Why did Rome fall?  Did they overreach?  Were they self delusional?  Did they think they were invincible?    Did they lose their drive or were there stronger more capable military forces?  Did they become complacent?  Did they crumble under their social committments and poor economic policies?  Did they outsource their security?  Was it the invasion of Islam?

I don't think anyone knows the correct answer.  Maybe its all of the above or none of the above?   Are we committing these same mistakes in our society?  Have we become complacent?  Are we self-indulgent and delusional?

I ask myself this question.  Tonight I attended a club volleyball meeting at a large sports facility and listened about  a program for my daughter.  I couldn't help to look around the facility and notice kids playing basketall.  There were school teams and travel teams.  I kept looking and what else did I see, but kids practicing baseball.  Wasn't Halloween yesterday?  I didn't think baseball games were played in Indiana until April.  There were kids playing soccer and girls honing their softball skills.  How many times a week will these kids practice?  One, two, three, seven?  What are we doing to our kids?  What are we teaching them?  I wonder how many hours a week the kids practice or how many hours parents are driving their kids from one event to another.  These thoughts are disturbing.  Couple this time with television ogling for most and what do you get.  An uninformed, disconnected, malcontent populace.  We're too busy to get involved with anything or any cause.     How can we?  We would rather complain and expect someone else to take care of our problems or the less fortunate.  There will always be poor, but who is responsible for them?   It can't be me.  I am too busy taking my kids to volleyball, baseball, kickball, basketball, and football activities.  I would rather complain and let someone else handle it.  How blind have we become.

Who is attending the school board meetings, the city council meetings, the kiwanis clubs, the soup kitchens, the church socials, the sertoma meetings, the pta meetings.  I will tell you.  Very few people and we are paying for it as a nation!  We have become silent and inactive.  We have let all of the our decisions be influenced and directed by a small minority.  Are you kidding me?  I guess it's easier to assemble an enduring, incompetent Congress than go to a school board meeting. 

Go to a civic meeting.  Find out what is happening in your community.  You may be shocked at a world that is being created under your nose.  If we don't become active in our communities again, we may share the same fate as the Roman Empire.  Have we become such a lost civilization that we can't govern ourselves.  Politics and communities are local.  GET ACTIVE!

Public education.  Will it be relevant ten years from now.  I would speculate that public education will crumble under the ire of the taxpayers for multiple reasons.  Frivolous spending, poor academic standards, safety, and multiculturism will be its doom.  I am going to focus this blog on multiculturism since I recently attended a school meeting on the subject.  Attendence identical to other meetings.  A school of 1400 kids and there are ten parents present.  Public education is being reconstructed under the populaces nose without notice - only complaints.

I attended the meeting with an open mind.  I work with people from different cultures and countries and  I have always had respect for others that were different than me.  I have had to to be successful in my line of work.  I was very impressed with the first half of the meeting.  My stereotype was wrong.  The intent seemed to be to improve the academics of the kids from poor families.  Very noble.  I was committed to learning more about how we can improve the grades of the impecunious.  I should have left after the first half of the meeting.  I have been shaken since.

I won't bore you with the details of the exercises we undertook, but  they were contradictory to the final message.  The exercises were meant to blur our differences - makes sense.  That would focus us on our similarities.  Unfortunately that day dream ended and then the discussion happened.  I will readily admit that I am not a historian, but I now realize how imperative knowlede of history can be.  I discovered during discussion that our textbooks are all wrong for the mutlicultural environment.  Funny, I didn't know math, reading, science, and grammar required culturally sensitive text.  Text books don't matter that much anymore since some of the teachers indicated they pulled their information from other sources (approved I'm sure).  I thought everyone regardless of skin color, sex, or culture learned the same way.  Visual, audio, and written instruction are the learning vehicles.  An enthusiastic, well-informed teacher helps considerably also.  I think what I heard that distrubed me most about the text books was that they weren't written from the eyes of the oppressed.  History isn't always pleasant and America does have many sins in our past, but that doesn't demand a re-write of history.  If new facts are discovered through further research, then add that content or correct the errors.  One primary example of historical research has proven the death toll for the Spanish Inquisition numbered closer to 1000 - 4000 persons over a three hundred year period instead of the tens of thousands popularly reported.  Please don't misunderstand I'm not excusing the Inquistion, but merely pointing out historical research and data.

 

What happens if we re-write our history from the conquered or the oppressed point-of-view?  What will that do to our children that read that text?  History is not always pleasant, but told from the eye of the oppressed will only create resentment and guilt.  Are we responsible for the sins of our fathers?  Our forefathers weren't perfect, but they established a society that has created more freedom and prosperity than anywhere on earth.  Do we want to tear it all down or rip our society apart from the inside?  Why are people racing to get into our country?

I wandered and I apologize.  Back to the meeting.  Culturally appropriate text books weren't new to me and I still don't embrace that mindset.  We were given a folder filled with information about how our school system is transforming into a multicultural enterprise.  Still curious, I read the articles in the folder when I made it home.  Ignorance is bliss!  Why did I read them?

I discovered a few things.  Some of the brainpower behind the multicultural movement mentioned in our meeting is Julian Weissglass, Peggy McIntosh, and Gary Howard.   For the first time in my life I have to consider myself the oppressor.  If you haven't guessed I am a white male.  I have always lived by the golden rule and never judged anyone by the color of their skin.  Please take the time to read Julian Weissglass' writing "Racism and the Achievement Gap" and Peggy McIntosh's writing "White Privilege: Unpackking the Invisible Knapsack".  Here is a link to white paper written by Gary Howard.

http://www.workforcediversitynetwork.com/docs/Article-WhiteAmericans01-03.pdf

Mr. Howard is speaking on college campuses and to school boards across our nation.  Not surprising, Mr. Howard had his book published by Columbia University.

I am not afraid of change.  I have worked in a rapidly changing environment for the last 15 years.  I embrace change, but what if that change is destructive?  The multiculturism that is presented in the works of the persons above will only divide and create a class of victimization.  Is it any wonder the hostility, apathy, and historically challenged present across our nation by our young?  How long has this been happening in our schools?  I now understand the emigration from the public school system.  

There was a simple presentation that was given at the meeting about someone that was walking home and fell in a large hole on the sidewalk.  The story progressed until the star of the story decided to take a different path home and avoid the hole in the sidewalk.  The star solved his problem of falling in the hole.  He took a different path.  I wonder how long it will be until the populace awakes and walks away from public education.