not a single woman, and all the men present were/are opposed to White House policy on this issue. Besides the fact that the Republican Party is digging a huge ditch the size of the Amazon for itself (nearly 70% of Americans and 90% of women support the WH position), the most frightening element of this event and countless other events staged by conservatives in recent months is that it seems to have swept away American post-war history with regards to basic rights in general and women's rights in particular. Where are we going as a nation if we're actually going to debate the merits of allowing Americans access to birth control pills (and, in the case of students at Catholic and Christian oriented universities, even deny contraceptive medications to women who use them to combat life threatening illnesses?) But these are men with principles. Men like Rep. Issa--who has had his own ethics issues in the past; but which of these hypocritical U.S. representatives hasn't?--are trying to take this country down a dark road. We discuss dystopian societies on this site as there are many writers who imagine dystopian settings that seem too wild and implausible to be real. But listening to Issa and Mr. Vitner and, in recent weeks, Santorum, the new frontrunner on the republican side who seems to favor making contraceptives illegal, it appears that we don't need dystopian literature to show us what can happen when those in power get drunk on that power. These discussions and arguments aren't about the Constitution or the separation of church and state. They are, simply put, about politics at the expense of basic freedoms and rights. Syria and Egypt are extreme examples of what happens when we forget how important it is to keep a democracy democratic.

The Republican Vision

After the recent wildfire ignited by the Obama White House but fueled by barrels of gasoline provided by Catholic Bishops and CPAC zealots, it's starting to look like an ominous future world--the one envisioned by today's boxing-themselves-in republicans: not dissimilar to Margaret Atwood's HANDMAID'S TALE where one doctrinaire party ran a nation like a massive theocracy that had, as its central idea, the subjugation and devaluing of women. But what made Atwood's dystopian masterpiece work so well was that it seemed plausible. After the wrap-up in Washington of CPAC's convention, it seems even more so. Does the Republican Party really expect to win on a platform that would seem to deny something as simple and popular as contraceptives? Is the Church going to continue to create its hysterical and histrionic campaign (probably in an attempt to look valiant enough to cast a covering shadow over the stain of the sex abuse scandals, a stain that continues to grow)? I don't believe the American people will buy it. But time will tell. While Americans continue to suffer through the worst economic "recession" in 80 years, conservatives are getting hopping mad about medications to prevent pregnancy. That's either a supreme madness or a strange recipe for political success.

I'm a Public School Teacher

I'm a public school teacher in Southern New Jersey. I've been one for 17 years. In that time, I've seen drastic changes in pubic education that are not unique to New Jersey. Leave No Child Behind was ushered in during the Bush Administration and though it was a bi-partisan effort, members of both parties were critical of it. Success was scattershot, and its unstated major goal--pushing all American students to prove that they can master the exact same set of standards--has proven to be impossible. And for good reason: all children are different just like all adults. Public school funding for the programs and staff to teach to the test while completely avoiding it made American corporations like McGraw-Hill even richer because they ate at the trough, eating up the funding and spitting out useless textbooks to help students learn to pass useless tests. At the same time, schools and teachers were urged to differentiate in the classroom. No wonder so many educators complain of migraines. And the children? The stress of having to jump through the fiery hoops created by self-proclaimed education experts is now clearly evident in public schools all across this nation. Now that evidence is mounting that NCLB was a complete waste of time, new directions and flexibility have been offered/given to the states but the faulty scaffolding of the last decade and a half remains. If one of the goals was to stop the downward spiral of the United States--we continue to be outperformed by most other industrialized nations in sciences and math, which is a national security disaster--then the national focus on standardization has been a complete failure. We're long overdue for a wake up change. We need to realize that every student is unique, that standards are important but that teachers and schools have all the skills and resources to measure those standards on their own without sacrificing the essential goodness of what has always worked in the classroom.

New World Orders

We are living in times that can't be accurately assessed. Even renowned economists have been unable to predict future trends and have scratched their heads at the present state of things. Protest movements have sprung up around the world out of frustration with the lack of economic momentum; out of despair that things may not return to normal, that lost jobs may never return, that pensions squandered are gone forever. There are too many frustrations to think about in these new endless equations about what went wrong. In 2008, as markets and financial institutions collapsed, The United States government stepped in with a bold plan of action. Most economists today still argue that a government stimulus was necessary; many still call for greater action today. But Washington is in a state of perpetual stasis. Wall Street continues to play the markets without any concern for ethical and moral imperative. The patriotism that was a hallmark of American corporations in generations past has vanished. Government has no interest in finding fault with the Wall Street class that--in the view of many--played a major role in helping an economic collapse that has no precedent. Now Occupy Wall Street is spreading to most of the country's major cities, though it shows little sign of catching fire and becoming a cogent political movement that can affect real national change. Whether a new, more sensible world order is in the offing remains to be seen. Whether the middle class can survive is also a question mark. What seems apparent, however, is that this new young generation of Americans--the children of hard working Americans--now face a possibly frightening future lacking in many of the fringe benefits that were expected by their parents and grandparents. They've sacrificed their lives and mental health fighting two wars for an elitist political class that planned these wars in their isolated think tanks. Now they stand on the precipice and they see a country that is selling itself short and selling them out. They're anger and purpose is palpable. They may become a factor for change; a groundswell for political turnover; a chance for the overthrow of the present political leadership. For that to happen, real leaders have to emerge from this movement and be willing to serve and work both within and against the present faltering system.