The truth about CRT

Your teachers are too busy trying to get the children back in the classroom and reacquainting them with math, science, English, history to actually start doing a deep dive into a highly indepth concept such as critical race theory.

Go talk to your teacher and ask what is their biggest challenge in the classroom and what are they teaching. Do not ask anyone else. Ask the teachers.

They just do not have the time or resources or energy to go off on a deep end theory. It doesn’t matter whether you think it is right or wrong, the vast majority of the teachers are struggling just trying to teach the ole infamous “ three R’s of reading, writing and arithmetic” 

Stop arguing with each other and go help a teacher in the classroom for a day. They need help just getting the children to open up any textbook. 

Stop the madness.

Something a bit different from me

 Good evening one and all, just checking in to make sure there is still a bit of sanity left on this planet.

Anyway was going through the internet feeds when I ran across an article by Jonathan Lee via the New York Times about of all things park benches.

I read through it and it got me to thinking how Dallas really doesn’t have a long history with parks. Yes there are a few, there is Tennyson Park in East Dallas, and White Rock Lake a bit further east. There are a few in Oak Cliff where I could probably drive there, but do not know the name, yet overall the history of Dallas’ parks are more the playground type as the bedroom communities built up as Dallas expanded.

Now do not get me wrong, I grew up enjoying the heck out of these parks and many of them have a small creek that runs through them so you get a tad bit of nature to go along with the playground equipment each of them have. 

Nothing compares to being 8 years old running up and down creek beds, or playing on the swings or merry go round or other equipment or swimming in the local pool and at that point in time that was the only thing that mattered. And the park benches were more for sitting down for a moment to catch your breath. Other than that there really isn’t a long history for nostalgia for either parks or park benches compared to the thoughts expressed in the article I read.

And I guess there isn’t anything to compare which is okay, Dallas is not that old of a city and it doesn’t have a very rich history. This city was built on prairies and originally attached itself to this mud pit called the Trinity River. Okay it is actually a river, but do not get excited about it. It runs along the side of downtown and they had to build two fancy bridges to get anyone to even notice it. Other than that East Texas oil money moved here in the 20th century so we have a few big buildings downtown, excessive housing, some fun spots to hang out in Uptown, Harwood and Victory Park, which isn’t a park, but houses the American Airlines Center, residential living, some restaurants and a couple of other entertainment venues. And of course there is the Dallas Cowboys, which surprisingly are doing better than I expected so pleasantly surprised. Of course they may blow by my prediction which is okay with me since I am a fan.

Anyway parks in Dallas exist, and yes there are a few in the older parts of the City where some older residents can reminisce, yet most people who grew up in Dallas probably have the same memories that I do. Parks are where we played while we grew up. And I grew up quite a while back so there was more freedom for kids. We ran around like nobody’s business and unfortunately the kids today do not have the same freedoms we had. Parks were a big part of that freedom. 

And the playground equipment was much different. At least some progress was made in developing safer equipment, I know there were more than a few accidents since there was rarely adult supervision. Even when parks were staffed they were teenagers who earned less than $2 hour to check out gear like softball and baseball equipment, horse shoes, etc and so they really didn’t pay much attention to what was going on around them. And the only phone was the payphone by the pool or the phone the pool staff used.

And if there was no pool, there was no phone so getting help was an interesting endeavor. And pools were important. I swam for hours on end during the summer and eventually became a Jr. Lifeguard at one point because you know being a lifeguard was cool and you got paid, and yes less than $2 a hour, if that. A 12 year old still wanted that job though. Times change and so do people so I never finished that career path. 

And I do have fond memories of parks, but to compare it to the history of park benches in the article I read, I felt a bit cheated. Nothing can be done, I grew up here, other people grew up in New York or Europe where there are parks that have an even richer history. People can sit on those benches and it is a whole different world to imagine. I have been to London, Madrid and a few outlying cities or what may be called suburbs in America and did walk through some city parks and enjoyed them, yet I didn’t stop and feel the history which now is something I wish I had done. Do not get me wrong, I really enjoyed the walks and sight seeing involved, but to stop and really just sit down on a bench and absorb everything around me was not something I thought to do. Hopefully next time I am in our country either in New York or Boston or some other New England state I will try to remember and stop for the moment. And if I ever get a chance to go back to Europe or some other part of the world with a rich history I will kick myself if I do not immerse myself in the experience of sitting in the moment to feel the history. 

Parks are a part of our lives and do need much more recognition than they receive, whether in an article about benches or us contributing to projects that build more for the next generations. And these thoughts are for the large national parks to city master planned projects to the neighborhood park that may barely span a city block. If you do not have fond memories of all types of parks, then you have missed a wonderful part of life. There is nothing like camping at a state park, exploring our rich history of the west, canoeing on a river, boating on a lake, playing with other kids on a swing set, or walking a path through a large city park enjoying the view and talking to friends as you go along. I feel for you if you have missed out on this part of life. All through the world you find parks of some kind, so find and enjoy them and like the article discussed, sit on a bench and find yourself caught up in the moment and the history.

Cheers

Your technology is killing you

And this isn’t about that robot movie with Will Smith. This is about the day to day drain technology is having on your life and the problems it is creating or can create. And it is not about the Facebook scandals or problems either.

I wanted to write this days ago so trying to recreate my thoughts, yet even my first thoughts were a hodgepodge of examples of why you life is worse now than it use to be. Sure in some respects technology still makes some aspects of your life more efficient especially at work, yet overall how much benefit are you receiving versus cost to you.

Oh, you say I receive bonuses for using companies apps. True, yet do you think they are giving something away for free. You are benefiting corporations by using their apps. They are training you to behave in the ways they want you to behave.

Or my word processor program helps me greatly with my letters and emails. Are you sure? Most people do not use half the features available to them, yet you paid handsomely for that program or your company did. Maybe a few people are word geniuses, yet most of us only touch the service. How much benefit are you achieving?

And the same goes for all the office software on your computer. How well do you know your functions on your spreadsheet. Some in your office do, but the majority sitting around at a computer would be hard pressed to use most of what is on their computer on any given day. And this is just the surface of waste of technology.

Where it is really hurting you, you do not see. For example there are companies that make software to run your work applications. This is proprietary programs that these companies tout will help various entities, yet some of these programs pull from other companies programs and there are layers the end user doesn’t see and probably doesn’t know exist. Then one day a company decides to stop supporting a function. Now the company that sold your company this wonderful program has to scramble to figure out a replacement for the underlying program they were using to make the program your company bought work. And by the way, your company has to figure out the work around till this is accomplished. 

Or going back to the waste of technology where your desktop has so much going on and you barely use half of it, imagine when the company that sold you that proprietary program has put so many functions into it they no longer can control it. Then lo and behold there is an update to your system one night and the entire program goes haywire. You and your work are now at the mercy of enormous amounts of program glitches with no end in sight.

And some days it appears you spend more time going through the front door trying to log on to your personal accounts than hackers spend sneaking in the back door stealing all your information. How many times do you have to solve some puzzle or enter follow up information when you are just trying to accomplish one task on the computer? I swear I had one of those I am not a robot programs make me solve five or more puzzles before it let me in. Why? I was trying to access an existing account of my ______! So what gives?

There was a time when technology did ramp up productivity and efficiency, but have we crossed that point where new enhancements do not benefit the great majority.

Sure you love your new phone and it’s wonderful camera, but how much do you use? Outside of better selfies, was it worth buying it when your current phone is barely a year or two old. Who benefits? Not your pocket book and really how bad was that previous camera?

And cars have become a nightmare. “Back in the day” the average person could do minor repairs to their car with no problems. Replacing various parts just took a hour to two unless you were rebuilding the engine, now about the only part you can replace is the battery. And since so much of the car’s operations are tied to computer chips then what happens if the repair industry starts losing the workers trained on managing the codes in your car. And isn’t it wonderful that you can use your key fob and not stick a key in an ignition, but wait then you are away from home and the dashboard lights up with a message saying the battery is low in your key fob and the car won’t start. Eventually it does, but how were you to know the battery was too low. There was no message until it was almost too late. Imagine being out late far from home and that happens. So what was so difficult about sticking your key in the ignition in the first place?

And then there is the camera on your laptop or phone. Yes for the pandemic it helped so many work from home, attend meetings and generally keep up with people they couldn’t see for the moment. Yet ,did you know the camera on your laptop or phone can be hacked? And it always seems weird that your phone has the answer to the question you were just discussing with a friend or worse an ad comes up for what you just asked for, coincident?

And give any of us paranoid people a moment and we will tell you how all the technological horrors you see in movies could actually happen. 

And I could go on, you could add examples and all this is the tip of the iceberg of how more and more technology controls your life at so many levels. Starting with the simple over reach of desktop tools to the mind games and training corporations are using to get you to behave to their benefit to the complete shut down of systems if one program goes down that is tied to so many others or if an update goes south. And of course there is the recent Facebook debacle showing us right in our face, oops maybe I didn’t need all this after all. 

We do not need robots killing us, we are doing a great job of it ourselves with this over reliance on what is in front of us every day. Maybe not overtly, but day by day, little by little we are losing who we are as people and the slow whittling down of humanity goes on. 

I am not touting to rid ourselves of technology, but to take a step back and determine how much do we really need. Once we know how much we need then maybe we can be more practical and efficient with its use again. 

Keeping short and simple

 As you know I do not think the Democrats and Republicans are doing anything for this country.

I read an article the other day and sorry no reference since it was a few days  ago, and it was from a poll taken recently saying a significant portion of this country were ready to fight the other side. This was coming from both Republicans and Democrats. I am pretty sure they managed to catch a good portion of the die hards from each party and there was probably more bravado than they let on, but seriously this shows it is time to move on from these parties.

The Democrats are infighting, the Republicans have gone full scale Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and the “R” Dr. Jekyll was never that wonderful anyway, but with Trump, full on madness rules the day. 

Yet the vast majority of this country is working and middle class, moderate to moderately conservative and still contributes wonderfully to this country. So what gives? Why is it so hard to move past these two dinosaurs that are wrecking our country? A new party that puts forth basic public policy that benefits the middle would do wonders, even for the poor and the rich just by enacting basic support for general needs of the country.  It really isn’t complicated. 

I just keep trying.