Well, here we are once again. So many of us are up in arms in disgust and anger over yet another pathetic decision made by our elected “leaders”. As usual, they managed to do the opposite of what many of us begged them not to do. Once again, what the masses wanted and asked for didn’t matter. Not. One. Little. Bit.
This time, an insanely rich and unbelievably incompetent woman named Betsy DeVos was voted in as the Secretary of Education. The vast majority of Americans, even elected ones, seemingly realized that DeVos is not a worthy choice to lead education in our country. In the end, it didn’t matter. Not. One. Little. Bit.
Many people, including Whoopi Goldberg, are praising the two Republican senators, Lisa Murkowski from Maine and Susan Collins from Alaska, for voting Nay for DeVos in the Senate. In my opinion, they only get half a kudos. It does not impress me that they voted no today, because they didn’t step up when it really mattered. If they were so concerned over the thousands upon thousands of emails, phone calls, and letters to their offices from their respective constituents about the pathetic DeVos, they should have voted no during the confirmation hearing and the rich idiot never would even come before the Senate in the first place.
I know their reasoning. In a nutshell, they said in the confirmation hearing, that even though they had serious doubts about the competency of Devos being Secretary of Education, they thought she deserved the chance to go in front of the Senate for an official vote. No, no she didn’t.
This is not something to take lightly. These two Republicans who voted against DeVos in the Senate knew full well the chances of another Republican having the courage to step up and be the difference-maker was extremely low. When do any of our elected leaders ever step up to be the deciding vote for the greater good instead of lining their pockets or falling in line with party politics? Murkowski and Collins had to know this was the likely result. They still chose not to step up when it really mattered. If our “leaders” won’t step up for this, when will they ever?
This is the education and future of our country, which is something DeVos has no idea about. She didn’t know about the federal law regarding the rights of disabled children (IDEA) that was originally written in 1975. DeVos refused to answer if she believed in equal accountability of any school or district that receives federal funding. DeVos had no idea about the difference between growth and proficiency in student achievement. Many adults don’t either. But, none of these adults are/were teachers or will be leading our nation’s youth.
Speaking of our youth, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, in the fall of 2016, 50.4 million kids were expected to attend public schools. Over ninety percent of our nation’s youth attend public schools. Besty DeVos and her children never attended one. Of course, she’s not alone. Many people attended, and currently attend, private schools. More power to them. But, having someone in charge of our nation’s public education (where the vast majority of kids attend) with no experience in that field does not make sense, no matter what kind of school you attended.
All of those facts are known because of the heated discussions over social media and the actual news outlets. Every senator was inundated with messages from their constituents, people who actually elected them, and for the most part, these “leaders” voted along party lines. Once again, it did not matter what was best for the general good, in this case, our children and our nation’s future. Fifty cowards voted for an incompetent, rich woman who once stated public education “sucks” to lead fifty million kids who attend public schools.
Ever since our presidential election, people have been protesting like we haven’t seen in decades, possibly ever. Even some politicians have been outraged at hateful executive orders, insensitive Tweets, and more from the White House. Many people believe the president to be unfit to hold the office he was elected to. No matter what we think or feel, the disgusting, hateful policies and orders will continue. So will the outrage and protests. It won’t matter. Not. One. Little. Bit.
Why? It’s simple. Too many of us are cowards ourselves and we’ve elected cowards to office. Shockingly, cowards do cowardly things when forced to make a choice. We can be upset all we want. Believe me, I am upset. But, it’s our own fault.
How many of us didn’t even vote in the presidential election this past year? How many of us voted for a third-party candidate that had no chance of winning? How many of us who do vote simply do so based on the candidate’s political party? How many of us actually take the time to get off Facebook, Pinterest, and Netflix to research who is running for political office in our counties, states, and country and find out about their previous votes, ties to lobbies, groups, and their viewpoints on topics important to you? How many of us base our vote and our opinion on politicians mainly on commercials, Facebook posts, and fliers in our mailboxes instead of actually finding out the information ourselves?
This is our fault. We’ve made mistakes before and we will continue to do so. We’re human. It comes with the territory. But, I am 45 years old. In that time, I can’t think of a worse mistake than what happened in the elections of November 2016. So many of us are protesting, yelling, crying, and posting over inept leaders being chosen to be in charge of things they shouldn’t be and making hateful, prejudiced, and illegal policies. We should be. But, it won’t be enough if we don’t learn from the horrendous mistakes of November 2016.
Again, it’s our fault. We put these “leaders” in these positions because we didn’t take the time to vote or perhaps be more informed about who we voted for. Maybe we just didn’t think of the bigger picture until it was too late. It doesn’t really matter. Unless we harness this anger and emotion and regret and channel it into the next elections (and those after that), nothing will change.
Not. One. Little. Bit.
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