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Category Archives: Public school

College Prep Baseball: It’s Academic! Payton and Brooks to Meet

02 Thursday May 2013

Posted by CAPCOM in Bad habits, Baseball, Behavior, Chicago, Culture, Depression, Despair, Education, Good citizenship, Illinois, Mission Control, Positive attitude, Professionalism, Public school, Public service, School uniform, Schools, Sports, Sportsmanship, Teachers, Teamwork, Teenagers, WBBM Chicago, X-15

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Baseball, Chicago, Madison Street, Roosevelt Road, State Street, Walter Payton

COLLEGE PREP SCHOOLS CAN PREPARE STUDENTS FOR MORE THAN SPORTS.

Crossroads of the Chicago Address system

Crossroads of the Chicago Address system (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Well now, the players from Chicago -area schools Walter Payton and Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory academies are going to sit down to breakfast together before their game this weekend.

Now this is a story that is so convoluted it is hard to believe the people on the Payton side of the issue. First the Payton people said it was a “safety” issue, and everyone jumped all over that one (so transparent it was not hard to see what the REAL thought train was), and then it was AP exams, then it was a “transportation” concern.

So you spoiled folk could not get a charter bus to get to the stadium? Sure. Ever heard of a carpool or hiring a van or taking a train and then some cabs perhaps? I mean come on; if you want to get someplace you CAN and WILL get there. And as to chartering a bus or one of those large limousine vehicles, there are enough companies around here with busses and coaches and limos to accommodate anyone. If they can handle conferences and the airports and the bus stations they can surely find a bus or a large van to handle a baseball team’s travel logistics.

Also, you Payton people seriously dissed the people of the Ninth Ward and Alderman Beale and the entire school population of Brooks. You snubbed an entire community and smeared the culture of academics and sports because of a few places that have been in the news as violent or as tough parts of town.

Of course you know that the moment you cross one inch south of the intersection of Madison and State Streets in the Loop you are on the “south side”. Just look at the address numbers. The “south side” does not start at Roosevelt Road and State Street; it starts the moment you cross south of Madison Street in the Loop. And do not get the mistake of thinking that the “north side” is perfect; violent events happen on the “north side” too if you pay enough attention to the news.

Well, what now, Brooks side? After you have breakfast with the Payton players will you continue to want them off your schedule for good? Will this meeting over a meal help smooth out the situation and get everyone on good terms again, where you can focus on being good sports and on what baseball means and what being part of a team can do for everyone involved? I think you would be good sports and visit the Payton people on their home grounds even though the “north side” can be a violent and disturbing area of town. I also hope that when the game happens you beat the stew out of Payton and send them packing, tails tucked, with something like a score of 20 to 0. Get those base hits, get those home runs, get those pitches in there for strikes and when you get a hit run it out hard! RUN IT OUT, gentlemen, and run them right back north with the shouts of your victory echoing in their ears.

Everyone can learn from what has happened between Payton and Brooks schools; every person in Chicago can wake up and take a close look and understand what the situation meant and what can be done to make sure nothing like this happens again.

Divi Logan, Chicago, ©2013.

 

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  • Worried parents force cancellation of Payton-Brooks baseball game (suntimes.com)
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  • Players from Payton, Brooks to meet at breakfast Friday at CPS headquarters (suntimes.com)
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Gun Control and the NRA: Citizens, Take action NOW!

10 Wednesday Apr 2013

Posted by CAPCOM in Background check, Bad habits, Behavior, Campaigns, Chicago, Chicago Fire Department, Chicago Mayor, Copycat behavior, Depression, Despair, Education, Emergency rooms, Firefighters, Good citizenship, Government, Gun control, Gun violence, Harassment, Illinois, Incident, Mass media, Mission Control, Public school, Public service, School board, Schools, Social media, Teamwork, Technology

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Congress, Connecticut, Gun control, National Rifle Association, NRA, Sandy Hook, SWAT, United States

NRA: Not Right At All: Sandy Hook and Gun Control

Now it is obvious that the arguments of the NRA (National Rifle Association) regarding the Second Amendment and gun control and all the rest of the concerns revolving (excuse the word choice there) around “gun violence” are not complete nor are they accurate.

Here is the Second Amendment:

Amendment II
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

First of all, banning certain types of weapons DOES NOT take away anything of the privileges we have in the Second Amendment, which gives us the right to bear arms. “Arms” can mean anything that is used to commit violence against someone using deadly force, strength meant to kill surely and not necessarily cleanly. It is DEADLY FORCE that is meant when someone takes a gun out and fires that weapon at a person with premeditated intent – they MEAN to KILL that person at whom the gun is pointed. It is ready for discharging and if the situation is upset enough the weapon will be used, and someone WILL DIE.

The banning of certain weapons is not going to infringe on the Second Amendment, not at all. All the people of Sandy Hook want, and all that many Americans want, is to see the BANNING of certain types of guns and armaments accessories and an increase in background checks and details of said checks. The views of Chicago Police Department Superintendent McCarthy are correct in his five points, discussed some months ago in one of my previous blog entries. Now the police of communities across America cannot do all the work, the SWAT teams and the FBI cannot do all the work.

English: Heckler & Koch HK417 at the 2008 Shot...

English: Heckler & Koch HK417 at the 2008 Shot Show. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

These are the makers of assault rifles and high -powered weapons that are meant only for killing and rendering destruction and nothing else. What a waste of energy and material and time and resources, making such things and for people who many times are up to no good. Among these manufacturers are Heckler & Koch, and their pages show plenty of deadly weapons, such as the G36, the HK 416 and the HK 417 and the MP7A1, and 40mm systems. Someone called Tactical Arms makes the AR-15 (ugh, what a terrible looking thing). Smith & Wesson are noted gun makers, and other companies getting press include Anyone curious as to how ugly and how disgusting these things look (why would you even want one anywhere near you to begin with) can go online and look at them.

It is reported that some states have given gun makers subsidies. Article reference is at the end of this story. A list of such weapons is on Wikipedia (reference is also under RESOURCES at the end of this story).

Go ahead, Congress members; go ahead “trusted” elected officials -look at them! LOOK AT THESE KILLING MACHINES! You want your states to subsidize

For recreation… boy, anyone who needs these things for “recreation” must really be seriously stressed out! To have to go to some shooting range or isolated part of the country and let off a few thousand rounds on a sign or a rock formation or animals is really a sign of a disturbed mind and the person should probably not have the gun in the first place … for who knows what might happen after that so -called recreational use of the gun? Are they priming for “further action”, or… what might they do next?

People must step up and write their representatives to the point of stuffing their mailboxes with letters insisting on these bans of assault rifles, high capacity magazines, and also of the increase in background checks for gun shows and all types of sales that are made anywhere, when guns are sold or transferred in ownership, and especially to keep track of where a gun might end up when it is stolen. There are GPS methods to track down stolen cars… there should perhaps be a way to insert GPS into guns to track them when the chip is activated. Privacy issues will come up no doubt but for now the issue is what to do about the “military style” guns that are being made and put on our streets every day.

On our streets we DO NOT NEED these assault weapons (though any type of weapon is really an “assault” weapon seeing that any sort of violence against another person is assault). We do not need in our communities the presence of the AR-15, the M-16, the Uzi, anything at all that is meant to take out many people as happened at Sandy Hook, as happened in Aurora, Colorado, and as happens every day in America as citizens allow gangs and corrupt people to take control of streets and communities for their drugs and their disgusting presence.

You can certainly have a firearm in your home or business for protection, and in most states you can carry a gun under the concealed carry law. But you certainly do not need one of those machine guns for daily protection unless you are in a war zone. There are some parts of America that might be called “war zones” because those communities have endured neglect and are run -down enough for gangs and drugs to take hold. Good people will leave and the bad elements will take over and the citizens who are stuck there will be in deep trouble. Points aside, you can have firearms and you can certainly uphold the Second Amendment. You do not have to listen to the NRA when deciding on gun control, plainly and simply.

The children and teachers who died at Sandy Hook will not be forgotten as long as parents are around, as long as caring citizens are here, as long as first responders have to pay visits to those types of scenes and make their reports. The record is there and the people of Connecticut have stepped up to tell America and Congress they are going to get tough for the gun control issue.

Those members of Congress and those other representatives who get good grades from the NRA need to remember the children who are struggling to get good grades in school every day in areas plagued by violence and racial gerrymandering and government neglect. Those senators who are going to filibuster and not vote on issues to regulate the gun industry and ban the assault weapons are going to have to answer their constituents if something happens in their state on the order of Sandy Hook or Aurora or Virginia Tech’s university campus massacre.

Those members of Congress will have to go before America and say that because they get an A rating from the NRA that they cannot support deeper gun control legislation that might save lives, that might keep our cities safer, that might take these guns out of the hands of gang bangers and criminals and violent people. They will have to answer the next time something like that happens if there is a next time.

The Second Amendment must be carefully considered away from what the NRA says will happen if we get tougher gun control. Such controls will not take away our right to have guns if we want them. We can certainly go out and get a gun, take courses on how to properly use a gun, and register it properly and learn to clean and care for it. We can teach the kids about gun safety if we have them around the house, so that nothing happens in the way of the unfortunate incidents that have popped up on the news lately, with younger kids shooting friends or siblings or family members.

Our esteemed wimpy idiotic foolish members of Congress need to get a backbone and act and pass tougher gun control laws immediately, no arguing, no filibustering, no posturing and no party politics. PLEASE people PLEASE do not do this to the good people of this country just because you are getting money and favoritism and perks from the NRA. They have their freedom of speech, they have their say, and you can listen to them with a grain of salt and then go on and pass the tougher laws. They have been heard and most people are tired of hearing them and their calling like telemarketers bugging people in Connecticut and with their daily comments on putting armed officers or teachers in schools.

WE DON’T NEED THAT, NRA! So QUIT SHOOTING OFF YOUR MOUTHS! Go empty your lye mouths and your clips at some shooting range far away from civilized people and out of range of wildlife. Just please take your vague words and incorrect data and go away until you fess up and get on board with the people who have lost children, parents, relatives, friends, who have been terrorized by these guns and super -powered magazine clips. WE DO NOT NEED THAT!

In memory of the children and teachers killed at Sandy Hook, Connecticut; in memory of the people killed at Virginia Tech; in memory of the people killed in Chicago especially the youth; in memory of the victims at Littleton, Colorado; in memory of the victims of the Aurora, Colorado, theater massacre; in memory of the people killed and wounded at the gathering of Gabby Giffords in Arizona… the hearts of the good people of America are with you every day.

Divi Logan, Chicago, 2013.

RESOURCES

Reference for article regarding gunmaker subsidies: http://pinetreewatchdog.org/states-have-subsidized-makers-of-assault-rifles-to-tune-of-19-million/.
Reference for rifles list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assault_rifles.
Second Amendment Reference: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html

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Southern Hemisphere Marvels: See the Friendly Dark Skies

31 Sunday Mar 2013

Posted by CAPCOM in Bad habits, Behavior, Chicago, Copycat behavior, Education, Good citizenship, Government, Gun violence, Mission Control, NASA, Positive attitude, Public health, Public school, Public service, Science, Teachers, Teamwork, Technology

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Easter Island, India, Jupiter, Messier Marathon, Milky Way, Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, Summer Triangle

THE FRIENDLY DARK SOUTHERN SKIES

Milky way - southern hemisphere

Milky way – southern hemisphere (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the Northern Hemisphere we can see some stunning celestial objects; we can witness meteor showers and fantastic bolides and we can see rings around the sun and moon, which are caused by light reflecting from cirrus clouds (made of ice crystals). We can see planets, stars, and arms of our home galaxy; depending on our lighting and pollution conditions we can see dim stars, star colors, the Milky Way and the nearest galaxy to our own, Andromeda.

As children if we are fortunate we have telescopes and excellent binoculars with which to see the rings of Saturn, the moons of Jupiter, the features on our Moon, and with proper filter protection, solar prominences and sunspots. We can pick out some of the better known constellations and asterisms, such as Orion and the Summer Triangle.

However, many of the sights people can witness in the celestial realm are seen only in the Southern Hemisphere. Certain supernovae for instance have been seen only from that part of the Earth, and some of the best dark skies in the world are in that hemisphere.

Wouldn’t it be great if the nations of the Southern Hemisphere engaged in eco-friendly peacetime deals and stopped their wars based on religion and grabbing power, in tearing down the forests and destroying the land? There is so much to marvel at and ponder if only the people of Indonesia, India, Africa and South America would lay down their weapons and quell their anger and just take time to gaze into the skies on clear nights.

What would they see? They certainly would see sights on a grand scale, such as we can see here if we are lucky.

Americans are learning the benefits of having regions devoted to dark-sky observation, freed from development and away from the lights of big cities and industry. We know that reducing the amount of artificial light that enters our windows at night is beneficial for our health, but we still need street lights that are designed and efficient enough to direct light down instead of up and out. Better lighting would reduce greatly the amount of that awful “light pollution” that clouds the skies even dozens of miles away from cities.

Thus in areas with fewer cities and developments, such as are seen in some parts of the Southern Hemisphere, just think of the benefits the peoples could draw in by catering to people who want to see wonderful dark-sky conditions. Eco-tourism is growing in popularity, and there would be nothing better for some overworked city dweller to come to a quiet, dark, calm place, and get out there under the sparkling show of a velvety black panorama.

Ecuador: Sundial exactly positioned on the equ...

Ecuador: Sundial exactly positioned on the equator line near the town of Cayambe. Altitude: 2747 m. The equator is the narrow dark line that runs through the cylinder. The northern hemisphere is at the left side, the southern one at the right side of the line. The site is managed by a non governmental organization of volunteers. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There would be globular clusters, galaxies, planets, stars, meteor showers, the spiral arms of our Milky Way; there would be constellations and comets to grace the eyes and the brains of astute viewers. What a place to hold a Messier Marathon an area such as India, Micronesia, Australia, Indonesia, and Easter Island would be!

What else would the peoples of the Southern Hemisphere see? Branch out for a moment from talk of the skies and the planets and think about what they would see in others and in themselves. They would see other human beings just as they are, they would see families and young children yearning for a chance to have peace and quiet and grow up in a place free from constant noise and lights for security and weapons discharging and waste ruining the streets and the atmosphere. They would see people yearning for freedom to enjoy nights in the countryside with their relatives; they would see people wanting time on their front porches to watch the meteors or watch the progression of the planets as their ancestors did centuries ago.

They would see more than a resource for bringing in serious bucks and for preserving their natural environments; they would see each other.

Galaxies in our own right are we humans; with so many parts but within each individual, within each person there are opportunities, there are chances and there is potential. We are stardust each one of us; we are made of the universal elements born in supernovae. Our common beginning is up there and around us, in the cosmos, in the evolving universe, and in the stars our destiny is happening every second.

We can take notice of each other and with clear heads we can look up and help others do the same. Take the time, turn off the lights, go outside, be quiet, relax and breathe, and just look up.

Indonesia

Indonesia (Photo credit: zsoolt)

Divi Logan, Chicago, 2013.

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Education and the Demographic Delusion: Think the Census is so Great?

24 Sunday Mar 2013

Posted by CAPCOM in Bad habits, Behavior, Campaigns, Chicago, Copycat behavior, Culture, Depression, Despair, Education, Good citizenship, Government, Grow Your Own Teachers, Gun control, Gun violence, Illinois, Incident, Mass media, Mission Control, Positive attitude, Professionalism, Property Maintenance, Public health, Public school, Public service, School board, School uniform, Schools, Science, Social media, Teachers, Teamwork, Technology

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Chicago, Chicago Public Schools, Delusion, Education, Hispanic, Hispanic and Latino Americans, Learning, United States

EDUCATION AND THE DEMOGRAPHIC DISTRACTION

 

Now let us see here… what does education “mean”? ‘mid all the news and the talk and vague corporate chatter about the issue of “getting an education” we are not remembering the building blocks of what that has to do with us becoming good citizens in the first place. We need to take a deep breath, step back, and look at the whole idea of education from the beginning, in order to understand where our goals have failed and thus where we have failed ourselves and the children, the young citizens of America.

 

The roots of the word and concept of “education” mean to “draw out”, “march out”, or “lead out”. In that respect are those who talk of the issues and concerns regarding education doing those things? What is getting in the way of progress and satisfaction?

 

EDUCATION

EDUCATION

EDUCATION

INSTRUCTION

EDIFICATION

TRAINING

CULTURE

TUTORING

 

Then you can move on to… GRADUATION, which means what… yes, that’s right, moving up, taking higher, grander, greater steps. You have “gradually” gained sets of facts and skills that you can use to pursue a career and to grow as a good citizen. You have “made the grade”, taking the ups and downs of the learning process, the good with the bad, the late nights with the easy reading and the details with the attainment of the goals.

 

Thus when you are able to walk that stage and think, “I GRADUATED!”, you have accomplished something special, walking in the torchlight that generations before have set up for you to follow. Now you can research, take their ideas and concepts and designs and make something new, do something different, and choose your path.

 

Instead of saying this big-sounding talk of “get an education”, take it a different way and “BECOME EDUCATED”. The latter indicates that the idea of learning will always be with you if you are fortunate, every day, to take in something new and useful for your way of life. To become educated is a goal everyone should have.

 

As my grandmother says as a great mantra, “Learn something, learn something.”

 

She is correct. Do the right thing; make the situation easier at the outset:

 

BECOME EDUCATED and LEARN SOMETHING!

 

THE DEMOGRAPHIC DELUSION

 

In Chicago this year, and especially in the past month, the concerns over the closing of many dozens of public “neighborhood” schools has drawn fire onto the Chicago Public Schools bureaucracy, and has resulted in name-calling and the use of foul language.

 

What is behind much of this prattle about the closing of the schools and the possibility of the “public” school being replaced by the “charter” school? Many factors are to be considered, among them and what we might think of as the main problem is demographics.

 

Far as this author can see, demographics focuses on separating and talking about people with regards to skin color/ “race”, religion, ethnic background, where they live, how much they make, the supposed concentration of certain people in a certain area, social and economic and gender aspects as well.

 

Is such thinking helping or hindering genuine progress? Is not such thinking making us a country that is NOT united? Any kind of separation pits one person or group against another person or group when seen in the light of demographics- whether or not someone has something the others do not or that they want, comparing people based on what someone assumes a certain race or gender will want at a certain time of day, using language that makes someone seem dumber or smarter in comparison to someone from a lower social-economic background, and making other arrogant and insensitive assumptions based on the few people they see and what those people appear to do and stamping others of that look with the prejudicial factors.

 

The people who are boiling in these issues need to learn some hard lessons, apparently. If education means in part “to lead out” and “to draw out”, and they talk about keeping the kids in their “neighborhood”, what does that say about those in control? They aren’t acting very EDUCATED, are they? What if the areas they are in now are more dangerous than the places where the new schools are?

 

So what about the type of school it is that they attend- what about it? One school type is no better than the other- all of them can have problems. The important point is achievement and holding to academic standards and personal behavior standards.

 

Best then to eliminate the divisive junk about “neighborhoods” and this stuff about “remember where you came from” and the rest of this “heritage” trash, than to continue the bickering based on such silly issues. Such demographic thinking does nothing good for anyone at all. As for this junk about “neighborhoods”, I don’t care where one area starts and another stops, what “race” or “ethnicity” lives there and who does not, what they look like or do or what kind of cars they drive.

 

The government is guilty of fomenting division in this nation, you can see that. The Census is their way of trying to keep such divisive practices in the pipeline and because those in power push it at us we think it so good to fill out those forms and send them in.

Why does “the government” want that information? Why do you think? They want to use those separatist statistics to parcel out “federal” money based on what race, color, creed, gender or ethnic group is in a certain school, workplace, or part of the country. They want to “help out” or “build that area up” based on those factors. And then they want to make it seem that they are doing those people good and helping them by giving them money, buildings, and parks and such. But is it helpful to think about people in those ways?

 

IT IS NOT.

 

But you must remember this: YOU CAN AND MUST LEARN TO GOVERN YOURSELVES! You can branch out and get away from this derisive, delusional talk; you can wrest control from these terrible thoughts and patterns, you can break the chains those demographers are putting on you. You can think positively and forget the negatives so fast you will wonder why you didn’t focus forward in the first place.

 

You can stop thinking backwards and letting the Census and commerce and ad people keep hold on you. You can tell them, “I don’t like that way you portrayed X in this ad. It is not truthful and not every X acts that way!” You can tell them, “Your ad campaign and your business practices are highly offensive to X because of X!” You can write letters, you can stop watching the shows, you do not have to go to the movies and you do not have to take flack in the workplace due to some stupid demographic category.

 

You can stop thinking that something is happening on a racial basis; you can stop pulling your bag back because you think someone is going to take it on the street just because they are walking toward you and looking a certain way. If they happen to be looking at your level, so what- people DO move their necks and eyes! You cannot judge why someone is looking a certain way and doing something!

HOW DARE YOU PRESUME?

 

You just go ahead with your duties and tasks and let the guilty party realize their errors. Do you not presume, do you not assume, you just go about and take care of business. Let others “mind” the supposed problem, the offense that did not happen, the event that did not occur, their reasons behind their actions and their prejudices.

 

People of Chicago, learn some lessons of your own! Grow up, get your goals straight, and then air your differences and your ideas. When you can learn to do so in a civil manner, when you can act like the educated people you think you are or want to be, then come to the table and sit down and act like people who want to be civilized.

 

After all, who are you harming the most in the end? You adults, you officials, you people in control are not doing all you can to make the gang and drug areas less dangerous, then you say that closing the schools will put the kids in danger. Bologna. YOU are putting them in danger by being all talk and no action, or not enough action. You are causing more worry and harm than the good kids who want to learn and accomplish something no matter what school they attend. You could stop the gangs, get rid of the drug markets, punish the offenders in your family, and clean up your supposed “neighborhood” if you wanted to, if you were not saddled with corrupt cops and politicians and national red tape.

 

What does that say when you want to keep them in the same areas they are growing up in, with “their own kind” and “their own type” and filling them with such limiting ideas? That is not the idea of being educated. Keeping them in their own boundaries means that they will not expand their horizons, learn about other cultures and people except from a book or some online page that might not be adequate in information or might be skewed in one or another way that would not permit the reception of more information from all sides of a story. To learn about others, you have to experience others.

 

I was fortunate not only to learn about Asia but to visit China, Japan and Hong Kong in the middle 1980’s. Had I only read about these wonderful people or seen movies or television shows portraying some aspect of their culture my experience of Asia would be incomplete. As it happened I ate their food, tried their clothes, saw their homes and families, shopped in their stores, saw the local scenery and heard the language. I have experienced Europe and England and enjoyed the best parts of many cultures. Travel for certain brings a new meaning to the phrase “live and active cultures”.

 

Even though an American child these days might not be able to travel due to economic trials, they can branch out and learn from people of the cultures around the world. There are many communities in Chicago from all over the place. You can experience Mexico, China, Japan, Turkey, Korea, Greece and India.

 

But what I am talking about is simply mixing with other people, no matter what they look like or what they do. This talk of “Black”, and “White” and such other gibberish is trash talk and not suitable for educated, learned people or folks who want to consider themselves so and pass learning on to others.

 

You must be sure your standards are not prejudiced by thinking “Black” or “White” or “rich” or “poor” or any other demographic category. Anything less than ridding yourself of backwards thinking is showing that you are uncivilized and far from educated; you will only pass on skewed information to the next generation and keep them limited, dumb and thinking on the same low levels as you are doing.

 

What does that say to the students who want to branch out, who are tired of being hemmed in by so much talk of gangs, drugs, where one community ends or begins just because of who lives on certain streets or because of what the buildings look like or some other demographic detraction? What does that tell the serious learners who want to get away from thinking that someone who does not look like them is not “their own kind”? Their own kind is HUMAN and AMERICAN and that is foundation enough.

 

What then do you want to do- keep talking or dig deeper and get more active in ways to make the education system better and more appealing and attractive and efficient?

 

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO and WHY? ASK THE BASIC QUESTIONS!

 

Ask who, why, what, when, where and how… ask what is essential and needed. You do not build the roof first after all; you start by laying a strong foundation.

 

DO WHAT IS NECESSARY FIRST.

 

What do you NEED to do FIRST?

 

Divi Logan for ®EDUSHIRTS, ©Chicago 2013.

Gun Violence and Control: Newtown’s Light on the Path

01 Tuesday Jan 2013

Posted by CAPCOM in Background check, Bad habits, Bullying, Chicago, Copycat behavior, Culture, Depression, Despair, Education, Good citizenship, Government, Illinois, Incident, Mass media, Public school, Public service, School board, Schools, Social media, Teachers, Teamwork, Technology, WBBM Chicago

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current-events, politics

NEWTOWN MUST BE REMEMBERED

In the news the past year was the unfortunate incident wherein a disturbed man took an assault rifle into a school and shot to death 20 innocent young children and six teachers/ administrators before his life was ended. He also killed his mother, with one of the guns from her own collection, before going to the school. 28 dead, shaking the atmosphere of the small classic New England town of Newtown, Connecticut.

Every time something like this happens, the call for gun control is renewed and the lawmakers have a look at it and the activists beat drums and give speeches and the priests and pastors speak about it in bulletins and sermons. But then, as the news reports, enthusiasm for deeper weapons control fades.

THIS TIME THE LIGHT MUST STAY ON; IT MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO FADE!!!! THIS TIME IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT THE TORCH BE KEPT BURNING.

The lives of those children and innocents must be kept alive in our memories and our collective national consciousness. Otherwise the events of Newtown, of Aurora in Colorado, of other mass killings and shootings around the world will happen, be spoken of and spun in the news and the media, will give a bit of spark to lunchtime conversations and the evening discussions in the worship centers, and then fade into the background as other issues such as war, politics, and transportation are put in the spin machine for the mass media.

WE MUST ADVOCATE FOR BANS ON ASSAULT WEAPONS NOW!

Divi Logan, Nashville and Chicago, ©2013.

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Gun Control: Mental Health Issues Cross the Spectrum

24 Monday Dec 2012

Posted by CAPCOM in Background check, Bad habits, Bullying, Campaigns, Chicago, Copycat behavior, Culture, Depression, Despair, Education, Good citizenship, Government, Healthy habits, Illinois, Incident, Indiana, Mass media, Mission Control, News Radio 780, Positive attitude, Public health, Public school, Public service, Social media, State Government, Teachers, Teamwork, Teenagers, United States Military, WBBM Chicago

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Connecticut, Gun control, Houston, Houston Police Department, Mental health, New York, Newtown, Newtown Connecticut, Police, Sandy Hook, United States

GUN CONTROL? WEAPONS OF DESTRUCTION? COME ON FOLKS, CONTROL YOURSELF!

Sandy Hook, Connecticut

Sandy Hook, Connecticut (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the wake of the shootings – most recently of a police officer in Houston, Texas, of four firefighters and a wounded police officer in in West Webster, New York, and of the students in Sandy Hook/ Newtown, Connecticut, there have been talks regarding how best to implement and practice gun control. And just remember this: EVERY WEAPON IS A MEANS OF DESTRUCTION, be the destruction of life, animal, plant, bird, human being. Weapons are MEANT by their very nature to destroy something and in a quick and violent manner.

It would be in gross error to say that one weapon is “not as destructive” or “not as bad” as another, like one gun is less destructive than another. That is rather like saying a “mild” heart attack or a “mild” stroke, and neither one is “mild” in any circumstance. Both those conditions are serious.

Gun control? GUN CONTROL? We must begin a way many steps back than that, begin before the surface issues, begin before the copycat schemes and crimes that have riddled our nation with acts of violence in the past years and so many just in 2012.

The officials and legislators talk about mental health as of the utmost importance in working with the issues of gun control. Mental health is so complex an area of study that it, like the brain that works those faculties and processes, must be carefully considered. Everyday citizens have degrees of mental health, some towards mental illness and some towards what we might call sanity, but everyone experiences those degrees of mental health at one time or another ranging from experiences of euphoria and great dreams to depression and seasonal disorders (SAD).

Regions of the brain affected by PTSD and stress.

Regions of the brain affected by PTSD and stress. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There are others in our nation and around the world because of our policies, that also experience a wide range of mental health issues. Those folks are the personnel of our United States Military branches – the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Marines, and the Coast Guard. Personnel in our first responder branches – firefighters, police officers and SWAT officers, and paramedics no doubt experience the widest range of mental health concerns possible.

The firefighters in West Webster and Rochester, New York, must now begin to pick up the pieces and, if someday possible, fill the holes left by the deaths of their volunteer colleagues. The police chief in those videos announcing the updates on that fire and shooting is visibly shaken when he talks of the friends he lost. We cannot even begin to imagine what the people are feeling in New York, who lost their homes and so much before Christmas, but have their lives to rebuild. Such tragedy… we must wonder what is happening within our nation.

But back to the concerns about our military personnel and the issues of mental health. There are tens of thousands of soldiers who have returned to the United States from violent and hectic tours of overseas duty, and some very young. They will have every range of mental health issues. They have seen people die, have killed people, have used high – powered weapons, grenades, machine guns, and fighter jets. They have seen horrible acts of rape, murder, burning, torture and desecration of bodies.

That would be enough to turn anyone’s gut, who has not had the training those folks have had. But though they are trained to be tough, to carry out those acts of sanctioned violence in the name of “freedom” and democracy, they are affected. They must see blood spilled, hear people screaming, see children scurrying for cover, see homes burning, hear the rocket -propelled grenades and the jets criscrossing the borders, the skies and the mountains and deserts. And they get involved in wrecks where the enemy plants improvised explosive devices that blow up vehicles and cause catastrophic injuries.

NATO personnel are tough, strong, brave, sure – just like military personnel are supposed to be, just like law enforcers are supposed to be. But only the hardest hearted person would not be moved to tears and turn green in the gut at the sight of innocent villagers huddling in bloodstained, burned -out buildings, wondering what the next day will bring. Will the coming hours bring freedom from their oppressors, will the troops harm them, or will they be killed by those who rule their nations, as in Syria?

What happens then when those American personnel come home? Certainly they might look like the same man or woman on the outside, the same Private or Captain who went across the waves on tour. But inside, in the brain and in the faculties, they are not at all the same. They might exhibit many of the habits you as family or friends recalled when they left – eating meals the same way, cooking some things, dressing a certain way, or driving a certain way (provided they have their limbs, their eyes, and their appetites). But their minds are not the same because of the very nature of what they have had to do during deployment.

Official seal of Newtown, Connecticut

Official seal of Newtown, Connecticut (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

These personnel must be watched carefully for signs of PTSD (Post -traumatic Stress Disorder), depression, suppressed anger, and other signs that their minds/brains are in real trouble. They must be encouraged to talk about what they have seen and done, reminding them that it is strength to seek help, not weakness to ask for assistance. It is necessary that they talk about what is bothering them, that they not hide their feelings, and that they shed their toughened boot camp mentality so they can heal.

Another issue to think about would be whether or not the personnel had an honorable or a dishonorable discharge. An honorable discharge might not be so much a concern but someone who is booted out for dishonorable actions needs to be followed in case there were issues that caused their instructors or officers to doubt their effectiveness to serve and thus made the dishonorable discharge necessary. When it comes to background checks, every factor must be considered before a weapon is sold.

Background checks need to be extremely comprehensive, detailed, drawn out to the point of dotting every “i” and crossing every “t”. The potential seller must ask every relevant question and take down the information and share it with law enforcers in the area and at every level of government. If there is even any doubt about selling a weapon the sale must not go through. Weapons also need to be carefully traced from the moment they are sold, or when they turn up missing or stolen. The idea of another “Fast and Furious” must never cross our headlines again.

Collectors also need to be very careful of their possessions. Wherever they keep their guns they need to have detailed records close by, copies kept in case of disaster as well. They must note every possible relevant detail of each firearm/ weapon in their collections, from serial numbers to where they were bought to who sold it to them, if they bought it at a gun show, at a small shop, no matter. If possible, collectors should also have records of people in their area who are felons or who might not be allowed to possess weapons. Lists of national troublemakers should also be kept up with in case someone escapes and might be in the area of the collector, especially if they know the person who might have the guns and thus make them targets of robbery.

Mental health, as said, is a complex concern that runs the gauntlet of everything we do and say. It is not as easy as “self control” or as difficult as diagnosing eating disorders or criminal instincts. It is easy and it is difficult – we can say someone seems depressed or upset or sick, but to what degree? How can we… how can anyone judge the mental health of someone else, considering we all have those degrees of brain health and physical health that make us different? Is there a rule which we can call “normal”? Is there a person that you or I could say is deranged, when we might just be so? For what reasons do we judge others when we do not like to be judged?

We must be very careful, extremely careful, when we discuss mental health. Everyone needs to be heard, to take part in discussions and if possible the studies offered by counselors or hospitals. We are a nation at war within and without ourselves; we are at war around the world and deep within our brains and spirits and souls. For there to be proper discussion there must be a sense of a stable environment from which to begin those discussions, a place of peace and quiet and harmony where we can sit down like civilized people and talk about the issues in an atmosphere of parliamentary procedure and/ or military courtesy.

The more civil and properly prepared the atmosphere of education and discussion is, the better facilitated we will be to hear and be heard, to write the necessary letters, to talk about what bothers us, to confess if we must to our leaders of worship, to talk with our families and kids, with teachers and students, with our beloved and brave first responders, with everyone, with all our fellow citizens.

We are supposed to be a UNITED nation. Let’s start to act that way, and we will all be better for doing so.

Houston Police Department

Houston Police Department (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Condolences to the Houston Police Department, the people of the City of Houston and of Harris County, Texas; the people of West Webster and Rochester and the citizens of New York, and the people of Newtown and Sandy Hook, Connecticut.

Flag of Rochester, New York. Image created by ...

Flag of Rochester, New York. Image created by uploader based on previous SVG image (an auto-traced bitmap) on the English Wikipedia. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Divi Logan, Nashville and Chicago, ©2012.

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Gun Control: What are the Issues?

20 Thursday Dec 2012

Posted by CAPCOM in Bad habits, Campaigns, Chicago, Copycat behavior, Depression, Despair, Education, Good citizenship, Government, Harassment, Illinois, Incident, Mass media, Mission Control, Positive attitude, Public health, Public school, Public service, Schools, Social media, Teachers, Teamwork, United States Military, WBBM Chicago

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Assault weapon, Chicago, Gun control, National Rifle Association, NRA, Right to keep and bear arms, Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, United States

First of all, I pay tribute to the families and victims of the Newtown/Sandy Hook incidents. Good citizens, do all you can to assist these fine people in their hours of need for everything during the holiday season.

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It only takes one – we can begin everything we say and do and think in that way. One step to begin a journey; one person to start a security issue at an airport, or one bullet made to load a high -capacity magazine for an assault weapon.

Evil rimfire

Evil rimfire (Photo credit: simonov)

One manufacturer made one bullet, and then scores of others, skewing the scorecard against people and creatures and raising the monetary bar for themselves. One company made one assault weapon, and then scores of others, weighing the scorecard against living beings and bringing in extra money for that company.

People 0, gun companies billions of $$$$$$$$$$ and bullets. Or in this case this week, people -27, gun control issues…. ad nauseam, we still talk, write laws, bicker with the NRA and with members of Congress. We still mourn, we still watch our young folks get shot down in our streets and stores, and we watch guns go off and kill people at home. We in Chicago get the weekly report of “gun violence” these days on News Radio WBBM, a tally of those killed or wounded in the city by the use of firearms. Many times the victims are teens, in the wrong place at the wrong time, hanging out with gang members or someone who might look like a person a gangster is after. Families are left to cry, to watch, to wonder, to identify the dead and, instead of planning birthdays or graduations or holidays, are planning funerals.

Guns do not kill people, people kill people, the saying goes. Unfortunately, the gun makes the event faster, harder to deal with, painful, extremely violent and disturbing. But of course the Second Amendment gives Americans the right to keep and bear arms… but did our Founding Fathers anticipate the arrival of such extreme weapons as those we deal with today?

An Intratec TEC-DC9 with 32-round magazine; a ...

An Intratec TEC-DC9 with 32-round magazine; a semi-automatic pistol formerly classified as an Assault Weapon under Federal Law. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ammunition -based and shrapnel – containing weapons have been around for centuries, tanks, crude muskets, cannons, blunderbusses, rifles, grenades, land mines and the like. The basic handgun comes in many forms, in use since the days of the American “wild west” and long before, for duels and such.

Militias got along just fine without the use of machine guns… so why do we need these overly -powerful weapons to begin with? What is the need to mow down anyone in that way? War was going on long before the assault weapons and the fighter jets with their high – round capabilities came along. People used slings, stones, swords, spears, pikes, catapults, shields, armor, maces and such.

What will our trusted elected officials do now in the light of what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School? What issues need to be considered and what needs to be set into motion to reduce the chance that such a tragedy will not happen again anywhere in the world? What will we do as the “Fast and Furious” scandal continues, and as people purchase at gun shows and online without much if any criminal or background checking? Who will monitor what goes on?

Who can say at the moment what the answers are? We must hear everyone out, consider all the options, and start to make sense.

Divi Logan, Nashville and Chicago, 2012.

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Education: The USDOE Under the Microscope

04 Tuesday Dec 2012

Posted by CAPCOM in Bad habits, Bullying, Campaigns, Chicago, Culture, Despair, Education, Employment, Excelsior High School, Good citizenship, Government, Grow Your Own Teachers, Illinois, Incident, Investment, Mass media, Mission Control, NASA, Positive attitude, Professionalism, Property Maintenance, Public school, Public service, School board, School uniform, Schools, Science, Social media, State Government, STEM, Taxes, Teachers, Teamwork, Technology, Teenagers, Uniform, United States Military

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Teachers’ strikes, dropouts, standardized test scores as a criteria for judging achievement… funding or underfunding for certain school districts or in certain areas; we are hearing so much related to the education system that it seems a step back and a look from other angles is warranted.

In this case the sooner the better. The education system is experiencing waste of billions of dollars a year and so many hot -button issues that there are obviously flaws, shortcomings and corrupted elements in the system as it now is.

I thought it a challenge to take one of those different angles, one which is skipped around in the news these days in the face of talk of competitiveness, longer school days or more hours added to every day, “learning” goals, test score goals and the like. If the United States education system is of sorts a laboratory to try and get people “standardized”, “normalized”, and put them in the state of losing their individuality and their uniqueness and their special gifts and talents in order to make everyone follow a sort of herd mentality, then I suspect that these failures are part of the grand experiment. There is control and observation in any experiment; there is learning from what goes into the experiment, and then there is how the results are disseminated and whether or not everyone who needs to know the facts is let in on said facts. As observed, the hot -button topics are just that, methods to quickly incite people to strike, to cause other forms of trouble in talking about funding, resources, hazing, bullying, vandalism of campuses, etc. There are part of the problem… and if there is one thing then there is its opposite, there is a solution.

It seemed best to begin at the head, at the top of the mountain, at the crown of the ruling body, naturally, and that is the federal level, the United States Department of Education, and what its goals are. One can gauge a goal from the mission or objective statement, and in this case that of the USDOE is as follows:

(The department’s) mission is to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access. Among its other goals are:

Establishing policies on federal financial aid for education, and distributing as well as monitoring those funds. Collecting data on America‘s schools and disseminating research. Focusing national attention on key educational issues. Prohibiting discrimination and ensuring equal access to education.

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Now perhaps to some these goals are well and good and sound complete enough, promoting achievement, preparing the students for the worldly workplace, fostering excellence and ensuring that everyone has equal access… but to what, we must ask. There can be equal access to the lane of a highway, but those who are using those lanes must cooperate to ensure that safety comes first, that it is all right to merge and that there is nothing going on that blocks one’s clear passage down the road. Thus there can be equal access to any resource that deals with providing students with the proper education: paper, school buildings, proper lunches, energy, water, science equipment, books, school nurses, music instruments, band uniforms, bus transport, sports uniforms, etc.

And what are the “key educational issues” spoken to in the goals of the USDOE? Why also are they talking in language that speaks to past failures, such as adding the words equal access, discrimination, financial aid, monitoring funds? Have we not yet become civilized enough to ensure that such issues can be as everyday as breathing and eating, things that can be taken care of without worry and concern clouding every move someone makes when money is an issue or when the idea of proper funding or the right kind of research is brought to the front?

What are we researching, as well; what sort of data are we collecting and for what purpose are the data being collected? The Census collects data regarding national demographics and then what happens with that data? When you gather information on something, what is the intention for which you do that research? Is it to talk up some sort of “diversity” issue and fund or not fund businesses based on the kind of people they are hiring and what neighborhood they are in and what they sell; is it to use the categories we use to separate people (race, religion, marital status, economics, education level, ethnicity) and then give a company or organization funds based on those divisive aspects?

We talk about preparing students to be “competitive”, but what comes before learning to fight someone or get into competition with somebody? Well, before you can get onto the plane that takes you to the battlefield you first have to learn to work with the people you will be in the same unit with. Take the basics from the classic TV show, “Gomer Pyle, USMC“. Before the recruits have any access to weapons or to battle, they must first learn to be a platoon, to drill properly and in step, and follow the clear commands of the leader. They must learn and practice military courtesy, a requisite for working together in a disciplined, civilzed, and respectful atmosphere. They must learn to dress appropriately, to do things at a certain time in the right time of day or night, and to be in the correct place at the ordained time. The point is the recruits must learn to work together and cooperate first. They tackle the obstacle course, take other training, and play the occasional joke on each other, but in the end they cooperate and become an honor platoon.

In later eposides the recruits learn to spar with the pugil sticks, they learn how to clean and handle their rifles, and they do other things to get them in combat readiness. But this process takes weeks, months, even years to achieve. The marksman’s medals do not come overnight; and neither does a proper education come in a week, even to the most aspiring student. Shakespeare, in the play Henry IV, may have touted the battle -ready Prince Hal as one endowed with the spirit of “teaching and of learning instantly”, but that is in an idealized moment when the prince, who in previous scenes was wanton in his ways, carousing, exploiting his rank and having less interest to the affairs of state than his younger brother, shows on the field in shining armor, his cloak flying, his weapons at the ready, his mind and eye set to victory. It takes years to get to such a level of accomplishment. This cannot be done by over -eager parents and officials gathering around the young children and telling them their life history in a matter of seconds, the “please your teachers, please your parents, get good grades, grow up, go to a great university, pass the tests, and get a job and maybe become president, and start a family and get a home and pay your taxes…”

That’s enough to make even the hardiest soul want to reverse course and go to another part of the battlefield to get another view, and that is what this series of articles is going to be about, that view of our education system that takes a challenge to the talk about competitiveness, business, global this and that, and such, and get to what could be considered the heart, the center, the cornerstone, the foundation of the matter.

This is the goal of preparing students in an atmosphere of teamwork and cooperation, that they may become productive and good citizens. Thus what is needed is to explore what it is to be a good citizen and what the USDOE is or is not doing to foster this essential element of what it means to live in any country and practice the duties that come with being a good citizen. Just as it is the duty of a recruit to learn to drill properly, to listen closely to the commands of the drill instructor, to learn to clean a rifle properly, and to learn the general orders, so it is the duty of every good citizen to learn how to get along with others, to follow the law, to keep up property in orderly appearance, to keep up with community issues and participate in improving one’s city/town/village, and other important aspects of being a proud citizen… a proud participant, that is, in one’s national happenings. It is, simply, having what is known as patriotism, or national pride.

Let us get started with a look at what the aspects or principles of GOOD CITIZENSHIP are. I consider that I and my best friends are good citizens, and we:

Are community -minded and work to improve the areas we live in; Do not use violence against others; Keep up our properties in neat and orderly appearances; Follow the law for the safety of ourselves and others; Do not cause trouble for others; Behave respectfully in public (in transit, while shopping, at worship, dining out, just walking in the park); Keep up with current events in order to stay informed on important issues; Exercising the right to vote; Respect others; Follow the principles of trust, accountability, and decency.

We endeavor to live quiet, humble lives, do our work well/ perform our jobs in a timely and orderly fashion, keep up with national events in order that we know what to discuss when an issue of importance arises or when natural disasters threaten our fellow citizens, and we are concerned for the safety of others, and that we respect others. This means the best of what it is to be ‘civil’ and ‘honorable’ and ‘duty -minded’.

You could also tie these facets of behavior, thought, and action into the principles followed by the folks of NASA’s Mission Control. Good behavior is vital the completion and success of any plan and the satisfaction of the participants. The goals of the Moon Program at the outset were twofold: to put man on the moon AND return him safely back to Earth. Had that second part of the plan been lacking, what would have been the point of the first? There is so much tied into ensuring the goals of our education system are proper and thoughtful, so that no more resources are wasted – no more time, money, hours, paper, energy, diesel fuel, food, anything.

Failure is not acceptable (read Gene Kranz’s book, Failure is not an Option). If we are talking up a system that has more holes than a Swiss cheese, more flaws than the worst – quality diamond, and more ruts than the surface of Mercury, a system that plainly has so many cracks that anyone could fall through them, we need to take a reverse course and go to doing the whole system all over again. After all, it would be rather silly to build the roof before you build the foundation of the house. And even then, it would not make sense to start on the house before the ground is prepared to receive the building materials… and naturally one must make a budget before even one order to the builder’s supply shop is placed.

SOURCES: WEBSITES ACCESSED

1. United States Department of Education. Overview and Mission Statement.  http://www2.ed.gov/about/landing.jhtml. Accessed December 4, 2012. Page 1. 2. An interesting site came up during my research: Citizenship Counts, at http://citizenshipcounts.org/index.php/about/vision-statement/.

Divi Logan for EDUSHIRTS, Nashville and Chicago, ©2012.

Gary, Indiana: Dateline Mission Control for Infrastructure

11 Sunday Nov 2012

Posted by CAPCOM in Advertising, Bad habits, Building Codes, Chicago, Chicago Mayor, City of Gary, Commuter train, Culture, Depression, Despair, Driving, Education, Employment, Freight train, Gary, Gary Indiana, Good citizenship, Government, Indiana, Investment, Mass media, METRA, Mission Control, NASA, News Radio 780, Positive attitude, President Barack Obama, Professionalism, Public school, Public service, Rules of the road, Safe driving, Science, State Government, STEM, Teamwork, Technology, Trains, WBBM Chicago

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I address this to the Mayor of Gary, Indiana and the citizens of that fine city, who have so much to look forward to and work to achieve.

Recently on Chicago’s News Radio 780 WBBM their aired a series of articles regarding the problems the City of Gary is facing regarding revitalizing their communities and their infrastructure, due to racial challenges and stubborn officials and other problems. Well, consider this approach to solving your problems.

It is something Americans invented decades ago, it is Mission Control – now, not the literal way NASA designed and built the rooms in Florida and Texas to deal with missions in space, but the principles behind the concept. The people who designed, built, and tested those components of Mission Control did one important thing – they WORKED TOGETHER.

We did not go to the moon by bickering and touting the special needs of one ethnic group over another, as we do today. We did not build the Space Shuttle by being separate in our goals. We had to have the goal, and work with each other to build and service and test those vehicles for the missions that would launch people into space – that is, launch people off this planet and into the cold voids of space – we had to become a team.

The same challenges face the people of Gary. You have a city to revitalize, a transit system to work on and improve, and the opportunities that will arise from doing all of that. You can make room for new buildings, for high -speed rail systems, for new restaurants and housing units, for new residents and schools and stores. But you cannot do business as usual; you cannot hold to your own stubborn ideals and biases and interests.

Now is not the time to think yourself secure in that kind of isolation. Now is the time to think of teamwork, of achievement, of accomplishment, of cleaning up your streets, of thinking of the other person as you patiently sweep the floor, trim the trees, paint the playground equipment, and lay the bricks.

Now is the time to think deeply about the famous words President Kennedy said as NASA was in its early years and we were thinking of going to the moon. We have to concern ourselves with the essence of the idea of putting a man on the moon and returning him safely back to Earth… for all of us must work to put him there.

We have duties to each other, and we will feel better about ourselves once we wake up to the value of thinking in the Mission Control way. After all, we sent people into space and returned them safely to Earth. Yes we honored them for those fine missions.

But we can honor those who live and work by the very principles that made those missions successful, and we certainly need to honor them. The people of Gary, Indiana can work together and live peacefully together, and it is a fond wish and prayer that they learn to do exactly that.

Divi Logan for EDUSHIRTS, Nashville and Chicago, 2012.

Armstrong Legend Lives On In Us All: Inspiration and Exploration

25 Saturday Aug 2012

Posted by CAPCOM in Astronauts, Chicago, Culture, Education, Experimental Aircraft, Good citizenship, Government, Illinois, Investment, Mission Control, NASA, Positive attitude, Public school, Public service, State Government, STEM, Taxes, Teachers, Teamwork, Technology, X-15

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Apollo 11, Armstrong, aviation, Congressional Space Medal of Honor, Ed White, Gus Grissom, Moon, NASA, Neil Armstrong, Roger Chaffee, science, Space Coast, transportation, travel, United States

On hearing only a few minutes ago that Mercury-era and X-15 Program pilot and astronaut Neil Armstrong had passed, I was struck with only one sentiment: this is a loss of national tragic proportions, indeed a national loss.

Flag of the United States on American astronau...

Flag of the United States on American astronaut Neil Armstrong’s space suit (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Let us not forget the millions of mathematical calculations, the hours of scientific achievement, the weeks and months and years of testing the equipment that would eventually place the great, the legendary, the brave, the courageous Neil Armstrong, among America‘s finest pilots and astronauts, on our Satellite.

We must not let the dream of, the love of, the romance of space exploration and astronomy pass from the halls of our educational institutions. We must not let the hard work and diligence that placed Armstrong and others on the Moon, go to waste when there is so much up and coming, so much potential out there in our young students who want to explore, to do more than remain earth-bound and stare at the stars and planets.

They want to step on those worlds, to gather the data, to touch the dust and rocks as Armstrong and his colleagues did.

As we consider the shock of this loss, let all politicians and officials who read this and who think of Pilot-Astronaut Armstrong, remember that it is the love of learning, the want and need of mankind to explore, to reach out, to yearn to visit other worlds and exotic places, that inspires students to get up, go to school, and spend hours learning, reading, doing those math calculations, the science and the designing.

It is those students who will join NASA, who will work at JPL, who will test spacecraft at Vandenburg and on the Space Coast, and who will join scientists and pilots in other countries in exploration, testing, flying and designing. Those students will do the astronomy, will explore the planets, will document the movements of asteroids, stars, moons, and galaxies. They will chart future courses to the Moon for bases and to Mars as well… provided we never lose sight of how important… how essential it is, that we keep focused on the STEM areas of education.

STEM: Sciences, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics- and when you think about it, what much of our education system relates to and our economy is built on. It is not complicated to consider. It is not “hard” or “difficult” or “complex” or for the “rocket scientists” only. It is for everyone who wants to do what is challenging, what is hard, what will require hours in the lab, late nights in the corridors of learning, and who will wait to see the test results of the latest booster craft, the capsules for space flight, the robotic rockets that will go where Viking, Mariner, and others have visited.

They will have the sense of curiosity that inspired us to send the Curiosity Rover to Mars only this month.

Neil Armstrong, we remember you and we hope others will follow in your flight path.

This article written in memory of Mr. Armstrong, Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee(the crew of Apollo 1), and all who have perished in the name of space exploration.

English: Astronauts (left to right) Gus Grisso...

English: Astronauts (left to right) Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee, pose in front of Launch Complex 34 which is housing their Saturn 1 launch vehicle. The astronauts died ten days later in a fire on the launch pad. Polski: Od lewej: astronauci Gus Grissom, Ed White i Roger Chaffee pozują na tle Kompleksu startowego nr 34 w którym znajduje się ich rakieta nośna Saturn 1. Astronauci zginęli tragicznie 10 dni później w pożarze na stanowisku startowym (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Congressional Space Medal of Honor

Congressional Space Medal of Honor (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Divi Logan for EDUSHIRTS, Nashville and Chicago, 2012.

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