News Round Up: Black Cloud Edition

This round of news stories is on the darker side of the cloud cover -- I am hoping that attention to these issues might provoke some silver lining.

After you read these rants, don't say that I didn't warn you about the dark cloud... there may be lightening, too.  I did find one lighter gray cloud with a silver lining for the end... hold on.

I take these folks seriously when they say that there is a need to rethink financial aid. However, I take issue with the only response being the need to pull back from need blind admissions.  There are deeper considerations than rising costs to keep in mind as financial aid is "retooled."  For instance, there are going to be more and more less wealthy people that need to be educated in order for our country to continue to be competitive internationally.  Perhaps it means rethinking how scholarship money is doled out -- in terms of who needs it most, rather than giving it to all.  Rethinking costs at the university level might also be needed -- and how those costs are paid.  If some colleges and universities plan to retool their offerings as well, to match the needs of employers, then, perhaps those employers ought to pay for some of that worker training.  There are plenty of apprentice/intern models out there in the world to consider.  All that to say, this piece simplistically blames "need blind admission" as the reason that colleges will fall short financially.  Um, yeah, not so much.

Wow, there is so little silver lining to find in this piece.  It is surely an unhappy fact that drug cartels "winning" the war on drugs glorifies the narco.  It seems to be elevating narco behavior to one that has power over and power to.  It is a stark reminder that we, as the initiators of this war on drug nonsense, contribute to another nation's generation growing up in this impossibly nightmarish world.  Of course these children's experience will be changed from that which we consider childhood.  When will we ever learn?

Though NPR reported this story as a victory for Native Americans, embedded in the background of the story are the years of colonization, oppression, theft and neglect.  No college fund, and no $1000 payments per household can turn that around ... and the fact that it took years (years after the woman who initiated the lawsuit lost her own life) to "settle" this lawsuit is testimony to just exactly how fucked up this is.  The US Gov't took their land, "held" their money, charged them for substandard living and educational situations and then forgot to give them the money they were due.  And now, years (GENERATIONS) later, they get around to "settling" on giving $1000 checks and a college fund.  Can we have an accounting of the money stolen (adding in the loss of life, health, opportunity, etc) in 2012 dollars and compare that with the settlement? Sure, 3.4 billion sounds like a lot... can it really compensate for nearly 250 years of crimes?

This cloud is more gray than black, but not unlike the story above, it is important to hear (or read the transcript) between the lines.  NPR reports here about a revitalization of Nahuatl in New York City.  The reporter is tickled to report that this endangered language is being taught in NYC, of all places! And not only that by a guy whose day job is in a restaurant!  Are you starting to see what's gray in these clouds? I am weary of pointing out how fucked up the world we live in is -- and how we dress it up pretty by ignoring how fucked up it is.  As the report points out, in the voice of a linguist, millions of people currently speak Nahuatl -- or various versions of it -- but it is in danger of disappearing because people in NY are speaking English or Spanish?  What about where these folks are from? What is going on there?  Why isn't this language taught in Mexico? Is it? We would never know from this piece.

Ugh... this little black cloud comes complete with a sense of hopelessness.  What do we have to do to turn this around? We could start by not believing that there are kids we can throw away -- we could believe that all children are capable of learning -- and we could understand that we need all of our citizen's brain power to turn our economic situation around.

Ok... one gray cloud that turned into a silver lining with this story.   This minister tells about how he reluctantly became an advocate for the gay community in his church.  He really figured out how to turn an unhappy situation into one of faith, love and power.  I appreciate his honesty about how reluctantly he went into this work ... and the joy he has derived from it.

If this thunderstorm of black cloud news has left you depleted and needing some inspiration, check out this DailyOm:  Blue Skies... the sky is blue even on a cloudy day.  There has to be perspective if we are going to read the "bad" news -- and hopefully try to do something about it.