Justmypolitics

Taking away once in a lifetime opportunities

I have never doubted that the educational opportunity that I got as student in North Carolina’s public schools had a major impact on my life. 

I am also positive that removing programs like the Governor’s Schools will harm not only students but also North Carolina.

Perhaps I am lucky to be over sixty and long past the days of worrying about education for my children, but I do have a granddaughter who will be turning three soon,  and I hate to think the educational opportunities that have made North Carolina a great state are drying up before she has her chance.

I never attended one of NC’s Governor’s schools, but I did get the opportunity in 1962-63 to attend a gifted program run by Forsyth County.  I think it made a huge difference in my life.

My mother was raising me as a single mom In Lewisville, NC.  The first year I attended Lewisville School, all twelve grades were housed under one roof.  I did well in school, and my mother who never finished high school drummed into me at an early age that getting a good education was important.

However, it wasn’t until I was chosen in a countywide search to participate in a year-long gifted program that I learned to really believe in myself.   Lewisville in my youth was a very rural spot, and the highlight of our summers was always the two weeks when the ancient activity bus carried us daily for swimming lessons at Tanglewood Park.

The Forsyth gifted program gave me a different summer.  We went everyday for several weeks to the Graylyn  Mansion near Winston-Salem.  That summer I got exposed to some great teachers and very intelligent classmates.  I learned to type, and I figured out that I could hold my own in a room of smart students.

When the next term of school rolled around, my mother arranged the schedule at her beauty shop so that she could drive me 25 minutes each way to Oldtown School where I got to attend the county’s gifted class for my eighth grade year.

I learned a lot that year, but mostly I learned that hard work in school was really worth the effort.  From that gifted class I went on to the McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and eventually to Harvard.

I managed to graduate with honors from Harvard, and I think my mother was pleased that her son was the first of her family that graduated from college.

Arguments could be made that going away to prep school got me into Harvard, but in my heart I know that the year in the gifted program is what flipped the switch for me.  It showed me that learning could be fun and rewarding.  It was a great life lesson.

My careers have been a little unusual.  I ran a cattle operation for ten years after Harvard, and then worked for Apple for nearly twenty years.  Since leaving Apple I have done things as diverse as selling ultra high speed networking and real estate.  Through all the career changes, a love of learning first kindled in that Forsyth County gifted class has kept me successful.

For the last few years, I have also been interviewing potential Harvard students from North Carolina.  I cannot count how many times graduating seniors have mentioned to me the impact that programs at the  Governor’s School  have had on them.

As Apple’s manager for higher education in the Southeast, I once had the opportunity to sit down in one of the rocking chairs in C.D. Spangler’s office when he was President of the UNC system.  I will never forget his passion for providing a low cost, high quality education to university students.  Those high educated students coming out of the UNC system have been critical to North Carolina moving forward.

Mr. Spangler’s belief in the power of education was not any different from my mother’s.   Belief in education has been at the heart of North Carolina’s success.

A lot of people and companies have chosen to locate in North Carolina because of our education system.  Budget cuts which destroy the Governor’s School and weaken NC’s higher education system are a huge step backward for North Carolina.

Speaking out against those cuts is the least that I can do for the state that gave me such a great start in life.  Mother would accept nothing less.

A "Bushian Laboratory"

David Brooks recently published an interesting article, "A Bushian Laboratory."  It ran in the NY Times on September 18 and in the Roanoke Times on September 22.  In the article Mr. Brooks makes the assertion that "compassionate conservatism" is actually "big government conservatism" and that this new George Bush will transform the Gulf Region.  It will be a "a laboratory for the Bushian vision of energetic but not domineering government."

Let me try to understand what part of the government that we've had for the last five years is not domineering.  Just to be clear, domineer means the following, "To rule with insolence or arbitrary sway; to play the master; to be overbearing; to tyrannize; to bluster; to swell with conscious superiority or haughtiness."

Perhaps I've missed the overwhelmingly humble spirit of government in the last few years, but the truth is that this as been anything but a humble period of government.  I think there is little doubt that we have lived through one of the most domineering governments in the recent history of our country that is unless you're well connected enough to be enjoying the influence that you have managed to buy.

This government was certainly energetic in protecting the names of the people on Cheney's secret Energy Task Force.  I wonder if five dollars a gallon gasoline was on the agenda.  Unfortunately we'll never know, but seeing much higher fuel costs is a certainty.

We've used our military superiority to turn most of our allies to at best concerned friends who are seriously wondering what has happened to a dependable participant in the complex arena of world politics.  We redefined torture so that it is permissible.  Then there is always the Patriot Act which helps to soothe away any cares that I might have before I fall asleep at night.  I take great comfort in the thought that the terrorist training ground we've created in Iraq has stretched our military to the point that our all volunteer Army is in danger.  Knowing the National Guard which should be at home with all its equipment has now become an arm of foreign policy keeps me from worrying about regional disasters.

With unbelievable arrogance and changing stories, we continue to try to justify a war that previous presidents from both parties knew was impossible to win.  If government has become energetic, it is appears the most energy is expended in trying to manage reality so they can stay in power and curry favor to those who helped them get in power.

This certainly isn't just a Republican problem, the Democrats are just as guilty.  For years both parties have been "down sizing" government by taking actual government employees off the books and turning their work over to government contractors. Spending continues to rise since there's the same work to be done, but someone also has to make a profit on it.   In order to win that work, companies send enormous sums hiring the very people who ran the organizations which can bestow millions upon millions of dollars on private companies.  It's little wonder that these contracts often follow in the tracks of those government officials.  Government hasn't really gotten smaller or smarter,  it's been outsourced and made far more complex than it needs to be with more people doing the same job for even more money.

The one unarticulated goal that you can guarantee will be achieved is the re-election of incumbents. Beyond that as we have seen, the placing of political cronies in key positions knows no bounds.

In this new energetic government, shouldn't competence be the first order of business.  If that's the case what is Karl Rove, the master of political planning and the destroyer of anyone who dares challenge the administration, doing in charge of the largest federal reconstruction effort ever?  Last I checked there was still an ongoing investigation into Rove's role in the leak of a CIA agent's name.

Then there is whole issue of trusting this government to spend our money wisely in this effort to transform this "disaster zone of urban liberalism" which used to be known as the Gulf Coast.   The natural disaster that the Gulf Coast has faced is unlikely to be fixed when the cronyism of Bush's world combines with the well established cronyism and corruption dating back to the days of Huey Long.

Last I checked the top White House procurement official, David Safavian, had to resign this week due to "repeated false statements to government officials" regarding an investigation into  influence peddling.  I take great comfort that his wife, who may be a very nice and competent lady, is the chief council for the Government Reform committee which reporters are guessing will be in charge of the post Katrina investigation.  Perhaps the Government Reform committee needs to first investigate itself or at least show us how they have reformed government for the better in the last few years.

The problem isn't liberalism or conservatism, Democrat or Republican,  the problem is the lack of passionate belief in government and the mission of government to provide services to the people, whether directly or indirectly.  There are plenty of good contractors out there, just as there are plenty of dedicated government employees.  We just need competent, caring, hard working managers with the power to make things happen for the good of the people who have kept this government going with their hard earned dollars.

Unfortunately neither party seems to be able to govern well for the benefit of the people who are paying their salaries.  The best levees have been erected around the incumbency of our current politicians and the interests of those who got them to power and  who spend ever increasing dollars to keep them in power.

Mr. Brooks did get one thing right, and it's a very big thing.

Our President has yet to resolve, the "contradiction between his compassionate spending policy and his small-government tax policy."  Just to make certain that our future is as bleak as that of a New Orleans' levee, Congress has also shown no fiscal responsibility.

That dual lack of prudence just may just be the biggest disaster of all.