I think, mentally, I remember everything  as "pre-" or "post-"  September 11, and I remember that day as vividly as I remember the assassination of President Kennedy.

This was a horrible time for America, we were scared and we lost confidence in ourselves.  But the one good thing that came from these horrible events were the selfless acts of heroism, of Jew helping Muslim, black helping white because really, with all the dust and death covering these fortunate survivors, you couldn't tell who was black, who was white; who was Muslim, who was Jew; who was Democrat, who was Republican- we were all equal and we needed each other's help.  The entire country sincerely grieved together; patriotism was at it's highest probably since WWII.  Then things went back to normal.

I sit on the front porch and contemplate my neighborhood.  There's a family to my left, I'm not sure if they are Republican or Democrat.  The family to my left are Hispanic; I'm not sure if they're "legal" or not.  Directly across from me is a family with a teenage girl; maybe she's on birth control.  There's a couple of guys in the house catacorner; they might be gay. The family next to them-the dad's always home; maybe they're on Welfare.   And next to them is a family with five kids; wonder what church they go to.  Guess what!!!  I don't give a big, whoop what they are as long as they are good neighbors and abide by the law.  I'm more prone to wonder if they have enough food to eat and that their kids do well in school, than worry about the "small stuff"...and Sug

If we have learned anything from 9/11 we know that as Americans if we brush ourselves off and get back on our collective feet, we can pull out of this "Great Recession"  and do about anything else we put our minds to.  We will survive, but we have to make careful decisions on how that survival will translate as the kind of world we leave our children.

Just dropped my granddaughter off at school.  Being as anal-retentive as I was with my daughter, I walk her to her classroom and pass her off personally to her teacher. 

What I see there is lots of happy kids, eager to learn the lessons of the day.  Teachers who are excited to be there and seem to really care about "their" kids and instill really neat ideas to help them learn.  For instance, instead of practicing their letters on the lined pads we used (back in the dark ages), they get to practice their letters by tracing them in shaving cream!!  I kid you not!!  These young teachers have some really neat ideas to get kids involved and have fun while they actually learn!  It's only been 2 weeks, but my granddaughter is really better at her letters, and can read simple words (she already had some of them like "play" and "exit" from our computer games we play together) and I am amazed.

As I drive away, this year's election is on my mind, again.  

Currently, Texas ranks:

•  49th in Verbal SAT Scores
  
• 46th in average Math SAT scores
• 36th in high school graduation rates (yep, that "No Child Left Behind" really worked!)
• 33rd in teacher salaries (avg. $48k annually)
• Texas ranks 6th in the nation in student growth, but ranks 40th in expenditures per pupil.  In 2005, Texas was the ONLY state to cut student expenditures
• Between FY 2002-2006, average cost at public universities rose 61%, and tuition at community colleges rose 51%

Globally, the United States ranks:

• 31st in K-12 education, due to low rankings in education expenditures
  
• 61st in teacher-to-student ratio 

In higher education, the US ranks

• #2 in student enrollment, but 74th in students graduating with engineering or science degrees

The United Stated ranks 46th in cost per student, based on % of GDP

Romney plans to enact sweeping cuts to education, proposes a voucher system (which does nothing to help public schools) and prefers privatizing schools.  Paul Ryan's plan cuts Pell Grants, but does nothing to reduce the cost of secondary education.  

President Obama's plan calls for:

• Continue funding of Head Start and public & private pre-K (crucial for young, rapidly developing minds)
• Higher standards and better assessments; replacing "No Child Left Behind"
• New attention to turn around low-performing schools
• Adding funding for more K-12 teachers
• Increasing the amount and number of Pell Grants available;
• Investing in community colleges
• income-based repayment of student loans

You can read more about Obama's vision for education at:  http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education. 
You can read more about Romney's vision for education at: ____________________________ (if he has one, I haven't heard about it, and I've done several internet searches.  I'm just going by Paul Ryan's budget, since Romney hasn't had an original thought since he started running for president 6 years ago.)

I don't hate rich people.  I think it's an American thing that we don't begrudge people wealth or success, because up until recently we thought we ALL had that opportunity.  

What I don't like is rich people being able to use their money to buy their kids out of jail, the influence of my Congressperson or Senator.  If the Koch brothers weren't such dirty rotten election-buying right-wing bastards, I wouldn't begrudge them a nickel of their Daddy's money.

In fact, if you think about it, all women really owe rich "society dames" a lot.  Since they rich, didn't have to work their hands to the bone, like my grandmothers, they had a lot of idle time on their hands.  Having nothing else to do, they got together and through much effort,  jail, being ostracized by their families and divorced by their husbands....on August 18, 1920 women finally got the right to vote with the ratification of the 19th Amendment. I'm not being catty here, I mean it.  These ladies went through hell and back for the right for ALL women to vote, not just the rich.  We all owe them a lot, but not enough to vote for their husbands. 


So, thank you Mrs. Romney for that.  I really appreciate the opportunity given to me by women of means and plan on exercising it on November 6, 2012.

Got my new voter registration card!  Are you registered to vote?  If you're in Texas, you can check by going to  https://team1.sos.state.tx.us/voterws/viw/faces/SearchSelectionVoter.jsp  

ARE YOU REGISTERED?
Pick up Voter Registration Applications at:

• your local U.S. Post Office
• Voter Registrar's Office
• f you're lazy, like me, go to http://www.RegisterToVote.org.   This is for all 50 states.  You fill out the application online, print it and mail it.

A HISTORY LESSON FOR MY KIDS
So much happened during my early lifetime.  We sent a man to the moon, we unwrapped the mystery of the human genome, women got the right to choose, we survived an Oil Embargo, and most importantly, Blacks got the right to vote. 

Not too very long ago,  people, both black and white, fought and died for the right for Blacks to vote.  Technically they had the right to vote with passage of the 15th Amendment in 1870.  However, during the "Age of Redemption" (after Federal troops left the South),  - blacks (and some poor whites) had to pay a "poll tax" or correctly guess the number of bubbles in a bar of soap in order to vote.
  
The Voting Rights Act of 1965  finally rolled back Jim Crow laws (more to come later on this) gave blacks the right to vote.  THIS WAS IN MY LIFETIME!!! I remember seeing the clashes in Alabama on TV (black-and-white, three channels only).

I got to looking into the Amendments before spouting off and discovered that women only got the right to vote in 1920 (19th Amendment)!!!  That was in my grandmother's lifetime!!  They weren't beaten (not as much, anyway), or had dogs turned loose on them, but women were jailed, force-fed and, yes, some did die, in order to get this RIGHT. 

So you see kids, voting is a RIGHT, but it's also a duty.  Just as we pay allegiance to the Flag, you need to take the time out of your busy schedules to vote - for the thousands of people before you, who risked everything, so that you could vote, fairly and freely.

Maybe my next blog will be on the Amendments to the Constitution?   I think we need a refresher course.  I sure learned a lot in the short time I looked stuff up.  Do they even teach that in High School anymore?

Well I watched Romney on MTP.  He didn't enlighten much on issues - I think he's going to replace ObamaCare with RomneyCare?  Not sure.  This is one man that whips every leaf off the bush beating around it.

I still can't understand why the Rep. think the economy is such an abysmal failure.  Stock market closed higher than it's been in like forever.  Current jobs report - jobs up, but less than a million.  Jobs have continued to increase steadily for the past 29 months, they haven't gone down.  Slow and steady.  Sure beats the roller coaster ride we had in '08-'09. (Not that I'm bitter).  Yeah I'm still mad at Obama, but I realize that even if he'd done something earlier on home mortgages, it would have been too late for me.  I was in serious trouble about the time he got elected - nothing gets through Congress that fast.  

Romney strikes me like he'd be a nice guy if you knew him socially  - probably not to have a beer with, maybe a nice Chardonnay.  In business, I think he'd strike like a rattlesnake.  You don't get that rich without being shrewd.  And that's not what we need in the White House this term.  You can't balance the budget without keeping the people who would be affected in mind.  Our wounds aren't cauterized yet.  I really don't want anyone ripping the bandaid off just yet.

I really tried to be fair.  I watched both conventions from beginning to end.  To be honest I was really wary of the Republican nominee, especially after the selection of Ryan for VP, due to previous information I knew about the goings-on in the House and previously reading Ryan's tax bill (I'm a numbers junkie, numbers never lie).

Anyways,  being a lifelong Republican, I listened to Romney's speech.  With the exception of the remark about "Obama keeping the oceans from rising" and accompanying smirk and eyeroll, he said all the right things.  I really WANTED to believe.  But you know what he said didn't "show" in his eyes.  I can't explain it, but I don't think he even believed what he was saying.

By contrast, the Democratic convention was uplifting, and as mad as I am about what has happened, I began to have hope again.  And the speakers, all of the speakers, believed what they were saying.  Obama's speech was sincere.  Sure, he didn't get into the nitty-gritty, but he did give me more information about his plans than Romney did (which was zero). 

Another thing, and maybe the most important was this.  Other than the myriad shades of people's skin - from lily white, soft cocoa, mahogany and ebony; I saw Sikhs, and Muslims, Jews, Christians (I'm assuming, since they don't have a "native headdress"), and probably a few agnostics and atheists thrown in for good measure.  I saw carefully "coiffed" big-haired women, and more people in that audience that looked like my Mom and Dad, like my friends, obviously middle and lower-middle class.   THESE people represented MY idea of AMERICA .  And for the first time, this party was gung-ho and appreciative of the sacrifices our kids in the armed services make for us every day.  So, yeah, to semi-quote New Mexico's governor, "Damn, I think I might be a Democrat!"

The Republican Party has swung so far right that they've almost come full-circle.  So, probably when they come back around, I'll get back on their band wagon....who knows.