Opinions

Hi all,

I've been away for awhile mainly putting up a very basic web page and managing post-Adult Ed retreat/end-of-semester duties

I wish you a great New Year.

I've also been occupied with learning about the distortion of the media on certain subjects, signing petitions for a variety of causes and wondering what the United States will look like in 20 years. Will the rich continue to get richer and the poor get poorer? How will global warming affect us? How do we get our reputation back as good Americans and not "the bully nation?" Will teachers ever be respected as they once were a generation or two ago?

What is the role of the adult educator in all of this? I find it ironic that Adult Educators are needed more than ever and some AE programs have closed. We are necessary and yet marginalized in many settings. I've decided to focus on working on a couple of intiatives that interest me in order to make a difference and to stop worrying about what others think of Adult Ed. It's amazing what people say when they have no clue how challenging our work is.

I suggest you continue on your mission or find a mission and work on preserving the freedoms that our ancestors fought for. Work for fairness in voting, the first amendment, women's rights, the rights of people of color etc. Fight for environmental issues. Whatever you want. Look at alternative news sources such as www.alternet.com

Fight. Fight. Fight.

Our freedoms of speech, freedom to demonstrate against the government and women's freedom to choose whether to have a child or not are NOT freedoms to take for granted. Look at what happened to African Americans after the Civil War. Hard fought rights were essentially erased between 1865 and 1877.