Keeping Watch
Reflections on American Culture, Education & Politics
by
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There are certain questions which rarely get asked. And, since rarely asked, they receive little discourse. They are embarrassing to us all. To ask them means you might get an answer and the answer might be reasonable. And, therefore, some action might reasonably be expected, or even seem compelling. So better not to ask the questions at all. Certainly these are questions you won't hear discussed in the major media outlets. "Oh, go ahead," someone says. "Go ahead. Nobody will pay much attention anyhow. We're all so inundated with mind-numbing and dumbing 'news' reports, analyses, talk-shows, etc., that any questions of any real significance will simply get glossed over, slopped over, or buried...so go ahead." "Okay, then, here are a few questions." 1.Why do we, as the richest nation in the history of the world, accept and allow homelessness and child poverty? 2.Why do we believe that being the gun capital and homicide capital of the planet makes us "safe"? 3.Why do we accept the purchase of political offices with funding of over 70% for both parties funds provided by special interests, lobbies, and corporate America? 4.What is the purpose of a cold-war-proportioned military budget, now that the Cold War has ended and, as William Greider writes, Our only serious adversary has evaporated into history? 5.Why did we become so outraged by the forced evacuations of the Kosovars but continue to ignore and violate treaties with the Native Americans our nation dispossessed?
6.Why have we allowed the ratio of CEO income to worker income to become wider and wider (the most extreme in the world) with no end in sight and with not so much as a whisper of protest? 7.Why are we willing to spend more on building new prisons than new schools? 8.When we fight vicious terrorists and nasty foreign leaders, where have they acquired their guns and weapons? 9.Who is the biggest manufacturer, exporter, and profiteer of guns and ammunition on the planet? 10.Why are we willing to base so much of our consumer comfort on the pitiful and obscene wages of Third World workers and child laborers? Just some idle questions. I don't propose to have answers for these questions, although some of the answers are virtually embodied in the questions themselves. For example, we don't need to tolerate child poverty, homelessness, "purchased" elections, guns on the streets, etc. We have the funds and the political means to eliminate them all. What we lack is citizen interest and political leadership. The least we can do is to ask some difficult questions. Why is it then that the media generally avoids these question? Well, if you take a Chomsky-ish position, dismissed usually as paranoid-left-wing-extremism, then you might posit the following: the function of the media is to distract us from serious issues. By serious, I mean issues that might threaten the power structure of society as it is currently constituted. As it is, a few people, a few corporations wield inordinate power. They own the media. They hire the media pundits, and the pundits know their role: to entertain, to seem to discuss issues deeply but never to challenge the basic premises of our society which dictate that the rich stay rich (and get richer and richer), that the poor stay poor (after all, for the poor not to be poor would require some redistribution of wealth), and that the general public be convinced that ours is the best of all possible systems. Of course, the government seems to be a key partner in all this. It, too, will not raise any of the above ten questions in any significant way. For it too is the "employee" of the real power brokers and corporate forces. Its function is to see that no significant legislation is ever passed that might redistribute power in any way other than the way it is. Consequently, the government will give lip service to the needs of the poor, the need to rebuild inner cities and the needs of all citizens for adequate education and health care. Nonetheless, our legislators will not seek the tax revenues required to enact legislation which could address these problems. In fact, rather than raise taxes, since the "Reagan Revolution" the government has lowered income taxes, corporate taxes, capital gains taxes, and inheritance taxes. Rather than redistribute wealth, the government has seen to it that the wealthy keep more and more of their wealth as the disparity between rich and poor grows wider and wider. In reality, the Congress and the President were hired by the power brokers not to significantly change anything. Certainly they will not change the absurd way that we have structured elections to go to the highest bidder. The elected officials know to whom they are beholden and it is not the ordinary voter or citizen. And why is there so little public outrage, anger, or active efforts to change things? Perhaps because the public has not only been lulled into media-induced stupor, but also because there is an overall sense of hopelessness, a sense that the government is not responsive to real needs and that our politicians are bought, not very bright, and sometimes even corrupt. So, forget those difficult questions; let's flip on the television and see what's the latest scandal or piece of gossip.
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About the Book
Keeping Watch
The articles are grouped into three sections...culture, education, and politics and society. A common thread running through all is the vast and growing discrepancies between wealth and poverty, between reason and fairness as opposed to illogic and greed, and between enlightenment and ignorance. The author, an unabashed liberal, believes that liberalism itself has been nationally discredited and that an oligarchy rules America masquerading as a democracy.
The essays are a powerful reminder of our ability to overlook obvious shortcomings in society and politics while inertia and selfishness rule the day. For example, the author shines the light on America’s infatuation with guns, America as the major arms dealer in the world, America as the world’s leader in environmental resources depletion, America’s position as the world’s leader in putting people in prison (now two million), and so on.
Keeping Watch is not, however, just a tirade on what’s wrong; Cummins also offers exciting visions of what could be, of hope, of possibilities. His educational visions, for example, are not only idealistic, they have roots in schools and programs that work. Many readers of these articles say, "They are inspirational."
About the Author
After a long career of teaching, Paul Cummins set about to create schools...first Crossroads School in Santa Monica, California, then New Roads School in Santa Monica and Los Angeles, and then partnering with others to create a charter school...Camino Nuevo Charter Academy in Los Angeles. As of August 2001, these three schools occupy nine campuses. Often called a visionary, Cummins has combined curricular and school innovation with skills of fundraising and implementation. He also started an arts foundation that provides the arts to ten public school sites, and is currently working on a new vision of creating an inclusive and interactive educational village of various non-profits serving children. Along with all this he has written two books: Dachau Song: The Twentieth Century Odyssey of Herbert Zipper (translated also into German and Chinese) and For Mortal Stakes: Solutions for Schools and Society (translated also into Japanese), has published numerous poems, and has written Keeping Watch, a compilation of articles from the Santa Monica Mirror newspaper, which represents a new foray into journalism and social commentary.