I second this. Much enjoyed, Tracy!

Have you ever read Michelle Alexander's work on the American prison system?

http://www.amazon.com/New-Jim-Crow-Michelle-a/dp/1595586431

Keep up the good work!

-David

Thanx ya kindly.. :D

It occurred to me.. Do you issue warnings to guest authors?? :D

Joshua,

would that be me?

It would indeed.. :D

if a child misbehaves, or a young adult is mentally ill, parents, neighbors and peers don't seem to want to address the problem until someone gets seriously hurt. everyone is too busy minding their own business. then when something bad happens, they look around for someone other than themselves to blame.

I could not possibly agree more with this..

I don't think it's so much minding one's own business as people are afraid to get involved where THEY will become the criminal or the racist or the bad person who made a false accusation.

It's the product of a society more concerned with being politically correct and less concerned with doing what is morally right.

And it's just sad....

Michale

Now THAT statement is going to get me in trouble with Weignatia's Education Secretary, but oh well.. :D

would that be me?

that misinterpreted biblical verse is usually used as an excuse for teachers and parents to use corporal punishment on kids. as a discipline strategy hitting kids is not particularly effective. what that has to do with cops in schools i have no idea. to be honest, i think the tragedy at sandy hook elementary doesn't have much at all to do with education. irrespective of that, Ms. Velasquez's suggestion of investing in the nuts and bolts of education is a good one.

beyond that, i would say the deeper problem is that our public institutions, schools included, have become based on bureaucracy instead of community. i think the push to create more charter schools, irrelevant as it is to the quality of education, has gained a cultural foothold largely because people sense the widespread loss of a sense of community and grasp at any chance to provide that to children who don't have it. more than ever before, our culture isolates people from their neighbors and peers. if a child misbehaves, or a young adult is mentally ill, parents, neighbors and peers don't seem to want to address the problem until someone gets seriously hurt. everyone is too busy minding their own business. then when something bad happens, they look around for someone other than themselves to blame.

~joshua

I can't vouch for its accuracy, but here's the best list of what Obama announced I've found yet (in very easy to understand format). Several of these left me wondering about the details, but it's a really good overview:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/obama-gun-proposals/?hpid=z1

Oh, and I fixed your tag (you're welcome...)

:-)

-CW

1776 all over again...

Michale

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/01/16/list-executive-actions-obama-plans-to-take-as-part-anti-gun-violence-plan/

I really don't have too much of a problem with many of these..

Some are utterly ridiculous... Some are completely useless and will likely do more harm than good..

It's being reported that magazine and rifle restrictions are in the list, but damned if I can find them.

Assuming there is no ban/restriction/confiscation in the works, most of these are not that unreasonable...

Michale....

I don't want to look like an idjut (too late :D) in front of our new guest..

Could ya close that attribute for me?? :D

Danke...

Michale

"Trelane was probably doing things comparable to the mischievous pranks you played when you were a boy."

"As you say, Captain."
-STAR TREK, The Squire Of Gothos

Don't worry, if ya hang around, you get used to it. :D

Michale

I am also constrained to point out that the "misbehavior" that resulted in an afternoon in the Principal's Office or a Saturday at detention was usually tardiness or sticking little girl's pigtails into inkwells.. :D

In the here and now, the "misbehavior" consists of bringing knives and weapons to school, assaults with intent, drugs, etc etc...

In other words, LEO problems.

LEO problems that require an LEO response...

Spare The Rod And Spoil The Child is not only an out-moded concept in the here and now, it creates the kind of life-time criminals that schools are supposed to prevent...

Now THAT statement is going to get me in trouble with Weignatia's Education Secretary, but oh well.. :D

Michale

A very interesting perspective.. It lays out quite logically and rationally some of the pitfalls of having cops in schools.

Being a former cop myself, I honestly don't believe that some of your "pitfalls" are actually pitfalls at all. A trip thru the justice system CAN have the effect of scaring a kid straight..

Doesn't always happen. More often than not it doesn't..

But I submit to you that, if it helps just ONE kid go straight that would have otherwise ended up in jail or dead (Sanford FL shooting) then I would think it's worth it..

Further (and I am sure you and everyone here would agree with me) if it prevents ONE Columbine or ONE Sandy Hook, then the expense, ANY expense, would be worth it...

We've learned too much at too great a cost to our kids to let rhetoric drive our policies.

Amen to THAT...

Increasing school police should be a non-starter when Vice President Biden and others gather to discuss ways to reduce gun violence and improve school safety.

The problem is many of the "solutions" being bandied about are also non-starters..

Most are not only useless, but downright dangerous and will likely bring about the very problems they seek to prevent..

If one steps back away from the issue, ignores the emotionalism and the hysteria, and views things thru the cold light of objectivity, the solution is quite simple..

Unfortunately, it's also completely unpalatable to those with a political agenda.

Again, a very interesting commentary. And welcome to our little corner of the Internet. :D

Michale