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Ethicalego Home Examined thinking improves the quality of life. |
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May 8, 2008 A different solution than bankruptcy for Vallejo. Vallejo City Council finally faced the reality of the need to declare bankruptcy. The fault is not with them or this city manager alone, but from a series of obviously bad policy and monetary decisions over the years.
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May 1, 2008 Obama's critics attack his religion. America and its next president face some challenging issues like a potential recession, inadequate health care, a collapsing housing market, increasing fuel and food prices, declining public schools and two wars going badly. So, why does the national press interest center on the sermons of Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., a retired minister, and not on those national issues of concern? |
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April 25, 2008 Vallejo survey results did not support a tax increase for public safety. Vallejo's 2007 survey results showed that voters would not approve a tax to support public safety. Still, some council members insist that it showed the opposite that voters would have supported the tax.
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April 21, 2007 Proposals for consent-to-search homes are unethical. Oakland California and Washington D.C. officials propose a Consent-to-Search law that allows police searches of homes without a warrant. They have little respect for Americans’ constitutional Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.
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April 14, 2008 Drag racing police officers teaches the wrong lesson. Some teenager drivers compete in drag races on public streets that sometimes cause accidents, injuries and deaths. Police officers competing in drag races with teenagers seem an unlikely solution for this problem. Nevertheless, Vallejo California Police announced they will compete in drag race competition with teenagers at Infineon Raceway.
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April 7, 2008 Rebuild America's financial system on a foundation of ethics. The United States’ financial system self-destructed from greed, incompetence and unethical practices by some banking and investment managers. A failure of this magnitude shows the need for changes. But, who decides what those changes should be?
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Vallejo needs a different public safety policy. Reports during a Vallejo Council meeting revealed the city has not evaluated firefighters in years. This violates the city charter that calls for annual reviews. Clearly, city officials caved in to firefighters demands the city should not evaluate them without first negotiating work standards. What part of the employer/employee work relationship do city officials and firefighters not understand?
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March 24, 2008 Obama's speech proved what it disclaimed. Sen. Barack Obama presented himself as a presidential candidate without racial identity and loyalty. This self-characterization riled some old guard civil rights leaders, political commentators and hidden racists. They refused to allow his escape from a racial identity, because this idea of humanness absent race may undermine the foundations of America's race-based society. They had to take him down.
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March 17, 2008 We need a better way to evaluate presidential candidates. Voters often decide presidential candidates’ qualifications by how well they do during televised debates. This is unfortunate. Debates are entertaining, but they do not show candidates qualifications for President.
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March 10, 2008 Change expectations to reduce imprisonment rates. The United States of America imprisons one of every hundred adults according to a Pew Center report. This 2.3 million is the highest incarceration rate of any nation in the world, in numbers and as a percentage of the population. China and Russia are next highest.
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March 3, 2008 Voters are responsible for City of Vallejo insolvency.
The light many Vallejo, California residents fantasized was opportunity approaching the city was instead the train of financial disaster rushing at them. Vallejo’s money problems should not surprise anybody who paid attention to how it conducted business. The nation’s economic downturn hastened this condition, but poor decisions by Vallejo voters made this result inevitable.
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February 25, 2008 Racial stereotype as offensive as hanging of noose. Someone hung a noose from a freeway overpass in Vallejo, California. Then, Vacaville residents found flyers promoting white supremacy spread in their neighborhoods. My response is, “So what?” This only means that some powerless people are trying to cause a reaction from society to feel a momentary sense of importance.
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February 18, 2008 The press denies Obama the right to a self-image. Barack Obama believed he had the vision and leadership qualifications to help America heal its economic and social ills. So, he announced his candidacy for president of the United States. He only declared himself a Democrat political candidate.
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February 11, 2008 Presidential candidates health plans are flawed.
Senator Clinton admits that her proposed health plan will force people to buy health insurance and the government will take money from their wages to pay for it. Government officials will decide how much those wage earners can afford to pay.
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February 4, 2008 Berkeley council wrongly attacks U.S. Marine recruiters. The city council of Berkeley California approved a resolution that showed their disapproval of the U.S. Marine Corp recruiting station there. It directed a letter to the Marines saying they are “uninvited and unwelcome intruders” in Berkeley. They were unpatriotic and lacking in common sense.
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January 28, 2008 Social problems grow as government officials ignore them. American society does not learn from past mistakes that it is better to solve social problems at the beginning when they are small and easier to manage. Instead, government officials and community leaders seem unable to recognize there is a growing problem when at first it affects only the welfare of groups not valued highly in society.
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January 21, 2008 Martin L. King's dream was the people's instruction to their political leaders. Martin Luther King made his “I Have a Dream” speech forty years ago. Still, many Americans are confused about his goals and those of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. A recent controversy over the King legacy between some Democrat presidential candidates show that many Americans probably share this confusion.
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January 14, 2008 Vallejo’s contested mayoral election stumbles to conclusion. Gary Cloutier filed legal papers in Solano Superior Court to contest the results of the recount of votes for mayor of Vallejo. His lawsuit opens the fourth act of an election process to elect a mayor that only should have been a three-act drama.
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January 8, 2008 Experience for presidential candidates is overrated. Presidential candidate Senator Hilary Clinton claims experience is her strongest leadership trait over other Democrat presidential candidates like Barrack Obama. On the Republican side, Senator John Mr. McCain boasts experience over candidates like ex-Gov. Mitt Romney. Voters should reject them as viable candidates if experience is the highlight of their résumé.
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December 31, 2007 National ID is a threat to liberty. This is the last day of year 2007 and the last day for Americans' privacy and democratic freedoms. Starting in year 2008 the federal REAL ID Act of 2005 requires states to issue federally approved drivers’ licenses and personal identification cards. This requirement is a form of a National ID for Americans and everybody living here legally.
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December 24, 2007 Group labels minimizes the homeless problem. This is the holiday season of goodwill, gift-giving, and family togetherness that characterizes American culture. Exchanging gifts is fun and harmless. However, the best gift we can give to others is to recognize them as individuals.
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December 17, 2007 Vallejo’s recount results exposed elected officials' questionable fairness standards. City of Vallejo California was in the national spotlight, because its mayoral election resulted in a tie on election night. For a time, Vallejo residents seemed fortunate to have two high quality candidates contesting for the position. Both of them showed class and strong leadership qualities as they waited final election results. Then, the pressure cracked the façade of pretended leadership qualities of one candidate and three other elected officials.
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December 10, 2007 Baggy pants laws may do some good Pine Lawn, Mo joined cities that ban baggy, low-slung pants. Low-slung pants often slip down and expose the young male’s underwear or the body parts underwear should cover. This undignified style disgusts many people although the young males who wear it believe it makes them special.
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December 3, 2007 Losing control of ferryboat operation not so bad. City of Vallejo will contract with lobbyists to promote its financial interests as the California Legislature completes laws to seize control of Vallejo’s ferryboat system. The lobbyists will cost the city $100,000. This means that Vallejo residents are hiring a private contractor to represent their interest to state legislators they elected to represent their interests.
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November 26, 2007 Academic achievement gap is a symptom of a problem. People refer to an “academic achievement gap” in public schools as if it is something with physical properties like a gulch or steep hill blocking the path to knowledge. Instead, it is an abstract term someone invented to explain how race, ethnicity and class affect American students’ school experience. Another term like the “barrier to equal academic opportunity” describes this experience as well or better.
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November 19, 2007 Control over government is slipping away.
Vallejo residents show us much about their commitment to ideas of self-government when they persistently vote for candidates selected by public employee unions. They ignore how they destroy their powers of self-government when they allow employee unions and corporations to influence the political process this way.
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November 12, 2007 Censoring Words has bad results. I learned last month that students, teachers and others in Vallejo City Unified School District could not access my website www.ethicalego.com. Vallejo School District uses a web filtering service that blocks my website and assigns an “R” rating for the use of adult language.
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November 5, 2007 Questionable ethics of public safety employees' campaign flyer. Two weeks ago, I reported that a political flyer from Vallejo Firefighter and police associations violated California law. It pictured uniformed police officers and firefighters supporting political candidates. I presumed the public safety associations and their supported candidates did not know about the law when they violated it.
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October 29, 2007 Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas still looking for acceptance. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas claims his 1970 Yale law degree was worth only 15-cent. He wrote, “I learned the hard way that a law degree from Yale meant one thing for white graduates and another for blacks, no matter how much any one denied it. I'd graduated from one of America's top law schools, but racial preference had robbed my achievement of its true value."
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October 22, 2007 Campaign tactics show candidates leadership traits. Vallejo residents need to elect new political leaders because the term for some officeholders is over. They need to consider candidates’ overall qualifications and not just their specialty in one area. Ethical standards, critical reasoning ability, accounting knowledge and political skills are some leadership traits voters should consider.
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October 15, 2007 Solano Coalition for Better Health seeks race-based health solutions. The Solano Coalition for Better Health started a program called the African-American Disparities Elimination Project. Helping people gain better health is a noble goal. However, doing it with a racially segregated program is unacceptable and too high a price for the service.
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October 8, 2007 The Jena racial conflict has more than one side. The news and entertainment media often present a slanted version of the racism-fueled controversy in Jena Louisiana. I was especially appalled by how the Dr. Phil television show presentation this racial conflict. He presented himself as an unbiased moderator seeking harmony between racial groups. The show’s perspective did not impress me as neutral.
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October 1, 2007 Vallejo Students' have First Amendment Rights. Vallejo City Unified School District (VCUSD) managers adopted a defensive, combative attitude toward community members’ who report or comment about school district problems. Most recently, they chastised students attending Vallejo High School for reporting facilities’ problems. Their comments to students were unjustified, unacceptable, and possibly unlawful.
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September 24, 2007 The missing human element in U.S. Middle East Policy The more President Bush and top military commanders speak in support of the Iraq war the less credible their arguments. Their action in Iraq contradict their statements the United States is in Iraq to protect democracy and freedom. |
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September 17, 2007 A rebuttal should include facts and exclude attacks against character. Good government requires citizens' involvement at more than the superficial level. It was refreshing when Mr. William Innes, a teacher in Vallejo City Unified School District (VCUSD), reported a faulty school district hiring practice. He claimed a candidate for vice principal made it through the hiring screening process without the credentials required for the position.
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September 10, 2007 Select candidates for reasoning skills and principles. Here we are in the middle of another election campaign. I often wonder what foundation voters use to select a candidate. It would help if they understood the function of the political office they are trying to fill. The failure of government at the local, state and national level show we haven’t done a very good job selecting people for office.
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September 2, 2007 Do not kill the surviving victims of dog fighting schemes. The rescuers moved swiftly against the alleged wrongdoer publicly lamenting his actions. Then, having created public damnation for the wrongdoer’s killings, the rescuers proposed killing the surviving victims as no longer useful. They, no longer needed them as sentimental symbols to support their cause. [Read more]
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August 27, 2007 Multiculturalists worked hard inculcating ideas of separate black and white racial cultures. Now, with increasing frequency they report some bogus study that supports a finding that people labeled black are innately different and not American. This past week I read reports of three studies in local and national newspaper that used this tactic. [Read more.....]
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August 20, 2007 Government officials rule violations are harmful too. Too many Americans in position of authority routinely violate the policy and rules they vow to enforce for the community. Sometimes it seems as if their oath of office contains a virus that destroys their integrity. Often, they violate law and rules with impunity, because the law protects them from personal accountability. Nevertheless, they destroy the integrity of the community’s set of rules. [ Read more......]
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August 13, 2007 Ending urban violence requires more than a block party. Across the nation, people organize block parties and other events to take back their streets from violence. This approach implies that past action or inaction by residents in those neighborhoods helped crime flourish there. This approach isolates certain neighborhoods as islands of crime where only its residents are responsible for ending it. [Read more.........] |
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August 6, 2007 It is time to use different diplomatic methods. Front-running presidential candidates often commit a gaffe that seriously damages their chance for winning office. Presidential candidate Senator Clinton tried to create one for Senator Obama. Answering a question second, she framed her answer as an attack that seemingly pointed out errors in Obama’s answer about foreign relations protocol. [Read more........]
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July 30, 2007 Vallejo School District failed the California API target. California applies a standard, the high school exit examination, to judge if students' academic growth qualifies them for a diploma. It has Academic Performance Index (API) targets to judge schools' performance and growth in ability to educate students. School boards refuse to grant diplomas to students that fail the exit examination. However, in Vallejo they praise district administrators who did not meet growth targets. [Read more....]
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July 23, 2007 The nature of change in baseball. Baseball players labeled black were 27 percent of Major League Baseball (MLB) players in 1974 and 9 percent now. I thought this trivia when I read it a few years ago. However, other people believe it statistical proof that players in MLB labeled black are disappearing from the league. They see this as a problem that needs fixing. [Read more....]
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July 16, 2007 It never fails that a political leader or a prominent person’s misconduct creates questions about the American ethics. Some public figures claim they are accountable only for public conduct and immunity from public scrutiny of private conduct. [Read more]
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July 9, 2009 Supreme Court ruled against race-based school admissions. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 28, 2007 that public schools may not rely on racial classifications to make school assignments even for racial balance. The Court claims that it based this decision on the previous Brown v. Board of Education decision and Fourteenth Amendment protections. [Read more....]
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July 2, 2007 Choosing the right foreign policy is crucial to our future. The next president’s foreign policy probably will decide if the United States’ survives as a believable force in international affairs. Therefore, Americans must choose their next president carefully. The long 2008 presidential campaign gives voters the opportunity to examine candidates’ credentials. [Read more...]
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June 25, 2007 Our Iraq policy gets more confusing. United States’ policy in Iraq is more confused with each change in strategy. Preventing civil war in Iraq was President Bush’s prime goal. It committed the United States to support Iraq’s democratically elected, central government. [Read more..]
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June 11, 2007 Repeating a racial label does not change its meaning. Schoolteacher Elizabeth Kandrac claimed Charleston School District officials created a racially hostile work environment when it allowed African-American students’ to direct racist remarks to her. A jury and federal judge agreed ignoring the true cause of this corrosive school environment. Read more...............
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June 4, 2007 Racism in the U.S. hidden in the open. American society eased the intense attack against racism in the 1970s believing overt racism was over or not caring if some remained. Prematurely ending the direct attack allowed racism to survive and to reinsert itself more powerfully hidden in the open. Read more......
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May 27, 2007 Democracy requires citizens' concern for others. Save women and children first was the order when a fire, flood, ship sinking or other disaster happened. The supporting idea was twofold. One was that men were stronger and better able to survive the emergency. The other was that women and children represented the future and potential to revitalize a family, a nation or a culture after a disaster. Read more....... |
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May 21, 2007 VCUSD’s budget decision to end school bus transportation is unfair.
State Administrator Richard Damelio canceled daily
school bus service for high school students to help balance Vallejo City
Unified School District’s (VCUSD) budget. This was a decision of
questionable fairness.
The Legislature states a policy in the California’s Education Code that affords equal rights and opportunities for all people in public schools. It prohibits school policy contrary to this state policy. Read more.....
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May 14, 2007 Council members and city manager are not miracle workers. Vallejo City Manager Joe Tanner is trying to wrest control of city operations from public employee union bosses and restore it to the council and city manager’s office where it belongs. It’s a fundamental change Vallejo must make if it is to have any chance of a future as a prosperous city. This means the city council and city manager must exercise final decision making power over budgets and city operations in the public safety services area and not public safety labor union bosses. Read more......
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May 07, 2007
Squabbling between government officials bad for national security. Public officials in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Austin, San Diego, Oakland, San Jose, Houston and others proclaimed their city a place of refuge or sanctuary from Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE). This means they will not help in ICE raids and city employees have orders not to report immigration law violators. Read More....
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April 30, 2007 They use the generalized racial stereotype to justify discrimination. Recently Major League Baseball (MLB) celebrated Jackie Robinson day to honor the man who desegregated the league sixty years ago as a player. It was a fitting to honor the man, but hypocritical for the league and society. Major League Baseball used the social idea of the generalized racial stereotype to desegregate MLB. Jackie Robinson was the model for their generalized stereotype for Black American baseball players. Read more.....
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April 23, 2007 Slander is not just an unfortunate remark. Don Imus, a nationally famed radio broadcaster, falsely and intentionally maligned the reputation of the ten members of Rutgers University women’s basketball team. He called them nappy head Hos (whores). The resulting discussion in the news media should have centered on his disregard for decency standards. Instead, it mostly became an indictment of Black Americans for some vulgarities in Black Entertainment Television (BET) programming and complaints about reverse racism. Read more......
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April 16, 2007
Americans do not have the habit of serious dialog. Newt Gingrich talked about the problem of significant discussion during his March 21, 2007 speech at the Independent Woman’s Forum. He said our political system is incapable of serious conversation. We have no habit in America of serious dialog or serious citizenship. I agree this has been a problem in America for a long time. Read more............
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April 9, 2007 Show the reasoning that supports a decisions. Americans often make bad choices for political leaders and those leaders make bad decisions. It is troublesome how often they fail to offer the reasoning that supports their action. Read more...........
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April 2, 2007 Making the case for neighborhood schools. State Administrator Damelio’s plan to close Lincoln Elementary School awakened some Vallejoans to the reality they have no elected school board that protects their interests. One writer complained that Damelio uses school board members like his lapdogs. Vallejo's school board members are powerless advisers to Damelio’s authority. However, Vallejoans and their school board created this situation. Read more.......
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March 26, 2007 Two hats are too many for classroom teachers. For decades, public schools slowly took on parental duties for students. Now they make it official by assigning teachers mommy and daddy training. Vallejo School District (VCUSD) names a current form of this training the Second Step. The Committee for Children organization sells programs that teach social and emotional skills for violence prevention. Read more........
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March 19, 29007 Good reasons to continue deporting illegal immigrants. Guatemala President Oscar Berger and Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s should not criticize President Bush for deporting illegal immigrants. Instead, they should apologize to the United States for their nations’ unequal economic and social policies that motivate their citizens to crash U.S. borders violating our laws. In turn, Bush should apologize to them for U.S. ill-advised drug laws that create drug trafficking problems for them. Read more........
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March 12, 2007 “First black president” label has different meanings. The news media refers to a “black vote” as one that will split itself between only two of the many presidential candidates in the primaries. They presume that Senator Hilary Clinton must naturally inherit most of those votes as the wife of former President Clinton whom those black folk loved. They did name him the “first black president” didn’t they? Read more......
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March 5, 2007 New immigration does affect wages. The Public Policy Institute of California issued a report of a study that shows no evidence that the influx of immigrants over four decades worsened the employment opportunities of native born workers with similar education and experience. This finding seemed country to common sense when I read about it in the newspaper. I remain unconvinced after reading the survey report. Read More ....
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26, 2007 African proverbs tell about American culture. Until the lion has its own storyteller, the hunter will always have the best part of the story," is one of many African proverbs in this article. Black History is the lion's story about American culture. Nevertheless, too many people fixate on the feel good parts and they miss the lessons that can help make a better more secure future. "I pointed out to you the stars and all you saw was the tip of my finger." Read more....
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February 19, 2007 The news media should challenge all presidential candidates equally. Many people already declared their candidacy for the 2008 presidential election. Now, the national news media must provide Americans the relevant facts they need to choose the best one for president. This is a purpose of a free press. However, many in the news media act as if it is their job to point out that candidate Barack Obama is black as often as possible. Read More........
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February 12, 2007 California's academic achievement gap misstated. California Superintendent of Schools Jack O'Connell addressed the issue of an academic achievement gap between racial and ethnic groups in his 2007 state of education speech. His raced-based perspective on the issue confuses and complicates the problem. When the government reports an achievement gap based on race and ethnicity, it defines those traits as shaping learning ability. Read more.....
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February 5, 2007 People's history is not their heritage. KQED, the northern California public broadcasting station, sponsors a Bay Area Black History Month Local Hero Awards ceremony. It honors six "African-Americans" for their contributions to the community in tribute to Black History Month. This KQED policy is an example of thinking that does not get what Black History is about, or what it should be about. Read more.....
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January 29, 2007 Laws based on bad science are bad. Government can provide information to citizens they need to decide diet and health issues. However, it makes a poor parent trying to limit people's choices by law. Government officials do not have better insight about life's decisions than their constituents. Read More....
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| January 22,
2007 Americans should not support contradicted war logic. Most Americans supported President Bush's invasion of Iraq at first. They were firm and unquestioning in their support and some of them questioned the national loyalty of those of us who disagreed with it. Now many of them retreat from their former position in confusion, but still not totally opposed to the president's goals. Read more....
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January 15, 2007 Martin Luther King worked for national unity. Martin Luther King Day celebrates America's progress toward the goal of one people unified in democracy. This holiday is a good time to examine national goals for unity that extend back more than 200 years. Read more....
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January 8, 2007 Political parties threaten American democracy. Voters gave Democrats control of Congress because they disapproved Republican hubris and ethical lapses and not because they have great confidence in Democrats' leadership ability. The Democrats should have learned from Republican losses that voters were fed up with partisanship and secrecy in government. The Democrats said they had learned and Democrat candidates even promised voters they would restore bipartisanship and openness in government if elected control of Congress. Read More.....
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| January
1, 2007
A good New Year's resolution for everybody is to look for alternative conclusions about facts than the ones they considered. Too many people jump to a conclusion about issues without considering alternative points of view. Others fall into the trap of considering only the two alternatives presented in either/or arguments. Read more....
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December 25, 2005 Happy Holidays a greeting or a deception? There has been a strong movement in recent years to replace the "Merry Christmas!" greeting with "Happy Holiday." Supposedly, the "Happy Holiday" greeting promotes ideas of respect and acceptance for different religions. Instead, it continues the American cultural tendency to address controversial issues with self-deceptive slogans and misdirection to avoid socially responsible action. Read More ......
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December 18, 2006 The Dea is reading your drug prescriptions. Diverting prescription drugs to other uses is a problem in the United States. However, Federal and state Drug Enforcement Agencies (DEA) try to prevent this diversion with a Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) that creates more victims of a different type. They violate the privacy and constitutionally protected rights of millions of innocent Americans in order to detect a few prescription drug violations. Read more...
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December 11, 2006 People who use racial slurs reveal low self-worth. Comic Michael Richards' racially charged comments provided Americans a chance to discuss race relations honestly. Instead, they talked about uses of the forbidden n-word and the appropriateness of apologies. Even this limited discussion was dishonest, because mainstream print and television media standards require the use of the "n-word" euphemism for the word "nigger". Read more.....
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December 4, 2006 U.S. troops have no credible mission in Iraq. President Bush continues to talk about Iraq from a belief that denies the reality of the situation. He said before meeting with Iraq Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki "We’ll continue to be flexible, and we will make the changes necessary to succeed. But there’s one thing I’m not going to do: I’m not going to pull the troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete." Read more........
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November 27, 2006 Vallejo's labor agreements must be ethical and legal. Public employee unions always outmaneuver City of Vallejo officials in contract discussions and labor disputes. Now public employees unions have the advantage and dictate the terms of labor agreements, because poor decisions by City of Vallejo officials compromised the city’s position of authority as employer. Read more........
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November 22, 2006 Government Officials should presume speech is protection. Having the freedom of expression is one of the greatest benefits of living in America. The Constitution guarantees this freedom as a First Amendment Right. All humans need freedom to express their thoughts and emotions. They can do this with words, art, dance, music or other creative ways. A culture is healthiest when its members support freedom of expression. Nevertheless, some Americans and some government officials do not understand the full meaning of free speech. Read more....
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November 13, 2006 The NAACP confuses the same gender marriage issue. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) honored Julian Bond at its 10th Annual Miami Recognition Dinner. Bond is the Chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). I see this as part of their strategy to bring homosexual rights to marry under the umbrella of civil rights laws against racial discrimination. Read More.......
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November 4, 2006 Race based Political polls mislead the public. News articles report the results of an Associated Press-AOL Black Voices poll about the upcoming election. It is commonplace for pollsters to present political issues from a pale-skinned (white) or black-skinned (dark brown) perspective. However, I see no purpose for this type poll except to continue the idea that skin color decides Americans’ political and economic interests. Read more.......... |
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October 30, 2006 Vote to protect the Constitution Many Americans seem confused about the principles of a constitutional based representative government. Increasingly, they look to the Constitution as the means to promote their special interests and not as a foundation for a system of laws that protect human rights. Many political leaders or aspiring political leaders seek political office to advance their interests and not to serve as the people’s representative. Read more....
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October 23, 2006 Proposition 90 protects owners’ property rights. State and local governments use their powers of eminent domain to force property owners to sell their property to other private parties. Some private property rights protection groups placed Proposition 90 on the California ballot to stop this practice. Opponent groups argue Proposition 90’s protections are too broad and they threaten local governments’ with huge potential money costs. Read more.....
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October 9, 2006 Don’t support bad schools with parcel tax money Proposition 88 on the November ballot is the Educational Funding Real Property Tax Initiative. It asks California residents to pass a state wide parcel tax. It requires every residential and business property owner to pay a $50 tax each year for each lot they own. This tax adds to the hundreds or thousands of dollars of yearly taxes they pay now on accessed property value to their city and county. Read more.......
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October 9, 2006 Get-out-the-vote gimmicks corrupt democracy. Gambling spread from private clubs, to boats, large casinos, Indian reservations and the internet. Mark Osterloh placed a Reform Initiative on the Arizona ballot to enter residents automatically into a lottery if they vote. The winner would receive $1 million. Read more......
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October 2, 2006
Military Commissions Act 2006 violates American moral principles. It is a sad day for Americans when the President and the Congress debate the issue of torture and neither side is morally against it. In addition, the House of Representatives passed the Military Commissions Act 2006 with shameful human rights violations. The Senate is likely to pass it soon. Read more.....
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September 25, 2006 Ignorance continues after the apology. California Governor Schwarzenegger assigns special behavior or temperament to people he labels black and Latino. He believes they pass on those traits by blood to other groups they mate with. He said in a recorded conversation, "I mean Cuban, Puerto-Rican, they are all very hot. They have the, you know, part of the black blood in them and part of the Latino blood in them that together makes it." Read more....
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September 18, 2006 More accounting problems in Vallejo School District. Vallejo City Unified School District made another big error in reporting its finances. State Administrator Richard Damelio submitted a budget with a $3.7 million reserve. Now he reports an accounting error that reduces the reserve to $100,000. Sadly, this news seems to repeat what happened in the finance department under former Superintendent Gladys Phillips-Evans. Read more.....
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September 11, 2006 Another 9/11 anniversary without satisfying retribution Today is the fifth year since terrorists attacked the United States by crashing commercial airplanes into buildings. The attack shocked and left us feeling vulnerable. President Bush retaliated with military force. Nevertheless, following events deny us that sense of finality that our action adequately punished or dispersed al-Qaeda. Read More....
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September 4, 2006 Derogatory ethnic remarks are common. Andrew Young, a former Atlanta mayor and U.N. ambassador, joined other public figures charged with making derogatory racial or ethnic remarks. Read more....
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August 28, 2006 There is a better way to improve schools than STAR. California 2006 Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program shows how badly public schools failed national and state educational goals. Those goals represent minimum education standards the United States must keep to remain an economic and military superpower. Still, school officials report obvious signs of school failure as a credit. Read more .....
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August 21, 2006 Domestic government support for religion undermines war effort. The U.S. invaded Iraq and removed Saddam Hussein’s secular control over government. Then, U.S. occupation policies installed or allowed a new government alignment and authority based on religious identity. The result has been mistrust and vicious sectarian violence. This happens when a nation mixes religious expression with government authority. Read more...
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August 14, 2006 U.S. should not repeat mistakes in Cuba. The United States Government announced plans to interfere in Cuba’s transfer of power when it heard that its leader Fidel Castro had serious health problems. President Bush’s administration says it intends to encourage a change from communism to democracy. They never learn. Read more...
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August 7, 2006 A dangerous book on race relations. Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, a self described black conservative, wrote a book about "How the Black Leadership Exploits Black America." Many prominent Black American and White American talk show hosts and newspaper columnists praise this book. It is a book that will harm race relations in America. Read more....
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July 31, 2006 President Bush was at the NAACP convention in body but not spirit. President Bush attended a National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s (NAACP) annual convention after refusing their invitation for five years. He should have skipped this convention too, because his patronizing speech degraded the Civil Rights Movement and Office of the President. Read More...
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July 24, 2006 Peacemakers should not take sides. Many people assume the United States is the only nation or force that can solve international crisis. They state this as a fact and not as an opinion open to question. President Bush and his supporters advanced this idea and decided this power imposes a moral duty for the United States to act as the world’s police force, jury, and moral authority. Read more. . . .
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July 17, 2006 Seeds for racial Prejudice Solano County District Attorney Dave Paulson decided that former Vallejo School District Superintendent Gladys Phillips-Evans did nothing criminal. This report in the Vallejo Times Herald was disturbing. Read more. . .
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July 10, 2006 Don't justify official misconduct. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that public bodies may limit employees’ comments about their official duties. Vallejo Unified School District policy says that only the School Board President, the Superintendent and media relations staff person may act as spokespersons for the district. Nevertheless, twelve department chairs at Vallejo High School defied this policy and made a combined public statement about the district’s truancy policy. Read more ......
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July 3, 2006 Freedom — not the flag — needs protecting. The Congress allowed the nation a valuable Independence Day gift when it did not pass the constitutional amendment to ban flag desecration. The gift was more a failure to take something away by encroaching on free speech rights than giving something new. Read more.....
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June 26, 2006 Measure A spending may be legal but not ethical. Voters pass tax and bond measures that direct how public officials must spend the money. Still, those public officials find ways around spending limits no matter how tightly taxpayers write bond issues. This makes voters reluctant to approve future tax and bond initiatives because of this betrayal of their trust. Read more.....
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June 19, 2006 Remember Juneteenth, but celebrate Black Americans’ combat victories for freedom. Today is the anniversary of the day Union Soldiers told slaves in Texas they were free. This must have been a time of unimaginable joy. Some people celebrate this event as Juneteenth a Black American celebration. Read More...
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June 12, 2006
National conduct shows respect or disrespect for democratic values. Many Americans criticize the sectarian violence in Iraq and its slowness to form a government based on democratic principles. They compare Iraq’s efforts to form a stable democratic government with how America's founders did it. However, few Americans understand their history well enough to make a fair comparison. Read more...
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June 5, 2006 Repeated bad behavior at Vallejo High shows a pattern. Sometimes government rules seem too bothersome to follow until you deal with a government official who feels the same way. Some Vallejo High School students learned how confusing and unfair life can be when their principal decided to enforce his rules for truancy instead of complying with the rules outlined in the California Education Code. Read More
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May 29, 2006 Measure H tax money not guaranteed to cities. The proposed Measure H ordinance requires all county residents to pay an added half-cent sales tax. However, it does not guarantee that any of the local agencies will receive a dime of the tax for local street repair. The measure deals out $625 million for Highway Corridor Improvements without limits. It requires a co-payment each year for the eight local agencies to qualify for a share of the $315 million to Repair Local Streets and Roads. Read more
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May 22, 2006 Waiving Exit exam harms all students' future. Many states require high school seniors to pass an exit exam to receive a diploma. Some students fail the exam and sue the state to exempt them from the exam requirements and to issue them a diploma. Judges should dismiss those lawsuits because they ask for a cure the court cannot grant even if students prove discrimination. The court is responsible in civil court to cure a plaintiff’s damages by returning them to the previous state if possible. Otherwise, it should compensate them in other ways. Read more. ----------------------------------- |
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May 15, 2006 Drug free zones don't work. Those special drug free zones are a futile attempt to prevent drug abuse using more of the same failed methods that are not working. Nationwide prohibition is not working. So, lawmakers and community activists create drug free zones where they already outlawed drug use and sales. Illogically, they expect more prohibition to work. Read More ---------------------------------------------------------
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May 8, 2006 Family environment most important for children Advocates for the modern child rearing methods would brand my mother a child abuser. She used physical punishment for discipline when our conduct defied family rules of conduct. No matter expert’s claim, Mom’s child rearing practices produced responsible, self-disciplined sons who loved her. Read more
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May 1, 2006 Emphasize the mostly positive conduct of minority groups. Some people clamor for social improvement, but they are also the ones who rigidly hold on to old ideas about social order. Some social scientist, college professors and social advocates met recently at a University of Pennsylvania conference to discuss the worsening plight of young black men. However, some comments reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer show they still cling to old presumptions about this social condition. Read More ------------------------- |
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April 24, 2004 States abuse Leave no Child Behind law. The “Leave No Child Behind” law imposes special conditions that require schools to improve minority students’ academic achievement or face penalty. Like most race-based laws this one most likely will fail this goal. Some states already violate parts of the law that require them to | ||