Does Condoleezza Rice Know Whereof She Speaks?

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Pat
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Does Condoleezza Rice Know Whereof She Speaks?

Post by Pat »

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There follows a transcript of the portion of Condoleezza Rice’s speech at the Republican National Convention this evening (August 29) dealing with inner-city education.

She started off well with the statement that when she looks at a child’s Zip Code, she knows whether that child will receive a decent education.

However, she then talks about the solution being choice (aka voucher programs).

Nevertheless, Condoleezza Rice may know whereof she speaks, but dared not go further in front of the Republican National Convention.

Condoleezza is not naïve. She well knows that in America’s inner-cities that handing out vouchers does NOT provide any real choice for the overwhelming majority of the children living there. BECAUSE THERE ARE NO DECENT SCHOOLS WITH SPACE TO TAKE THEM!!! IT WOULD TAKE A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF ADDITIONAL INVESTMENT TO CREATE THE KIND OF SCHOOLS THAT ARE GEOGRAPHICALLY ACCESSIBLE TO INNER-CITY CHILDREN (VS. IN TIMBUKTU) THAT WOULD PROVIDE A MEANINGFUL CHOICE!!!

But this is not the end of the analysis.

If Condoleezza Rice thinks that there is anything to be gained by permitting inner-city children to escape to a beautiful, new, superbly-equipped school building, personned by a stellar faculty, she really is naïve or not well-versed!!!

After all, she must be aware of the kinds of facts documented by John Karls and described in the Suggested Answers to this month’s First Short Quiz = (A) the SINGLE-DIGIT inner-city high-school graduation rates prevailing in America’s 51 largest metropolitan areas, (B) 75%-80% of inner-city children living in single-adult households headed by a druggie who turns over any money to the pusher so the kids have to steal just in order to eat, and (C) virtually all inner-city children convinced by the age of 5 that they are ineligible for their dreams and that their only realistic career objectives are pimp or pusher, or girl friend of a pimp or pusher.

If she thinks that it is NOT necessary to support those inner-city children with “surrogate parents” (i.e., tutors/mentors who care about them) and transform the atmosphere of either their school or the public-housing project in which they live with the guarantee of college tuition, then Condoleezza Rice should have an article written about her views by Diane Ravitch entitled in echo of the title of Ravitch’s 1969 article at the beginning of her career -- “Condoleezza Rice: PLAYING GOD IN THE GHETTO”!!!

Because, like the Gates Foundation and Melinda Gates, Condoleezza Rice is asking America to worship a “false idol” rather than enter “The Promised Land”!!!


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Transcript of Condoleezza Rice's Comments at the Republican Nat'l Convention Aug 29 Re Inner-City Education


We have been successful too because Americans have known that one's status of birth is not a permanent condition. Americans have believed that you might not be able to control your circumstances but you can control your response to your circumstances.

(APPLAUSE)

And your greatest ally in controlling your response to your circumstances has been a quality education. But today, today, when I can look at your zip code and I can tell whether you're going to get a good education, can I honestly say it does not matter where you came from, it matters where you are going? The crisis in K-12 education is a threat to the very fabric of who we are.

(APPLAUSE)

My mom was a teacher. I respect the profession. We need great teachers, not poor ones and not mediocre ones. We have to have high standards for our kids, because self-esteem comes from achievement, not from lax standards and false praise.

(APPLAUSE)

And we need to give parents greater choice, particularly, particularly poor parents whose kids, very often minorities, are trapped in failing neighborhood schools. This is the civil
rights issue of our day.

(APPLAUSE)

If we do anything less, we can damage generations to joblessness and hopelessness and life on the government dole (ph). If we do anything less, we will endanger our global imperatives for competitiveness. And if we do anything less, we will tear apart the fabric of who we are and cement the turn toward entitlement and grievance.

Pat
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Posts: 170
Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2007 3:11 pm

Upper-Class Condi Rice as Jeb Bush’s Pawn

Post by Pat »

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I’ve received quite a few comments about my original posting immediately following Condi Rice’s speech at the Republican National Convention.

And whether I am justified in commenting the way I did on Condi’s urging the Nation in general, and the RNC in particular, to adopt “school choice” (aka vouchers) as a policy to solve our inner-city education problems.

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First, Condi’s background.

In her speech, Condi described her childhood growing up in Birmingham Alabama during the heyday of segregation.

From this brief description, Condi’s national TV audience might have assumed that her family was poor and that she grew up in a typical inner-city environment.

Not so!!!

First, Condi did NOT live in a single-adult household.

Her father was a Presbyterian Minister who also moon-lighted as a High School guidance counselor. Her mother was a high school science and music teacher. In 1967 at the age of 15, Condi’s family moved to Denver Colorado where her father had accepted the position of Assistant Dean at the University of Denver.

As an only child, Condi began French, music, figure skating and ballet lessons at the age of three. Indeed, through high school her goal was to become a concert pianist and she even accompanied world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo-Ma at the National Medal of the Arts Awards in Washington DC’s Constitution Hall in April 2002.

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Second, Condi’s knowledge of inner-city conditions.

There is nothing in Condi’s background that suggests that she knows anything about inner-city conditions. After all, her area of expertise is Cold War Politics.

Indeed, if she did know anything about inner-city conditions, she would NOT be advocating school choice (aka vouchers) as we have been studying for our August 12th meeting. (More about this below.)

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Third, Condi serving as Jeb Bush’s pawn.

Condi “set the table” for Jeb Bush’s speech at the Republican National Convention. His speech was supposed to focus solely on U.S. education policy. Which he did after a brief unscripted defense of his brother’s Presidency.

The theme of Jeb Bush’s speech was that the Nation should adopt “school choice” (aka vouchers) as the solution to our inner-city education problems!!!

Obviously Condi Rice, who served in both George H.W. Bush’s Administration and as National Security Adviser and then Secretary of State in George W. Bush’s Administration, used her race and Birmingham Alabama childhood to provide authority for her endorsement of the official RNC position that would also be advocated on national TV by Jeb Bush.

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There are at least two moral issues here.

The first issue is the converse of world Jewish leaders asking Winston Churchill during World War II to bomb the concentration camps on the grounds that the Jews who were already imprisoned there were doomed anyway, but that the destruction of the concentration camps could save the millions of Jews who had not already been sent there.

Killing thousands who were doomed anyway to save millions.

My original comments said that “school choice” (aka vouchers) “does NOT provide any real choice for the overwhelming majority of the children living there [that is, in the inner-cities]. BECAUSE THERE ARE NO DECENT SCHOOLS WITH SPACE TO TAKE THEM!!! IT WOULD TAKE A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF ADDITIONAL INVESTMENT TO CREATE THE KIND OF SCHOOLS THAT ARE GEOGRAPHICALLY ACCESSIBLE TO INNER-CITY CHILDREN (VS. IN TIMBUKTU) THAT WOULD PROVIDE A MEANINGFUL CHOICE!!!”

Under such prevailing conditions, the Jeb Bush - Condi Rice - RNC “school choice” policy would give White America permission to ignore the Permanent Under-Caste that it has created by pretending to solve the problem with a no-cost non-solution!!!

Instead of “killing thousands who were doomed anyway to save millions,” the school-choice policy would save a few inner-city children while continuing to condemn millions of inner-city children to what John Karls has documented is a “fate worse than death”!!!

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The second moral issue???

Jeb Bush well knows about what John Karls has called “The Promised Land” in the Q&A’s. After all, his father, President George H.W. Bush, was fond of saying that his famous “1,000 Points of Light” Inaugural Address in 1989 was inspired by the “I Have A Dream” Program for whose Houston and Boston chapters, he performed prodigious fund-raising. And Jeb’s cousin, Jamie, son of Prescott Bush Jr. (older brother of the first President Bush), was the founder, chief benefactor and primary work horse for IHAD-Boston.

So why would Jeb Bush, of all people, be giving America and the RNC permission to ignore The Permanent Under-Caste and pretend that a low-cost non-solution is all that is needed???

Jeb might merely be another despicable politician who is sacrificing principles to further his career.

Or, more interestingly, he might really believe that America will NEVER do anything significant about its Permanent Under-Caste!!!

If he truly believes that, then isn’t saving a few hundred inner-city children while millions of others are left to suffer a “fate worse than death” actually morally defensible because saving a few hundred is better than “tilting with windmills” and saving nobody???

I’ll leave that question to all of you who have inquired about my views!!!

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