In his commencement speech at the historically black college, Hampton University, last Sunday, President Barack Obama said, “education is what has always allowed us to meet the challenges of a changing world,” and, speaking to the Hampton graduates, he said, “You’re in a strong position to out compete workers around the world.”

But, he told the graduates, “What’s at stake is more than our ability to out compete other nations. It’s our ability to make democracy work in our own nation. Now, years after he left office, decades after he penned the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson sat down, a few hours’ drive from here, in Monticello, and wrote a letter to a longtime legislator, urging him to do more on education. And Jefferson gave one principal reason — the one, perhaps, he found most compelling. ‘If a nation expects to be ignorant and free,’h e wrote, ‘it expects what never was and never will b e.’

“What Jefferson recognized, like the rest of that gifted founding generation, was that in the long run, their improbable experiment — called America — wouldn’t work if its citizens were uninformed, if its citizens were apathetic, if its citizens checked out, and left democracy who those — to those who didn’t have the best interests of all the people at heart. It could only work if each of us stayed informed and engaged; if we held our government accountable; if we fulfilled the obligations of citizenship.

“The success of their experiment, they understood, depended on the participation of its people — the participation of Americans like all of you. The participation of all those who have ever sought to perfect our union .”

See You-tube here

Written By Mike Bock

In the campaign to persuade Kettering voters to approve a new 6.9 mill property tax for Kettering Schools, I received six pieces of literature through the mail urging a “Yes” vote — all of impressive professional quality.  I’m on the list to receive all of the information sent to board members.  Most Kettering voters did not receive all six pieces of literature, but were targeted with specific literature according to a marketing strategy based on voter demographics. This was an expensive campaign.  As of early April, almost $19,000 was spent by the Political Action Committee, “Citizens for Kettering Schools.”  The levy request failed, but received 48% “Yes” votes.  A new levy campaign is planned for November.

• The Blue Ribbon Report (Sent to all Kettering households and paid for with District funds, not PAC funds.)
• Letter from former school superintendents Jim Trent and Chet Rousch (Mr Trent is the current school board president.)
• A three fold flyer
• A testimonial from Kettering parents Mike and Victoria Delman
• A testimonial from Kettering parents Sondra and Harry Vearn
• A letter from Oakview School Elementary Principal, Margaret Engelhard

Written by Mike Bock

I’m reading Simon Johnson and James Kwak’s new book — “13 Bankers, the Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown” — and posting a summary and excerpts of each chapter.

In chapter two, “Other People’s Oligarchs,” Johnson and Kwak give details of financial meltdowns in the 1990’s — Mexico, Russia, the Czech Republic and Urkraine in 1994 and Southeast Asia, Korea, Brazil and Russia in 1997-1998.  They write that oligarchs who controlled the finances of those countries were blamed.

Johnson and Kwak write that it was widely assumed that the United States was immune from financial problems of of  countries with “emerging markets.”  But, “In September-October 2008, when Lehman Brothers collapsed and panic seized the U.S. economy, money flooded out of the private financial system in what looked like a classic emerging market crisis.”

They write, “When the federal government began rescuing major banks presided over by ultra-wealthy executives — while letting smaller banks fail by the dozens — it began to seem as if our government was bailing out is own uniquely American oligarchy.”

Here is an excerpt from the conclusion of this chapter:

“In similar situations in the 1990s, the United States had urged emerging market countries to deal with the basis economic nd political factors that had created devastating crises.  This advice was often perceived as arrogant, but the basic logic was sound:  when an existing economic elite has led a country into a deep crisis, it is time for change.  And the crisis itself presents a unique, but short-lived, opportunity for change.

“As in Korea a decade before, a new president came to power in the United States in the midst of the crisis.  And just like Kim Dae-jung in Korea, Barack Obama had campaigned as a candidate of change.  Yet far from applying the advice it had so liberally dispensed to others, the U.S. government instead organized generous financial support for its existing economic elite, leaving the captains of the financial sector in place.”

Previous posts about this book:

• “13 Bankers” — Introduction
• “13 Bankers” — Chapter One: Thomas Jefferson and the Financial Aristocracy