By Brandon Astor Jones
"The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by [its] private citizens." — Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)
I think Alexis de Tocqueville would have been perplexed to read Marsha Cornelius' November 24, 1993, article in the Atlanta Journal/Constitution. Titled "Misplaced Priorities", it was written about the Anne E. West Elementary School and the Gwinnett County Animal Control Shelter. Atlanta, Georgia, is the city cited here, but it requires no huge leap of the imagination to envision the site being Sydney, London, Honolulu or a host of other cities.
A heat wave besieging the south-east portion of the US recently made learning almost impossible for hundreds of students when the Anne E. West Elementary School's worn-out air-conditioning unit broke down. We should not be surprised to find out that the school is one of the city's poorer education facilities, or that its students come mostly from low-income, single-parent homes.
Cornelius' article carries a group photograph of 13 students — six blacks, five whites and two of Mexican descent — with the principal, Maude Glanton.
On August 20 and 23, two of Atlanta's television news stations, channels 5 and 11, ran stories on the breakdown of the school's air-conditioning, and the newscasters reminded viewers that "summer vacation" would soon be over and students would once again fill the classrooms.
On August 30, channel 11 presented a story on yet another institutional air-conditioning unit's breakdown; it happened at the Gwinnett County Animal Control Shelter. A kitten had died there, and there was "speculation" that its death was related to the extreme heat.
On September 8 it was reported that as a result of the August 30 telecast, the shelter had received hundreds of calls and visits from "... concerned citizens offering air conditioners, fans, money or [lots of] other kinds of help".
Happy for the outpouring of public support bestowed upon those hapless dogs and cats, but remembering the plight of the school, Cornelius called Maude Glanton and asked what kind of response she got in support of the school as a result of the two newscasts. "Not a single one", principal Glanton replied.
The title of Cornelius' article speaks volumes about what's wrong with the value systems that dictate the course of certain individuals' and groups' actions. The world's citizens and their leaders, for the most part, certainly do have "misplaced priorities". Cornelius did not exaggerate when she closed her article by saying, "I guess you could say our priorities have gone to the dogs".
Keep in mind that very often it is the very same folk who chose to respond to the shelter's needs, as opposed to the school's, who vote in the politicians who are demanding the drastic cuts in taxes that would otherwise provide for the needed repairs/replacements that the Anne E. West Elementary School needs.
We can only wonder how Alexis de Tocqueville would have measured the health of the so-called democratic society some of us like to think we are living in. It would seem that misplaced priorities have become the order of the day, politically and socially, dictated to the poor by those whose value systems place dogs' and cats' comforts above the comforts and future of our children.
Knowing that we have been neglecting and disrespecting our children, we ought not to be surprised when they don't respect us, let alone each other.
Respect 'em
Hypocritical, pious and pompous members of
Elected elite wonder why youths ... be they Black, Brown, Red or White
Have so little respect for human life
Once in office the postur'n' loud mouths become church mouse
Quiet when funds for the disenfranchised
Are cut off: school closin's, underpaid teachers in toilin' strife
No recreation for bored and lost girls and boys in our cities' ghettos
Snorters, smokers and shooters can't get into drug rehabs
Because, we're told, there are too few dollars to cure the habits they fight
The only soul food that many seem to find springs so glarin'ly sexist and
Profane from the hip hop back-beats that seduce their pliant emotions with
Crippling lyrics of certain kinds of gangsta-rap-snacks that bombard, 'stead of soothin' the mind
Good teachers of math and literature are forced to take second jobs
Just to make ends meet, while football coaches make
Millions — as illiterate ten year olds sell their cold bodies in the streets
Yet, citizen-fools elect "da good ol' boys" who, durin' legislation' make bets on
Who will win the Super Bowl as opposed to school lunchrooms
For children who've nothin' better to do than kill, raise hell and make babies
Politicians been disrespectin' the lives of our youths and lo' shammin'
More than thirty years now, outright!
So why ya'll be wonderin' why they don't respect life?