Anything But Calming

Meditation has taken a place behind the morning queue to my reading of the New York Times.  Clearly these two are in the wrong order.  I recall centering myself calmly before taking on the day.   Thoughts come up.   Let them pass on by.  Slow your heart down.  Then read the news.  I start that effort these mornings, if I get to it at all, from a much more agitated place.  The news is anything but calming.

Betsy Devos is now the Secretary for Education.  She passed by one, tie-breaking vote cast by the Vice President, Mike Pence.  Two of Republican senators, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine voted against her, but it was not enough.  As Bernie Sanders pressed Ms. Devos during her confirmation hearings: is there anyway she would have been considered, if her family hadn’t have donated somewhere in the range of two hundred million dollars to Republican candidates and causes?   Certainly not. 

Murkowski and Collins objected to her in part because of her endorsement of school vouchers, which they decried were unrealistic in rural areas such as theirs.  Great.  What about the senator John Hoeven from North Dakota?  What about Mike Crapo of Idaho?  If school vouchers terrify voters in Maine, why not in Wyoming, where presumably the schools themselves are often the bedrock of the communities?   Perhaps it will take the closing of school after school to garner a reaction.

She will start this position with next to no credibility within the system she will oversee.   From her confirmation hearing we know that she is supportive of weaponry in schools and that the person who is responsible for setting the pedagogical tone among educators, didn’t bother to prepare herself to illustrate her understanding of important educational policy debates, in much the same way her boss, has set a tone among his team for winging all preparation. 

I will do what I can to forget her insincere smile, as I cross my legs and breathe.

Wednesday, 02/08/17