Who Will Cry for the Little Boy?

Who will cry for the little boy?
Lost and all alone.
Who will cry for the little boy?
Abandoned without his own?

Who will cry for the little boy?
He cried himself to sleep.
Who will cry for the little boy?
He never had for keeps.

Who will cry for the little boy?
He walked the burning sand.
Who will cry for the little boy?
The boy inside the man.

Who will cry for the little boy?
Who knows well hurt and pain.
Who will cry for the little boy?
He died again and again.

Who will cry for the little boy?
A good boy he tried to be.
Who will cry for the little boy?
Who cries inside of me?


The above is excerpted from Who Will Cry for the Little Boy? by Antwone Q Fisher.

A win for the US

You may be thinking I am referencing the Democratic wins in last night's election, but I am not. I am referencing the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld. Whether or not the election pushed towards this is speculation, the simple fact is that Rumsfeld is now on his way out officially and maybe the US can start writing a new chapter in our history that is a little more sensible and respectable.

US Defence Secretary Rumsfeld stepping down

which is a little different tune than what was being pushed out on the 6th of November, where the response was to "shrug it off." At least now President Bush will hopefully be accountable for his decisions and not able to "shrug off" criticisms.

Military media call for Rumsfeld's resignation

Is our military smart or dumb?

I actually find this question to be kind of a pointless question as there is no set ruler for what denotes smart or dumb. But what we can look at is the educational level of the military versus citizens. I want to preface this with: ALL STATISTICS ARE BULLSHIT! Numbers can be manipulated to say whatever you want. I started analyzing the numbers due to this article:

John Kerry: U.S. Soldiers Not 'Smart'

Furthermore, there is a reference to another study that claimed that the US military is more educated the general public (this I found hard to believe). The referenced study is linked here:

Who Bears the Burden? Demographic Characteristics of U.S. Military Recruits Before and After 9/11

What is interesting about this study is that it doesn't reference any recent data (2004 or 2005), yet this is the study that was being utilized to make a claim that our military was educated better than our citizens. So I decided to do some research.

ALL MY DATA CAME FROM THE US MILITARY AND THE CENSUS!!! I did this purposely as I figured it was the most forgiving source for analyzing the data. For education levels of the military, I took the data from and utilized 2005 and 2004 datasets:

Army G-1 Human Resources

To compare the data to the citizens, I took the general population data from the US Census located here:

Educational Attainment 2005

We could argue the validity of the numbers, how the data was attained, but the fact is simple: this data came from the government that is attempting to sell the public how educated and "of the people" our military is. So their data should support this claim. Does it?

Here are the results of the data that I came up with:

Military Overview
Number	HS/GED	AA	BA/BS	MA/PhD
1,390,093	991,543	135,256	136,142	60,037
	71%	10%	10%	4%

* Total % with HS/GED: 95%
* Total % with Some College or AA: 24%

Citizens 18-24 (numbers in thouands)
Number	HS/GED	AA	BA/BS	MA/PhD
28,009	8,384	11,141	2,258	86
	30%	40%	8%	0%

* Total % with HS/GED: 78%
* Total % with Some College or AA: 48%

Citizens All Ages (numbers in thousands)
Number	HS/GED	AA	BA/BS	MA/PhD
230,437	69,446	59,276	36,520	18,226
	30%	26%	24%	8%

* Total % with HS/GED: 88%
* Total % with Some College or AA: 58%

No matter how you interpret these numbers, there is no way to make a case that the military is more educated than the general public. A couple key things to denote:

1) Comparing 18-24 year olds to military seems most compatible, but military includes officers in that comparison which skews the comparison.

2) The military does seem to have a higher percentage of high school diplomas than the general public (this was the claim made to prove more education in the Heritage report), but what becomes quickly apparent is the quick drop off of education above the high school and/or GED level.

3) The education of the military is generally decreasing as we are longer in Iraq (this should not be a shocker).

In the end, if you want to make a straight up comparison of education levels, the military is not as well educated. It would be more accurate to say that the military is more minimally educated than the general public.

I would be fascinated to compare the education level of the average soldier to the average Senator and determine what the differential is there.

All these stats do not say nearly as much as the simple quote by Sartre:

"When the rich wage war, it's the poor who die."

Protect the Children!

Registered sex offenders told to ignore Halloween

This story made me ask a few questions:

• Are Athiests going to be told to ignore Christmas?
  
• Are Christians going to be told to avoid going to Coliseums?
  
• Are murderers going to be prevented from going to movies with violence?
  
• Are abusive spouses going to be told to avoid relationships?
  

I find this type of "protect the children" ideology to be completely anti-social. Yes, we as a society should protect its children. But let me suggest something:

Rather than worrying about the statistical minority of sex offenders on Halloween decorating their houses, how about we be concerned about all the fathers we are sending to Iraq and leaving children in one-parent families.

Statistically I am curious what is causing more damage in our upcoming generation. Sex offenders with carved pumpkins and Halloween decorations, or families torn apart when the fathers are sent to war.

Unfortunately, these issues are seldom about what they seem to be at face value. Instead, these distracting actions remain the best mechanism of social control, by making us feel warm and fuzzy while ignoring the realities of the world around us. I would suggest we refocus our concerns. We move from focusing on some inane fear that we can fix by forcing people to take down decorations, and instead focusing on what will protect the children of tomorrow the most: return their fathers to them.

Protect the children, allow them to have their fathers.

America May Be Finding Its Way....

Everyone has heard the same idea a lot lately: "We live in troubled times." What is meant by this? That we are at war? That the country is polarized? A plethora of scandals from torture to sexual misconduct? Or is it the totality of it all that makes it a troubling time?

I don't believe it is any of these issues that make it troubling. I believe it is that when the war on terror began, so did the war on political dissidents. A political dissident became equivalent to a terrorist and it didn't seem to matter where on the spectrum of dissidents one found themselves. To be politically active against the current administration was a terrorist act, just as bombing a building was. It was at this transitional time we, as Americans, lost one of our most fundamental American qualities.... the ability to be critical of ourselves.

I believe America is a great country. Not because of our education, not because of our military, not because of our economy; but because we have been self-critical. In the history of superpowers, this superpower has shown the highest level of accountability so far. This is not to say we can't improve, but compared to other historical superpowers we have grown in a way that hasn't in the past. We have grown ideologically. This is why I find recent years so troubling.

On Sept. 11th, the US was attacked. Millions stood in horror and shock, then anger, then fearfully numb. Our government, at a critical time in this countries history, made a fatal flaw in the decision making process. It forgot accountability. It forgot to ask a basic question: "why were we attacked?" And failing to ask and understand this question has led us down the road that previous superpowers have traveled before. The path of decree, the path of righteousness, and the path of self-destruction.

I see a glimmer of hope though. Americans are starting to find their voice, starting to criticize, starting to question again. Fear is subsiding to anger. And it is through anger and disgust that people are speaking. Americans have seldom agreed with one another and that is where the strength of this country can be found. In our dissident views of one another. It is time that we don't view our dissidents as terrorism against righteousness, but the grounding framework that gives birth to this great country.

Two movies take shots at Bush

Rebirth

This is the rebirth of my blog. We will see how this life version is treated.

- image by Exidos.