Imagine you're sixteen-years-old, or maybe ten, or just six. You've got your whole life in front of you, right? With hard work, support and love from your family and community, and a good education, you're sure to be off on the right track, right?
Maybe. Or, if you are a young person in Detroit, maybe not.
The state of Michigan has announced it has approved a plan that will shutter half of all public schools in Detroit, 70 in all, by 2014. This would be in addition to 59 schools the troubled district closed in 2010.
Among other things, this means public school student's in America's eleventh largest city are going to have a lot more classmates -- around 60 students per class. You can imagine what this is going to do for quality of education in a city already wracked by problems and more problems.
All this to offset the school system's $327 million budget deficit.
A spokesman for Detroit Public Schools' Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb says there is "an absolute requirement to get to zero in a prescribed period of time," and so Detroit is taking this drastic measure, "educational quality" and "viability for parents" be damned.
Now consider this: as America approaches what will be its ninth year occupying Iraq (remember that place?) with around 47,000 U.S. troops still on the ground (and possibly three times that many "private contractors" supporting the military), the war in Iraq is not over and Sec. Defense Robert Gates has recently suggested the U.S. would be willing to stay longer if asked by the Iraqi government.
Meanwhile, the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan, America's longest war, now slogging toward its eleventh year, shows no end in sight. This week's latest news is of a NATO attack in eastern Afghanistan that is reported to have killed between 50 and 60 or more civilians and the shock expressed by President Karzai aides at Gen. David Petraeus' alleged suggestion that Afghans burned their own children in an attempt to make NATO forces look bad.
Add to this, the recent reports that the U.S. currently spends around $300 million dollars per day just in Afghanistan.
Now stop for a minute and re-read that number. Three-hundred million dollars every day (or $208,333 per minute) to fight a war in Afghanistan that our government tells us is making us safer.
According to the National Priorities Project (which President Obama himself cited during his presidential campaign) That's over $380 billion for war spending Afghanistan alone.
This brings us back to the kids in Detroit whose schools are about to close because of a $327 million deficit. Any one of those kids proficient in even basic calculator math could tell you that what the U.S. government spends on war in Afghanistan in 26 hours would wipe out their school district's budget deficit just like that.
Twenty-six hours of war versus the closure of 70 schools and the impact that will have on 87,000 students, their families, their community, their state and this country... you tell me, is it worth it?
What kind of "security" are we gaining as a nation as we continue to fight wars we can't afford, on people we shouldn't be killing in nations we shouldn't be occupying as our own country literally goes down the toilet.
We've had bailouts for Wall Street, bailouts for big insurance and bailouts for big industry (even in the Motor City), yet our government, which claims to be acting in our best interest, leaves the young, the old, the sick, the vulnerable, the workers, the middle class and even its soldiers fighting its wars to languish as every imaginable program and basic civil institution is slashed, neglected or just plain tossed out the window.
It isn't just shocking. It isn't just maddening. It is really a moral crime committed against us as a nation and the people around the world against whom we are waging wars, both declared and undeclared.
What's even more sad is that most Americans seem not to notice, not to care, or are unable or unwilling to do anything about it.
And so to hell with education and the school children in Detroit, Atlanta, Seattle, Honolulu or anywhere else in America.
"Fuck schools and fuck the future", the message seems to be. As a nation we are broke and that's just the way it is.
You want an education kiddies? Muddle your way from K through 12 any way you can and when you get out, come see your local recruiting officer. I'm sure he has a program that will suit you just fine with good pay, money for college, career training, lifelong benefits and the chance to travel and see the world.
Hell, you'll even get your very own holiday.
*The Onion got America's problem of twisted priorities spot on with this short video, brilliant in its depiction of the nearly real world.
