I decided to go to the school board meeting tonight and at first I wasn't exactly sure why. Next year's budget cuts within the district won't be affecting me all the way up in the Bronx. I realized soon after i got there why I was there.
The budget cuts are a horrible, horrible thing and I hate to see what's going to end up happening. Any way you look at it there are going to be a lot of unhappy people. I can't sit here and explain the finite details of the proposed budget, the cuts, or how it will affect programs within the district because I don't fully understand them. The board meeting gave me more insight into those very topics but to fully understand them would take me quite a while.
What I got out of tonight's meeting was that, sadly, there isn't much our school district can do. The statewide budget cuts are affecting every district and every level of education. The cuts are massive, and even an increase in taxes won't make much of a dent. I feel that Governor Corbett made a huge mistake.
The meeting made me realize how sad some parts of our society are. It costs over $25,000 a year to keep an inmate alive in jail while only around $10,000 is allotted per student for their education in a year. How can we spend so much on the people who have done the most wrong and take away opportunities from those yet to make major life decisions?
I don't have the answer to that question and I don't think many other people do.
My cynical mind says that death row is bull. I personally don't believe in keeping serial killers and rapists alive. I also don't agree with lethal injection and the costs it adds. If someone is on death row they deserve to die. They don't deserve to live in jail for years on end, appealing their charges, and being fed three square meals a day when there are single mothers sacrificing meals to keep their kids alive.
Take the death row inmates and kill them. Not with some three step process, with bullets. I don't care what you might deem cruel and unusual. Death row inmates have committed some of the most heinous crimes imaginable. I wouldn't lose a wink of sleep knowing they didn't die in the most peaceful way possible.
Our country has a lot wrong with it, and maybe someday in the near future I'll be able to make a difference in it. Not through legislation or political office, but through this very medium. Through writing. Maybe my words will inspire someone who can turn this whole thing around. Maybe my words will help someone realize that they can make a difference. I'll make my difference, I promise you all that.
At the end of an almost three hour meeting I realized why I showed up in the first place.
I showed up for my little sister.
I showed up for kids who might not get to take art in elementary school like I did.
I showed up for the kids of my own I'll have one day.
I showed up because the group mentality is a strong thing to be a part of...
more than anything I showed up because I need to stand for something in this twisted world.
NP: Boy Crazy- New Found Glory
I think I have agreed with everything you have ever posted on this blog, except this. I don't believe anyone should be put on deathrow. People make mistakes, and call me what you will, but they deserve the right to turn their life around. Do you really believe in the eye for an eye mentality, only in this case, a life for a life?
ReplyDeleteTo be completely honest, yes, I do believe in a life for a life. When a person chooses to kill another, they've thrown away their "right" to a second chance. The person who was killed doesn't get a second chance so why does the murderer? Obviously some people can turn their lives around, I'm just not behind the idea that they deserve that chance. An eye for an eye doesn't make the whole world blind, it just takes sight from those who lost their right.
DeleteWhile your argument has a strong logic (one that this commenter agrees with), I do have a few things for you to mull over - possibly inspiration for another blog post.
ReplyDeleteI hate the budget cuts. Scholarships have been revoked, and many well qualified students slip through the cracks simply because the system cannot withstand all of the applicants. But schools are losing money too. Misallocation of funds by schools and by governments are BOTH to blame. Is it more important that students get simply a decent but well rounded education, or that they get an outstanding education in the classes that will get them to the "next step". Everyone has an answer and nobody is correct. Each student DESERVES an amazing education to prepare them for their own, but WE can't always get what WE want. Who should decide what WE want?
Next, you switch to the prisoner issue. I agree with you again here. We should not have GUILTY killers sitting and waiting to be put to death. The problem really lies in how we know who a GUILTY killer is. The constitution guarantees a fair trial and institutes an innocent until proven guilty paradigm that, while fair, leaves no choice but to hold prisoners until they are proven GUILTY [enough] to be put on death row. Additionally, we have the case where someone is proven guilty, sits on death row, and is put to death, when suddenly a new piece of evidence comes forward to incriminate ANOTHER person. Innocent people have been sentenced to death.
I have no answers to these questions and am a lowly commenter on your insightful blogpost. All I can say is keep doing what you're doing. You should be proud that people are reading your blog! You should be proud that you are bringing enough of a rise from your readers that they find it necessary to comment! And most of all, you should be proud of yourself for going to these types of meetings (be it board meetings, township meetings, or even meetings held by larger governing bodies), getting information, and THINKING. There are too many people (both your age, your parents' age, and their parents' age) that have uninformed opinions on issues and do not THINK but simply ACT out of emotion and self-interest. My advice to you, Tom, is to stay on your pursuit for truth and goodness in this world we have been thrown into. Stay the course and write boldly with an open heart and open mind. Your search for truth and goodness in the world will be ongoing, but this is why we live! You WILL have an impact.
Yours truly,
An adoring reader, a fellow thinker, and a friend...
Thank you for the kind words, and for sparking more interest in these topics.
DeleteI agree with your stance on guilt and innocence and I find it sad that innocent people have been sentenced to death before. I have ideas for the process in which murderers would be killed. Anyone who pled guilty to murder would be at the top of the list to be executed.
I'd love to keep going in this comment, but if you check back I'm sure I'll post again about this.
Thanks for the interest and the nice things you've said.