Jack Random

Jack Random is the author of the Jazzman Chronicles (Crow Dog Press) and Ghost Dance Insurrection (Dry Bones Press). See The Chronicles have been posted on the Albion Monitor, Bellaciao, Buzzle, CounterPunch, Dissident Voice, Pacific Free Press and Peace-Earth-Justice. www.jazzmanchronicles.blogspot.com


Monday, 15 March 2010 19:00 GFP Columnist - Jack Random
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Blame the Teacher SyndromeWhen a district in Rhode Island announced its intention to fire all teachers at Central Falls High School in an unmistakable gesture of blame seeking, I knew without knowing it was an impoverished school. When a school board in Kansas City announced it would close 28 schools before the start of the next school year I knew they were the poorest of the poor.

Indeed, just a little research revealed that Central Falls is one of the poorest cities in the state and after the exodus of some 18,000 students to charter schools and more affluent suburban districts, the remaining 17,400 students in the schools scheduled for demolition in Kansas City are “mostly black and impoverished.” (NY Times, March 11, 2010)

If we take a hard look at what the government under the dictates of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) considers failing or failed schools they are invariably schools impacted by a community in poverty. Moreover, if we consider the effects of the recent economic implosion (high unemployment, home foreclosures and declining home values) and the disproportionate impact on impoverished communities, it is easy to see why schools are struggling

 
Wednesday, 03 March 2010 18:00 GFP Columnist - Jack Random
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The Lords of ObstructionSince the State of the Union Address President Obama has engaged his opposition, including members of his own party, and the only thing he has proven is what we already knew: He is the smartest man in the room. Any room. Certainly any room crowded with posturing and pontificating members of the United States Senate.

In the most recent encounter, a summit on health care, he asked of the opposition only one thing: that they should come without a list of talking points. After careful consideration and according to insider reports considerable rehearsal, the party of opposition came with exactly that. Over seven painful hours of repetitive rhetoric the esteemed Senators could not even vary the phrasing. We need to scrap the bill. We need to start over with a clean sheet of paper. We cannot support a government takeover. On and on.

It was all theater and bad theater at that. It was like watching a seven-hour version of Samuel Beckett’s classic existential play Waiting for Godot. Godot is the spirit of bipartisanship and by now even the president must know Godot never comes.

 
Saturday, 20 February 2010 18:00 GFP Columnist - Jack Random
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Tiger Woods makes a statement from the Sunset Room on the second floor of the TPC Sawgrass, home of the PGA Tour on February 19, 2010 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Woods publicly admitted to cheating on his wife Elin Nordegren but maintained that the issues remain 'a matter between a husband and a wife.'I was wrong. I was foolish. I don't get to play by different rules. The same boundaries that apply to everyone apply to me. - Tiger Woods, February 19, 2010.

Few economists saw our current crisis coming, but this predictive failure was the least of the field’s problems. More important was the profession’s blindness to the very possibility of catastrophic failures in a market economy. - Paul Krugman, September 2, 2009.

Tiger Woods was compelled by media outcry to stand before the cameras and submit to public humiliation. For some fifteen minutes on a Friday morning the world stopped to witness the event and sit in judgment on the sincerity of his contrition. Within seconds of his scripted performance the media was clamoring for more. They feel entitled. The public needs to know. The public demands.

 
Monday, 25 January 2010 18:00 GFP Columnist - Jack Random
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Obama is emerging from a year in Washington that, he now says, has left the public with a sense ofState of the Union 2010 - Members of congress and distinguished guests, as I stand before you to deliver the annual state of the union address, I am keenly aware that decorum and tradition mandate a message of optimism and hope.

I will do my best.

As a proud people accustomed to confronting challenges and overcoming whatever barriers are placed in our path, we are not prepared to receive or accept any message that acknowledges the hardships we are likely to face in the years and generations ahead. We are not prepared to accept the hard reality that our government is currently designed to thwart the essential reforms that our challenges require.

Is it better to deliver a message of optimism that has no foundation in reality or to deliver a message of hardship founded in reality to inspire the groundswell of outrage that might inspire change?

 
Saturday, 23 January 2010 18:00 GFP Columnist - Jack Random
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A pedestrian walks past the US Supreme Court building in Washington, in this file image from December 8, 2009. The Supreme Court struck down on January 21, 2010 long-standing limits on corporate spending in U.S. political campaigns, such as this year's congressional races and the 2012 presidential contest. The 5-4 ruling was a defeat for the Obama administration and the campaign finance law's supporters who said that ending the limits would unleash a flood of corporate money into the political system to promote or defeat candidates.“The court’s primary function will be to strike back government regulation of private business at every turn. Anti-trust law is dead. Environmental law is rendered toothless. Regulation of essential industries - energy, water and food - is barely breathing. Security reigns supreme over individual liberties and the only rights that count are corporate.” - “Blame the Democrats and Move On: The Federalist Court.” Jazzman Chronicles, July 20, 2005.

“It would be impossible to understate the dangers that corporate dominance poses to democracy. Corporate democracy is an oxymoron. It cannot exist. It is an unconscionable perversion of democracy.” - “As the World Turns: America Left Behind.” Jazzman Chronicles, September 6, 2009.

As a progressive libertarian independent the events of the week were enough to send me into a tailspin of despair. No, it was not the Massachusetts senatorial race, which I found rich in irony and something of a mixed blessing. No, it was not the precipitous decline in the stock market, which served to remind us that that brokers and bankers are far more afraid of populist rage than they are of any mainstream political party.

 
Saturday, 16 January 2010 18:00 GFP Columnist - Jack Random
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Former Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide, exiled in South Africa, attends a news briefing in Johannesburg, January 15, 2010. Aristide, exiled in South Africa, said on Friday he was ready to return to help in the aftermath of an earthquake thought to have killed tens of thousands.“To the people of Haiti we say clearly and with conviction: You will not be forsaken; you will not be forgotten.” - President Barack Obama 14 January 2010.

“We have been living for one year now under this de facto government which is destroying the country. 95% of the people…who were working government jobs have been fired. Children cannot go to school. Students cannot advance in their studies. We are wondering how far this crisis will be allowed to go. All of this is why we are in the streets…demanding the…return of President Jean Bertrand Aristide…immediately. This is the only issue the people are interested in today. Aristide is the one who can save Haiti from all its woes.” - Dread Wilme, Community Leader assassinated in the Cite Soleil Massacre 6 July 2005. Interview “Lakou New York” 4 April 2005.

There are events in the world that should enlighten us even as they fill our hearts with sorrow, that should help us to place relative value on the myriad of problems and issues that concern us from day to day. Hurricane Katrina and the devastation of New Orleans was such an event. The Indian Ocean tsunami was such an event. And the catastrophic quake in Port au Prince is also such an event.

 

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