I’m struggling with the fact that I can not afford to enroll my kids in a private school, or at least a better school. And by better, what I really mean is one where the parents don’t walk their kids to school chain smoking at 8AM carrying a 10 month old …. or smoking with the windows rolled up and a car load of kids. It would be nice if I didn’t need to worry about what inappropriate language was going to be used by a few moronic parent on the playground in the morning. I don’t want my kid teased because they watch PBS or never get to have McDonalds for breakfast and dinner. I wouldn’t need to worry about those or many other things if I could put my kids in the local progressive private school, or home-schooled them. At least not nearly as much. But who can swing $10K per year per kid for grade school? And home-schooling for me would mean not working - at least not at the salary I am at, which would be a more significant net cost.

School systems seem to struggle on and on with the fact that regardless of how brilliant the teachers are, no matter how much innate ability a kid might possess or how much potential any particular educational program might have, in the end if parents have the TV on 24 hrs a day and feed their kids McDonalds for dinner, the school system will proportionally struggle. Their kids will have unhealthy bodies and minds. They’ve turned thier kids over to whatever TV has to offer them. The @*&$#@ TV is raising their kids. I want my kids in a school where all the kids have reasonably smart parents… not necessarily rich or connected or popular… just parents who try to set a good example. None of us are perfect or ever will be - but parents who all try. That would do it for me. Do I really need to pay $10K a year for that?

Teachers take the heat for a flailing educational system but it’s parents who are failing isn’t it? It’s us and it’s our community. We all need to get equally involved in the education of our children. We all need to take 100% of the responsibility. Not just some of us - everyone. But seriously, who can find that time in 2008. In most of the families I know both parents need to work full time to get by. By the time you pick up your kids after work, drive home, make diner, baths, plus laundry, shopping, bills, etc… everyone is ready for bed. There’s so little time.

Why don’t we have time? Where did all the time go? When people work hard everyday and still can’t afford to put their kids through college, or retire comfortably or own a house or spend enough quality time with their kids, they are being robbed. Our communities are being robbed. If time equals money we’ve all been robbed somehow.

I do believe that the type of community building that is needed to give our kids a better life and a better community & country is also entirely possible. People can organize and reach out and organize some more. People can find ways to survive as a community by leaning on each other and by helping each other and lifting everyone else up. It is possible. But it doesn’t change the fact that we’ve been robbed of our time as a community and a country. A community can find ways to adapt and survive and each should. But not all do. And we can’t loose sight of the fact that our time has been stolen. Or that time equals money. The saddest thing is that the few wealthy time hoarders can’t use more than any one person.

The message I hear from John Edwards is that it’s time to fight back hard for our time, for our money, for what we are worth. He’s saying it’s time to take back what has been stolen from us and it’s not a negotiation. Hey, it’s a long shot that he would succeed with all his stated challenges but what is the alternative? What would we ever get back with Hillary Clinton in office? I like Obama, but he doesn’t seem to be in charge in a way that can beat a republican. I can see him coming close by using his intellect, but that won’t win a general election. John Edwards is angry like the rest of of who can make the connection between the record profits of oil companies & their executives, and the price of gas we all pay (diesel at $3.62!). And that cost drives up prices for everything we buy that is shipped. Edwards is banking on the likelihood that Americans are smart enough to make a connection that simple. He will be elected if enough people can see how much more it costs us as a society to have uninsured citizens without preventative care. I don’t even think the war is an issue anymore. The war will be over soon after this election. Everyone knows that. War is the issue that will win this election for the democratic nominee but it seems to be such a foregone conclusion that it’s okay for democrats to focus on other very important things. If it ever gets close the dems only need to mention Iraq for a few days.

So…. anyhow, If I were you I’d vote for Edwards Plus, when is the last time there were little kids running around the white house? That’ll be cute right? I think people with young kids are better equipped to deal with reality… unless they chain smoke all the way to school from McDonalds.

- Mike