Royalty, Monarchs, and Tyrants

In an earlier post on this blog I posed the question -- "do any readers out there know of children's books that do NOT use a monarchy form of government as the premise for their storyline?" You know -- Cinderella marries Prince Charming while the peasants look on with big smiles.

Yes I know, elected democracies (like the US Congress) are not as romantic as a Walt Disney castle, but it is far better in my thinking to rid our children of the elitist propaganda that having a royal/noble class is a good thing for the unwashed masses.

So the next time parents plan to read another royal fairytale to their children perhaps they can read this poem by Carl Sandburg to themselves first:

A Million Young Workmen, 1915

A million young workmen straight and strong lay stiff on the grass and roads.
And the million are now under soil and their rotting flesh will be in the years feed roots of blood-red roses.
Yes, this million of young workmen slaughtered one another and never saw their red hands.
And oh, it would have been a great job of killing and a new and beautiful thing under the sun if the million knew why they hacked and tore each other to death.
The kings are grinning, the kaiser and the czar - they are alive riding in leather-seated motor cars, and they have their women and roses for ease, and they eat fresh poached eggs for breakfast, new butter on toast, sitting in tall water-tight houses reading the news of war.
I dreamed of a million ghosts of the young workmen rose in their shirts all soaked in crimson...and yelled:
God damn the grinning kings, God damn the kaiser and the czar.

Well said Mr. Sandburg,

Todd

Ghana

My free market think tank friend -- Franklin Cudjoe -- is the president of the Imani Center for Policy & Education in Ghana. Imani is hosting a book review event this weekend so I wanted to be sure to post on the details to help promote their work:

You are cordially invited to
IMANI Book Review Series
Featuring
“Atlas Shrugged” rated second most influential book after the Bible

Theme: Redefining Your Relationship with Society and Government
A Philosophical and Economic Journey with the US (Russian-born) novelist Ayn Rand

Saturday, November24, 2007, @ Ashesi University, Building Three from 10:00 am -12:00pm with Lunch

What would you do if society betrays your hard work, dignity, underpays and confiscates the property you have rightfully acquired?

What would you do if your contribution to the growth of Ghana in art, business, leadership, scientific research, or new ideas of any kind was penalized with say, exorbitant income taxes?
In her Magnum Opus (Greatest Work), Ayn Rand positions man as the ruler of his own life. As his contributions to society are met with disdain, disgrace and punishment, he decides to shrug, and go into solitary confinement. What happens to society afterwards will be the basis for our online chapter by chapter discussions of this never-to-put-down 1168 page book.

The book, Atlas Shrugged is billed by some surveys as the second most important book after the bible in the US.

For a detailed description of this project, please join the IMANI team over lunch. We will give you a copy for free and may depending on your circumstances defray part of your transportation fares to the venue.

RSVP, Franklin Cudjoe, Executive Director, IMANI, franklin@imanighana.org or call Tadiana/Sandra (Office lines) 021 41 7094/ 0289510383 or (mobile) 0244 638 178.


Just a reminder for readers -- the former United Nations' Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, is also from Ghana. I can assure readers that Mr. Cudjoe has done more positive things for Ghana via his think tank than Mr. Annan ever did when he was at the United Nations.

Be free - read,

Todd

Cubby Bear

Growing up a Chicago Cubs (baseball) fan I have always loved visiting the Cubby Bear bar in Chicago, Illinois which is an icon located just across the street from Wrigley Field. Now I have another to love the Cubby Bear because on November 1st they hosted a "Book Swap" sponsored by the Chicago Reader newspaper.

The tag line for this event on the full page ad I read says it all --

"You have books you don't need. You need books you don't have. So come to the Chicago Reader Book Swap."

Books - Beers - Free Tote Bags - Networking - Socializing -- all in one venue so what could be better!!

I hope to see more such events in my area so I am going to talk up the idea with some local entities. If any readers out there know of similar events please let me know.

Thanks,

Todd

Teaching History

"If I had a chance to direct where money would be applied to improve teaching history in our schools, I would concentrate on grade school - third, fourth, fifth, sixth grade - because that's the time that they want to know."

David McCullough - historian and author

As regular readers of my blogging know I am a strong advocate of teaching "history" in our schools not today's watered-down form of history that exists within the "social studies" coursework. Why? Because when students have a solid understanding of the past it allows them to not only better understand today's world it also helps them to place the latest "crisis" such as -- obesity, global warming, Avian bird flu, health care insurance........... -- into a more rational context that goes beyond emotion and left-wing political agendas.

For instance -- if our grade school students had read several books regarding the Great Depression I am confident they would not share Al Gore's doomsday worldview nor would they accept John Edwards' "two Americas" stump speeches. Yes Mr. Edwards -- there are two Americas, your America where everyone except elitists like you require government "help" and the America that I love where everyone takes care of themselves and their families as best as they can but failing that we provide a societal safety net based on private charity and good neighbor relations NOT government programs.

The simple fact is that the world we live in today IS better, much better than the past but how many students (or adults even?) have any inkling that is the case? We need and must do better educating our fellow citizens about these things or the "State" will grow large enough to affect every aspect of our lives.

Read widely and read constantly,

Todd

Books that Changed Our Lives

While reading, "The Book that Changed My Life", column in this month's Best Life magazine I noticed that this month's guest, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Russo, selected one of my favorite books for my early school days.

The book Mr. Russo cited was, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Mr. Russo loved "Pip" the protagonist and observed that the vast majority of the students he had taught over the years are troubled that the protagonist in this story is not virtuous throughout the book -- this is a consistent expectation of Mr. Russo's students.

For me Great Expectations is not "the" book that changed my life but it is indeed one of the books that impacted my thinking while also nurturing my early interest in literature. My thanks to authors like Mr. Dickens for penning such tomes and to authors like Mr. Russo for reminding us of such literature.

Strive to be a gentleman,

Todd

Burma and Al Gore

The military junta that rules Burma - "Myanmar" as they call it - which must be a local word for "welcome to our totalitarian nightmare where even peace-loving monks are killed since they are a threat to the state" needs to be dissolved via a national revolt supported by international intervention that grants immediate recognition to the provisional government that would be formed.

I was inspired to comment on Burma via my books blog because the military junta represents the worst of humanity as noted in this quote from the Burmese opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for at least a year I believe:

"When I ask young people what they mean by freedom they say that they want to be able to speak their minds.......they want to be able to discuss, criticize, argue; to be able to gather in the thousands or even hundreds of thousands to sing, to shout, to cheer."

Aung San Suu Kyi

The junta generals use their police state infrastructure to silence its opposition and the inherent creativity of its citizens. Honestly, I wish I could tour Burma to learn firsthand how badly the people live there and of course (for this blog's perspective) to see first hand what the book store and book publishing industries are like today. Perhaps I would even witness an old-fashioned book burning led by the dinosaurs who rule this modern day slave state we call Burma.

Readers should remind themselves if needed that Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her political leadership in Burma. This is of course the same award recently given to Al Gore who apparently will save the earth from global warming so that the Burmese generals who run the military junta can continue living in their luxury. My point being of course that Al Gore's tipping at windmills does not even come close to bar set by people like Aung San Suu Kyi thus Mr. Gore does not deserve his Nobel Peace Prize.

What Burma needs is book stores and free elections not carbon footprint offsets!!!

Todd