Great Teacher - Great Lessons

Please take a moment to read this wonderful piece about a middle school English teacher (click here).  I hope that you enjoy it and the next time you see a teacher, remember your manners and thank him or her for the work they do for the greater good of our society.

Obama's Birth Certificate

You may have seen in the news today that President Obama has released the so-called long form of his birth certificate.  In a five minute speech, he noted that during a week where he and Congress each presented their budgets, including recommendations for difficult choices of how to manage the finances of this country, the dominant news stories for the same time period were about questions regarding his birthplace.

I agree whole heartedly with the President when he called this issue "silliness." After Obama spoke, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said, "The President ought to spend his time getting serious about repairing our economy."  Now wait just a minute!!  The Republican party and affiliates have been the ones all along who keep pushing the issue of the President's birthplace.  They have been calling on him for more than two years now to produce the long form birth certificate.  Now that he does it, they accuse him of playing politics and not engaging more serious issues?  I have a decent imagination, but I think I would be hard pressed to divine a more perfect illustration of the pot calling the kettle black.

Over the years, officials from both political parties have confirmed, even in sworn affidavits, that the President is eligible to hold his office.  For those who refuse to believe all of that evidence, I doubt the publication of the long form will change your opinion; after all, you are already well practiced in ignoring reason and fact.  Yes, I'm speaking to you, Mr. Trump.

I'm not saying that Mr. Obama has a halo and should be heralded as a perfect president.  I think there are some serious bases upon which legitimate and substantive criticism can appropriately be mounted.  The question of his birthplace does not rank among those items and should be abandoned in pursuit of more relevant and productive debate.

Follow Up:  After work, I read this piece of "news" where Joseph Farah, CEO of the World Net Daily, refuses to back down on the so-called birther issue, even in light of the President producing the long form birth certificate.  Now, he argues, the issue should switch to his citizenship.  I argue, with the backing of the Constitution, that his citizenship is irrelevant in terms of his eligibility to be president as long as he was born on US soil.

The 14th Amendment's first line reads: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."  Therefore, the President is a citizen of the United States.

Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution contains this restriction on persons eligible to be president: "No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States."  Plain reading of this language reveals three criteria: (1) natural born citizen, (2) at least age 35 and (3) lived at least 14 years in the US.  Please note that it does not say ANYTHING about having citizenship in another country.

If you are unwilling to accept the Constitution as the highest law in the land, then no amount of logic and reason can help you.  But if you accept the Constitution and are willing to abide by its law, then you have no choice but to acknowledge President Obama's Constitutional eligibility to be President.  Given the abundant evidence, any conclusion to the contrary requires setting aside of reason and logic.

I hope the GOP doesn't kill itself over this issue.  Further pursuit of it will only result in embarrassment of the pursuers.

Teeny Tiny Baby Steps

We are making progress!!  This is Megan's third year in Primary.  Yesterday, for the Easter program, was the first time (excluding the primary programs) she actually went up to the stage when the primary children were singing.  She didn't sing.  She didn't even smile.  But with teeny tiny baby steps, I bet I'll see her up there singing and smiling.  (It may not happen until she is about to graduate from primary, but nonetheless, it will happen!)

Sweet and Simple Moments

I let a lady into traffic today and was immediately rewarded by the text of her license plate rim: Happiness is getting called Gwama.

We're In

I was introduced to a new charter school that will be opening up this Fall.  I've been hoping that Daniel will be accepted into this school.  I found out today that we are in!  I am excited for the new changes that will occur with my children's education.  Bryan and I have talked with Daniel about this a little bit.  He is a bit nervous to have to change schools and leave his friends, but I know it won't take much for him to make new friends.  He will now be in a school that will provide a better educational structure and will hopefully challenge his very intelligent mind.  As a result, we hope that this will help him enjoy school, life, and help him be able see that learning can be a lot of fun.   

The school has not yet reached it's capacity.  If you are interested in learning more about this new charter school and possibly getting your own children into this school, visit its website here.

An "A" is not good enough

I found this clip on facebook the other day and I really liked the demonstration.  The following caption was next to the video:

A musical demonstration of what is wrong with education in the United States today. How just an A, is not good enough. How teaching to pass the government's test is dumbing down America. The Conductor gets it and he has a great way of explaining his point.