Ms McLaughlin: You are wrong when you teach there is little difference between liberal and conservative – Dead Wrong.

There is a difference between collectivism (socialism) and freedom and prosperity. No socialist society in history of any significant size has prospered and they are never free. In fact they typically are totalitarian, with related gulags and mass murder. Also, they can’t design and manufacture good consumer goods such as auto, appliances and electronics.

There is a reason why some people are trying to publish the lie that socialism is acceptable. The reason is that they are Socialists. Along the way they want to take things from people and dominate them. And they like to work in education and the state department, always have.

As far as the difference between the USA Democratic Party and the Republician Party – I do agree they both stand for centralized government and concentration of power in DC – conditions which make collectivism easy.
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You’ve lost me. Is one of your objections to students providing hot coffee and pastries for day laborers that you envision it as some kind of a socialist enterprise?

Here’s an example of what I mean about “liberal” vs. “conservative” values being muddled in our country. In recent months, we’ve seen numerous people who probably call themselves “conservatives” raising hell over a possible public option in our upcoming national health reform scenario. Now, they themselves would not be forced to participate in a government-managed, nonprofit health plan. That plan would be only one option in the new national exchange. But the alleged “conservatives” want the public option eliminated altogether, so that NO Americans can choose to participate. How is that a “conservative” stance? It contradicts any possible conception of free-market economics, it limits the choices available to American consumers, and it forces us to go through the profit-driven insurance industry if we want health coverage at all.

It’s not just students in Oakland who are challenged by undereducation. There are a lot of “conservatives” running around the country, making a lot of noise, who seem to have no idea what “conservative” really means.

Let me tell you, I have seen day laborers, become permanent employess, then become homeowners. They are , for the most part, are what is still good about America-immigrants!
God help this country if we have to depend on lil Ray Ray, Nuk-Nuk, or Trigger from the corner dealing dubs to get Jordans with three kids from three different women. Yup, this is my neighborhood Ms. McGlauhlin.

Harold- Capitalism is dying? So… is socialism living? If capitalism was dying, quit your job Harold-stop paying your bills. See where that will get you.

…in that world, you would have to pull out a debit/credit card to get services when your house is on fire.

capitalism is dying on the vine (i presume you haven’t noticed)…

We judge the effort of the teenagers with pastry and coffee as “good.” But in our liberal agenda we will not call unwed, teenage pregnancy, truancy, failing to work at assignments, dropping trash on the ground around campus, talking back to teachers disrespectfully (this does not include respective disagreement), tardiness, not coming to school prepared or failing to complete assignments on time “bad.” We say, the students don’t have support at home, they are living what they see, or it is the cycle of poverty. And that may very well be the case, but the behavior, the results of the behavior are BAD. They harm the students themselves, society at large and our school system specifically.

We need to begin to call the behavior what is is, good or bad. When the behavior is good, we are very quick to point it out: the students in this article had good behavior because it was generous, it was on their own time before school, it brought generosity to those who help our community and do not get a fair salary or benefits in return.

When we have unwed teenage parents we need to call the behavior bad. It is bad to have babies young and out of wedlock because it means there is a HUGE chance the child will live in poverty without insurance. The is a HUGE chance that the students have not taken parenting classes and do not have sufficient education or life experience to know what is developmental behavior and what is not. Girls who are pregnant in middle or high school often do not work, develop a career or even finish a high school education. There is a HUGE chance that the boys who have children as teens out of wedlock do not accept their parental responsibilities, have not taken parenting classes, do not work to support their children and do not help educate their children. In the cases of both the boys and girls there behavior is bad.

I watch teachers, principals, parents of these students and parents at the school tip-toe around saying I’m disappointed, this is a sad day, what are you going to do; they don’t want to offend the students, the parents of the students, and they want to be politically correct. When we see parents or students dropping trash, anyone should be able to say, you dropped your paper cup on the ground, you need to pick it up. But we don’t; we pick it up ourselves, wait for the custodian or let it sit there – we wouldn’t want to offend.

There is a difference between collectivism (socialism) and freedom and prosperity. No socialist society in history of any significant size has prospered and they are never free. In fact they typically are totalitarian, with related gulags and mass murder. Also, they can’t design and manufacture good consumer goods such as auto, appliances and electronics.

There is a reason why some people are trying to publish the lie that socialism is acceptable. The reason is that they are Socialists. Along the way they want to take things from people and dominate them. And they like to work in education and the state department, always have.

As far as the difference between the USA Democratic Party and the Republician Party – I do agree they both stand for centralized government and concentration of power in DC – conditions which make collectivism easy.

This summer my English classes reviewed The Sneetches, by Dr. Seuss, because the real villain in that story is Sylvester McMonkey McBean. While the Star-bellied Sneetches and the Plain-bellied Sneetches are all fighting with each other over nothing, he’s profiting from their paranoia and absconding with most of their GDP.

He’s who we need to keep an eye on in America. We haven’t much time to keep indulging any specious obsessions over who’s a conservative crip or a liberal blood, because we’re all in pretty much the same rickety boat.

In such a jaded world, the students who’ve created this coffee and pastry service are a ray of hope and empathy. I love it, too, that this story’s about Oakland kids! No surprise to those of us who work with Oakland kids, of course.

Never been to Fremont High in your life, have you?

Kids, bless you for making your corner of the world a kinder place. What a nice thing to do for these gentlemen.