roadtrip

i'm headed to fort worth, dallas, and oklahoma! details to follow soon. for now, i'll leave you with some words from a Fort Worth native: Bob Schieffer.


September 28,1997
"Needed: A Twelve-Step Program"
It was like trying to get a child to take castor oil, but reluctant Senate leaders finally cleared the way this week for a debate on setting rules on how politicians raise campaign contributions.

The sponsors of the proposed legislation want to put limits on those huge donations of hundreds of thousands of dollars that flooded last year's campaigns.

President Clinton made an impassionated speech about ow necessary it was to reform the system, then promptly went to a fundraising dinner designed to raise just the kind of unregulated, large campaign gifts the reform legislation is designed to eliminate.

"Gotta do it," the White House said. "We want to stop, but we can't stop until the Republicans stop. Can't disarm unilaterally."

Excuse me, but whatever happened to the concept of setting a good example?

What if the president just said, "This is wrong, so we're not going to do it anymore, and I dare the Republicans to do the same?" Or what if the Republicans made the same dare to the White House? Or what if either side promised to quite for ninety days if the other side would, and if that worked, take it day by day, the way people dry out from drugs or alcohol or any other addiction.

Because that's what we have here, an addiction, and the only people who can't see it that way are the addicts.

And to think he wrote this SEVEN years ago!!

my words fail me

greys anatomy & nancy pelosi have my mind reeling tonight. i can't process it all without shouting expletives or sounding like an idiot, both of which i usually try to avoid.

so i will let someone else speak for me...
bob schieffer. he is the namesake for TCU's school of journalism. i heard him speak while i was student there, to an audience of less than 75 people, and i fell in love. he has such a charming voice! he has such integrity! he is from texas and true to his ties, but he loves washington. he loves the camera but he loves writing more. basically, bob schieffer is my hero.

so when i saw his book at barnes & noble on clearance, i knew i was going to buy it. (when i'm supposed to be studying for the GRE i find myself taking breaks to wander the rows of clearance shelves of B&N.) it is a series of closing thoughts from his sunday broadcasts on CBS since the 1970s. most of his writings are less than a page long and almost all of them leave me with the same response: genius!!

to get to the point: i'm probably going to start posting several of his "articles" here for the enjoyment of your reading.

May 6, 2001
"Good Schools"
Watching the Senate haggle this week over how much money to set aside to improve our schools caused me to wonder: Why are we so reluctant to spend money on education? We all agree it's important. We all say our kids come first. Yet our schools are always strapped for cash. There are probably many reasons for that, but I think I know one. We got good schools on the cheap for so long that we've forgotten or never really understood how much a good educational system costs.
Here's what I mean. Before women were given equal rights and equal access to jobs, there were really only two professions open to them: nursing and teaching. So the best and brightest became nurses and teachers.
The good news for the rest of us was we got good health care and good schools, and it didn't cost much. Since they couldn't work elsewhere, nurses and teachers were willing to work for very low wages. But when higher-salary jobs opened up for women, many women took them. And when they did, it created a crisis in nursing care, and our schools got worse. So why are we surprised?
Testing and accountability and all the things Congress and the president are debating to improve the schools are nice, but it's all small stuff; problem solving around the edges.
Good schools are the product of good teaching. Until we pay our teachers competitive wages, our schools won't change much.
Bob Schieffer