Too Busy?

Back in the before times, the waaayyy before times, Atlanta, as it was called in those days, was known as "The City Too Busy To Hate." There was a lot of truth to that. There are still some pretty busy folks, but the impact on hate seems to have diminished. 

Case in point? Druid Hills High School. 

There a lots of problems here and the least is the raw sewerage bubbling up all over the place, because what is happening at the Palace is equally odious. That stench is bubbling out the mouth of the Board Chair Vickie Turner and the racist overtones are unmistakable. Especially if you actually are color blind.

 "Our goal is to provide equity across the district."

Does that mean you intend to trash Mount Arabia? As Diversity Inclusion and Equity sweep through academia, academic rigor is being swept aside to "close the gap" between high performers and "students who have not achieved their academic potential." Arabia shines and yet DHHS falls off the task list and we are treated to this statement:

"That school is nestled in the middle of affluence."

Now that is bold and brash. So...DHHS deserves no maintenance, no money, no consideration because the neighborhood exceeds her acceptable level of McMansions? Really? That is a level of animus that exceeds justification as identity politics. This is bad to the bone. 

There are a couple of problems this exacerbates, more significant than turning a playground into a hockey-chopper. 

If you were trying to encourage that community to break away, falling into the more comforting arms of APS then this is a job well done. If the goal is to incite and support a referendum to increase the prohibition on adding new school districts these are the sound bites that will resonate loudly throughout the entire state. You cannot buy this level of political capital. 

The most appalling issue gets back to what everything gets back to: race. But with a twist. Turns out DHHS is not a lily white school nestled in an exclusively rich, lily white community to be used as an effigy for venting pent-up anger. Just so happens that DHHS is quite diverse, just not that kind of diverse acceptable to those currently in power. Apparently not enough Blacks and it is equally apparent that Asians and Hispanics are considered "white adjacents" and undeserving of an equitable allocation of resources. It smacks little of leadership and more of what was foreshadowed in A Man In Full: "We got the power. Now we want the money."

This is bad now. It could get worse if "get even, get ours" becomes the standard practice of politics going forward. What DHHS foreshadows is a future where it isn't about just Black and White. A future where others take the reins of power. And should they follow suit and exclusively support their demographic, at the expense the others, then the policy espoused by the Board Chair will prove to have been a societal carcinogen.

How Long To Animal?

This is an oft-discussed topic in the prepper community: in a SHTF event how long before otherwise rational folks turn on one another, probably violently? In other words, how long will it take for people to become animals? If you've been paying attention during the current pandemic the answer is probably in minutes, not hours and certainly not days.

If you've been watching TV you probably noticed there are a significant number of cancer ads. Not selling cancer, but selling services, therapies and procedures. While there certainly have been significant advances in treatments and therapies one must conclude there is a big market and lots of patients. Some traditional therapies, though much improved, are still in the protocol, one of which is radiation therapy. Now, as you may know, radiation burns, it burns skin. Think sun burn. And these patients treat these skin burns much as you might a sun burn. With Aloe. Pure Aloe Vera Gel.

By now you're probably wondering what cancer has to do with "going animal." Fair enough. Even though most people know more people with cancer than the Corona Virus it is the virus that is rocking their world, turning them animal, raiding local stores leaving shelves looking like a Soviet bakery. This is more than forcing Touch Down Al to economize on toilet paper, hand sanitizer disappeared almost instantly. Again, what does this have to do with cancer? Ask yourself, "what is the average self-absorbed ass-hat going to do when he cannot buy this?" He will Giggle how to make his own even though health experts advise against it. Like the best things in life, scotch and water, gin and tonic, there are but two ingredients: alcohol and aloe. Since isopropyl alcohol, called for in most recipes, is only 70% alcohol the result doesn't reach the 60% concentration needed to be effective. You're better off washing with soap and water, but you should already know that. Or use Everclear and at least you'd have something to drink.

But these ass-hats are not very bright, so not only is hand sanitizer MIA, so is Aloe. Now if this did not have serious implications for those undergoing cancer treatment it would almost be funny. We've got folks who a couple of weeks ago thought nothing of making a deposit in a public restroom, returning to the dinner table without washing their hands, to eat a burger and fries with those very hands. One virus later they're hoarding a resource to make something that doesn't even work. If there is a God in heaven and justice on this earth these animals will soon find this out.

McIver Hill

Not a place. A juxtaposition of two somewhat similar events.

Victor Hill shoots a paramour skating with little more than a slap on the wrist. Claud McIver shoots his wife with the outcome unresolved.

Similarities? Sure. Guns aren't toys, they are deadly weapons. Both shooters are very well connected politically. Both shooters are not without controversy in their pasts and possible near futures. Both shooters are somehow involved in Law and Order with Walking Small still carrying his badge and McIver sporting a law license. Both claim the horrible mishap was an accident. Both talk too much.

Differences? Some important ones. Walking Small's victim survived to be a supportive witness. McIver's victim died leaving the driver as the only witness. Had the fatalities been reversed only one shooting would have had a witness. Hill is black and McIver is white.

Now several black activists (the white version is called the KKK) including Joe Beasley are worried McIver might be getting special treatment, telling the AJC:

"I just think we're seeing a double standard of justice. I'm worried he is getting special treatment."

It's a baby step but it is good to see that at least one black activist is concerned about an intra-race shooting. 

Lessons Learned

There has been a lot of handwringing and lipflapping over the APS cheaters, the trial, their conviction and their soon-to-be-announced sentences. Some want to "put this behind us and move forward", educrat code words for "sweep it under the rug." Pre-trial APS and Bev cheerleaders from the political and business communities would like to see tarnished reputations mellow into a soft patina. Some parents are actually happy ignoring the systemic issues and comfort themselves with the notion that "we've caught ALL the cheaters, everything is fine now."

But there is much to be learned from this experience.

Let's start with race and get that out of the way. It appears that well educated, respected black defendants can no longer reliably expect acquittal with an octoroon jury. In this case the jury was otherwise adequately black yet all but one of the defendants was convicted, with those found guilty being convicted on at least the RICO charges, if not additional charges. Nonetheless these defendants, who had turned their noses up to a plea agreement were sincerely stunned when they were found guilty by a "jury of their peers." It was these defendants' judgment that no matter how damning the facts of the case that a "black enough" jury would never convict a black educator. Wrong.

Then there is the "of course they cheated" defense mostly offered by APS and public education apologists attempting to deflect blame towards "high stakes" testing. The implicit "as anyone would" should be noted, because there is perhaps a bit of truth in that.

When one defines "cheating" as "not providing children with the education that taxpayers have purchased" one realizes the system they  built is structured to support such cheating and will likely drive out anyone not aligned with those goals. It is a system that advances students without regard for accomplishment and the educators leverage the transient nature of failing students and mask their activity with grade inflation. This makes the argument that these few convicted APS bad actors stole "opportunity" for access to tutoring or early intervention/remediation by changing test answers ring hollow. From the educators' point of view remediation belongs exclusively in the early years of college and apparently the University System agrees.

That leads us to the another part of these educators' ecosystem that makes cheaters of them all: colleges of education. While universities generally offer remediation to teach "everything you should have learned thru high school" in a few short semesters, colleges of education combine grade inflation (everyone gets an 'A') with watered down content, particularly subject matter content. They aren't pumping out legions of 4.0 wielding graduates because education attracts the best and brightest. Instead it is because that is what sells, and in fact is required, in the education marketplace. Should any college break ranks and award meaningful grades students would flee to colleges that know and play the game. From pre-K to retirement these folks are somehow involved in the little lies we know as grade inflation.

It should come as no surprise that newly minted educators do not join a work place instituted as a meritocracy. They've never encountered one before. In fewer years than it took to get the college degree they will enjoy quasi-tenure and no matter how obvious their incompetence they are immune to dismissal. And teaching is a bit like pornography--you can't define good (or bad) teaching but you sure as hell know it when you see it. And so does everyone in education, including the bad teachers. So it turns out that everything they know they did learn in kindergarten: everybody gets a gold star--which only amplified their shock when the jury did NOT award them the easy A, a gold star or just give them a pass.

So will they, those that remain, cheat? Of course. That's what they've always done, what they are doing and what they will be doing for the foreseeable future. No matter how distant your sight horizon. But would they falsify documents? THEY ALREADY ARE! Every time a grade report is submitted with an inflated grade someone has falsified a state document. Every time they cash a paycheck knowing full well they have not, cannot and will not provide the service for which they are being paid, they commit theft. If a true professional, say a doctor or a lawyer or an engineer, did only once what our educators do on a daily basis they would lose their license and very likely go to prison.

Which brings us to the sentencing phase...

Now that they are tried and convicted they await sentencing. Some say jail time is too harsh. That these career educators should not be housed with hardened criminals. That we must temper justice with mercy. There must be a second chance. But are their soon-to-be-colleagues "hardened criminals" or are they simply former students--product of the pre-K to prison pipeline these "educators" have operated for years? Perhaps that is the second chance. The opportunity to educate those students they failed during their careers as unindicted felons.