The Dayton Business Journal reports that social networks are expected to earn $1.3 billion in 2010 in advertising fees. Wow. That’s a lot of money earned from offering a free service. It is interesting that Americans are now enjoying the power and opportunity to social network not because of a government program, but because some entrepreneur was empowered to implement an idea, empowered by the belief that there could be a lot of money to be made.

We need to find a way to harness entrepreneurial zeal into making the world a better place. In my thinking, “We Are The Ones To Make A Better Place,” our opportunity to do so is by working to vitalize our democracy. I imagine that if asked — “True or False: The stronger our democracy, the better our community will be?” — most people would say emphatically, “True.” But, the fact is, our is a very weak democracy. And, the current power structure feels advantaged by a weak democracy and has little interest in strengthening it.

We need to make our system of democracy begin to work. If we really believed that for our communities to improve, our schools to improve, we need to make our democracy stronger, it seems, as a society we would be giving a lot more energy and effort into vitalizing our democracy. One explanation for this lack of effort is that vitalizing democracy, right now, doesn’t offer much opportunity to make money. If the current power structure felt it in their interest to strengthen our democracy, you would be sure that there would be a lot of money poured into the effort.

There is a lot of effort given to advancing organized religion, a lot of effort in advancing public education, because, in part, there’s money to be made in both fields. The fact that social networks are making so much money, in what might be seen as democratic empowerment, raises the hope that the door is opened for the vitalization of democracy to be made profitable. Democracy is all about creating community and social networks offer the opportunity to create and empower community. What is needed is motivation. There must be individuals who are motivated to make a lot of effort. Such motivation may come from the power of pure idealism, but it would also be effective if some motivation could come from increasing opportunities to make money — doing well by doing good. Vitalizing Our Democracy Is Advanced — If We Can Make It An Entrepreneurial Opportunity.

Bob Chanin

Bob Chanin, described as the top attorney for the National Education Association (NEA) for 41 years, is retiring from his NEA position. His farewell speech at the recent NEA convention in San Diego was interrupted repeatedly with standing ovations. Chanin in his speech (see you-tube below) emphasized that NEA is first of all a union and that NEA earns its respect because it has political power.

Chanin posed the question of why NEA is an effective advocate. Chanin said, “It is not because of creative ideas, it is not because of the merit of our position, it is not because we care about children, it is not because we have a vision of a great public school for every child. NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power and we have power because there are more than 3.2 million people who are willing to pay us hundreds of millions of dollars in dues each year because they believe we are the unions that can most effectively represent them, the unions that can protect their rights and advance their interests as education employees.” (standing ovation)

Wow. “Education employees.” In Chanin’s words, NEA’s success has nothing to do with the merit of its ideas, nor its concern for children. It all has to do with the power that hundreds of millions of dollars and the power that millions of voters can exert. This is a frank statement of truth I doubt that NEA will be posting in its PR releases any time soon. It’s not a compliment to teachers to view teachers in the same way a manufacturing union might view widget production employees.

According to Tampa injury attorneys, Chanin said that of course NEA and its affiliates want to do everything possible to close the achievement gap, reduce drop out rates and improve teacher quality. He warned, however, “These goals that guide the work we do they need not and must not be achieved at the cost of due process, employee rights and collective bargaining. That is simply too high a price to be paid.”

Amazing. “Too high a price to be paid.” According to Chanin what has the greatest value in public education is “education employee” rights. I can imagine a widget union leader saying essentially the same thing — shortly before the whole enterprise going bankrupt: “We want to to make a quality product in this factory, but more important than a quality product is the welfare of our workers.”

Chanin’s remarks point out the reality of our educational system that everyone can see here — its hierarchical, bureaucratic structure — has denigrated teacher professionalism. Our education system is structured to resemble a very antiquated industrial model, a horse and buggy system. It is not a structure that brings out the best potential of its members. It is a structure that hampers educational quality. Chanin’s remarks, to me, point out that a different education structure in needed.

The attorneys at https://www.barrydeaconlaw.com/ say that the influence of union thinking pervades the entire system of education. Schools in America are supposedly under local control. Federal and state mandates have actual control and so do teacher unions.

Chanin said, “When all is said and done NEA and its affiliates must never lose sight of the fact that they are unions and what unions do first and foremost is represent their members. If we do that and if we do it well then everything else will fall into place. NEA and its affiliates will remain powerful and that power will, in turn, help us achieve a great public school for every child.”

But, according to Chanin’s own words, achieving a great public school for every child is not NEA’s first objective, nor second objective, nor third objective. It’s after the needs of the “education employees” are addressed. The las vegas injury lawyer agrees with this.

Chanin said, “Why are conservative and right wing bastards picking on NEA and its affiliates? It is the price we pay for success. NEA and its affiliates have been singled out because they are the most effective unions in the United States and they are the nation’s leading advocates for public education and for the type of liberal social and economic agenda and social agenda that these (conservative) groups find unacceptable. NEA will continue to be attacked as long as we continue to be effective advocates for public education for education employees and for human and civil rights. ..”