by CODY LYON

Today's America is markedly different than it was when I was growing up in 1970's Alabama.  While much among us has changed for the better, especially in the realms of official equality and social justice, mean-ness, as my Grandmother would have called it, still runs rampant throughout our society.   One need only go online and read headlines from across the country that detail economic inequity, corruption and acts of brutal violence that have in many ways numbed our souls.  Clearly, the biblical Golden rule that would have us do unto others, as we would do unto them, is still an afterthought, perhaps forgotten by many.

This week's newsletter includes another discussion about the Republican neglect of our infrastructure. Since I wrote it two more levees have failed, flooding Des Moines, which aren't included in my analysis. If you want to help the Midwest, you can go here.

Turning to the election, the attacks have begun in earnest. Republicans rolled out a whole slew of attacks against Barack and Michelle Obama...some borderline racist, some merely lies, and none all that effective. In most states Obama's popularity has surged such that if the election were held today, Obama would easily win with over 300 electoral votes, just like Senator Chuck Schumer predicts will happen. But keep in mind, this is just the first volley of attacks.

British Government released the movie, An Inconvenient Truth, to be shown in schools.

One man, Mr. Dimmock, a school Governor, challenged that in court, making of course, outrageous claims of the movie.

[ crossposted in its entirety from Talk To Action

[Public] Schools have been the single most effective institution in our society for equipping immigrants and the children of immigrants with the skills necessary to find a place in our society. They are one of the few institutions consistently encouraging immigrants, minorities, and the disadvantaged to aspire to accomplish more than had previously been thought possible within America's network of social, civil and economic systems. - Dr. Bruce Prescott

In "The Manufactured Crisis: "Myths, Fraud, and the Attack on America's Public Schools" Dr. David Berliner and Bruce Biddle argued that ongoing criticism of America's public schools is baseless and partisan.  [ read review of book in Christian Ethics Today ]. A new study released January 2006, funded by the US Department of Education, by researchers at the University of Illinois at Champagne Urbana rebuts  claims on the alleged low performance of public schools [ click here for PDF of full report ]:

[ NCSPE study summary ] Findings reveal that demographic differences between students in public and private schools account for the relatively high raw scores of private schools on the NAEP.  Indeed, after controlling for these differences, public school students generally score better than their private school peers.....Conservative Christian schools, the fastest growing private school sector, are the lowest performing private schools.[ emphasis mine ]

Meanwhile, the ongoing assault on America's public schools comes from many quarters   [ see full story ]