Why Can't Democratic Leaders Break It Down Like Jon?

Jon Stewart makes a compelling defense of teachers on the March 3rd Daily Show. He juxtaposes numerous comments made on Fox News during the 2010 debate in favor of extending the Bush tax cuts for couples earning more than $250,000 against the "avarice" of teachers earning around $50,000 a year plus benefits here in Wisconsin.

As one Fox anchor put it: "250,000 dollars is not rich for a family of four sending kids to college! It's actually close to poverty!" Indeed. Further, Tracy Byrnes, a "Fox business contributor," railed against reducing pay or rescinding bonuses for Wall Street CEOs whose firms were being bailed out by the U.S. government because of contractual obligations. But, recently, she favored reducing teacher pay and benefits regardless of whether they were promised under existing employment contracts. What's fair is fair -- or not.

Very interesting. The Republican argument is that we shouldn't -- and didn't -- let the Bush tax cuts expire on income over $250,000 (an amount only a fraction of Americans earn), but, in Wisconsin anyway, we should reduce the take-home pay for teachers by more than 8%.

Where's the shared sacrifice? Or is that concept outdated in America?

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You Call Yourself An Optimist?

"I'm an optimist...tempers will cool." Scott Walker, delivering his big ol' budget speech, 3/1/2011

There are too many important words being co-opted around these parts lately (more on "flexibility" "tools" and "crisis" later).

Optimism is one of them.

Walker, when you rule the world, you cannot begin to know what optimism truly means. Optimism is the faith that good will prevail even when the world seems dead set against you. As the guy on top beating the heck out of us, you don't have a clue what optimism really means. It's us who have to be optimistic -- that, eventually, you will no longer be in charge.

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Let's Be Human Together

Being part of history in the making is a powerful thing. It can make you feel like you are--finally--part of something real. And of course you are. The trick is recognizing what you are part of, and responding as a human being.

Remember our dear friend Pinocchio? He was created by a nice guy (Geppeto) who was lonely, insecure, and sought love-- so he made himself a son. Except that in reality, his "son" was a puppet. He wouldn't become a real boy until he developed a conscience, recognized the power of (and reason for) his strings, and in doing so became part of the world. And Gepetto, despite hoping that his puppet would complete him, remained isolated until Pinocchio became a true boy.

Pinocchio's road to developing a conscience was tough. At first, he just tried to act like he had a conscience. "I've got no strings, to hold me down, to make me fret, or make me frown...there are no strings on me...I want the world to know, nothing ever worries me..."

He enjoyed the help of his friend Jiminy Cricket who tried to remind him that he needed to get a conscience. But time and again, he'd fail to make the right decision, and inevitably forfeit his ability to control his own fate. In an effort to teach him morality, the Blue Fairy came and made Pinocchio's nose grow and grow, until it eventually fell off. She told him "A boy who won't be good might as well be made of wood."

But the story sticks with the puppet, and he get a second, third, even fourth chance to figure out the difference between right and wrong. Gepetto can't teach him--after all, his moral conscience is clearly underdeveloped or he wouldn't have been so self-indulgent as to try and create another person simply to satisfy his own desires.

Eventually, as we know, Pinocchio figures it out. Dreams don't come true when you wish on a star, or try to take a self-serving shortcut: they only come true when you can tell right from wrong.

In today's world, morality is not at all abstract. It is the difference between selfishness and selflessness. Behaving in a moral fashion may hurt in the short-term, but in the long run it's the only way to avoid being exploited, to maintain a community, and to be truly human.

Be brave. Be truthful. Be unselfish.

It's the Wisconsin Idea.

You have read this article Carolyn "Biddy" Martin / New Badger Partnership / UW-Madison with the title . You can bookmark this page URL https://educationarticlesfromexperts.blogspot.com/2011/03/let-be-human-together.html. Thanks!