Profiles in Courage

I've re-read some posts and decided I've been a little cryptic in the past. I will endeavor to be less so in the future.

The news is bothering me lately. I know I'm not as cynical as most Americans, even my sophomore students. I want to believe that the government has the best interests of Americans at heart. I know it's a big bureaucracy, and the people at the top are easily fooled and not necessarily the most ethical people in the world. Still, I want to believe that politicians sometimes make decisions that aren't coldly calculated to either keep themselves in power or help "their side" win an election. I read Profiles in Courage in high school, and I believe those historical figures did make a difference, and that people like John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. did as well.

I think my students would probably say I'm stuck in the past when I say things like that. They want to believe that President Bush doesn't care about them, that the government doesn't care about them, that people don't care about them. They want to be left alone. The key insight in music like Green Day's American Idiot, which has become something of a touchstone for me this fall and winter, is that a big part of the American system is counting on kids to drop out, to rebel, to get into trouble in a serious, real-world way. The system seems like it wants kids to do drugs. It doesn't seem like it wants kids to find healthy ways to express their anger. It seems like it wants to funnel that anger into video games and rap music, which may be healthy in some ways but I think just make the world an angrier, more difficult place to live. And into drugs.

If a kid just drops out, we don't know what to do with him or her. If he or she does drugs, we have systems in place to handle the terrible human cost, but certain parts of society are closed off to that kid. He or she can be locked up in the juvenile justice system, which is not a very effective place to learn good habits. I could be wrong, but I think there's an entire industry sponsored by the government and private interests that feeds off of the damage done to kids by drugs. Music is one industry that feeds off of kids' interest in breaking the rules and curiosity about drug use.

So here's to everyday heroes -- the kids who really do say no when offered drugs, the people who do their best to prevent kids from getting drugs, the people who do the ethical thing when presented with the option to help a kid or hurt a kid by offering him or her an illegal substance or promoting illegal drug use, the people who give kids something else to believe in besides drugs.

Let's hope someday our President and leaders in Congress will give kids something to believe in. I don't know if a policy issue will win the day. I don't know if a specific debate or election will be the turning point. Kids believe in America, they know the routine of patriotism. They don't say the pledge in my classroom. I think they don't like the forced aspect of it. They are patriotic to a certain extent. I think they know they're not in power, and they're vulnerable right now. I hope fewer get lost in the cracks.