Pleasant Valley Sunnydays

Blue Skies,

fair winds, moderate temperatures; these things make it almost possible to ignore the problems surrounding our families, friends and even our country. It's hard to believe the changes just one year can bring. It hit me on September 11th and it hasn't gone away. When I look back to the feeling in the country a year ago, it seems that there was more energy and less anger. When the announcement was made that the recession was over, I heard a lot of nervous laughter, and someone I was with said "For who?"Government and the major media like newspapers and television seem to be operating on the premise - if it's not broke - we can brake it and complain. The one thing that really got to me yesterday was an article in the Minneapolis Star and Tribune on all the charter schools in Minnesota. These public schools with specific purposes in mind (Language, science, arts, classical education, etc) seem to be working with parent and teacher control (NOT a big district bureaucracy) but that is now bothering the "experts and administrators" WHAT? oh I'm sorry if parents having the ability to get their children into a school that suits their child better than the big box education is a problem for them, but involved parents make for better educational outcomes. To me this is just another symptom of us vs those little ones (us vs them just doesn't do it justice) that seems to be the attitiude of those who are in 'public service' This is America - where doing it yourself, closest to the situation used to be the norm - this is not the hope and change we need.