Re: Why "letter and spirit" ?

[Csubstance@aol.com]

In a message dated 11/29/06 7:15:32 PM, pwmjoy@earthlink.net writes:

<< In the latest (November-December 2006) edition, there is a good article, 
"Losing the Children, Early and Often", in which Marian Wright Edelman 
delineates the four "feeder systems" of the "Cradle to Prison Pipeline": healthcare, 
early childhood education, the foster care system, and schools. She references 
NCLB as an "unfunded mandate" where enrichment programs have been cut and 
where "federal requirements failed to help our children." In essence, Ms. Edelman 
is one of many who have directed attention at the whole picture surrounding 
underachievement. >>

Sadly, no.

To ignore the underlying class structure of society and the economic 
structures which guarantee the four disparities mentioned is simply to support the 
structure. To think that a child whose family income is $20,000 is going to 
receive healthcare, foster care, early childhood education and schools that can 
make up for all the inequities is to ignore the basic dialectic of inequity and 
therefore condone it.

The NAACP is now beholden to its corporate donors, not to its membership. As 
long as the NAACP continues to be a corporate-funded organization, rather than 
a membership organization, this type of apologetics for the gross inequities 
of society will continue. 

A check of the NAACP budget (national and the major locals) on the revenue 
side shows this problem clearly. Like many groups, NAACP has now become 
dependent upon funding from major corporation and the good will of corporate CEOs. He 
who pays the piper gets to call the tune. The article simply confirms that by 
what it leaves out -- the basis for all the other problems. What's more, since 
the social and economic inequities are growing, the problems are getting 
worse, not better. And all the exhortations to schools (and other care providers, 
from foster to early childhood to health) is cruel, no matter how well 
intentioned. 

So articles such as the one cited perpetaute the injustices, rather than 
identifying their roots causes and suggesting truly "outside the box" solutions.

George Schmidt
Editor, Substance
www.substancenews.com