Brain out

Poor Governor Parry. He knew he wanted to fire all the people in the departments of education and commerce, but, try as he might, he could not remember that he wants to fire the people in the Dept. of Energy too. This was probably just a mind lapse due to the stress of the situation. But, if you are getting fired, you want the boss to have considered it hard and to know who you are and what you do. Republicans are starting to feel more confident in Romney.

Berkeley Protests Race Gender Bias

(CNN) -- Campus Republicans at the University of California Berkeley have cooked up a storm of controversy with their plans for a bake sale.

But it's not your everyday collegiate fundraiser they've got in mind. They've developed a sliding scale where the price of the cookie or brownie depends on your gender and the color of your skin.

During the sale, scheduled for Tuesday, baked goods will be sold to white men for $2.00, Asian men for $1.50, Latino men for $1.00, black men for $0.75 and Native American men for $0.25. All women will get $0.25 off those prices.

"The pricing structure is there to bring attention, to cause people to get a little upset," Campus Republican President Shawn Lewis, who planned the event, told CNN-affiliate KGO. "But it's really there to cause people to think more critically about what this kind of policy would do in university admissions."

Lewis says it's a way to make a statement about pending legislation that would let the California universities consider race or national origin during the admission process.

But the young Republicans have been on the receiving end of a fierce backlash. Reaction has been so negative they've been forced to cancel their customary lunchtime tabling duties, according to KGO.

Lewis told CNN's Don Lemon that they expected a certain amount of opposition but not the level of outrage they experienced.

"We didn't expect the volume, the amount of response that we got," Lewis said. "In the first few hours, hundreds of posts on our Facebook page. And the tone of some of the responses -- we expected people to be upset. We didn't expect personal threats to be made. They were implicit and explicit threats made to the organizers of the event, from burning down the table to throwing our baked goods at us and other kinds of physical threats."

Tim Wise, author of the book "White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son," calls the bake sale a "sarcastic and rather smarmy slap at people of color."

"There are a lot of ways to make a point about your disagreement with affirmative action," Wise told Lemon Saturday night.

"I get the joke," he continued. "How very original. It's been done for 15 years. The point that I think needs to be made ... is that by the time anyone steps on a college campus ... there has already been 12- to 13-years of institutionalized affirmative action for white folks, that is to say, racially embedded inequality, which has benefited those of us who are white. And it's only at the point of college admissions that these folks seem to get concerned with color consciousness."

Lewis insists, however, that Campus Republicans will go ahead with their bake sale and are committed to their controversial pricing structure.

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COMMENT: The irony is that Asians have for years out-performed whites in placement testing. So, more Asians would have gone to their first-choice schools, if not for racial bias which limited the Asian admissions. 

Blacks have been excluded from quality education at all grade levels for over 200 years. The civil rights movement was able to change laws in the sixties, but racial hatred and discrimination persisted - and continues to this present day. Blacks will need at least three generations of education security to reduce the damage done by slavery, systematic exclusion and institutionalized racism. I feel it will take until 2055 to eliminate the imposed educational achievement gap and special race considerations and assurances will be needed for approximately fifty more years.

As we get closer to 2055, whites will feel all of the damage is gone and feel jealous that Blacks have an "educational advantage." Learning, education and cultural development goes deep - cytoplasmic. It can not be rushed.  Many Blacks are still caught in the web on the 1950's. Their cytoplasm is still untouched. Reversing the evils of the past will produce benefits in the future for all Americans and is necessary. As you enjoy the TV show "Pan Am" today, remember those glorious Pan Am days depict a time when Black women we not allowed to work as a stewardess, Black males were allowed to be porters or skycaps. I imagine Black women were allowed to be janitors. Blacks were forced into the lower class and, for most Blacks, education was not a reality. White universities would not accept more than a few Blacks as students and most Blacks were educated at segregated institutions. Yes, this was America. Don't forget US history just because you are at Berkeley.  

Just as current adults are leaving a debt for our children's children, the adults of early American created a huge debt for you and your children to pay off. No one wants to pay their debts. But, they must be paid, and once paid, all is well in the US again.


Example: Consider the life if racism and obstruction incurred by First-lady Michelle Obama: Luckily, she was smart and succeeded. http://womensissues.about.com/od/influentialwomen/p/MichelleObama.htm
Consider her generation 1, her children are generation 2,and their children will be generation 3.

STATE LEGISLATORS FAIL US AGAIN

INVEST IN EDUCATION-NOT PRISONS


On Tuesday I attended a forum to discuss the pending pre-parole 500 bed state prison optioned to be built in Madera.

The state says there is no money for schools, education, transportation, yet has millions to pour into additional correctional facilities and criminal healthcare. An inmate hospital is being built is Stockton. Our correctional health care is in receivership due to alleged poor care and bad decisions. Having a receiver costs millions of dollars.

The decision to invest in prisons over child safety and schools continues on the path of bad decisions. First, there is no significant rehabilitation in the correctional system. Inmates are warehoused and released. Any inmates housed in the new Madera prison facility would be released in the same condition as they were when they were transferred to Madera. Second, recidivism is around 80 % and the inmates are mentally institutionalized, so they at some level like to return to prison-but they must commit a crime to get there. We will be the victims. Third, currently the valley has an approximate 20% unemployment rate and an even higher under-employment rate. There is no evidence that Madera will have any jobs for released felons who had previously spent years in Soledad, Pelican Bay, or Folsom. Yet, county supervisors want to risk exposing our youth to felons who would be coming to the facility on a daily basis.

Once these felons are discharged all state health care and support payments stop and there would be an increase in Medicare and ER hospital usage, an increase in welfare and an increase in crime and gangs. We do not have drug rehabilitation services now in Madera due to state budget cuts. If these inmates are already due to be released, then just release them to their home areas and release the allotted money for use by the cities for educational services, transportation, teachers, after-school programs, summer programs and police.

It is unadvisable to locate this facility in a residential area where citizens are striving for a better lifestyle. If you want to share our vision for a better Madera, join us in keeping this facility away from our schools, parks, and housing areas.

Dr. Loraine Goodwin, M.D., J.D.
Madera Unified Trustee and Candidate for Congress CD 19