by: Jenni Vinson
March 2, 2001
Some of us have not really had time to factor in what President Bush said in his address to the nation this week. The former President’s problems with all the pardons has sucked the oxygen out of the political environment. It’s kind of hard to look at anything else.
Still, polls show that over 80 percent of the American public agreed with and even support what the President has proposed for guiding this country. He did a good job of presenting his agenda. I walked away with two main points that I thought will be very good for the country. There is far more to what he said than these two points, but these merit an close examination.
George W. Bush’s father called himself the “Education President” and his son is taking up the task where the father left off. He is prioritizing Education as a means for ridding our country of a variety of social ills like poverty, crime, illegitimate births, drug use, unemployment and our country’s desperate lack of skilled labor.
He plans to spend $47 billion dollars over the next ten years on Education to “set high standards, promote character education and ensure school safety — but without too much federal involvement”. He wants to give more control of Education policies over to states and to local School Boards, who should best know what the children in the community need.
It is his plan to allow the state and local entities the money they need to successfully educate children without the strings that normally come attached to federal funding-- strings that insist that if one is to use federal monies, they must be spent according to what the federal government deems to be appropriate.
He is, however encouraging the nation to go back to teaching children the difference between right and wrong. Liberals have insisted that it is wrong to determine for anyone what is right or wrong and this should be subjective to the thoughts and morals of the individual.
I have had conversations with Liberals where they have insisted that even “stealing” may not be wrong for some people since it may be the only choice they have in an oppressive society.
Once again, I go back to my favorite quote: “Reasonable people may disagree...” and I completely disagree. Stealing is wrong no matter what. The ends do not justify the means. Parents need to look at the consequences of teaching children that they can decide what is right and wrong and chose their own morals for themselves.
Embracing this philosophy, some children decided that killing another child for their tennis shoes was ok to do. Too many children decided that doing drugs, tobacco and alocohol was a necessity. And the age of the children involved in sexual activities and pregnancy has gotten lower and lower. Even in Alice, we have had 12 and 13 year-old children get pregnant.
So, the Bush Administration is on target in insisting that schools will teach Reading, Writing, Right and Wrong and Arithmetic. Secondly, it was during the Civil War that Lincoln levied taxes on Americans to offset the emergency spending that the federal government was incurring in the war. It was meant to be a temporary situation.
The Founding fathers had set forth that the poor should not be taxed as this is an undue hardship. The Civil War has been long over and America is now long overdue for tax Reform.
President Bush proposes that the poor and the working poor, earning less than $20,000.00 will be removed from the federal tax rolls. They will pay no feredal taxes. Those who disagree with the President offer that the poor will stilll have to pay taxes- state and local. It is a false argument. Removing the burden of federal taxes while increasing the credit for children will GREATLY benefit Americans who need it.
Tax reform of this magnitude coupled with a vigiliant increase in the quality of education will go a long way towards removing Americans from being classified as poor. Better education and more training will yield better paying job for our children.
And so, I encourage us all to listen carefully in the days to come. Things are changing and these changes will affect our lives and the lives of our children. We have a responsibilty to make sure that things are done right and if we do not agree, we have a responsibilty to speak up, to contact our elected officials and let them know what we do want.