Somebody Said It Better

"While certainly not new in the American debate, the Civil Rights Movement which took off during the 1950s drew a fiery public line between social progressives who wished to rid the American justice and political system of discriminatory laws and conservative traditionalists who refused to lessen their political power based on the widespread southern conviction of white superiority. Social progressives were at a distinct disadvantage. Not only did they lack political power in the southern states, but their means for achieving their goals were diverse and often in conflict with one another – demonstrated most effectively by highlighting the differences between Martin Luther King, Jr.’s nonviolent protests over discriminatory laws and Stokely Carmichael’s often inflammatory cries for “Black Power” and self-determination. Conservative news media, in an effort to put a decisive wedge in the blossoming movement’s followers, spread stories which, at least according to Carmichael, exaggerated the philosophical division within the movement."

"I know that society may be formed so as to exist without crime, without poverty, with health greatly improved, with little, if any misery, and with intelligence and happiness increased a hundredfold; and no obstacle whatsoever intervenes at this moment except ignorance to prevent such a state of society from becoming universal."

"What’s said on the campaign trail, you know, those folks don’t have a lot of responsibilities. They’re not commander in chief. And when I see the casualness with which some of these folks talk about war I’m reminded of the costs involved in war. I’m reminded that the decision that I have to make in terms of sending our young men and women into battle and the impact that has on their lives, the impact it has on our national security, the impact it has on our economy. This is not a game. There’s nothing casual about it."

"You know, we gotta do it someday… throw away all the guns and invite all the jokers from the north and the south to a cocktail party. Last man standing on his feet at the end wins the war."

"I just don’t know why they’re shooting at us. All we want to do is bring them democracy and white bread. Transplant the American dream. Freedom. Achievement. Hyperacidity. Affluence. Flatulence. Technology. Tension. The inalienable right to an early coronary sitting at your desk while plotting to stab your boss in the back."

"It’s sort of a touching response to a $1.2 trillion deficit, isn’t it? That somehow the American people will all send in checks and take care of it?"

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Well-educated people also possess an enlarged capacity for independent thought. The ability to think, to develop belief systems that heed the higher callings of justice and empathy, serve as bulwarks against corrupt institutions that enforce blind obedience and destroy lives.

With such public good clearly evident to anyone who cares to look, one wonders why Gov. Tom Corbett persists in viewing public education as a private entitlement rather than a public investment. In only two years the governor will have slashed more money from higher education than all previous Pennsylvania governors combined since the Morrill Act [of 1862] was ratified.

Although Gov. Corbett has not stated his agenda explicitly, one can surmise from his actions that he would greatly reduce public support for higher education and transfer the state’s educational obligations to private or for-profit online schools.

Such a move would be a disaster for Pennsylvania. In the first place, for-profit online schools - the kind Charles Zogby managed before he became Mr. Corbett’s budget director - have a dismal record of achievement. Despite the copious influx of venture capital and student financial aid, for-profit universities such as Capella, Phoenix and Walden have an aggregate graduation rate of only 22 percent - an astounding 43 percentage points below the Pennsylvania public college average.

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"Teachers matter. So instead of bashing them, or defending the status quo, let’s offer schools a deal. Give them the resources to keep good teachers on the job and reward the best ones. In return, grant schools flexibility: to teach with creativity and passion, to stop teaching to the test, and to replace teachers who just aren’t helping kids learn."

"I know that society may be formed so as to exist without crime, without poverty, with health greatly improved, with little, if any misery, and with intelligence and happiness increased a hundredfold; and no obstacle whatsoever intervenes at this moment except ignorance to prevent such a state of society from becoming universal."

"It restores my faith in human nature to think that there are people who have been around Washington all this time and are not yet so cynical as to think that the deficit can’t be solved by voluntary contributions."

"I looked at that, and I didn’t say that,” Santorum told O’Reilly. “If you look at it, what I started to say is a word and then sort of changed and it sort of — blah — came out. And people said I said, ‘Black.’ I didn’t."