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TO BEN OR NOT TO BEN


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I've been trying to ignore Republican presidential candidate, Ben Carson, in the hope that he would go away, once people discerned that he's more suited to be a cult leader rather than a world one. No such luck.  I underestimated the vindictiveness of those who hate the Media and love the Bible.  I learned a lesson about blind faith and arrogant science and how they neutralize each other, leaving the truth in limbo, and conflict in command. I personally  reject everything Carson represents: his fanatical Evangelical beliefs, his right-wing Conservative politics, his blatant racial naivete and his anti-feminism, but I am discovering how presumptuous I was to think my sentiments mattered.  

I concede that the media is not perfect and, yes, I've become impatient with political correctness, but the idea that Ben Carson is an effective anti-dote for these irritants does not square with me. I am not mesmerized by his soft-spoken manner or his surgical feats. Because he does not raise his voice, does not mean that what he murmurs has credibility.  Because he has deft hands, does not mean that he has a nimble intellect. The more his squinting eyes and forked tongue possess his persona and reinforce his whining victimization, the more convinced I am that this man is not fit to be the President of the United States.  Ben Carson and his inexperience might be a man who appeals to the fed-up people, but that's what troubles me. The petulant, fed-up people whom he appeals to have lost their appetite for tolerance, miffed because they cannot impose their narrow-minded beliefs on others.  We need a unifier, not someone who promotes the divisiveness of religion. Most of all, we need a qualified person who is knowledgeable about world affairs and domestic economics, not an amateur with a Messianic Complex. And, as a black person, there is no way in hell that I could vote for a negro who declared that black people have been doing well over the past 150 years, grateful for what they have, and should not be stirred up and encouraged to demonstrate for equality. Meekly accepting second-class status is apparently what would make Uncle Ben grin and shuffle, while not rocking the boat. 

IMO, Ben Carson is a wanna-be whose Tea Party I don't want to be invited to, and he leaves me no choice but to throw my loyalty to a woman candidate. I'll take a super bitch over a subdued bozo!  

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Well, Unkel Ruckus, Obama wasn't an untested politician.  He ran for Congress once, and was a U.S. Senator before being elected to the Presidency (twice).  His policies may be controversial but they were in the context of a global awareness; not in the sphere of theocratic myths. Moreover, voting for him could be regarded as a teachable moment for people who think Obama was a bad president; don't make the same mistake twice by electing another clueless black president which is what Carson would be. 

 

 

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But you have to admit Unkel Ruckus does have a point.  No one mistook Obama for an expert on foreign affairs or fiscal policy.  Still, that does not negate anything Cynique wrote. 

Obama's appeal was the promise of change.  This is the appeal of Carson and his evil twin Trump.  Trump using his own money is compelling in the sense that he is beholden to no one, not even Wall Street, unlike Obama.  However it also means Trump is not beholden to the people once he gets their vote.  

I don't think Carson is electable as president.  While he may be beloved by the Christians in the south.  They are more than outnumbered of the liberals in the major cities who hate him.  Trump is electable...

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My post was an opinion piece.  I'd be interested in hearing an opinion from someone who supports Carson.  

Another interesting thought is what if Trump and Sanders decided to team up on an Independent ticket, promising that,  together, they could fix America, what would happen??? If there was some give and take on each other's part, - who knows???

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IF ANYONE OUT THERE LURKING IS A BEN CARSON SUPPORTER PLEASE SPEAK UP.

Armstrong Williams has been a staunch Carson supporter.  I think he is his business manager.

A Trump/Saunders ticket would result in mutual annihilation sort of like combining  matter and anti-matter

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@richardmurray, it is interesting your would say that. I'm sure Cynique welcomes anything you have to say here.

But to your point I usually do both.  I'll typically comment on the page of the op-ed.  If I think it is an interesting subject I'll bring it here to comment on further.  I link from here to the op-ed piece, but not the other way around, unless I have content here that advances the conversation.

BTW was the remaining blog problem ever resolved I made two upgrades since you pointed out the residual problem.

 

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Any comments I post are actually my musings; I don't really observe any journalistic guide lines because I am not a  journalist.  I am just an opinionated person who takes advantage of the platform provided on this site.

BTW, I can't believe nobody questioned the title of my essay.  I just now noticed that I left out the word "not" so that What I meant to be a play on words as To Be(n) Or Not To Be(n)" came out as something that made no sense: "To Ben Or To Ben". I just now corrected it.  I think it's time for me to retire.

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I'll correct the eNewsletter when I archive the Newsletter on my Blog.

Just post the photo you'd like me to use here.  I can also update your profile's image as well: http://aalbc.org/authors/author.php?author_name=Connie+Bradley.  Just make sure the image is not too small. I can always make the photo smaller, but I can't make it bigger without hurting the quality.

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Excellent deconstruction of Hamlet's lament, Richard.  I am guilty of assuming that famous quotes from Shakespeare are common knowledge but I often forget that this is 2015 and unless people happen to be English Lit majors, chances are they aren't familiar with this "useless" info. 

I also found your political observations very informative.

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Richard is partially correct. Shakespeare is taught in high school in each grade level. The problem is most teachers only have a BA in English and you can literally get away with not taking a single class on Shakespeare and earn your degree in English if you desire. I've seen English majors avoid every professor who assigns multiple papers during the semester so a lot of educators simply can't teach Shakespeare because they haven't really analyzed the text themselves. If the teachers can't teach it, the students simply aren't engaged. Shakespeare doesn't have to be taught in the home because by default we use so many cliches created by him that a lot of people quote Shakespeare without even realizing it... this doesn't mean they are being prepared due to "quoting" but there isn't much that is ever really taught in the home. Especially when both parents

The last time I taught high school English my Freshman class rewrote Romeo and Juliet and turned it into a film. They fell in love with Shakespeare and looked to read more after we moved on from that section. The difference there is I enjoyed teaching it because I've read Shakespeare Alive and other texts discussing his life and works in both undergrad and grad school. I have a solid grasp so teaching it isn't a bore. 

You both are correct in that studying lit is not exactly a 2015 thing.

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Cynique, if you like I can troll your facebook account to a more suitable image, comment there and if you approve I'll use it.

Chris in NYC you have to have a masters degree to become certified as a teacher.  They give you five years (I believe) to obtain the degree, but teachers weak on content knowledge can ruin a generation of children during this time.  I'm sure most of these teachers work in schools in poor neighborhood.  

Often teachers teach, because it is a decent job, not because they like, or are particularly good at it.  I give you one guess where you'll find most of these teachers.

I read Shakespeare in high school and that was the last time I his work.  Richard I did leave it up to my kid's school to expose them to this type of literature, so while I agree the parent is the primary teacher, schools (the larger community) have a role that the parent can not replace and need.

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Richard perhaps, but what do we do about the children being raised by semi-literature and or ignorant parents? Parents who are simply incapable of providing that primary source of education you describe.  Surely a compassionate and rational society must bear the responsibility.  In our society, schools play an important role.  Unfortunately they fail most of our poorest communities.

The trend toward corporatization of schools does not bode well.  A few will make a ton of money, but I doubt educational outcomes will improve.

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Troy is right, the school is the primary educator. We homeschool so we are the school, but I was in education for 20 years and I knew that teaching Beowulf, Catcher In The Rye or Hamlet was my duty and I loved the entire process. I even brought my college level books to class so they could see the difference in their text and my text. This is what good teachers do... but as Troy said, a lot of teachers are there because the pay is consistent and that is really about it. 

The parent can be supportive, but I don't expect a parent to be able to share the burden of education. I only expect them to support. I have an interesting story. I taught at a school in San Diego in the poorest part of the city. The school was primarily immigrant an second language students from all over the world. We had over 100 dialects spoken at the school. Those students had fewer resources and had the extra burden of learning the language, yet they turned out to be some of the brightest and most successful students I worked with in my 20 years. The Black students are doing well from that school as well although they lived in an area called the 4 corners of death where a Crip and a Blood territory intersected and most of their fathers were absent. I leave that school and come to Memphis which is a white and black city and the black kids here are struggling. They face poverty, but not nearly at the same level as kids in San Diego where the poverty line is 75000 and the median household costs half a million. These kids can literally have parents make a living working at Mc Donalds in Memphis because the cost of living is so low, so explain to me why they aren't succeeding in the same way the kids in San Diego are succeeding?

It's not that the schools can't teach because of taught in those schools as well. It is not the system that is failing kids. Even a shitty school can teach kids something. Education is about support and as much as it pains me to say it, Black parents (I would say 30%) just aren't supportive when it comes to books and improving themselves. That 30% that screws up the schools is considerable enough to screw up everybody. It just amazes me that the "poor" schools in a city where the cost of living is ridiculous can perform so much better than kids in a comparable situation in another city.

Oh, on Ben Carson... I left that because why discuss something that doesn't matter?

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Well Chris having taught in a variety of situations from troubled youth to one of NY City's flagship public colleges, over the past two years.  You really can't do a good job teaching if you don't enjoy it.  If you are not very good at it, I can't see how you can possibly enjoy it.  If you enjoy doing it, you only get better over time.  Which is why experienced teachers are are so valuable.

Your 30% figure sounds about right.  Even 10% of the parent population is too high. A single unruly student can make it impossible to for entire class to learn.  Increasingly, teachers are restrained (by the school system and even parents) in what they can do to deal with these students so the rest of the class suffers.

What does this have to do with Ben Carson?  Who knows but without an informed and educated electorate just about anybody can be a viable candidate.  The idea that a Donald Trump is the leading candidate for the GOP should be a embarrassment not just to the republicans, but to our nation.  How about Catlyn Jenner as the VP?

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Well, maybe Ben Carson is more relevant to the current subject than we think.  He is routinely referred to as a "brilliant" surgeon but when placed under the scrutiny of the media microscope, time and time again he comes across as an ill-informed dork who apparently was not the beneficiary of a broad education but is simply someone who is competent in the field he specialized in. 

Parents are, indeed, our first teachers but they don't have to be college educated to provide an ideal environment for their children. They just need to be motivators, and this includes encouraging their children to be CURIOUS and, above all, to be READERS.  Reading is fundamental and if teachers can make readers of children, the battle is half won because this enables them to learn on their own.   When young people enter the work force they most likely will have to be re-trained, and knowing how to be a problem solver is what will serve them just as much as being someone who might be classified as an educated fool.

I always encouraged my kids to learn a little bit about a lot of things so that they could be conversant on a variety of subjects, something that would make them interesting observant people because having people skills is also an asset.  

The works of Shakespeare, along with Mythology, are components of a classic education but they also provide lessons for every day life because they are about human foibles, about playing the hand you are dealt whether you live in the ghetto or in a gated community.   

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