Editor, Times-Union: I would be remiss if I did not express my appreciation for the opportunity to attend the concert of the U.S. Marine Band - what a beautiful tribute to all veterans and their families. I was so proud to be able to stand when the opportunity was presented to honor my brother, Warrant Officer William E. Rush, USMC, who was killed in Iwo Jima - also my deceased husband, Capt. Miles L. Manwaring, who was a glider pilot, USAF.
Thanks to my good friend, John Elliott, and all others who assisted in any way to bring this outstanding group to our community - Veterans Day seemed so special this year!
Mary Derry Warsaw
Educational System
Editor, Times-Union: We as Americans are fortunate enough to live in a country where private schools, religious schools and homeschooling are still legal. However we are confronted by a near-monopolistic government school system (more commonly called public schools) that takes the form of rapidly consolidating school districts, partnered with bureaucratic state education departments, with slowly increasing control by the national government.
Which brings us to the issue of why we have government schools in the first place. If the stated purpose of government intervention in education is to make sure that those families who cannot afford, or do not know how, or are too irresponsible to educate their children have the opportunity to do so - then they would merely send a check in the mail with certain restrictions to these families so they could attend a private school of their choice, or create government schools solely for the poor, instead of setting up a system of government schools where up to an estimated 90 percent of all American students attend. To further illustrate this point, the government gives out food stamps to poor hungry families instead of setting up and managing a nationwide chain of public grocery stores.
So what is the other reason for the establishment of government schools? - the opportunity to mold other people's children according to your own political, religious, social, etc., views. That probably sounds too far-fetched, but not when you think about how government schools are political battlegrounds for liberal and conservative political factions and special interest groups that constantly battle each other for control over local school boards, state legislatures, education departments, teacher unions and teacher colleges. So they can impose their particular viewpoint at the expense of everyone else's on such issues as evolution, school prayer, Ten Commandments, Bible reading, age-appropriate reading assignments and school library books, sex education, political correctness, teaching of moral values, multiculturalism, American and world history, English versus bilingual education, alternative lifestyle education, different methods of teaching, urban versus rural community schools, academics versus athletics, etc.
Apparently, members of these groups are not content with teaching their own children or pooling their resources with people who hold similar values, views and interests. And why not, since government schools are financed with universal taxation, populated by compulsory attendance laws, run by bureaucrats, have regimented schedules and uniform curriculums. One has an institution that can be used as a tool to mold future generations of citizens in their own image.
