Can we make Obama Do It?
The economic crisis is the producer of social unrest. (Pssst, listen this goes back to old Karl Marx. Still holding true.) Things get bad enough, people get mad enough and take to the streets. That's how the French Revolution got going. The starving masses demanded bread. The Queen made famous with “Let em eat cake.”
I am surprised by the number of Tea Party people whose response to the Occupy Wall Street is “why don’t go look for a job.” Wow it’s just like the 1930s Depression. Back then, lead by the Hearst newspapers, forerunner of the Mordoch, Fox News Empire were busy with the same cry. “Why don’t those people marching on Washington go look for a job.” The unemployment rate right now is trumpeting “THERE AIN’T NO JOBS, STUPID.
With the A.W.S. Spreading around the world the social unrest is beginning to have an impact. In Europe the Eurozone leaders are working desperately to come up with some kind of solutions that they are hoping will slow down the Social Unrest Movement. Difference between the USA and Europe is the presents of strong Socialist and Communist parties that scare the bejesus out of the ruling capitalists. Unfortunately we have neither of them in the good old USA. That’s to bad. An organized left in the US would be very helpful in scaring concessions out of the ruling class.
I believe the A.W.S. movement, if one can call it that, is having an effect on President Obama. Yes, I know I can hear some of my friends saying, “Schrank, that’s just wishful thinking.” Well, maybe. Yet I see a real effect, for instance in Obama’s move on the Jobs Bill. When the GOP blocked in the Senate the Dems broke it up into pieces forcing the GOP to vote against any measure that in any way looks like a victory for the President. As I write the GOP leaders seem to be agreeing to some elements of the jobs Bill. Effect of social unrest? Maybe.
On Student Loans Obama, without going to the Congress found a way to make administrative changes that will be helpful to those trying to payoff the loans.. Good, Mr. President. Find ways to do more of that. Maybe he has finally learned. That reaching across the aisle just gets his hand slapped? A real test will be the upcoming deal between the GOP and the Dems.on the Super Committee for reducing the deficit. If they don’t agree there will be draconian cuts across the board. The Super Committee was a very dumb idea that never should have been agreed to in the first place. Once the Comm. gets going you know who will be whacked the hardest? Rumor has it that the Dems on the Committee have already made concessions on Medicare and Social Security, God help them if that’s true.
The Administration should be searching for ways to undue this terrible Committee before the Dems. get another shellacking by trying to be nice. “When will they ever learn, When will they ever learn?” Remember the song?
These changes in Obama’s behavior I hope are indicators of the impact of Social Unrest. It’s the A.W.S, movement of protest against the the rich getting richer and the rest of us getting snookered could be wake up call for the Administration. I am also hoping that the protests become more vocal and spreads to additional cities That could make the President, DO IT.” (I love that story.) Yes that’s what Franklin D. Roosevelt said to A. Philip Randolph President of the Sleeping Car Porters Union. Randolph had complained that the New Deal was not helping his members get any benefits from the New Deal. F.D.R’s reply was, “Philip go out and Make Me Do IT.”
That’s what I hope the Occupy Wall Street protests are doing to Obama. Making him do it. Okay, so what is the IT? The IT is making the President put up a fight for the very existence of the middle class. Yes I know, whatever happened to the “working class?” It was dropped probably because the upwardly mobile didn’t like being called “working class.” So, the economists started to call them the middle class and the working class was abolished. Maybe? Of course don’t forget an additional variable, the upcoming 2012 Presidential Election. Wow, the air is already begin to smell bad from all the bull that is flying around.
The A.W.S is the best breath of fresh air we have had in a long time. Sure wish I could camp out with them. This is the best I can do now.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
What To Do on a 94th Birthday?
On Oct 19th I finally hit the 94th. Somehow, no not somehow but through my father who loved to quote Johann Goethe I knew what we needed to do. In my childhood there was a sampler that hung on our kitchen wall. My papa would often suggest to my older sisters that it is a saying they should live by. I found it mysterious and finally got papa to translate. (With the Nazis conquest of Germany papa stopped speaking German.) Here’s what the sampler said.
“EVERY DAY ONE SHOULD AT LEAST LISTEN TO A LITTLE SONG, READ A GOOD POEM, LOOK AT A FINE PAINTING AND IF POSSIBLE SAY A FEW REASONABLE WORDS.” Goethe That saying some how fit my birthday at the Metropolitan Opera listening to Anna Netrebko sing Anna Bolena. Okay it wasn’t just a “little song.” It made up for all the days I missed any song.
The music, the singing, the acting, the 3000 people in the audience all deeply involved with the singers in this musical walk through 1536. Yes, we despise Henry the VIII but we loved Ildar Abrazakov who sang the role with brilliant artistry as did the soprano Ekterina Gubanovaas as Jane Seymour. What is about this experience that I find so invigorating, uplifting, life changing or all of the above. To hear Netrebko sing to the farthest corner of this great hall with an ability to color her voice from the saddest to the most defying note goes right to the center of my spine or where the soul resides.
As she sings you can feel a growing tension in the audience. As the music grows so does our connection. She is telling us of her foreboding. She knows what Henry has in mind for her. She also knows there is no escape. Yet she sings with a defense of her true love, Percy that the evil Henry no matter what he does cannot destroy. As she sings to, her crescendo the audience entrapped with her situation bursts into a spontaneous eruption of brava brava and hand clapping. It is a tumultuous thanks that promises never to be forgotten. For me that is what great opera or theater is about. And yet there is much more.
I leave that theatre as I have so many times in my long life with a renewed hope for humanity. “Look” I say to Kate what wonders human can produce. I find this as an essential antidote to the the ongoing cacophony of the haters, killers, rapists, spin miesters, and yes even the growing collapse of planet earth. Does it sound like a religion? Maybe? On my 10th birthday as I walk with my papa through the Metropolitan Museum of art he is helping me to see the greatness in Gothe’s “fine paintings” The Goethe poetry is in the theater or a reading of Edna Saint Vincent Millay or Walt Whitman.
Finally I would hope that these blogs fall under Goethe’s definition of, “saying a few reasonable words”. That has been my birthday menu for as long as I can remember. To celebrate all those wonders that Goethe wants us to be part of. In this world of despair it is the works of art that save me for yet another year of living that sampler on my childhood kitchen wall. Thanks for the good wishes that many of you have sent. Now its on to the 95th. Kate says that will be a big one. What will we do for that? We’ll see after I check out how the Wall Street fighters are doing. There is also some nifty new lumber sitting in the shop. It is calling me to turn it into a piece of beautiful furniture. I will certainly continue to try.
“EVERY DAY ONE SHOULD AT LEAST LISTEN TO A LITTLE SONG, READ A GOOD POEM, LOOK AT A FINE PAINTING AND IF POSSIBLE SAY A FEW REASONABLE WORDS.” Goethe That saying some how fit my birthday at the Metropolitan Opera listening to Anna Netrebko sing Anna Bolena. Okay it wasn’t just a “little song.” It made up for all the days I missed any song.
The music, the singing, the acting, the 3000 people in the audience all deeply involved with the singers in this musical walk through 1536. Yes, we despise Henry the VIII but we loved Ildar Abrazakov who sang the role with brilliant artistry as did the soprano Ekterina Gubanovaas as Jane Seymour. What is about this experience that I find so invigorating, uplifting, life changing or all of the above. To hear Netrebko sing to the farthest corner of this great hall with an ability to color her voice from the saddest to the most defying note goes right to the center of my spine or where the soul resides.
As she sings you can feel a growing tension in the audience. As the music grows so does our connection. She is telling us of her foreboding. She knows what Henry has in mind for her. She also knows there is no escape. Yet she sings with a defense of her true love, Percy that the evil Henry no matter what he does cannot destroy. As she sings to, her crescendo the audience entrapped with her situation bursts into a spontaneous eruption of brava brava and hand clapping. It is a tumultuous thanks that promises never to be forgotten. For me that is what great opera or theater is about. And yet there is much more.
I leave that theatre as I have so many times in my long life with a renewed hope for humanity. “Look” I say to Kate what wonders human can produce. I find this as an essential antidote to the the ongoing cacophony of the haters, killers, rapists, spin miesters, and yes even the growing collapse of planet earth. Does it sound like a religion? Maybe? On my 10th birthday as I walk with my papa through the Metropolitan Museum of art he is helping me to see the greatness in Gothe’s “fine paintings” The Goethe poetry is in the theater or a reading of Edna Saint Vincent Millay or Walt Whitman.
Finally I would hope that these blogs fall under Goethe’s definition of, “saying a few reasonable words”. That has been my birthday menu for as long as I can remember. To celebrate all those wonders that Goethe wants us to be part of. In this world of despair it is the works of art that save me for yet another year of living that sampler on my childhood kitchen wall. Thanks for the good wishes that many of you have sent. Now its on to the 95th. Kate says that will be a big one. What will we do for that? We’ll see after I check out how the Wall Street fighters are doing. There is also some nifty new lumber sitting in the shop. It is calling me to turn it into a piece of beautiful furniture. I will certainly continue to try.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Who Can the Left Dance With?
Bulletin The Police clean up brigade backed away and the protesters are still there. Hurray for them.
The Occupy Wall Street is now going full blast. As I write, there is a threatened showdown for this morning. The billionaire Mayor of New York City says he needs to clean the Park. The occupiers say they have been cleaning it and its just fine. The NYPD will be sent in on the pretext of a clean up brigade. I have always felt that Bloomberg was just waiting for the moment to get tough with that “disorderly bunch of protesters.” We got us an, anal billionaire Mayor.” Who would've guessed?
As I have been watching and reading about Occupy Wall Street, O.W.S. I have been struck by how the left is trying to find a way to tie the nation wide demonstrations to a political strategy. There have been blistering attacks on Obama from people like Greenwald, Olberman, Maddow. Very serious voices on the left. Other left web-sights have been running pieces showing how Obama is a complete product and friend and of Wall Street. They sight his present fund raising efforts from the very sources that the O.W.S. folks are going after all hammer and tongs. A paradox indeed.
Herein lies the problem. If the O.W.S. protests are to succeed it needs to tie itself to some political organization or create an entirely new one. At this point I don’t see any potential for the latter.I hope I am wrong. That brings me to the Left’s dilemma with Obama. For an assortment of reasons early on the Left was very ecstatic about the President. Look, it was very hard to resist the simple fact that we had ELECTED A BLACK PRESIDENT. There was a few folks even during the, “hale the conquering hero stage” who suggested we calm our enthusiasm because “He aint what we think he is.”
There was absolutely nothing in his background that would suggest that he would take on a real fight for social and economic justice for working people. They were right. Yes there were some achievements. They have become lost in Obama’s obsession to compromise. Which he did and got bubkas in return. Look, on the other hand that’s exactly how he made it in the white mans world. Has he learned from his new experience? We’ll see. (There are so many WE’LL SEE’S these days.)
My own view. What is non existent is any kind of movement that would PUSH Obama AND SUPPORT HIM AT THE SAME TIME. That basically grew out of my experience through the 1930s and 40s. Sighting F.D.R’s rejoinder to A Philip Randolfrs complaint the Black workers were not receiving their fare share of the New Deal. F.D.R’s reply was,. “Philip you go out there and make me do it.” Keeping in mind that back then there was a most powerful Labor and Left wing political movements that could mobilize millions of workers at short notice. That’s what I felt Obama lacked. An organized left that could, “make him do it.” Is this just wishful thinking? Maybe.
Okay, so leaves me with the original question. Who is the present day Left going to dance with? (No I only watched Dancing With Stars” once.) If the O.W.S. folks want some way to put their demands to get the control of the US economy out of the hands of the big bankers they need a dancing partner some-where's in the political spectrum. Oh, wait a minute. If they want to basically change the system from capitalism to something else. That’s a horse of a different color. I simply don;t see any sign of that.
We on the left are continuing to wring more concessions out of capitalism to make it more friendly to working people. Heah, that’s what we’ve been doing for the last, close to 100 years. Yes, we always had to find partners in Washington to dance with. That’s the O.W.S. dilemma. If and when they emerge the O.W.S. strategists,, will have to deal with the problem. Otherwise the great O.W.S. protest will quickly fade with the fall leaves while the 2012 elections beckon. What do they do then? Romney or Perry against Obama? Ouch!
The Occupy Wall Street is now going full blast. As I write, there is a threatened showdown for this morning. The billionaire Mayor of New York City says he needs to clean the Park. The occupiers say they have been cleaning it and its just fine. The NYPD will be sent in on the pretext of a clean up brigade. I have always felt that Bloomberg was just waiting for the moment to get tough with that “disorderly bunch of protesters.” We got us an, anal billionaire Mayor.” Who would've guessed?
As I have been watching and reading about Occupy Wall Street, O.W.S. I have been struck by how the left is trying to find a way to tie the nation wide demonstrations to a political strategy. There have been blistering attacks on Obama from people like Greenwald, Olberman, Maddow. Very serious voices on the left. Other left web-sights have been running pieces showing how Obama is a complete product and friend and of Wall Street. They sight his present fund raising efforts from the very sources that the O.W.S. folks are going after all hammer and tongs. A paradox indeed.
Herein lies the problem. If the O.W.S. protests are to succeed it needs to tie itself to some political organization or create an entirely new one. At this point I don’t see any potential for the latter.I hope I am wrong. That brings me to the Left’s dilemma with Obama. For an assortment of reasons early on the Left was very ecstatic about the President. Look, it was very hard to resist the simple fact that we had ELECTED A BLACK PRESIDENT. There was a few folks even during the, “hale the conquering hero stage” who suggested we calm our enthusiasm because “He aint what we think he is.”
There was absolutely nothing in his background that would suggest that he would take on a real fight for social and economic justice for working people. They were right. Yes there were some achievements. They have become lost in Obama’s obsession to compromise. Which he did and got bubkas in return. Look, on the other hand that’s exactly how he made it in the white mans world. Has he learned from his new experience? We’ll see. (There are so many WE’LL SEE’S these days.)
My own view. What is non existent is any kind of movement that would PUSH Obama AND SUPPORT HIM AT THE SAME TIME. That basically grew out of my experience through the 1930s and 40s. Sighting F.D.R’s rejoinder to A Philip Randolfrs complaint the Black workers were not receiving their fare share of the New Deal. F.D.R’s reply was,. “Philip you go out there and make me do it.” Keeping in mind that back then there was a most powerful Labor and Left wing political movements that could mobilize millions of workers at short notice. That’s what I felt Obama lacked. An organized left that could, “make him do it.” Is this just wishful thinking? Maybe.
Okay, so leaves me with the original question. Who is the present day Left going to dance with? (No I only watched Dancing With Stars” once.) If the O.W.S. folks want some way to put their demands to get the control of the US economy out of the hands of the big bankers they need a dancing partner some-where's in the political spectrum. Oh, wait a minute. If they want to basically change the system from capitalism to something else. That’s a horse of a different color. I simply don;t see any sign of that.
We on the left are continuing to wring more concessions out of capitalism to make it more friendly to working people. Heah, that’s what we’ve been doing for the last, close to 100 years. Yes, we always had to find partners in Washington to dance with. That’s the O.W.S. dilemma. If and when they emerge the O.W.S. strategists,, will have to deal with the problem. Otherwise the great O.W.S. protest will quickly fade with the fall leaves while the 2012 elections beckon. What do they do then? Romney or Perry against Obama? Ouch!
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Welcome To Social Unrest 2
I have written a number of blogs about Social Unrest, SU. Harking back to the 1930s we marched for Unemployment Insurance, Social Security, Home Relief, Minimum Wage and the right to organize unions. With F.D.R.s help we achieved it and the New Deal was born. That’s how we dealt with SU back then. Now, seventy years later we are confronted with yet another economic crisis. 25 Million unemployed. A large proportion are college graduates with huge school debts and no jobs in sight. The GOP threatening to pay for the crisis by repealing the New DeaL Once again making the majority of working people pay for the mistakes of the money speculators. For President Obama looking at election day 2012 this could be the make or break situation.
Since Obama’s election I have thought that without a mass movement behind him to create a fight against the right wing we were going nowhere's. Yupp I turned out to be on target. But, look a here? We have this budding new anti Wall Street protesters taking over Zuccotti Park as a base for their fight against the “Money Changers.” Here comes the SU and it’s spreading across the country. Great, God I wish I could join them. (My old legs are beginning to give up even as I keep pushing them.) How did this SU happen?
For years now I have been decrying the absence of any organized left in the US that would be a countervailing force against the Tea Party GOP right wing. Low and behold. I simply don’t understand how Cyberspace can be used as an organizing tool. I’m stuck in this old fashioned notion that you got have a meeting of concerned people to organize a demonstration. They come up with the major slogans of the movement. This is not at all like that. Still not sure how it works. It seems that a bunch of people busy Twittering, Tweeting and Face-booking can manage to all show up at an agreed time and place. They make up their own signs, create demands on the spot, create theater, sing songs and if needs-be take on the police.
However, I admit that when they finally breakthrough on the Evening News I’m exclaiming, “Hooray but what are their demands?” I am told that I don’t understand this new kind of protest. The demands will emerge as people gather and discuss the issues. That sounds fine and I hope it happens. Yet I worry that the issues may be come clouded when they need to be very clear if we are looking for mass support. I like. “JOBS IS A BASIC RIGHT”” “DEMOCRACY MEANS FULL EMPLOYMENT” “TAX THE RICH ONE PERCENT.” “THEY OWN THE COUNTRY” WE ARE THE 99 %” “WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO FAIRNESS?” “JAIL FOR THE WALL STREET BONUS CROOKS.”
Okay, so You see I’m from an old school style of organizing. If you get your demands right they will show up. That’s how we organized all those great unions back in the 20th Century. The slogans came from careful listening to the people you were organizing. What was on their minds and how do we express it. In Madison Wisconsin and in Ohio they were handed the issues by the GOP State leadership who simply said, “the unions are dead we are not going to recognize them anymore.” Okay, that’s easy. “PROTECT OUR RIGHT TO COLLECTIVE BARGAINING.”
I Am anxious to see how this new style mass organizing action works out? I don’t want to connect it to “The Arab Spring.” I really don’t believe that’s going anywhere's because there is no clear cut way for those demonstrators to press their demands. In the US there is the looming Presidential election and that’s what this hubbub is about. Yes, my regular readers remember I said when push comes to shove on election day 2012 faced with the GOP crazy ideas of wiping out the New Deal we on the left will vote for Obama. I hope the independents will too. The lesser evil. Yes of course. “We did it before and we will do it again.” Old WW2 song. My best RS
Since Obama’s election I have thought that without a mass movement behind him to create a fight against the right wing we were going nowhere's. Yupp I turned out to be on target. But, look a here? We have this budding new anti Wall Street protesters taking over Zuccotti Park as a base for their fight against the “Money Changers.” Here comes the SU and it’s spreading across the country. Great, God I wish I could join them. (My old legs are beginning to give up even as I keep pushing them.) How did this SU happen?
For years now I have been decrying the absence of any organized left in the US that would be a countervailing force against the Tea Party GOP right wing. Low and behold. I simply don’t understand how Cyberspace can be used as an organizing tool. I’m stuck in this old fashioned notion that you got have a meeting of concerned people to organize a demonstration. They come up with the major slogans of the movement. This is not at all like that. Still not sure how it works. It seems that a bunch of people busy Twittering, Tweeting and Face-booking can manage to all show up at an agreed time and place. They make up their own signs, create demands on the spot, create theater, sing songs and if needs-be take on the police.
However, I admit that when they finally breakthrough on the Evening News I’m exclaiming, “Hooray but what are their demands?” I am told that I don’t understand this new kind of protest. The demands will emerge as people gather and discuss the issues. That sounds fine and I hope it happens. Yet I worry that the issues may be come clouded when they need to be very clear if we are looking for mass support. I like. “JOBS IS A BASIC RIGHT”” “DEMOCRACY MEANS FULL EMPLOYMENT” “TAX THE RICH ONE PERCENT.” “THEY OWN THE COUNTRY” WE ARE THE 99 %” “WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO FAIRNESS?” “JAIL FOR THE WALL STREET BONUS CROOKS.”
Okay, so You see I’m from an old school style of organizing. If you get your demands right they will show up. That’s how we organized all those great unions back in the 20th Century. The slogans came from careful listening to the people you were organizing. What was on their minds and how do we express it. In Madison Wisconsin and in Ohio they were handed the issues by the GOP State leadership who simply said, “the unions are dead we are not going to recognize them anymore.” Okay, that’s easy. “PROTECT OUR RIGHT TO COLLECTIVE BARGAINING.”
I Am anxious to see how this new style mass organizing action works out? I don’t want to connect it to “The Arab Spring.” I really don’t believe that’s going anywhere's because there is no clear cut way for those demonstrators to press their demands. In the US there is the looming Presidential election and that’s what this hubbub is about. Yes, my regular readers remember I said when push comes to shove on election day 2012 faced with the GOP crazy ideas of wiping out the New Deal we on the left will vote for Obama. I hope the independents will too. The lesser evil. Yes of course. “We did it before and we will do it again.” Old WW2 song. My best RS
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Defining Moments or
Who Am I Anyhow?
I must first acknowledge the first signs of social unrest that is happening as I right. Down around Wall Street they are raising hell. They are demanding action on Jobs, Foreclosures and exposing the economic unfairness as Wall Street keeps giving themselves bonuses. Yes it’s only the beginning. If the right wing nuts start to go through with their threats to dismantle Social Security and Medicare the Wall Street demonstration will just be a warm up. I promise to get back to this. In the meantime let me get this off my chest. How do we learn who we are?
Oh, this is all part of a 94 year old nonagenarian problem. Maybe you have wondered,“who am I and why am I here.”. Somehow once you enter the twilight zone that question becomes more persistent. Maybe it’s a summarizing issue of what kind of a life have I lived? I am sure there a many ways to find answers. I like, “defining moments.” They are the times when we get a real sense of who we are, The first such moment I can recall. (The reader might want to recall your first.)
Mt family starting with my father, mother two sisters were all Bronx Zoo fans. We lived across the street from the entrance. Many a fascinating night I lay awake listening to the lions roar making believe I was in Africa. We saved all out stale bread to feed the animals. Eventually the antelopes would see me coming and the whole bunch would coming up to the fence. Papa said I had to give it evenly so no one would get it all. Each time I went there I would feel on top of the world as this whole field of caged animals would come running. It was a defining moment. I learned about the reward of generosity.
In 1930 I made my first wagon out of some old baby carriage wheels a wooden box and a piece of two by four. Then I added a battery and a car horn arugha arugha. Defining moment. Helping, Smitty the local plumber. He insisted I learn to distinguish the names of all pipe fittings. That lead to my getting a job as a plumbers helper. That brings me to the present issue of how we reward kids?
Sometime in the sixties the notion of building self-esteem took hold of education. That idea suggested that in order for children to have a sense of who they are they needed to be rewarded. What happened as a result of that movement was an explosion of a trophies, for everybody. No matter our team lost the game we got the same trophy as the winners. It was called a win, win situation. Now who do we think we are kidding? Children know who won and who lost. They know when another kid is better than they are. But the worst part of this stuff is that it fails to teach that’s it’s okay to lose but try again next time. Most of all learn from mistakes.
I have been extremely fortunate in my life to have had defining moments right up to now. Speaking on a Bronx street corner 1935 a little old lady comes up to me after my talk. She takes off a Saint Christopher Medal and simply puts it around my neck. “God Bless you son and may Saint Christopher keep you safe.’ My radical comrades look on in astonishment. “Robert we didn’t know, are you religious?” I never said a word just stood there in the moment. I also had nights when I was pelted with garbage. Washed my clothes and went out and tried a different approach.
My son Fred is the lead double bass player in the Madison Symphony. They are playing Mahler’s 2nd the Resurrection. There is a long bass solo. Fred plays it. At the end the hall is on they-re feet in applause. The Conductor asks Fred to take a bow. Fred calls me says, ”Dad don’t know what happened tonight? The music took to me to some other place. I have never played that well before.” Ahaa, a defining moment. I'm sure it helps him understand who he is.
Working with a bunch of Juvenile Delinquents in 1964 at Mobilization for Youth it struck me very early on that these 16 to 20 year olds simply have never experienced any positive achievements. Our job was to create work projects that were learning related. Our work crews renovated an old tenement building on east 10th street. Locals told me that on the weekends our kids brought their girlfriends to show off their accomplishment.
I’m in New Mexico visiting my daughter. She is singing in a Mexican Night Club. I am in the audience. She sings Jalisco. The people at my table are insisting she must be from Mexico. I can’t resist and say no she’s from the Bronx. They don’t believe me. “She can’t sing that way from the Bonx” Well, she does because of time spent in Mexico listening and absorbing the culture. The dollar bills are flowing down on her like snowflakes. She looks even more surprised than her visiting father. Defining moment.
My Great Grandson Soren now 3 is learning to speak. I am,told what he enjoys most is when he makes up a new word and can announce it for an hour. The beginning of defining moments. What do we need to do to help children develop self esteem? Support them in their struggle to become whatever it is that requires real investment on their part.When it happens they will have a true sense of achievement. We defeat their whole experience when we give them trophies for losing because we think it makes them feel good.
Feel good may be the opposite of any sense of accomplishment. Maybe the present educational craze of test passing falls into the same category. Pass the test you get a trophy. Wether or not anything was learned is an entirely different question.
Might try a little experiment of your own. Write down a sheet of paper the defining moments in your life. You might be surprised. My best RS
I must first acknowledge the first signs of social unrest that is happening as I right. Down around Wall Street they are raising hell. They are demanding action on Jobs, Foreclosures and exposing the economic unfairness as Wall Street keeps giving themselves bonuses. Yes it’s only the beginning. If the right wing nuts start to go through with their threats to dismantle Social Security and Medicare the Wall Street demonstration will just be a warm up. I promise to get back to this. In the meantime let me get this off my chest. How do we learn who we are?
Oh, this is all part of a 94 year old nonagenarian problem. Maybe you have wondered,“who am I and why am I here.”. Somehow once you enter the twilight zone that question becomes more persistent. Maybe it’s a summarizing issue of what kind of a life have I lived? I am sure there a many ways to find answers. I like, “defining moments.” They are the times when we get a real sense of who we are, The first such moment I can recall. (The reader might want to recall your first.)
Mt family starting with my father, mother two sisters were all Bronx Zoo fans. We lived across the street from the entrance. Many a fascinating night I lay awake listening to the lions roar making believe I was in Africa. We saved all out stale bread to feed the animals. Eventually the antelopes would see me coming and the whole bunch would coming up to the fence. Papa said I had to give it evenly so no one would get it all. Each time I went there I would feel on top of the world as this whole field of caged animals would come running. It was a defining moment. I learned about the reward of generosity.
In 1930 I made my first wagon out of some old baby carriage wheels a wooden box and a piece of two by four. Then I added a battery and a car horn arugha arugha. Defining moment. Helping, Smitty the local plumber. He insisted I learn to distinguish the names of all pipe fittings. That lead to my getting a job as a plumbers helper. That brings me to the present issue of how we reward kids?
Sometime in the sixties the notion of building self-esteem took hold of education. That idea suggested that in order for children to have a sense of who they are they needed to be rewarded. What happened as a result of that movement was an explosion of a trophies, for everybody. No matter our team lost the game we got the same trophy as the winners. It was called a win, win situation. Now who do we think we are kidding? Children know who won and who lost. They know when another kid is better than they are. But the worst part of this stuff is that it fails to teach that’s it’s okay to lose but try again next time. Most of all learn from mistakes.
I have been extremely fortunate in my life to have had defining moments right up to now. Speaking on a Bronx street corner 1935 a little old lady comes up to me after my talk. She takes off a Saint Christopher Medal and simply puts it around my neck. “God Bless you son and may Saint Christopher keep you safe.’ My radical comrades look on in astonishment. “Robert we didn’t know, are you religious?” I never said a word just stood there in the moment. I also had nights when I was pelted with garbage. Washed my clothes and went out and tried a different approach.
My son Fred is the lead double bass player in the Madison Symphony. They are playing Mahler’s 2nd the Resurrection. There is a long bass solo. Fred plays it. At the end the hall is on they-re feet in applause. The Conductor asks Fred to take a bow. Fred calls me says, ”Dad don’t know what happened tonight? The music took to me to some other place. I have never played that well before.” Ahaa, a defining moment. I'm sure it helps him understand who he is.
Working with a bunch of Juvenile Delinquents in 1964 at Mobilization for Youth it struck me very early on that these 16 to 20 year olds simply have never experienced any positive achievements. Our job was to create work projects that were learning related. Our work crews renovated an old tenement building on east 10th street. Locals told me that on the weekends our kids brought their girlfriends to show off their accomplishment.
I’m in New Mexico visiting my daughter. She is singing in a Mexican Night Club. I am in the audience. She sings Jalisco. The people at my table are insisting she must be from Mexico. I can’t resist and say no she’s from the Bronx. They don’t believe me. “She can’t sing that way from the Bonx” Well, she does because of time spent in Mexico listening and absorbing the culture. The dollar bills are flowing down on her like snowflakes. She looks even more surprised than her visiting father. Defining moment.
My Great Grandson Soren now 3 is learning to speak. I am,told what he enjoys most is when he makes up a new word and can announce it for an hour. The beginning of defining moments. What do we need to do to help children develop self esteem? Support them in their struggle to become whatever it is that requires real investment on their part.When it happens they will have a true sense of achievement. We defeat their whole experience when we give them trophies for losing because we think it makes them feel good.
Feel good may be the opposite of any sense of accomplishment. Maybe the present educational craze of test passing falls into the same category. Pass the test you get a trophy. Wether or not anything was learned is an entirely different question.
Might try a little experiment of your own. Write down a sheet of paper the defining moments in your life. You might be surprised. My best RS
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