from http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq66-1.htm - "American dead numbered 2,403. That figure included 68 civilians, most of them killed by improperly fused anti-aircraft shells landing in Honolulu. There were 1,178 military and civilian wounded."
Currently I work for a data processing department for a large lighting company outside Atlanta. I've been through the 80+ hour week stuff and saw a marriage of 23 years go down at least partly as a result of that. I've remarried and I live 2.5 miles from home and I always make it home for lunch. I'm 50 and I *always* have my afternoon delight. You only have one life and your employer simply won't love you back!
I'm probably the same age as Katz, but I still have *memories* (and not fond ones) of high school. And this is given that I've successfully blocked most of them from memory. Yet, I consider myself much luckier than most in my position. I grew up in a small logging town in the northwest US. At the time I graduated from high school in 1966, there were 22 students in my class and *92* in the school (a four year school)! And, to top it off, I was valedictorian and a National Merit Scholarship finalist.
But, my father had been on the school board since I was in first grade, most of them as chairman. So most of the bad things that might have happened simply didn't with me. There was *no* way that I would have been mistreated by a teacher and not in any physical way by the students. Although, that would not have been a problem anyway. Why?
The basic reason that things turned out relatively well for me was that the school was small. Everyone knew everyone else. The teachers and administrators knew everyone, the students knew everyone. You knew at a glance if there were a stranger on campus.
Granting that changing peoples' behavior and perceptions can't be done in any effective way, what can be done?
Do away with those *huge* educational warehouses. When a school is larger than several hundred, then individuals in that school lose the ability to *recognize* each other. Literally and figuratively. Neither the staff or students can immediately distinguish strangers from students and staff. There is no hope of community in such an environment. Groups forming in such an environment are guaranteed to polarize.
And guns. All these appeals to the second amendment are such a *tired* old wheeze. Does anyone in their right minds *believe* that any number of guns in private hands restrains the actions of the government? Remember what happened to the Black Panthers in the sixties, Waco, Ruby Ridge, etc.
At one time, perhaps an armed citizenary was in rough parity to government forces, but that day is long gone.
Conclusion: (1) No school should have more than 500 students (2) An honest effort to control assault weapons should be made by society
Slashdot Mirror
from http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq66-1.htm - "American dead numbered 2,403. That figure included 68 civilians, most of them killed by improperly fused anti-aircraft shells landing in Honolulu. There were 1,178 military and civilian wounded."
Currently I work for a data processing department for a large lighting company outside Atlanta. I've been through the 80+ hour week stuff and saw a marriage of 23 years go down at least partly as a result of that. I've remarried and I live 2.5 miles from home and I always make it home for lunch. I'm 50 and I *always* have my afternoon delight. You only have one life and your employer simply won't love you back!
I'm probably the same age as Katz, but I still have *memories* (and not fond ones) of high school. And this is given that I've successfully blocked most of them from memory. Yet, I consider myself much luckier than most in my position. I grew up in a small logging town in the northwest US. At the time I graduated from high school in 1966, there were 22 students in my class and *92* in the school (a four year school)! And, to top it off, I was valedictorian and a National Merit Scholarship finalist.
But, my father had been on the school board since I was in first grade, most of them as chairman. So most of the bad things that might have happened simply didn't with me. There was *no* way that I would have been mistreated by a teacher and not in any physical way by the students. Although, that would not have been a problem anyway. Why?
The basic reason that things turned out relatively well for me was that the school was small. Everyone knew everyone else. The teachers and administrators knew everyone, the students knew everyone. You knew at a glance if there were a stranger on campus.
Granting that changing peoples' behavior and perceptions can't be done in any effective way, what can be done?
Do away with those *huge* educational warehouses. When a school is larger than several hundred, then individuals in that school lose the ability to *recognize* each other. Literally and figuratively. Neither the staff or students can immediately distinguish strangers from students and staff. There is no hope of community in such an environment. Groups forming in such an environment are guaranteed to polarize.
And guns. All these appeals to the second amendment are such a *tired* old wheeze. Does anyone in their right minds *believe* that any number of guns in private hands restrains the actions of the government? Remember what happened to the Black Panthers in the sixties, Waco, Ruby Ridge, etc.
At one time, perhaps an armed citizenary was in rough parity to government forces, but that day is long gone.
Conclusion:
(1) No school should have more than 500 students
(2) An honest effort to control assault weapons should be made by society