[MD] A Place for the Principled Person

[Ham Priday]

Platt and all --


I won't even try to engage in a debate which has produced over 50 posts
questioning whether persons can have principles, except to provide you guys
with an example of what happens when they don't.

By way of background, I think we can all agree that U.S. schools have made a
general mess of education.  The rules of grammar are no longer taught in the
classroom; instead what passes for English is something encouraging "free
expression", where students are graded on the "creativeness" of essays
usually written on topics of their choice.  History has taken the form of a
multicultural exhibition in which children come to school dressed in the
garb
of a Ugandian or some other underdeveloped country to dance or sing the
native arts and praise its culture.  In the spirit of egalitarianism, no
child is allowed the humiliation of failing, and minorities are protected by
affirmative action policies.

As a consequence of this liberal venue (sorry Arlo, Ian, et al, but it's
true), America now ranks 16th in high-school graduation and 14th in college
graduation rates on a list of 20 industrial nations.  The list doesn't
include India and China because
they're officially considered "developing" countries.  Yet everyone in
American
technology knows that India and China are rapidly becoming our most serious
competitors.  Bill Gates recently said that "America's high schools are
obsolete,"
pointing out that in 2001 India graduated a million more students from
college
than the U.S. did, while China has six times as many university students
majoring
in engineering.  American CEOs worry that U.S.-based companies will be
finding
it increasingly attractive to build not only their manufacturing plants but
their R&D
operations abroad.

Enter former high-school teacher now turned author, Ricardo Cortes.  You
would think that a teacher writing for public consumption might have an idea
or two about solving the academic crisis, possibly an innovative way to make
education more relevant to kids.  Well, think again.  I quote from an
article in the Village Voice:

"Last month, Cortes published his children's book, 'It's Just a Plant', 48
cannabis-laden pages that he hoped would be taken as a welcome dose of
'reality-based education.'  The former high school D.A.R.E. officer and
Brooklyn-based T-shirt and skateboard designer says the book is intended for
'six- to 12-year-olds.'  It still encourages kids to say 'No,' but stops
short of condemning responsible adult use.
The story begins when eight-year-old 'Jackie' walks into her parents
bedroom, a den of Peter Max-style, Day-Glo decorum, and catches her parents
smoking a joint.  It ends--after an odyssey involving a gentle pot farmer,
progressive-thinking doctor, and a primer on marijuana prohibition history
from an officer making a bust--with Jackie proclaiming she's going to grow
up and vote, 'so I can make all the laws fair'.

"The book can be found on some shelves.  Indie sellers in San Francisco,
Chicago, Austin, Baltimore, and New York are carryng the title, and one
Borders in North Carolina has decided to stock it.  Reviews have been
expectedly mixed.  ...

"As for Cortes, he may find the biggest market for his book isn't his
intended audience. Cortes has already agreed to ship about half of his
original run of books to Urban Outfitters, a national retail chain where
consumers are more likely to see the book as ironic satire.  That's cool,
Cortes says.  The point the book makes--pointing out the absurdity of
marijuana laws--is one that is equally relevant to grown-ups. 'Sometimes you
have to talk to adults like they are children'."

In a society that doesn't remember what personal honor once meant -- forget
about  shame -- and that desperately needs to instill the virtue of
individual responsibility to its fun-obsessed youth, a children's book about
getting wasted on pot with a political agenda to have it legalized is
exactly what we need.  Right?

Thank God there are still some principled people in our culture.
Unfortunately, Ricardo Cortes isn't one of them.

Regards,
Ham