Youth Advocacy
Youth Advocacy
Year 3, Week 51 (241 total reports)
24.01.20245-28.01.2025
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Dr. Jerry Goebel, MBA, D.Min.
As 47 sends his Gestapo to raid schools and prevent children from being educated. It is a time for all of us to ask, “Which side of history will we be on?”
Song of the Week
Songs with inspiring, true, stories about people who have risen to defend human rights at pivotal times.
Top Links of the Week
28.01.2025
Public schools try to protect undocumented students from Trump immigration raids
Under 47 and with direction from Project 2025 and tech oligarchs, ICE has become the new Gestapo. As the Orange Felon of Mar-A-Lago attempts to militarize immigration, he is now sending ICE to raid public schools. But some schools are standing firm against their agenda, declaring that, “education is for every child regardless of their immigration status.” Only valueless, vile, adults would attempt to prevent a child from being educated; any child, anywhere. Yet, that is exactly what this administration is attempting to do. This is the same administration that made it a policy to separate children from their parents without keeping an account of what prison camp either party was forced into. This is criminal, and those accepting, supporting, or enacting these policies will one day have to stand up to the raw lens of history as surely as the Nazi supporters (and deniers) of Hitler’s Germany. I’m so very grateful for these brave educators willing to put their livelihoods and careers on the line for the children they have sworn to teach. Another reason why, in a future time, we must remember that teaching is a sacred profession and deserves to be rewarded with the highest respect and recompense.
27.01.2025
How The US Became So Dysfunctional, Oligarchic, And Corrupt – OpEd
It should be noted, prior to reading this article, that the author, Finn Andreen, is a Swedish libertarian living in France. With that understanding, Mr. Andreen provides an engaging historic summary of the rise of Federalism in the US, particularly since President Lincoln. The continued power of the Federal Government over the States has—in Andreen’s opinion, led to the issues we have today with the centralized oligarchy of 47’s government under the direction of Elon Musk and Project 2025. This has become increasingly evident this week with the President’s blustery blowup (and backdown) of sending Colombian migrants to Colombia handcuffed in military planes. It is also apparent in the bellicose rants of the President about Greenland, Panama, and Canada. Despite the will of the American people, this President is recklessly pursuing a course that alienates long-time global allies. Thankfully, as we have seen in the terse showdown with President Gustavo Petro, the Colombian President, 47 is unable to sustain any whim longer than a day and has to back down when it comes to actually pursuing a policy that takes more focus than an afternoon. Apparently, no one is also around to help the President spell-check his tariff announcements as he even misspelled the name of the country he was addressing. Let’s hope this lack of focus continues.
26.01.2025
The Ungovernable Economy
This brilliant review by Trevor Jackson, of the Martin Wolf’s book, “The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism,” is perfectly timed to the political situation in which we currently find ourselves under 47’s, Project 2025-mandated economy. Jackson points out that economies that have historically led to collapse included; “policies (that) have privatized gains and socialized losses,” in which those running the government, “remove themselves from communities of obligation,” then blame immigrants, women, and minorities for the distress experienced by the economic “losers.” Besides being insightful about current economic issues from a historic perspective, Wolf goes on to present creative solutions that have stabilized countries and led to economic fairness in the past. As I read this article, additional alarm bells went off for me about the policies that 47 is trying to execute as he proceeds—through presidential fiat—the rapacious mandates of Project 2025 and the shadow president, Elon Musk. This is well-worth the read, though not exactly an easy piece.
25.01.2025
One Analysis to Rule Them All
This is a very important reminder of basic psychological principles; we become what gets rewarded or what doesn’t get punished. As the article points out, in 1957, famed Behavioral psychologist, B.F. Skinner said, “Men act upon the world, and change it, and are changed in turn by the consequences of their action.” It’s obvious why this remains important today when we look at the monster that the Orange Felon of Mar-A-Lago has become. He has been emboldened in his racist and fascist views by both his supporters and the apathy of others who don’t seem to care about the policies he is enacting. With the release of seditious criminals who tried to take over the capital at his direction, their criminal behavior will be reinforced and will become criterion for future criminal behavior as courts rally to cite this as a precedent. On a personal/educational/fundamental level, how will we explain to young people that consequences matter when they obviously don’t if you are rich and powerful?
24.01.2025
Noam Chomsky Defines What It Means to Be a Truly Educated Person
Professor Chomsky would not be appreciated in most school board discussions today, especially in the Red States—seats of MAGA cult thinking. The MIT scholar has pointed to an all-out attack on public institutions by corporations for years now. Those who support oligarchies would not want his ideas repeated in their boardrooms or public school gatherings. In this article, the author points to what Chomsky would define as the goal of education. Not the retention of knowledge, and certainly not the repetition of political propaganda, but (in his own words); “to be truly educated means to be resourceful, to be able to ‘formulate serious questions’ and ‘question standard doctrine, if that’s appropriate’… It means to ‘find your own way.’”
