And, Speaking Of Paying For Civilization ...

... we should be especially concerned about the best area of investment in our future:  education.

I have said it before, in the interest of full disclosure and (for those who came in late, to borrow a phrase from "The Phantom" comic strip) I'll say it again:  my late father was both a university professor and a leader in expanding publicly-financed higher education in Maryland.  If you wish to view my education advocacy through that lens, feel free to do so.  I advertise it with no shame and a considerable amount of pride.

And yes, it is one reason why it offends me that we have let our system of public education fall apart.  Not completely, of course.  Here in Maryland, it is still strong and well-funded, thanks to the involvement of parents who always need to be the backbone of their children's academic life.

But that is not the case in many parts of the country.  There, conditions are at a place that has to be considered below sub-standard.  I can't sum it up any more effectively that the New York Times has in this article, which you should take a look at.  And be appalled.  And resolve to do everything and anything you can to turn this disgraceful state of affairs around.  The point made in the Times article about the age of textbooks currently used in school was somewhat poignantly reinforced for me by this CBS News story.  As great as it is that this first grader is excited about reading a textbook that Blake Shelton used 36 years ago, she deserves a better text book  I'd like to think that Blake Shelton would agree with that thought.

But what can you expect when this country has school districts advocating the use of miniature baseball bats to combat the current epidemic of school shootings?  That's right--miniature baseball bats, the kind that ballparks sell or give away as souvenirs.  I'm not kidding; take a look at this, if you don't believe me.  Lest you think this is entirely about a lack of money, consider the idiotic observation in this article that "I think a bat could disarm a pistol with a nice swing."

Do we think so little of our own children, the future not just of this country but of the human race, that we have no regard for the contents of their brains or the safety of their lives?  Does having a few extra dollars in our pockets (and billions more in the pockets of special interests) mean that much to us?

Perhaps not to all of us.  Perhaps this helps to explain this year's surge of mothers running for public office.  Perhaps they're not content with seeing their children educated under conditions that would make a Third World government blush.

Perhaps this explains the recent surge in labor actions by teachers, about which I'll have more to say in a future post.  (Spoiler alert:  I'm quite sure that it does.)

In any case, it time to realize the truth I talked about in my last post:  a rising economic tide does not produce magic money for governments.  Like it or not, overall, we are not taxed enough.  That must change.  America must change.  Or it will go the way of all nations that do not adapt, and turn into dust on the shelves of history.