On the Ethics of Manipulation

Semantically speaking, to manipulate merely means; to interact with, as in manipulating the rubic's cube. To the extent that one operates upon and controls something by manipulating it, there is no moral aspect to the action. It is mere fact that one manipulates the state of something they wish to change. The ethical line gets drawn when that which we wish to change has free will and a choice in the changing. It rather reminds me of the old joke, how many psychologists does it take to change a lightbulb? Only one, but the lightbulb must be willing to change. If one manipulates the environment of another against that person's will and in the absence of a moral authority, then the manipulators ethics should be questioned.

Military Men of Honor Should Be Allowed to be Honest and honored.

I had an interesting exchange with my son today. He is in the 5th grade and we live in a very conservative town. I heard him call some aspect of his life "gay". To be honest, I do not remember what he was quipping about but whatever it was, it was "gay".

My reaction was strong and I went into lecture mode. I had to point out that when he runs his X-Box and plays "Call of Duty" some of the guys who hit that beach, were gay. I told him that our military has had a policy in which those guys had to lie about how they relate to life even as they execute their duty "to the death". I asked him if he was aware of the military policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and if he cared if our soldiers can fight and die as long as they are not honest about how they live and love?

From a military perspective the question is, as you play call of duty, does it matter if the avatar you drive into a German machine gun nest is gay or strait? Overwelmingly the answer is "fuck no!"

He said that queston was weird and that it did not matter in the least as long as the bunker "was smoked".

I will take that as a moral win for choice and defer to another day the question of whether any avatar should ever take up arms against another avatar (frankly a lost cause.) Certainly the case of cultural genocide is a compelling discussion. For now, however, I will rest on the laurel of knowing that he will not use sexual preference as a criteria for commanding a line into a forward offensive action.

Moral?

"Don't ask, don't tell" is an unnecessary distraction to military commanders in command of groups between a platoon and a command level or above.

Our Great-Grandfathers debated blacks in uniform. Our Grandfathers debated women in uniform. Our Parents are debating gays in uniform and, who knows what we will debate at the end of our lives.

My point is simple; every time this issue is raised that which is true must prevail: Men of honor must be celebrated for their honesty as well as their service.

Our local natural filtration system

Just as there is a natural Hydrological cycle that consists of evaporation, condensation, and precipitation, a major pollutant in Athol, Mercury, tends to follow this cycle closely. It is introduced into the environmental cycle in a number of ways. Light bulbs, discarded batteries, industrial processes and fertilizers all act as sources of the introduction of mercury into the environment.

The very same conservation lands that have been set aside as habitats for a number of endangered species in northern New England, can serve as a first line of defense against the introduction of heavy metals into the environment. As water soluble mercury travels down river, the sediments in the flood plains tend to provide a large natural filtration system for pollutants. PCB's and heavy metals can become trapped in the sediments of the flood plains and drop out of the water cycle.

Athol benefits from the vast water shed and flood plains that have been set aside and maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers. While not a primary purpose in building them, the function of natural filtration eases the burdens placed on the man-made waste treatment facilities that act as the final arbitrator of these metals in our water supply.

Community Support for Water Resources

Athol, Massachusetts has a rich set of water resources. Due to several recent community initiatives that have focused on conservation in our region and activity by the Army Corps of Engineers there are a large amount of land reserved as water shed and as protected lake and river habitats within the town limits.

The predominant water resource in our area is the Miller's River which travels seven miles through Athol from New Hampshire to the Connecticut river.

The community exists largely because of it's access to this swift flowing river which, once dammed several times has provided industry in the area the hydro-mechanical power it required to grow as a milling and textile leader in early New England history.

In the 30's and 40's the Miller's river had become so polluted that it would not support fish populations but the residents of Athol started to manage this abuse of the system and have turned it around significantly.

There are, however, 3 major polluters in Athol who continue to cause problems. It is worth noting that all three have put measures in place that should help reduce their impact on the river. The community must be vigilant, however, the industries in this economically depressed region are in a strong negotiating position as the residents object to their use of the river, the community also desperately needs their jobs and local spending to survive.

Changing where a menu points in Drupal 6

In Drupal 6, I am using Drupal 6.19 and pathauto. If you use custom menus and need to change the path (the node) a menu item points to, do the following:

1. Go to your new page: http:/YOUR-DOMAIN/YOUR-PAGE/
2. Edit it by clicking the edit tab
3. Notice the URL is now: http:/YOUR-DOMAIN/YOUR-PAGE/node/NODE-NUMBER/edit
4. jot down the node number, NODE-NUMBER above.
5. go to Home › Administer › Site building › Menus ›
6. edit custom menu
7. find the specific menu item and edit it.
8. first item is menu path. change it to the new one: node/
9. save and test

It's that easy! We love Drupal!
-Stev3

Whose Responsibility is our world anyway?

When considering the issues involved in the current environmental controversy the economic issues stand out as the low hanging fruit. The first time I because fully aware of the conflict between the environment and the economy was 30 years ago when the company I worked for, a computer manufacturer was accused of dumping large quantities of ferric chloride into a local river. Ferric Chloride is a by product of the circuit-board manufacturing process and is produced as copper is etched off of the boards put inside computers.
The economic benefit of not having to deal with this by-product allowed the growth of the computer industry. After being forced to deal with it, it was discovered that by reclaiming the base chemicals in the waste, much of the toxic by-products could be turned into a secondary revenue stream.

The ethical implications of knowing one is causing harm to others, even if those others are not human is clearly an ethical issue for all but the hardest of hearts. In the Boston area, the Alewife, an indigenous fish has come back from the brink of extinction by the proactive conservation efforts of many groups in the Boston area including the Army Corps of Engineers whom I worked with on the Gridley locks in Boston Harbor which included a stepped system to allow these fish into the Charles River to spawn.

Socially the topic of conservation is considered politically correct. We all pay lip service to our concern. when push comes to shove, however, the question inevitably arises; "whose responsibility is this anyway?" What is really being asked is who will pay for it? This is generally determined by who governs the domain in which a specific issue arises. Certainly the plight of the African Elephant is not mine, I live in the north east of the United States and the only African Elephants in my area are in zoos. On the other hand, the plight of the Alewife, mentioned earlier, is not the concern of the Egyptians, most of whom have never heard of this species of fish.

In consideration of aesthetics, this is the hardest issue to speak to. Perhaps here is where I confess to having a pessimistic view of mankind's willingness to "step up" to the challenges of conservation. Even as the Whale, the Butterfly, species of beautiful flower and the Florida wetlands are all in danger of long term damage, we worry more about the cast of Jersey Shore instead of the Mississippi delta.

Sliding Scale Ethics

When challenged with an "ends justifying the means" debate we often go to the extreme cases of survival, revenge, war, and life or death decisions. I suspect that we strain our capacity to think critically while our "fight or flight instinct" is in full gear. Certainly Pearl Harbor, The extermination camps, The bombing of Hiroshima and the World Trade Center are incidents that strain our ethical framework to the limit. The wealth generated by Blackwater in the wake of 9/11 certainly exemplifies this point. It makes me wonder if there is a scale upon which this question is judged? If I invade the Middle East in response to 9/11 is that Justified even if I would never cut in line at the supermarket in front of an old lady so I could get my cheese sandwich faster which, after all, will raise my blood sugar and allow me to be more effective at my church fund-raiser?

Grappling with the a generational Influence of "Queen and Country"

There is an aspect of my childhood that I have not revisited as an adult in a meaningful way until now. A recent examination of personal barriers, has triggered a new way of looking at my Father that I have not considered before. Enculturation, the process by which one encorporates the aspects and expectations of ones cultural environment into ones own psyche. As a white, anglo saxon male, the archetype of american success, I have lived in denial surrounding what this author is newly discovering to be enculturation.

My father's mother came from a solid Scottish family tracing it's linage back into the highlands past record time. That said, Grandmother was a devout follower of the Queen of England and viewed herself to be from the upper servant class. She was, for most of her life, a Governess by profession.

While she lived and worked in the Boston area most of her adult life, she identified as a Scottish Brit, not an Scottish-American. Her loyalty was always to the Queen and she taught this to her son, who, in turn, confused me with it.

While I do not celebrate a loyalty to the Queen of England, I understand the importance of "knowing ones place" and Deferring to authority in ways that those who are not blessed with a linage of service to ones betters can never understand.

If one has a predisposition to deferring to "ones betters", it is difficult to objectively and critically think about aspects of issues that are "above ones station". The struggle of casting off this yolk is a challenge to the clear application of logic and critical thinking.

Biology and Humanism

When one applies the scientific method to the nature vs. nurture debate the biological model is compelling. At first blush, it appears less subjective. The advent of the mapping of the human genome gives us the ability to assign behavioral characteristics to defects in specific genes. In theory, a catalog of these defects or augmentations could yield a chinese menu of personality. Certainly one does not need a laboratory to log the way an individual's behavior changes under the physical effects of alcohol or drugs.

On the other hand, the argument for a humanistic study of personality is equally compelling. The idea that a path of guided introspection can yield a stronger, happier, and more content self is common desire for humanity. The fact that this practice can be empirically planned and measured lends credibility to the science of the spirit. The ability of humans to self-actualize, that is to experience spiritual growth and to achieve one's goals allows us to overcome profound physical impediments in life.

When the biologists argue that genes and synaptic functions provide the ability to introspect and spiritually grow, they are not wrong.

When the existentialists argue that the self is greater than the sum of it's parts, they are not wrong. Perhaps the most profound weakness for both biological and humanistic paths is how little we really know in either regard.

Introducing An Almost Science...

Many critics of psychoanalysis say that;

"The comparison of psychoanalysis to religious miracle cures is an apt one in reflecting the criticism that Freud’s ideas are not subjected to the same critical, scientific scrutiny as are other psychological theories (Friedman & Schustack, 2009)."

This comment follows from an observation by the comedian Woody Allen, who, in the movie, "Annie Hall", states that after fifteen years of psychoanalysis, he is resolved to give it one more year before resorting to faith-healing. Of course, this idea is coming from someone who thinks that God considers him to be the loyal opposition.

Psychoanalytic theory has two content componants; manifest, and latent content. Manifest describes the notion of "what is", and Latent describes the implications of what is superficially observed.

The problem is that while one can gather anecdotal data and compare that with the mean of similar data, one cannot compare results with a control and therefore cannot reasonably apply the full scientific method to psychoanalytic practice.

Modern medicine and contemporary understanding of the structure of the brain have helped to fill the gaps in psychology that is based solely on observation in a closed system. We know now that the study of personality requires a study of multiple data points that are gathered from a broader spectrum of ideas than were originally thought to be the case.

Bazooka Therapy

We, as a nation give high praise to our men and women overseas, our doctors, nurses, police and fire fighters. Social workers and advocates are often overlooked when the parades are forming. A dear friend of mine was a Dept. of Social Services case worker in Chelsea Ma., a blue collar, low and medium income suburb of Boston for many years. She would walk into homes, often without police escort, and try to talk battered women and their children out of their home and into shelters. She told me she blew through the scary moments by using what she called "Bazooka therapy". You go in and offer what services you can, all the while, secretly imagining lining the parents up against a wall, shouting "fire in the hole!" and pulling the trigger. She said it was the only way she could be professional with a family after a daycare provider reported finding an adult's personal hair in a child's diaper.

Hats off to the social workers, these are unsung heroes of our society.

How One Might Love Themselves

Once I am aware of my construct triggers my response is usually different because my awareness of the trigger necessarily changes it.

What I mean is that when I am innocent and an event triggers a reaction, I react. But when I am aware, the event asserts the notion in me that I articulate as "watch, I'm going to do something around this!".

Having articulated that feeling, the next action I take is to question the value of my first impulse. If that impulse would have been ill-advised, I will probably control it. The act of controlling it is not something that would have happened prior to my awareness of the action and it's consequences. This dynamic is why I am sure that self examination is a good thing. What I need are more experiences in which, when I am aware of the way I react to something, I feel proud of that first impulse and give myself permission to behave, in awareness, as I would have in innocence. That would be a form of personal validation.

Effect of Marital Quality on Children

Reading this thread triggers some profound memories for me. When my parents argued, I recall that mom was them so irritated by her small children that she would do things to them that would probably shock most people. This memory prompted me to do a little research on marital arguments ans their effect on children.

An interesting study presented by doctoral candidate Leavitt on marital quality and the effects on children tests three hypotheses. The questions are if marital arguments have an effect math scores, reading scores, or behavior.

His data suggests that there is not a strong connection between parental harmony and their children's academic performance. The data did, however, support the idea that parental harmony may influence the children's behavior.

Reference:
Leavitt, S. (n.d). Parents' marital quality and interactions in relation to child well-being. Retrieved from ProQuest: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses database.

A Reflection on Mans Role and Rituals

Focusing on rituals is an important spiritual consideration. I am reminded of my foyer where my sons walk in and take off their shoes. Being young, they tend to kick off their shoes only because they will be dunned by their old man if they do not. Thus, they enter and kick off their shoes. Being frivolous boys, however, their shoes land where-ever they land once pulled off, toe to heel as they rush by the transom.

Several times a day, I have occasion to re-enter our home and as I remove and assemble my shoes on the mat, I pick up their carelessly discarded foot coverings and place them, left and right, on the snow mat in the front hall. This, for me, is a ritual that affirms my place in the family. I must say that my ritual pales in comparison to a commitment to facing Mecca five times a day, genuflecting to God and praising His sacred name.

I suspect that somewhere between a constant vigilance to the Kaaba and the periodic assembling of my sons shoes is the place where God lives.

Just a very late night thought :)

Rivals or Brothers?

In examining an ecumenical basis for promoting interfaith communication the first point of opportunity must be the common ancestry these faiths have in their father Abraham. One of the few generalities one can be comfortable with is that all brothers are rivals for their father's affection.

Rivals or brothers, the Qur'an (Q.29.46) confirms that Muslims, Christians and Jews worship the same God. Indeed, they all view God as the creator of the world and all life on it and He is all powerful and all knowing.

Each of these faiths believe that God has sent mankind many prophets, messengers of His word. Each believes that in the end, God demands an accounting from His children for how they have conducted their lives.

In each of these religions, charity is a valued attribute. Prayer is a common central component in all these faiths. They all value honesty and social justice. They all promote loving ones fellow man and cherish the ideal of living life in peace.

In the most basic ideals, each of these religions can make a strong argument for being an ecumenical partner in a growing interfaith movement. The stumbling block that needs to be removed also happened to be a trait all three religions seem to have in common. It is articulated well in a 1992 publication by the World Council of Churches who note that Muslims and Christians tend to view themselves in the ideal and the other in the actual.

http://www.oikoumene.org/resources/documents/wcc-programmes/interreligious-dialogue-and-cooperation/interreligious-trust-and-respect/issues-in-christian-muslim-relations-ecumenical-considerations.html

What's in a Jet Contrail?

The discussion about Jet contrails, what's in them and what effect they are having on our planet is heating up along with our globe, mates!

A 1997 article in the Christian Science Monitor quoted a Patrick Minnis, an atmospheric scientist at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. as pointing out that when we look at the planet from outer space, some portion of the clouds we see might not be natural, but instead be the result of Jet exhaust. His work has proven that these contrails can expand over time to cover tens of thousands of square miles with unnatural cloud formations that certainly have an effect of some kind. What the effects are is still being studied.

In 1996, NASA conducted the Subsonic Aircraft Contrail and Cloud Effects Study (SUCCESS) whose findings aer published at http://www.espo.nasa.gov/success
Unfortunately, while the study did reveal the potential for sulfuric acid particles in the contrails, which hints at an acid rain source, the study produced more questions than answers.

Cowen, R. (1997, July 29). Those hazy jet trails may heat up the debate about global warming. Christian Science Monitor, p. 12. Retrieved from MasterFILE Premier database.

Two Dead Per Minute Due To War

According to the BBC, every minute, two people die in a war somewhere in the world.

In Chad the Libyans have attempted to create an Islamic republic by force.

In Lebanon, the islamic republic has strong sympathies for the Palestinians, who lands are occupied by Israel. Hostilities have included the loss of life at the beginning of this month between Israel and Lebanon.

Like Kosovo v. Serbian conflict, the conflict in Cyprus between the Muslim Turks and Christian Greeks has a religious components, it is really more of an ethnic conflict.

Syria is not directly at war with Israel but it has deployed hundreds of scud missiles along it's border which are aimed at israel.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban have destroyed historic buddhist idols and waged war on even less orthodox muslims in an attempt to impose an extreme Islamic orthodoxy.

Pakistan was formed specifically to give Islamic indians a self ruled land. The tensions between primarily Hindu India and Islamic Pakistan have always run high.

The United Nations maintains a middle-east peace keeping force headquartered in Jerusalem where Jew, Muslims and Christians all have very strong feelings and the risk of conflict is always high.

According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life; "Among the world's 25 most populous countries, Iran, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan and India stand out as having the most restrictions." They also conclude that "Brazil, Japan, the United States, Italy, South Africa and the United Kingdom have the least."

There are wars in the furtherance of political independence such as in the Western Sahara but in general we fight over how we think others should worship.


http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/currentops.shtml
http://pewforum.org/Government/Global-Restrictions-on-Religion.aspx

Does one need to believe in the resurreciton to be Christian?

In consideration of the question, is a belief in the resurrection essential to being a Christian, I submit the following transitive idea. Non-Christians around the world believe in resurrection, therefore, the two notions are not married.

According to Ohyun Kwon "the primitive church clearly related the resurrection of Jesus to the old testament." In his research, he has personally studied the Old Testament, The Apocrypha, and the Pseudepigrapha, including the Dead Sea Scrolls in search of references to an early understanding of resurrection. In lieu of full disclosure, he explains that he was only able to personally study those that were written in Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic or Latin and those which were written in original languages like Ugaritic found him employing the assistance of his professors.

In his studies, he concludes that the idea of resurrection is not a revelation at the time of Jesus, nor is it imported from Egyptian, Iranian or Hellenistic influences. He suggests that there are fundamental elements of Judaism that form a basis for the germination and emergence of the Christian revelations and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He explains that early ideas of resurrection are "pregnant with the Canaanite mythology of Baal's dying and rising again (Ohyun K. 1984)"

Personally, this discovery transcends the question of needing to be christian to believe in resurrection. Images of John Barleycorn and Dionysus who are both ritualistically rent to pieces as are the fields and vines from which their spirits are derived. Although my denomination derives from the Christian doctrine, I am not a disciple of Jesus. I do, however, derive spiritual sustenance from the changing of the seasons and in particular from the blossoms on my pear tree each spring. For me, there is no greater miracle of resurrection than a quince bush in bloom.

KWON, O. (n.d). THE FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF RESURRECTION FAITH IN EARLY JUDAISM (APOCRYPHA, PSEUDEPIGRAPHA, OLD TESTAMENT; ISRAEL). Retrieved from ProQuest: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses database.

A Medical Excuse from prayer in schools

Psychologists tell us that the area of our brains that assists us in forming ethical choices doesn't begin to aggressively develop until we enter into our pubescent phase. They also tell us that the portions of the brain that evaluates facts as true, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, proves to be inconsistently developed in preadolescent brains.

The problem this presents for the teaching of religion in the schools is that the elementary educational system must, given the nature of the development of the human brain, be devoted to the introduction of and memorization of facts in evidence. You can teach a child that the sum of two twos is four, and you can teach them that in 2008 there were 228 million self-identified Christians reporting on the United States Census versus 9 million members of other religious faiths. You cannot, however, teach them that; there may be a religious trend in America based on the fact that a majority of the American population, reporting to their government, identified themselves as Christian. Our children are simply not physically able to assimilate the subtleties of this observation in a educationally significant and consistent manner.

Perhaps, one of the rights of passage into adulthood is the physical ability to distinguish between what one believes, and why one believes it.

citing:
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/population/religion.html (table 75)

Liu, D., Sabbagh, M., Gehring, W., & Wellman, H. (2009). Neural correlates of children's theory of mind development. Child Development, 80(2), 318-326. Retrieved from MEDLINE with Full Text database.

Do Atheists Care If Others View Them As Religious?

For Atheists who grapple more than academically with the question of atheism as a religion, the question is a matter of human rights. In this discussion I examined atheism as a religion, which, in my estimation does not seem to be terribly important to atheist except from the stand point of having the right not to be distracted by the question. Within this framework, the question of atheism as a religion is relegated to the realm of the legal as opposed to the theological, which may in turn be considered a branch of anthropology to the serious atheist.

As a question of legal precedence, Derek H. points out that the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in the case of Kaufman v. McCaughtry (2005) that atheism is entitled to the same treatment that traditional religions receive under the Constitution of the United States of America.

This precedence introduces an interesting outline of the history of the "Right to Atheism" as outlined in a 2005 article from the Journal of Church and State, cited below.

For those who wish a quick feeling of numinous awe at the collected human genius of atheist minds, I offer the following URL:
http://brainz.org/50-most-brilliant-atheists-all-time/ perhaps if I eat a few more apples....


Derek H., D. (n.d). Is atheism a religion? Recent judicial perspectives on the constitutional meaning of "religion".(Kaufman v. McCaughtry). Journal of Church and State, 47(4), 707. Retrieved from Gale: Academic OneFile (PowerSearch) database.

Who Should Give Guidelines for the Community, Religion or Government?

In the United States, we live under a constitution that was carefully crafted to insure each of us the liberal freedom to worship as we choose. Our government is prohibited from dictating to us a set of religious rituals we must follow.

If the government is prohibited from dictating the set of religious beliefs I must observe, they are also prohibited from dictating that I engage in religious worship at all.

In her work on religion and liberal democracy, Mary Sullivan writes that "[T]he affirmative right to practice a specific religion implies the negative right to practice none." (Sullivan, M. 1992)

Churches can and do set boundaries on many aspects of life from keeping Kosher, the Sabbath, suicide, abortion and marriage. Religious communities, like any other special interest are welcome in our democracy to lobby for their causes. These communities, by virtue of not representing "We The People", may not, and should not, impose boundaries on all the citizens of the United States of America without due process of law.

Reference:
Kathleen M. Sullivan, Religion and Liberal Democracy, 59 U. CHI. L. REV. 195, 197 (1992).

On Altar Girls and Hints of Change.

Our discussion appears, at first blush, to belie the sentiments of Mollie Wilson O'Reilly. Her article, Passing On the Alb, My Career As An Altar Girl, makes the claim that "it is clear enough to most U.S. Catholics that, when the church blesses altar girls, they are in turn a blessing to the church." (O'Reilly, M. 2009)

In her article she notes that it was only recently that the Vatican declared that females serving the priest at Mass was not against canon law. She points out, however, that while wording does not disallow females in this role, it was less than affirming since it didn't explicitly say it was a good thing.

Her personal history as an altar girl is clearly a source of personal joy that revealed to her the junction at which the mundane aspects of her faith, hosts in baggies in the fridge, meet the mysterious body of christ on the table in the center aisle.

Personally, the moral of this tale is an affirmation that most generalizations by definition, deny the individual. It may be slow but the Catholic church is subject to growth and change just like the rest of us.

O'Reilly, M. (2009). Passing On the Alb. Commonweal, 136(15), 12. Retrieved from MasterFILE Premier database.

Katrina: The Buck Stopped There, Mr. President

Distilling the complexity of the inter-agency response to Hurricane Katrina into a few hundreds words is fundamentally an impossible task. There are some key facts that one might start with in making the attempt.

First, in the disaster plan for the City of New Orleans, the role of the Mayor is described as “the full spectrum of actions to prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover” from incidents involving all hazards (City of New Orleans, 2004, p. 1; DHS, 2004, p. 8).

The Governor of the State of Louisiana is described as being charged with management of state resources to “prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from incidents in an all-hazards context” (DHS, p.8).

Finally, the President of the United States is responsible for “responding effectively and ensuring the necessary resources are applied quickly and efficiently to all incidents of national significance”. (DHS, P.15.).

In Retrospect, Mayor Nagin should have been in the command seat in New Orleans and history demonstrates he was overwhelmed. On can, in hindsight name many decisions that he could have managed more effectively. I personally cannot imagine how difficult it must have been to be on the ground in this situation even if Mayor Nagin had been perfectly prepared. Mayor Nagin, however cannot be held responsible for the entire State.

Governor Blanco, according to accounts, deployed the national guard quickly, achieved national emergency declaration under the Stafford Act and mobilized busses statewide to assist in the evacuation. The Governor appears to have exhibited strong leadership with the possible exception of refusing joint task command that might have gotten more cooperation from the Federal Government. Governor Blanco, however, cannot be held responsible for the way the crisis unfolded in Biloxi Mississippi.

President Bush, according to his press secretary, and in the White House report to Congress states that;

On August 29, 2005, Katrina made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane. The White
House circulated an internal memo that a levee breach in New Orleans had occurred, while FEMA Director Michael Brown briefed the President of the potential devastation of Katrina at a morning a morning meeting. During that same day the President called DHS Secretary Chertoff to discuss immigration, shared a birthday cake and photo-op with Senator John McCain, traveled to California to a senior center to discuss the Medicare drug benefit (White House, 2006).

In attempting to answer this question, I am unable to put out of my mind the words of President Truman, "The buck stops here."

References:

City of New Orleans. (2004). Comprehensive emergency management plan. Retrieved
December 10, 2008, from www.cityofno.com/pg-46-18-general-evacuationguidelines.
aspx

U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (2004). National Response Plan. Retrieved
September 18, 2008, from www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/nrp_fulltest.pdf

White House. (2006). The federal response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons learned.
Retrieved December 12, 2008, from WWW-
learned

Cotton, G. (n.d). Hurricane Katrina: An evaluation of governmental leadership and the disaster surrounding the city of New Orleans. Retrieved from ProQuest: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses database.

NCLB Misses the Target in Special Education

The ideal that NCLB would "shake out" teachers who are not qualified while rewarding teachers who are may fall short of the mark in the mainstream due to a lack of strength in underlying assumptions about the educational landscape. In the Special Education community, this core misunderstanding may miss the target altogether.

The NCLB solution to teacher turnover is to pull "highly qualified" teachers from the general pool of adults with bachelors degrees in required subject areas, supply them with professional development and plug them into the educational system at the point of perceived failure.

In the case of Special Education teachers we already have a smaller pool from which school administrators have already drawn heavily. We have a student population for whom the core subject area may not be the highest priority challenge to surmount. Additionally, the higher incidences of disability tend to be in areas where resources are thin, the poor and under privileges communities where disabilities due to language deficits, inadequate prenatal care, drug abuse and parental educational apathy are higher.

Given these conditions, it is unreasonable, in my opinion, to apply a single solution to the entire nation of pupils and their teachers.

Reference:
Brownell, M., Bishop, A., & Sindelar, P. (2005). NCLB and the Demand for Highly Qualified Teachers: Challenges and Solutions for Rural Schools. Rural Special Education Quarterly, 24(1), 9-15. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.

Grading the MCAS-Alt on a Scale

In the State of Massachusetts, children are subjected to the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) in accordance with federal No Child Left Behind mandates. Assuming that the MCAS tests are state of the art student evaluations, then by it's formulation, which includes exceptions to the rule, the MCAS already accepts that notion that standardized tests cannot adequately evaluate the entire spectrum of pupils. Within the MCAS specification is method for the evaluation of the profoundly disabled student known as the MCAS-Alt. My proposal is that if the bottom of the curve deserves a special method of evaluation, perhaps the top of the curve does as well. I would propose a specification called the MCAS-exception which allows educators to nominate exceptional or gifted children who may not adapt well to standard test environments to be tested according to a more subjective guideline and to provide a method by which students and their parents could apply for this more subjective form of evaluation within the standardized testing framework. Perhaps in "Race To The Top, Part Deux"?

Massachusetts Education Gets High Ranks

In the examination of local and state governance of education, one cannot overlook the increasing role of the federal government in setting broad educational agenda that trickle down to all levels. Strong influence over state educational policy began with the plan to implement national testing standards under the administration of President George H. W. Bush. A decade later, his son, President George W. Bush would sign the No Child Left Behind Act into law and impose a national framework under which State and Local Educators and Politician would be required to operate. (1)

Within the context of a national educational policy, a State Department of Education exists to support, assist and regulate the public schools and academic organizations that comprise the state system. It also acts as a collective bargaining entity interacting with the federal congress for funding of educational services through it's state. (2)

The local school districts operate under the constraints of federal policy as well. It is the local government that is chartered with the daily task of putting teachers in classrooms, face to face with their pupils. The local school district pays the water bill, electric, building maintenance, teachers salaries, chalk, and laser pointers. These are the tasks that underpin my local districts vision of working to "foster academic excellence by implementing best practices, improving facilities, appreciating diversity, and requiring accountability."(3)

When asked to assign a subjective ranking It is rare that I cannot envision room for improvement in our schools. Applying the national standards tests, according to our Governor's website, 8th graders in Massachusetts ranked first in the nation, while our 4th graders tied for first place.(4) Given these statistics I am compelled to deliver a ranking of 8 for the state, "with a bullet". Now it's time to "Race For The Top"



1. (n.d). Obama Administration Education Policy. Retrieved from Facts On File: Issues & Controversies database.

2. Website: Massachusetts Department of Education
http://www.doe.mass.edu/mailings/welcome.html

3. Website: Athol-Royalston School District
http://www.arrsd.org/index.php/about-us/splan/68-vs

4. Website: http://devalpatrick.com/accomp.php?idx=4

Town Support for Schools in Tough Times.

On June 14th, 2010, the citizens of Athol Massachusetts, in an open town meeting, voted 127 to 5 in favor of allocating up to $400,000 dollars toward a feasibility study on the options for managing an elementary school that is literally falling down around the teachers and children who attend it. The cost of the study was hotly debated with the school board and parents organization advocated the expenditure. In dissent were two factions, town residents who have no children and those who feel the limit funds could be better spent elsewhere.

One relevant question was why the town needed to spend so much money to study something so obvious. All one has to do is walk through the building to see the plaster falling off the walls, dust dripping from the ceiling and the exposed wires where hangers and wall board have given way. It is obvious to a casual observer that renovating or rebuilding is critically necessary at this school.

The answer to that question is that the State requires the feasibility study as a first step in considering where to assign educational grant money to the individual local governments.

This is a case where the local residents are so close to the problem that they are, at first, unable to realize that, at the state level, the questions a study would answer are necessary to prioritize the granting of monies to Athol over the hundreds of other places the money might be spent.

A useful explanation for why the study is necessary is written by the National Trust for Historic Preservation which provides a comprehensive white paper on the role of these studies in determining the options, refurbishment vs. rebuilding.

In the state of Massachusetts, these studies, while initially funded by the local government, are, if accepted by the state, reimbursed at a rate of up to 80% of the cost of the study. The means that if successful, the town will only have spent a little less than a quarter of the cost of the study. Once the study is completed, the next step is to apply for funding from the state to address the building, which we hope will result in a new school building for the town.

Google, you're cooler than freedom!

Do we think iGoogle is cool enough to be our active desktop? If we do, why is Google cool but Windows was not? We are all Open Source and X and "roll your own" custom desktops for years and now, Google does it for us and flock yipping like kittens with yarn. Is it just a tool or, like the beetles that are deforesting the north east, is it a slow, very sneaky disease bent on dominating our computers?

Maybe I just need some coffee.

Ethics Start at Home

At first blush, a student of professional ethics might turn to a myriad of professional associations and government agencies in an attempt to locate applicable sources of ethical guidance. These agencies and foundations are not without merit and certainly provide a solid first source from which to start formulating a personal or team ethic. Many professions have associations which provide ethical frameworks; state bar associations for lawyers, medical and teaching boards, societies for certified public accountants, among others.
While the consideration of a professional associations code of ethics is certainly a resource from which to start, "any bureaucratization of what constitutes ethics runs the risk of absolving the student/researcher from moral reflection once the ethics consideration form is approved." (Askins, 2008)

Another source in the formation of a professional ethic is through interactive instruction with ones mentors, teachers and collaborators. In Canada, for instance, students at Ryerson University learn about reviewing protocols
through a variety of processes, including mentorship, consultation with other Board members, workshop participation, independent study and others. (Walton, Karabanow, & Saleh, 2008) At their university, the researcher suggest that the quality of ethical review boards are not only enhanced by a collaboration that include expert faculty and students but that the mix provides better for the spirit of laws governing ethical review boards.

Perhaps the most critical source upon which one must rely to decide a question of ethics is introspective in nature. In the final analysis, one must draw on the cultural teachings, the personal faith and ones own "gut" as the source of ones ethics. Indeed, what leads any individual to make what he or she sees as a reasonable judgement about the truth of a value claim is not evidence such that any reasonable person would find sufficient--but evidence that the individual finds personally sufficient to support or oppose the program put forward. (Broidy & Jones, 1998)

Ethics IS Marketing

I often mention that critical thinking is the "stock in trade" of being a systems analyst and a programming contractor. As such, conducting my business in an ethical manner is a form of marketing, not to mention the right thing to do.

Often, in order to provide a process model for a business, I must have access to a clients proprietary information. I am trusted with accounting data, passwords, personnel information and critical infrastructure upon which the client's business relies. Starting with what exists, I am then asked to help assess and form plans for the future growth of the company. Not only does this require critical thought, but also, an ethical responsibility. The health and longevity of the company and it's employees is, to a sometimes significant degree, dependent upon my performance. This statement is not intended to devalue nor indemnify other team members who share this responsibility as well.

When I bid on a job, I am promising the client that I will protect their confidentiality, use Best Practices and charge a fair but honest price. How I perform and deliver effects my reputation and that of programming contractors in general.

Writing is a Puzzle

My favorite part of writing is the opportunity to articulate my thoughts. Writing assignments are permission to express ones ideas without apology. The challenge of organizing sentences to clearly reflect my thoughts is quite enjoyable. Writing is a puzzle whose solution is the sum of parts the author manufactures. One has an idea what picture will result when the pieces are assembled but the pieces are not all provided.

The hardest part of writing for me is getting started. The transition from the blank page to a rough draft is always difficult. A technique that works well for me is focused free-writing. Once I break the inertia of staring at a blank page and start writing, the thoughts tend to flow like water from a floodgate.

With initial thoughts on paper, I rework the results, often stopping to brainstorm ideas that will support the ideas I wrote during my free-writing exercise. It is not uncommon for me to create several drafts of my ideas and modify my outline many times before I am satisfied.

Ultimately the best tip I have about writing is to avoid second guessing the ideas from the initial brainstorm. The challenge is to surmount the paradox of writing expertly about that which one is far from expert and express myself.