When our daughter and her family moved to a small town in New Hampshire, the disadvantages were obvious to me. Over time, I've learned to see the advantages as well. Two segments of the following America's Untold Stories video make me all the happier they live where they do, and I want to tell my grandchildren: Hang on to your hometown! But also, be aware of what's happening elsewhere, so you can recognize the beginning stages when they come to you.
Back when our children were still in elementary school, I attended a conference at which a speaker regaled us with horror stories of what was going on in public schools. I'm afraid I didn't take her too seriously, because—like so many people who are passionate about an issue—she came on too strong, and painted a picture far too bleak to resonate with my own experiences. I was very much involved in our local public schools, and had not seen the abuses she was describing. The thing is, she was right. She was ahead of her time, and her stridency put people off—not unlike the Biblical prophets. But all she warned against came to pass, and orders of magnitude worse.
One reason I like America's Untold Stories is that Eric Hunley and Mark Groubert pull no punches without being strident, and more often than not have personal experiences to back up their concerns. Caveat: I haven't listened to the entire show, which is over two hours long at normal speed, so I don't know what else they talk about. The first segment I'm concerned with here, about the "Homeless Hilton" being built in Los Angeles, runs between the 17-minute mark to minute 26; from there until minute 48 deals with the New York City school system.
[Quoting Manhattan school board member Maud Maron] Parents, and the children of immigrants who came from former Communist countries—Eastern Europeans and the Chinese—were saying, "Maud, we know what this is, and this isn't good."
It's easy to think, "Well, that's Los Angeles and New York; it has nothing to do with my town, my city, my schools." To that I can only say, weep for those cities, pray for those cities—and be awake and aware of how your own home might be at risk of starting along the same paths.
Can you help me here? I get the tenor—be afraid, be very afraid—but not the facts, nor what could be done other than fearfully looking for the first signs that things are going off the rails.
I presume the first part is something about homeless accommodation, and the next something about schools... but can you give a little more information what the video's about, please, CliffsNotes style?
Cliff Notes Version. Hmm. I'll see what I can do, though I don't see how I can say it better than they did.
(1) The city government of Los Angeles is unbelievably corrupt (Groubert, who lives there, cites statistics about the number of officials now in jail for corruption. That may have been previous to the video starting point I gave.) One of the examples of recent corruption is the "Homeless Hilton," a luxury apartment building built to provide "homes for the homeless" at an incredibly high cost that could only pay off for the construction company and whatever politicians they bought. It houses only a very small number of people, and will no doubt be trashed in the first month, because most of the homeless population of LA is made up of hardcore drug addicts, for whom housing is the least of their problems. Groubert speaks from his experience as a former addict himself, and one with experience in running drug rehab facilities. There's also more to the story than corruption, as many of the politicians are ideology-driven (Marxist) who for one reason or another don't really want the problem solved.
(2) I believe that New York City has the biggest school system in the country. Maud Maron tells of her experiences on one of their school boards (representing most of Manhattan), including her successful fight against the closing of the best schools in the city, which were targeted because of their merit-based admissions, and also her unsuccessful attempt to get the schools to set up a committee to review the ramifications of their 2019 policy allowing male students to participate in girl's sports.
What do these two issues have in common? First, that local elections matter. As New Orleans learned when Hurricane Katrina hit them, the people we elect often don't really matter all that much—until a crisis hits, at which point it may be a matter of life and death. A friend of ours, who lived in Italy for a year (many years ago, but the lesson still holds) remarked that the Christians there were naïve and perhaps lazy when it came to politics, often losing out to the much less numerous Communists, who were committed, focussed, and dedicated to getting their candidates elected.
Second, the time for dealing with breaks in the dike is when they're still small, rather than when the floodwaters are at the door.
Should we "be afraid, very afraid"? Yes and no. As they say in martial arts instruction, the first lesson of self-defense is awareness. If you're afraid enough to be aware of your surroundings, you're much less likely to need to resort to more drastic action.
That's the best I can do; I hope it helps.
