THEY CHEERED.

 I am normally a cynical liberal.  I had watched the Republican candidate debate at the Reagan Library and when I heard the clapping for the number of executions in Texas, I thought, well, I don't believe in the death penalty and they do.  It's okay for them to feel that the death penalty for criminals is justice at work. 

I live in Tampa, Florida and didn't really pay much attention to the CNN/Tea Party Express debate here the other night.  Then I watched the Rachel Maddow show last night.  THEY CHEERED when the moderator posed his question about health care to Ron Paul about a young man without health insurance being allowed to die because of no safety net from the government.  I know that Ron Paul's liberation philosophy is that private and social groups of communities should aid their fellow human beings.  But the audience did not hear his response, THEY CHEERED when the moderator pushed the envelope, asking that the young man should be allowed to die because he didn't have health insurance.  THEY CHEERED!

Maybe there's more to this.  The economy is bad, jobs are scarce, and people are scared of the future of our nation and the world.  Maybe some think we are in the "end times."   But….

THEY CHEERED. 

What if this was about 9/11?  Would they feel the same if the survivors and families of victims of 9/11 were told this?? 

THEY CHEERED.

Over the misfortune of a person who did not have foresight to protect his future.  What if it was one of their family members? 

THEY CHEERED.

Over the fact that those whom Rick Perry did not have ANY second thoughts about executing those who might have been not guilty of the crimes they were convicted of.    What if they hand been wrongly accused and convicted? 

THEY CHEERED. 

I did not grow up in a United States that was this callous and uncaring to humanity.  I grew up in a blue collar family and community where we looked out for each other, helped each other when it was necessary or sometimes because we wanted to and where life was just as important as "stuff."  We valued friendships, social groups and each other.  Property was important, material goods were great but not the "be all, end all" of existence.  Money was something to value but not at the cost of life, liberty and happiness.  

THEY CHEERED.

And what bothers me most is that the mainstream media, the other candidates on the forum and the people around the group and the country are not condemning them vehemently and shouting from the rooftops and throughout all the social media outlets.  I see no outrage, no action, nothing.

THEY CHEERED.

And we looked the other way.

9/11 and LIFE

I watch the 9/11 commemorations today on the tenth anniversary and I wonder about the many turns our lives have taken.  We, collectively, are poorer because of the losses ten years ago and the years between then and now.  The loss of creativity unborn, learning unknown, imagination not ignited, innovation gone dormant, caring untouched, generosity not given and love not unsung.  Present and future generations will not experience the vibrancy of lives unfinished.  The tragedies are many, but the world continues to turn and the years pass unceasingly.  How can we find ways to commemorate these losses AND celebrate the continuation of our lives, our nation, and our world?

I think about my research into civic education and civic engagement.  I think about how some view this only as it applies to patriotism or being a global citizenship.  Many people have chosen sides on this debate.  I feel that one must have both to be a civic-minded individual because without the grounding in one, the other cannot exist.  In my readings, I discovered a book by Parker J. Palmer, Healing the Heart of Democracy, The Courage to Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit.  Courage to create, courage to heal, courage to feel and courage to step outside and embrace the core of our "self."  "...where all of our ways of knowing converge - intellectual, emotional, sensory, intuitive, imaginative, experiential, relational, and bodily, among others (Palmer, 2011).  This is the civic education that I believe in.  An all-encompassing passion for knowing on all levels so that I can understand, interpret and hopefully, create meaning of the world and my part in it. 

This is why I have undertaken this study into how teachers make meaning of civic education and civic engagement in their lives and their teaching.