Today I have two topics for the masses. The first is bumper stickers and the second is Zero Tolerance policies in schools.
I was driving to the gym today when I saw some liberal bumper stickers saying things like Buy American, something about PITA, and I AM MY OWN GOD. Now I know there are many ridiculous conservative ones as well, but those were just the ones I saw today and got me thinking. It seems to me that the back of your car is not the place to advertise your political beliefs. In fact if you can sum up your position on a bumper sticker, odds are you might not have considered all the angles. Without facts, no one will change their minds, and quite frankly their are many people who would deny facts if they slapped them in the face. Bumper stickers do not list facts. They list your opinions and serve only as a big attention getter. Perhaps that is what the world needs, but I feel like there are better ways to spread opinions.
The thing that got me today was the Buy American bumper sticker. Here is my position. As long as the American automakers continue to make cars that are inferior to the foreign cars in looks or engineering, why should I choose to buy something less than what I want. Why are American cars so ugly. Granted their are good looking cars and Ford especially is improving their quality, but here's the sticker for me. The argument for buying American is that it saves American jobs. Wrong. It saves Detroit jobs, and the problem isn't completely with people buying foreign cars, but with the workers charging more for their labor than someone in the southern United States will. There is a Honda Fit in my driveway right now. That car was build in Georgia. Honda and Toyota produce the cars they sell in America in America. Why don't they produce in Detroit? Because the farmers of the South work for less with a stronger work ethic. I guess this post evolved into a union talk because the Unions have to work with the automakers or both will fall. Also the designers have to make cars that look good next to my Fit. Most don't look as nice and the Fit is cheaper than most.
Here is where I admit that American cars are starting to look better, especially Fords (except the ugly grill). They are also getting better gas mileage every day and performance is increasing as well. However many of these cars are at higher price levels than the similar foreign cars that are produced here. Why?
Anyway back to the bumper stickers. I feel like they cause people to put a label on your beliefs. Beliefs can change but the bumper sticker is stuck to your car (unless you pull it off and buff out the residue but that's rather hard. I think we as a people, especially the politicians, need to be more open to seeing new ideas and putting themselves in others viewpoints. Trying to understand where the other side is coming from is a great way to strengthen your own stance, or to change it. Remember if you ignore evidence to keep your superior feeling, your not smart, your an ignorant person. Enlighten yourselves with all opinions and ideas, and choose the ones that make the most sense to you. However, don't turn your backs on where you come from either.
Wow this post has evolved rather quickly. Now to the second (well it was supposed to be second anyway) topic. Zero Tolerance policies are wrong. Here's a thought experiment for you. Jonathan is picked on all his life. The school does nothing. His dad tells him that if he stands up for himself, then they will leave him alone. The next time he is getting beat up, he fights back. Then the school officials suspend them both. Where is the justice. This is a justice free system. Jon starts to feel like he has no recourse within the school system. He eventually goes Colombine on the school.
That's what happened with most of the school shootings. Kids get picked on and no one stops it, and they retaliate. Perhaps if the schools stopped the bullying or allowed the picked on kids to fight back just once, if they gave the picked on kids half the free rides that the bullies got, then Colombine would have never happened. I was watching Boston Public a few months ago. There was an episode where a kid had been bullied without recourse to the point where he had a hit list. He was transfered and bullied at the next school some more. No one ever bothered to fix the real problem. We need to fix the holes in the system rather than patching over them.
This is Byron Siwelnor Signing off.
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