An Open Apology to Americas Children
You mentioned Holly Wood that you were approaching your birthday and that all you wanted for your birthday was for us to leave in the comments section below your story, a well thought out apology to the children of this nation. Well I decided to write it out as its own story.
Dear Children of America, our bright and shining beacons of our future and hope of humanity. Know that on behalf of your elders that we have not been kind or thoughtful to your future. A looming cultural pestilence has enshrouded the souls of this nation, allowing you to reap the sickly gains of what we have sown. Allow me to enumerate where it all went wrong and what we could have done better.
Common Core
I apologize for what we allowed our public schools to have become. That you go to a school in which you are constantly scrutinized and bombarded with standardized tests on a weekly basis. That even children as young as 5 years old are receiving hours of homework every single day, robbing them of the play that is so important to the healthy, innovative and problem solving minds of our future.
Why is it that individuality is squashed in this attempt to drill rote memorization and endless work into the normalcy of the minds of our most malleable? Remember children there is a reason for everything. On paper this raises the standardized test scores of the bottom 10% of students without having smaller classroom sizes to where the most needy children can get the full attention they need to learn the subject material.
Remember that Quantitative objective knowledge is pushed upon you because it is easier (and cheaper) to measure than qualitative metrics like, intelligence, problem solving skills, improvisation, and ethics.
In the age of Google, where a quick search can find the data needed for most simple questions, why are we testing for memorization of answers as opposed to critical thinking skills where we teach children how to find the right information to derive the answer they need?
Remember that you are going to come into your own in what is essentially a Fascist society. You are more productive and useful to the masters when you are trained to work hard and not question.
For this I apologize.
Charter Schools and Vouchers
I apologize that we allow the poorest schools to suffer the most by punishing them, further making it more difficult to reach the neediest children in the poorest areas.
I apologize that an entire party operating under the strategy of “starving the beast” decides to punish such schools to create the very evidence they need to point the finger and say,
“You see?! Just like we said all along! Government fails at everything! This is why we need to sprinkle the magic fairy dust called ‘Free Market’ onto this thing to realize the cost savings.”
I apologize that this Free Market isn’t actually free. It is generally filled by a no/low bid contract where the golf buddies of said politicians reap huge profits by running charter schools that can pay subsistence wages to teachers with virtually no benefits, and then kick out under performing students to artificially raise their median test scores. I apologize that we allow those company owners to donate huge sums of money to the political campaign of politicians for the lucrative contract that ends up costing the taxpayers the same amount if not more money than the public school.
For this I apologize.
Systemic Racism
I apologize to the minority children that must grow in a society filled with systemic racism and in a society hostile to you for no other reason than the color of your skin.
I apologize that your parents and loved ones feel the need to rob you of your innocence to remind you of the danger of police officers and how they are here to serve and protect white people, and disregard you in the best case scenario, and in the worst case scenario…
I am sorry that when you work hard and succeed you will be scorned by others as being a product of affirmative action.
I am sorry that when a white man wears a suit and tie he will be perceived as an important business man, while if a black man wears a suit and tie he will be perceived as dressing up.
I am sorry that if you make a few mistakes in your adolescence and get caught with drugs, you are many times more likely to wind up in jail because of the color of your skin, while your white friends will get community service and a clear record after 6 months.
For this I apologize.
Student Loans and Jobs
I apologize that simply to make a living wage in this day and age that you will be forced to attend higher education where unless your parents have money, you will be straddled with sometimes six figures of student loans.
I am sorry that when you graduate you will struggle to find a quality entry level job that allows for advancement of your career. I am sorry that you will likely make so little that after your student loan payment and other bills that you will only have enough money to rent a tiny one bedroom that is a 45 minute commute to the city.
I am sorry that lack of job prospects may lead you to a bankruptcy where you cannot escape your student loan debt.
I am sorry that even if you find a decent paying job in a hot field, that employers will collude to ensure wage suppression, and lobby for more visas and temporary work permits to drive down the cost of labor.
For all of the ladders of opportunity and advancement that are kicked down by your elders already at the top, I apologize.
Endless War
I apologize that the world hates us and hates you. I apologize that we perpetually cause war in nearly every part of the world that has resources we want. That corporations profit from giant military contracts to build bases and tanks that nobody wants or needs.
I apologize that we give weapons to parties that are not trustworthy and do atrocious acts with them, and how many of these weapons end up in the hands of terrorists that kill many.
For all of you that are convinced of the honor and glory of serving in our nations military, and end up psychologically damaged without appropriate care, or injured or killed, I apologize to you.
For-Profit Health Care
I apologize that we decided it was a good idea to profit off of the suffering and misery of the sick and infirm. I apologize that we took the extremely wrong headed view that healthcare is not a right and that we are good Christians following in the footsteps of Jesus by denying care to our brothers and sisters.
I apologize we allowed the insurance lobbyists to manipulate and rig the system to the point where they essentially wrote the ACA bill to benefit them and give them the ability to raise premiums to absurd levels. I apologize that so many of us were too scared to adopt MedicareForAll or UniversalCare so that the shackles of a corrupted and perverted business model can be freed from the economy allowing it to soar once again.
For those of you that become the more than 1 in 2 people filing bankruptcy from unpaid medical bills, I apologize.
Climate Change
I apologize for the affects of climate change you will experience in your lifetime. The powerful storms that will destroy your homes. The overflow levees that will fail you. The droughts that will wither and dry up your farms. The water shortages that will cause civil unrest and wars. The refugees and migrants flooding your lands to escape the vicious revenge of an Earth that is becoming more and more inhospitable to billions of people. The death and destruction of millions of species.
Children, I apologize to you that we did not have the political will to stand up and fight against the status quo, change our consumerist ways, adopt renewable energies and really push for the phase out of carbon emissions as much as we should have, because the money was just too tantalizing to resist. For this I apologize having let you down.
Courage and the 2016 Presidential Election
Before the end of the year, either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton will have been elected to President of the United States. This historic election will mark the point where society truly regresses to true Fascism regardless of the result. Remember, our candidates are a reflection of the people, your elders who are leaving this world behind for you to take control of.
I apologize that it came down to this historic Non-Choice that was presented before us. I apologize that we didn’t have the courage or the foresight to see that voting against Trump is trying to solve the cancer of our nation by treating the symptoms.
By voting for Hillary we are sanctioning the corporate candidate, that will most likely support future trade deals, that will maintain the status quo. Also importantly we are voting for a candidate that endorses the inherent and obvious collusion and corruption within the DNC.
The voices of Progressives are not respected and never will be in the Democratic party.
Fear keeps us controlled. Fear keeps us in the binary Non-Choice.
I apologize we did not have the courage to see beyond the next 4 years and how we can work towards fixing the systemic problems of our society and government. I apologize that we did not have the courage to vote Third Party.
