Waiting for "Superman"

These are tumultuous times and unlike a hurricane, there seems to be no calm in the eye of this storm.

When I began planning for today, I was going to focus on what I thought about our economy.  Then I heard about the movement to remove proselyting in the military and thought that I ought to say how sad it is that freedom of religion and speech is being limited among the people who sacrifice for this American right.

But then I moved back in time, and the scary part is that I didn’t have to go that far.  Just this year, we’ve had the Boston Marathon Massacre, threats of war from North Korea, and it’s not as if the economy has been exactly stellar.

Over the past decade or so, though, we’ve had turmoil within and without.  Wars, rumors of war, and strife within our own borders.  There’s been greed and corruption.  Our politics have been divisive when there could have been discussion, compromise, and decent treatment for the other.

And, you know, the War on Terror has been going on for thirteen years.  That means that every elementary school child has lived in a nation at war their entire lives.

The times… the times are just getting tougher.

The question I’ve been asking myself is: what can I do about it?

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I just finished the documentary Waiting for “Superman” an hour ago as I’m writing this.

It’s not a bad little documentary on our failed public education system.  While I am going to be doing a lot of fact checking on his sources (the problem with film documentaries is that they’ll show you the statistics but they won’t tell you where the statistics are from.)  The worst part about this movie was that I wasn’t shocked by anything they brought up, except perhaps the “lottery” that selects which children can get into some certain schools.  How sad that a child’s happiness and security in their future is based on mere chance.  Most them don’t get lucky, like all lotteries.

What struck me is that all the documentary could do was ask questions and show what’s happening, but in no way could the filmmakers actually create change.  Raising awareness of the issues is all well and good (and I know that this film stirred up a lot of controversy) but when the storm is upon you, when is the time for speech and when is the time for action?

To this, I don’t know.  I have this blog so that I can speak about whatever is on my mind (and for the few regular readers I have, you know that my thoughts are pretty eclectic.)

I just hope that someday that there is something that I can do to weather the storm and rebuild when it passes.