__________________ AMERICAN

I am a white, heterosexual male of 56 years who now realizes I am a dinosaur. I have been married to the same woman for 30 years and two of our three grown children have graduated from college while the third attends. Somehow, we have managed to save enough over the years to pay for their tuition as well as the tuition for people in this state illegally.

I do not abuse my wife except for the occasional loud fart. My alcohol consumption consists of one ice cold beer with my dinner. You won't find a criminal record attached to my name and I have recently retired after a thirty year career in public education. That should be just enough to make me nearly extinct. At the very least, I deserve placement on the Endangered Species list.

You see, today, it means nothing to be a white, middle aged heterosexual male in a stable marriage with financial security. If I was gay, I'd be set because in the process of my becoming endangered, I have seen same sex marriage legalized, Ellen DeGeneres dance and talk her way into our living rooms, and Chaz Bono likely to become the next face chiseled on to Mount Rushmore.

I do not mean to bash gay people. I am just lamenting the loss of my time and place in American society.

Once, when I was the Associated Student Body Director at a local school, I was told that as part of my job, I was responsible for the recognition of "certain groups" and their contribution to American society during the morning announcements. It began with Hispanic History month in which most of those recognized were never American citizens but none the less, they were on the list with a brief bio to read to the middle school students.

Next up were famous American women, all of whom were white. They included the likes of Helen Keller, Amelia Erhard, and of course Madonna. Fortunately, this was pre-Snooki or I might have had do dedicate an entire month to the women of reality television.

We then moved on to Black history month, which I noticed was February. No one complained they were given the shortest month of the year but then the announcements were filled will bios on the great works of people like Kobe Bryant, Richard Pryor, and Huey Newton. I bet, if it had been March with its 31 days, I would have been talking about Urkle. Fortunately, there was no White American Male History Month or I might have been left talking about the Elvis Presley's, Anthony Weiner's, or Pee Wee Herman's of the nation.

What I am trying to say is we have yet to get to the point where we are just Americans. "American" is all too often prefaced with words like, African, Hispanic, Gay, or my favorite, Ugly. Rodney King, who some day may be recognized as a great African American, once asked, "Can't we all just get along?" I'd like to add to that and ask, "Can't we all just be Americans?"

NCLB About To Be Left Behind

Reports this week surfaced that President Obama was prepared to end No Child Left Behind, the landmark education legislation from his predecessor, George W. Bush. While it is clear NCLB has led to many children being left behind and our public schools dependent of following its strict guidelines in order to receive federal funding, what is unclear is what is next for education.

President Obama should be applauded for attempting to improve our failing education system but if anyone thinks the next great educational reform will result in much change, they are wrong.

To begin with, no matter what plan the President puts forth, Republicans will balk at it. Why would they give up on their plan for Obama's? "But this will be another chance for the two parties to come together in the name of bipartisanship and put forth a better education system than is currently in place," you say. Actually, this is more likely to lead to another game of political chicken. If you really think the Republican Party would not shut down our public schools before signing off on a new education act then you really have not followed what goes on in Washington D.C.

With the 2012 election campaign in full swing, the president has fired a volley to all who want his job. He is telling them, "Let's hear your plan" and it better go beyond the Republicans desire for more charter schools (private schools at the tax payers expense).

With the economy still in tatters and Obama's poll numbers in decline, the president will put forth a plan that reminds voters that despite the sagging economy, he is still the candidate who has the best interest of all in mind. Let Republicans and Tea Party members argue about school prayer, tenure, and the dangerous agendas of special interest groups taking over our schools. These are mere smoke screens meant to make voters forget there is no real education plan being presented by Republican candidates.

When the president puts forth his plan for education, it will be a plan and not an attempt to force our schools to capitulate and teach all our children in an overly managed, under budgeted, and formulated manner; something the Republicans can claim credit for today. However, by the time our representatives in congress fight over what to include and toss, it will neither resemble the President's plan or lay down the real ground work necessary to improve the futures of our children. And in the end, it will be our children who lose out.

American Complacency

As the tenth anniversary of the attacks of 9/11 approach, I am reminded of all we have lost and all we have failed to learn as a result.

We lost more than innocent American lives when al Qaida launched their multiple attacks. We lost ourselves and today seem no where near finding who we are as we sit on the brink of economic ruin.

While we, as a nation, had no difficulty uniting together after the initial terrorists attacks, we have since disintegrated into a nation of whiners, unable to draw on the same strength we found and showed to the rest of the world immediately after being attacked. Following the 9/11 attacks, America stood united along racial, gender, age, and economic fronts. Sadly, today we are divided along each, either unable or unwilling to join together in overcoming another unseen enemy ready to take us down.

It finally seems America has reached a point where no matter what we do, we can no longer have it all. As a result, we have turned on ourselves and begun to destroy what al Qaida could not do, our greatness. A nation that once stood side by side and arm in arm, willing to sacrifice all that was necessary to defeat an enemy who dared to attack us, now is all too quick to point the finger at one another and sacrifice whoever they can to keep what we feel we are entitled to.

In 2001, our leaders, still licking their wounds from a bitterly contested 2000 presidential election, managed to put aside their differences and work together to seek justice and extract retribution against our enemies. As a result, they jointly got us involved in two wars we are economically unable to sustain and have no hope for a clear or victorious conclusion.

At first, Americans were fine with all of this and were willing to make whatever sacrifices necessary, even if we were not sure what they entailed. Now, a decade later, those sacrifices have hit virtually everyone in this country and our leaders can offer no clear solutions, only more finger pointing.

In World War II, when we were attacked at Pearl Harbor by Japan, all of America sacrificed. Young men, like my father, put their lives on hold and on the line to serve in our military. Even older Americans, people like my grandfather, were quick to serve even though they were well past the military’s fighting age. Even our best professional athletes placed their careers on hold to sacrifice for a cause greater than their own personal interest.

Women took over the war machine at home and were found working long hours on military assembly lines in an effort to do what was best for the nation. Every ethnic group, including those of Japanese, German, and Italian ancestry, served with honor and in heroic fashion to defeat enemies intent on bringing us down.

Today, it is a very different America. Our leaders will not unite and work through their differences and are too willing to sacrifice the lives of the people who elected them just to score political points within their own party. Our citizens expressed more concern over the shut down of the National Football League than they have over the possible collapse of our entire economy.

Questions abound but go unanswered. Should the rich pay the bill because they can afford to pay more taxes or should we cut them a break and hope they will create more jobs? Should senior citizens pay by forfeiting some of their social security benefits even though they sacrificed earlier by paying into a system their government told them would be there for them? Maybe our youth, those under the age of twenty-five, should pay the price. Most do not serve in our all volunteer military so rather than risking their lives in war they can pay by sacrificing their education, and in the process their entire future. Do we cut back on welfare knowing that if we do we run the risk of alienating those who already feel disenfranchised while also upsetting the ethnic disparity that our welfare system helps to create?

While our nation has benefited more than any other from constant advances in technology, we have also grown lazy and developed a national sense of entitlement. Hey, we are the United States. We shouldn't have to sacrifice. We shouldn’t have to face hard times. We shouldn’t have to give up what we have grown accustom to. That’s what weaker countries do.

Well, welcome to the real world, America. We are like much of the rest of the world and if we do not want to see a repeat of what took place in London last month in cities all across our country, we better find a way to reunite just as we did following the attacks of 9/11 and defeat another hard to find enemy bent on bringing us down. However, this time, the enemy does not go by the name al Qaida. It is simply called complacency.