Season 6, Episode 11 October 15, 2023

Hello!  Thank you for putting your ear to The Listening Tube!  I’m your host Bob Woodley, and I can’t get voted out because I do this for free!  Well, Dave, pays me.  Oh, and Jeanette does, too!  Thanks!  On this episode, we’ll hear about American expansionism, how to get kicked out of Jamaica, and the million man march…..but first, (Not the Headlines)! 

We count on the news to keep us informed about what’s going on in the world.  The news does tell us a lot about the daily events from around the world.  News is subjective, so it can change depending upon where you live and what’s important to you.  A lot of what’s called news today isn’t news at all.  A lot of it is opinion, a lot of it is fluff material, like the flock of sheep at Templehof Central Airport in Berlin or the latest flavor craze at the local coffee shop.  That might also be where you might find a story about a Happiness Calendar for Educators.  It’s a special one, just for the month of October of this year.  There’s a story about it in Greater Good Magazine, which appears to be affiliated with Berkeley dot edu.  The author of the story is a woman named Lauren Lee, who’s profile describes her as a marketing specialist for the magazine itself who’s had an eclectic past including photographer for cause-driven organizations.  It also says she’s passionate about character education and social-emotional learning.  She promotes kinder, happier and equitable places to live and learn.  That’s so nice.  Well, I want to be happy, so let’s take a look at the calendar she wrote about.  October first says to “Connect with a colleague.”  If you click on it, it redirects you to a related website produced by Greater Good in Education, who refer to themselves as Science-based practices for kinder, happier schools.   That sounds like a worthy goal.  Unless you’re a bully, then you’re being discriminated against.  Or in some cases, if you’re telling the truth and the truth hurts.  
But at the risk of being hurt, the path to connecting with a colleague is through a series of questions listed on the page.  There are three groups of them, each group consisting of 12 questions, of which you should use two to begin getting to know a colleague.  So, this exercise has nothing to do with teaching.  This exercise has nothing to do with the students at all.  It’s purely a way for teachers to connect with each other.  Well, I guess if the teachers get along, you’re more likely to have a kinder, happier school.  So what are the questions?  The first group of questions are not supposed to be too intrusive, just subtle ice-breakers.  The building blocks of understanding. 
Here’s question one:  Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as a dinner guest?  Definitely not anyone who would use the word “whom” during dinner.  Okay, I see where they’re going with this.  What’s the next question?  Would you like to be famous? In what way?  That’s actually two questions.  I’ve already been kinda famous, even if you’ve never heard of me.  Famous is often equated with rich, and they are not the same!  Here’s the problem with being famous.  Everybody calls you by name, and you’re not sure if you’ve ever met them before.  So, you’re often unsure of yourself, because you can’t recall if you’re supposed to know the person who just addressed you by name.  The second question, “In what way?” assumes you answered yes to the first question.  Not everybody wants to be famous.  
Question three seems a bit more intrusive:  Before making a telephone call, do you ever rehearse what you are going to say? Why?  There again, that’s two questions.  If I’m a teacher, probably not.  If I’m a salesman, definitely.  I think I also answered the follow up why.  The next question seems more appropriate for a dating site than a way to connect with other teachers on a professional level.  “What would constitute a “perfect” day for you?” might be something you’d ask someone in anticipation of asking them out on a date.  On a side note, the instructions for this exercise does mention that it has a reputation for making people fall in love.  Well, we are looking for happier, right?  Now I see why this has nothing to do with the students.  In most cases.  Another one of the questions a teacher might use to connect with another teacher is “When did you last sing to yourself? To someone else?”  Again, two questions, not one.  I sing in the car all the time.  If somebody else is there, that’s their problem.  The last time I purposely sang for other people was at karaoke.  I sang Meatloaf’s “Bat out of Hell.”  And I nailed it. 
The next question is another one of those dating game questions:  “If you were able to live to the age of 90 and retain either the mind or body of a 30-year-old for the last 60 years of your life, which would you want?”  That’s an easy one.  I was pretty stupid 30 years ago.  I like my mind the way it is right now.  I’d rather have my body from 30 years ago simply because I healed faster then than I do now.  I try to not do stupid shit as often as I did back then, but sometimes I can’t help myself.  The next possible question is a little macabre.  I haven’t heard of teachers creating suicide pacts, but if they did, this is how they would start.  “Do you have a secret hunch about how you will die?”  I’m not sure teachers should be discussing that type of thing in the teacher’s lounge.  If anything’s gonna lead to a teacher shortage, it’s that question right there.  As for me, I’m gonna die aged 150 at the hands of a jealous husband.
Number 8 says “Name three things you and your partner appear to have in common.’  Well, that’s not a question.  The partner it’s talking about is the person with whom you’re trying to connect, not your wife or husband.  Otherwise, you might have trouble naming three things!  HA!
There are just a few more questions in Set one, and I’m not going to go through sets two or three.  The ninth question, “For what in your life do you feel most grateful?’ can certainly give you insight to a person’s values.  The next question, “If you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be?” is a good way to learn about somebody’s regrets, or any bitterness they may be retaining from childhood.  The next one, “Take four minutes and tell your partner your life story in as much detail as possible.” isn’t a question, and I certainly don’t need four minutes to tell you my life story.  I could summarize my life in 60 seconds.  I could also write a book about it.  The last question in the set, “If you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one quality or ability, what would it be?” is a glimpse into a person’s hopes and dreams.  Most people won’t wish for super-human strength or the ability to fly.  Most people want to be able to solve problems for themselves and other people.  Most people aren’t going to wish for the ability to conquer the Earth, they’re going to wish for the ability to help others.  As for me, the only ability I wish I had was the ability to hear on the right side of my head.

That’s just day one of the Happiness calendar.  The next few days encourage joy and awe and helping kids see the bigger world and how they fit in.  So far all of it is geared toward the happiness of the teacher, with the premise that it also helps the student.  Day five directs you to a story written by another Greater Good writer.  Each day offers tidbits about how teachers can adjust their lives by following the instructions of the Happiness Calendar for Educators.  One day features ways to foster empathy, another offers to teach how culture can heal.  But if you read the article about how culture can heal, it’s really about how culture is being used to separate us.  It may be true that indigenous peoples thrive when they’re able to continue their traditions.  That applies to all of us.  But the happiness calendar espouses racism in the name of education, to single out native Americans as the only population who’s cultural heritage is diluted by assimilation.  All of our cultures are diluted by assimilation.  It doesn’t matter if you’re Libyan or Haitian or Polish or Italian or whatever.  It’s becoming clear to me that this calendar isn’t a way for teachers to better educate students.  Day seven teaches teachers how to enjoy silence.  I’m sure silence comes in handy when you’re a teacher.  But it has nothing to do with education.  How to support stressed-out teachers comes halfway through the month.  On the 24th of the month, the calendar suggests you join a supportive community.  The link sends you to a story about how teachers can support each other.  Four days before the end of the month, the calendar wants you to learn how to disagree without having a debate.  So, how do you you disagree without having a debate?  Well, you could turn around and walk away.  That was my first thought.  Walking away from a disagreement can be interpreted in different ways.  Maybe you just agree to disagree.  Maybe you realize you’ll never agree with the opposing opinion.  Maybe you’re admitting defeat, and you don’t have an argument that would lead to success.  Or maybe the person with whom you disagree is just too damn stupid to see what’s staring them in the face.  Whichever case it may be, why would you need to know how to disagree without having a debate?  Isn’t debate how we learn other points of view?  Isn’t debate how our government is supposed to work?  Are college debate teams obsolete?  Why would someone even write an article about how to disagree without having a debate?  The link on the calendar goes to a story literally titled, “How to Disagree Without Having a Debate.”  It could have been titled, “How to tell people you don’t care what they think.” or “I’m smarter than you, so don’t waste my time.”  How to disagree without having a debate is the same as being a block head.  How do you know your conclusion is correct?  Is there no additional information that could add to your understanding of the issue?  How to disagree without having a debate simply means your mind is closed.  Is that what kind of teachers we want?  Ones who aren’t willing to debate?
If you’re wondering what advice the article brings to the table, I’ll tell you.  During the pandemic, a group of colleges got together and some of the students explored the tendencies of political discussions.  The story quotes one of the participants as saying, “Civil disagreement is about holding space for different ways of coming to different beliefs and opinions.”  What a load of crap.  What does “holding space” even mean?  That sentence can be condensed to, “Civil disagreement is different beliefs and opinions.”  That middle part, “holding space for different ways of coming to” is just a way to insert wiggle room into what you believe.  Or more importantly, into what others believe.  As it turns out, the whole plan for disagreement without debate is to plant seeds of doubt into the mind of your adversary with questions that subtly change the subject.  Instead of presenting your own argument, instead of presenting facts to back up your opinion, instead of being prepared with a well-reasoned response to support the conclusion to which you have come, you simply ask a deflecting question.  The article on how to disagree without a debate suggests you say,  “That is an interesting perspective. Have you always thought that way, or has it changed and evolved over time?” or “Tell me about the influences that you think most impacted your perspective. Was it your family, your peers, your educators, or perhaps a book?”  See?  Now we’re not talking about the original subject any more.  Now we’re talking about you, and your influences.  By changing the subject in such a way, it has now become a discussion about why you feel the way you do, with the intent of making you believe you have your opinion because of some third-party influence; that you didn’t come to that conclusion by yourself.  It plants doubt in your mind about why you feel the way you feel.  While at the same time, the opposing opinion isn’t questioned at all.  When someone tries to make you examine why you feel the way you feel, they’ve cemented their opinion as the superior conclusion.  As their opinion isn’t being questioned, only yours.  But they’re not blaming you for the opinion you have, they’re trying to make you believe you don’t have your own opinion, that you only think the way you think because others made you believe what you believe.
I must admit, it’s a pretty slick tactic.  But don’t fall for it.  Anyone who isn’t willing to debate doesn’t have faith in their argument.  People who need to know how to disagree without having a debate believe in things that can’t be justified with reason.  Don’t get me wrong.  It’s okay to ask why a person feels the way they do, but it can’t be your only retort.  When someone resorts to questioning why you believe what you believe without presenting support for their opinion, it’s your turn to walk away, because whether they want to believe it or not, you just won the debate.  Even if they didn’t know you had one.  
Let’s remember, we’re talking about a calendar for educators.  So far, we’ve reviewed a way for teachers to hook up on school time, how teachers can use racism to their advantage, and how to ignore and subdue those with whom you disagree.  On the last day of the month, we finally get to the students.  The last day of October says, “Pretend to be a Superhero.”  Well, this looks like a good one.  It would be great if our teachers were super hero’s.  They should all be role-models.  So how would a teacher pretend to be a Superhero?  Well, that’s not where this was going.   No, the Happiness Calendar for Educators wasn’t suggesting the teacher become a pretend superhero.  This was merely an exercise for creating a way for students to do stuff they don’t want to do.  Can’t get a kid to clean up around his desk?  Put a cape on him and tell him he has super-human powers when it comes to cleaning, and hope it works.  In other words, it’s another attempt to make the teacher’s life easier, without regard to the education of the student.
Look, I know it’s not as easy being a teacher today as it was 40 years ago.  I understand that teachers need a few tips on how to cope.  But our schools are in crisis mode right now.  Scores are at their lowest in decades.  Kids aren’t prepared for the next grade, let alone college or trade school.  Not only are we graduating illiterate kids, kids who can’t succeed in the real world without trying to reinvent it, but also kids who don’t know how to use a tape measure, or read a fucking clock.  We’re graduating kids from high school who don’t even have a signature.  They can’t even sign their name on a piece of paper.  With an ink pen!  ACT scores are at their lowest since the 1990’s.  And 1990’s scores weren’t that impressive to begin with!  It was hard to be worse than then!  But somehow we managed.  We can’t blame the pandemic, because the fall began long before.  
I put the blame squarely on the teacher’s unions.  Hey, I understand it’s the union’s job to stick up for its members.  But what often gets overlooked is the kids aren’t part of the union.  The teacher’s unions don’t care about what happens to the students, only what happens to the teachers.  That’s why Berkeley created the Greater Good Science Center.  They bill themselves with the sell-line, “Ideas for building kinder, happier, more equitable school communities, drawn from the science of well-being.”  But it’s not about the students at all.  Plus what they call science is merely articles on how to game the system to make your life easier if you’re a teacher.  There are no repositories of knowledge about how to be a better teacher, just company-driven articles about how to make being a teacher easier.  
Looking for ways to improve the education of American students has led our educators away from the basics and toward the subjective.  Instead of learning math and spelling and science, it seems like today’s teachers are being forced to use classroom time to accomplish political goals.  Now, that’s nothing new, as schools have been used since the inception of schools as places for indoctrination.  But along with the indoctrination, you also got an education.  That doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.  And it only gets worse in post-secondary education.  The recent behavior of college student in response to the terror attack against Israel is a clear indicator of the terrible influence the left-leaning teachers union has had on the youth of America.  
Based on the results of our current education system, one could argue that our teacher’s lives need to be not easier, but much, much harder.  Our teachers aren’t getting the job done, and nobody’s holding them accountable for their failures.  Why?  Because the union protects them.  You might be thinking, “But Bob, we have to go easy on the teachers.  We can’t find enough of them as it is.”  Did it ever occur to you that the reason nobody want to be a teacher anymore is because of the politicization of the field?  Maybe a lot of good teachers left the field because they didn’t want to teach socialism or equity or have no mechanism for discipline.  There might be a lot of people willing to become teachers under other circumstances.  Circumstances that didn’t advocate an environment not supportive of learning.  Or at least learning useful skills instead of whatever it is the kids are being taught today, because whatever’s going on, it’s not working.  I know there are exceptions, thank goodness.  But in general, our education systems are failing our kids, and the kids are adjusting by changing the rules and expectations.  Of course, that’s much easier to do when you have access to all the world’s knowledge in your pocket.

I have a cautionary tale for you.  Look, I got nothin’ against cops.  I know they do a difficult and risky job.  And I’m sure that, much like politicians, most of them choose that path with honest and admirable intentions.  Unfortunately, a small number of them end up on the wrong side of justice.  In this case, a Police Chief and Mayor of a small town have found themselves facing a lawsuit for their actions.  So, what did they do to deserve that?  Well, these two officials of Newton, Iowa are accused of twice arresting a man for speaking at a city council meeting.  No, this man wasn’t interrupting the meeting with outbursts.  He wasn’t describing graphic passages from books in the school library.  He used no profanities.  What he did was point out two glaring problems with the police department.  One involved a man who the local police arrested for driving under the influence even though he passed the field sobriety test and blew a zero on a breathylizer.  Back at the police station, he was given more tests for drugs, and all were negative.  He also was denied a records request about one of the city’s officers, who’s ex-girlfriend had received a restraining order for alleged domestic abuse.  
Look, a lot of towns have a guy like this.  He’s generally a pain in the ass.  But sometimes it’s guys like this who are the guys who are the first to recognize when liberty and justice are veering off course at the local level.  
His first arrest came after he was given three minutes to speak during the public comment period of a city council meeting.  He accused the police department of being a violent, civil and human rights-violating organization.  He asserted that the current state of the police force wasn’t making the community safer.  He accused the police department of harboring a domestic abuser and keeping the records under wraps.  Not even a minute into his allotted three minutes, the Mayor ordered the man stop speaking.  When he didn’t, the Mayor ordered the man removed from the room.  The Police Chief arrested the man.  He was handcuffed and jailed until bonded out.  He showed up at the next city council meeting, was again given permission to speak, and was again arrested after pointing out the obvious by calling the Mayor and Police Chief fascists.  His word, not mine.  He was charged with disorderly conduct for disrupting a lawful assembly.  Twice.  Handcuffed, fingerprinted, and on one occasion, strip-searched.  The Mayor felt justified in quieting the man because the city has a rule against derogatory statements or comments about any individual at council meetings.  So when the man started saying stuff the council or the chief didn’t want to hear, they tried to stop the man from speaking.  When he didn’t stop, because he had three minutes to speak, he would be arrested for disrupting the meeting on the grounds that he was ordered to stop speaking because he made disparaging comments about another individual.  
Well, it turns out you can’t do that.  The rule against it has since been rescinded.  A judge found him not guilty of disorderly conduct in the first arrest, and overturned the rule the city had about derogatory statements as a violation of the First Amendment.  The judge added that the man’s comments were neither derogatory nor about an individual, and that the terms are vague and over broad.  
In the lawsuit, the man claims that being arrested the second time proves the point he was trying to make the first time he was arrested.   His lawyer agreed, saying, "By ordering their opponents arrested, Newton's officials behaved like petty dictators in a banana republic, rather than democratically-elected leaders in a constitutional republic.  Anyone with a high school diploma should know that having your political opponents arrested is a textbook example of violating someone's First Amendment rights and we're confident that the courts will agree." 
As for the man who was twice arrested for exercising his right to free speech, the Des Moines Rigister quoted him a saying, "No one should have to fear being jailed for exercising their rights in a democracy.  "I hope this case can set a precedent to strike down unconstitutional rules across Iowa and the rest of the country, to set a precedent that it’s not okay for the state to arrest it’s critics."

 Let’s Go Back liner

1009
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a Christian church in Jerusalem, is completely destroyed by the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who hacks the Church’s foundations down to bedrock.  More than a thousand years later, there’s still destruction occurring in the region.  

1091
London Tornado of 1091: A tornado thought to be of strength T8/F4 strikes the heart of London.  Climate change!  Said nobody.

1648
Boston Shoemakers form the first labor organization in the colonies.  There were already unions, or guilds, over in Europe.  But the Boston shoemaker’s union was in response to some shoe makers putting out shoddy work.  The goal was to set quality standards for all shoemakers so that people could trust the quality wherever they bought their shoes.  The Massachusetts legislature forbid the fixing of prices, which was part of the European guild’s operating procedure.  The Boston guild did bring some old-world practice back, such as apprenticeship programs.  Anyone who wanted to become a shoemaker had to serve time with a master to learn the craft.  Today, unions might still be interested in putting out quality products, but their primary purpose is getting higher wages and improving workplace safety.  A number unions in the U.S. are currently on strike.  The writer’s union recently settled with the T.V. and movie studios, but the actors are still picketing.  Auto companies are currently in a struggle with United Auto Workers, who are demanding a 40 percent wage increase.  President Biden joined them on the picket line, and they seemed happy to see him.  But in the back of their minds, they couldn’t help but wonder why the President is pushing for electric vehicles, which will eliminate thousands of union jobs.  

1846
William TG Morton first demonstrated ether anesthesia at the Massachusetts General Hospital in the Ether Dome.  Can you imagine the pranks that were pulled in that hospital?  I mean before they told everybody else about ether? 

This was a busy week for the expansion of the United States.  It was this week in 1867 that the 
United States takes possession of Alaska after purchasing it from Russia for $7.2 million. 
Then, this week in 1898, the United States takes possession of Puerto Rico.  Alaska was eventually given the status of one of the United States, while Puerto Rico remains a territory.

1873
Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers universities draft the first code of American football rules.  The rules have certainly become more complicated since then.  At first, there was no blocking and no forward pass.  When the forward pass did come along, an incomplete pass would result in a turnover of the ball.  Today, professional football is the most popular sport in the United States, with football telecast viewership head and shoulders above all other programming.  College football has become a billion-dollar business as well, with the players now allowed to make money from their images and likenesses used in promotion and advertising.  

1947
The House Un-American Activities Committee begins its investigation into Communist infiltration of Hollywood, resulting in a blacklist that prevents some from working in the industry for years.  Today, many of the Hollywood elites are card-carrying socialists.  Left-wing extremists permeate the Hollywood industry from the bottom ranks to the top office suites.  Democrat-Socialists have their own Los Angeles chapter that, according to a story in the Hollywood Reporter, even looks at the Screen Actor’s Guild with suspicion because Ronald Reagan was once the union President.  The story quotes a supporter as saying they are for a purer vision of economic opportunity and redistribution.  Redistribution is just another word for equity.  It also quotes a well-known actor who warns those who are trying to rise through the ranks of Hollywood, “(If you) want to buy a house in the Palisades, no one’s stopping you.  If you’re buying five houses, maybe we want to talk to you…”
That’s a warning that Democrat-Socialists won’t let anybody get too wealthy.

1954
Texas Instruments announces the first Transistor radio.  There was a time when people carried the transistor radio around with them.  Much like people don’t go anywhere without their phone, back then, the transistor radio was your window to the world.  Instant news, dramatic programming, and eventually music formats were developed to inform and entertain you wherever you went.

1959
The first discothèque opens, the Scotch-Club in Aachen, Germany.  At first a restaurant, the owner of the Scotch Club transformed it into a dance hall.  But he didn’t want to hire bands to play, so he brought in record player.  At first, attendees were bored, then a reporter who was there to witness the opening took over the record player.  He began announcing the songs and making comments and getting the dancers to play games.  People loved it.  The reporter became the house Disc Jockey for the next eight years, and formed a union that made being a disc jockey a formal profession in Germany. 

1968
Kingston, Jamaica is rocked by the Rodney Riots, inspired by the barring of Walter Rodney from the country.  Wow.  What do you have to do to get banned from Jamaica?  

Look that up liner

As was the case for Walter Rodney, you first had to leave Jamaica to get banned from returning.  Rodney was a professor from Guyana who was teaching at the University of the West Indies.  His area of expertise was African history.  He was active in the Black Power movement of the 1960’s and often criticized the middle class while working with the poor population of Jamaica to increase their awareness of the political clout they could have.  
But when Rodney left Jamaica to attend a black writer’s conference in Canada, the Jamaican government prevented him from returning to the island for a variety of reasons, including Rodney’s trips to Cuba and the Soviet Union, according to wikipedia.  
A student union, hearing about the ban on Rodney, shut down the campus of the university.  The protest eventually went on the march.  First to the Prime Minister’s home, then to the parliament building.  As they marched, more people joined the demonstration.  Soon the demonstration spread across the city of Kingston, turning violent and resulting in millions of dollars in property damage and several deaths.  The wikipedia post quotes the Minister of Home Affairs of Jamaica as saying, "In my term of office, and in reading the records of problems in this country.  I have never come across a man who offers a greater threat to the security of this land than does Walter Rodney.” 
Walter Rodney was assassinated in his home country of Guyana in 1980.  His ban from Jamaica remains in effect. 

1979
The Department of Education Organization Act is signed into law creating the US Department of Education and US Department of Health and Human Services.  That’s when our education and welfare systems became bloated bureaucracies that have done nothing to improve the standard of living or Americans for more than forty years. 

1987
In retaliation for Iranian attacks on ships in the Persian Gulf, the U.S. Navy disables three of Iran’s offshore oil platforms.  That’s how it should work.  As for the current war in Israel and the Gaza Strip, Hamas threatens to kill hostages should Israel do what it’s been doing for the last few days, which is bombing Gaza.  Everybody knows Iran is behind Hamas and Hezzbola.  A former House Speaker recently suggested that for every hostage killed, we should destroy an Iranian oil refinery. 

1995
The Million Man March occurs in Washington, D.C.  Organized by Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, many other organizations joined the effort to bring attention to, according to the story in wikipedia,  "convey to the world a vastly different picture of the Black male."  Organizers also encouraged those who couldn’t come to Washington for the event to stay home from work or school or whatever you did, calling that the Day of Absence.  Those who could attend the event in the American Capital witnessed speeches by prominent invitees and encouraged to engage with self-help programs and economic opportunities.  
The Million Man March didn’t quite live up to its name, though.  There were arguments about how many men attended.  The National Park Service estimated about 400-thousand.  Researchers at Boston University, funded by ABC-TV, came up with a number of about 837-thousand attendees, but the estimate has a margin of error of 20 percent.
Not to be overlooked, black women organized the Million Woman March two years later.  About half a million women converged on Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to call for repentance for the pain black women caused one another, and for the restoration and resurrection of African American families and community bonding.

2002
Bibliotheca Alexandrina is officially inaugurated.  Meant to replace the legendary Library of Alexandria, which was lost to fire thousands of years ago, it has room for 8-million books.  The Library of Alexandria was at one time a place where practically all of the world’s knowledge was housed.  Today’s replacement, now 21 years old, also has a conference center, maps, four museums, four art galleries, a planetarium and a laboratory for restoring manuscripts.

Well, it seems that I have run out of time on this episode, so there won’t be any epilogue this week.  I’d love to make it up to you next week, but having two epilogues flies in the face of the definition of epilogue, so I guess there’s no going back!

The Listening Tube is written and produced by yours truly.  Copyright 2023.  Thank you for putting your ear to the Listening Tube.  I’m your host, Bob Woodley for thou ad infinitum.