The Truth Shall Set You Free

As Barack Obama settles into the Oval Office, he has issued a guarantee we all have been pining for since early 2001; transparency in the White House. Imagine, we, the people, may actually have a shot at knowing what our government is up to... one can only dream.

I am duly impressed with Mr. Obama's commitment to pulling back the curtain where George "Oz" Bush hid out for eight years, but I think there's a component in this equation we are all missing.Transparency is only as valuable as the honesty used to make decisions in the first place.

Obama appears, so far, to be willing to tackle the hard issues without the veneer of political correctness, or constant-loop campaigning double speak we've grown accustomed to. Yet, while I've heard him offer platitudes about new challenges that require bold action, I've heard less about some of the blatant realities which got us here.

I recognize that calling out some of these atrocities would likely be political suicide, a risk Obama can't take. He CAN hold the Bush administration accountable for its train wreck policies, and reverse said policies, a measure he's doing pretty well with. However, let's get real about some of the base level issues we face, and what the origins of the problems really are. I will take a microcosm of America, my hometown, as an example to illustrate one of the biggest challenges we face today.

Like it or not, our economy lives and dies by the quality of our education system. Obviously, there are market forces, economic theories, global considerations, a whole host of factors which determine the health of our economy. Yet, education and the economy, two major challenges we face, are inextricably tied to one another. An educated work force, prepared to meet the demands of a changing market, is the only hope of an industrialized nation.

Now, let's travel to Shreveport, Louisiana, a place I'm proud to call my hometown, despite its various, uh, issues. The economy and education have been long-running problems for Shreveport, but instead of even the hope of peaks and vallies, it's just been a long history of downturn, in both areas. Nowhere is my philosophy of education/economic correlation more evident than in Shreveport. The population is ill-prepared to fill 21st century jobs, the education system, by the numbers and the morale, gets worse by the year, and the cycle continues.

Leaders in the community are currently working double time to find solutions to the education crisis, as record numbers of schools become "unacceptable", with the threat of state take-over looming for many schools, and an actual reality for two schools. Proposals include longer school days, retrenchment of staff, curriculum overhaul ( a dubious, vague suggestion, at best), and character ed. It's hard to exactly disagree with some of these recommendations, but wouldn't you agree it seems like more of a band-aid approach than getting to the root of the problem?

The reason leaders are avoiding the origins of the problem is because they are about as messy as it gets. Shreveport has a VERY long fabled history of troubled race relations, with a continuum that includes oppression and degradation toward African-Americans, generalized resentment toward whites, regardless of the individuals beliefs and intentions, and uneasy mixing between the two races. Education has never been particularly valued by the majority of either race in Shreveport, but the higher the poverty rate has risen, the more disdain for education has grown. Also, in the name of political correctness, discipline has effectively been removed from the schools, with a clever mandate coming from on high recently concerning suspensions; regardless of what the kid does, don't suspend him. Hmmm..... one wonders why so many young people are ending up in jail as soon as they become adults. Could it be that the lack of discipline in the schools socialized them to believe consequences simply don't exist?

Now, with all that background, where am I going with this? The bottom line to the education problem in Shreveport is this: African-Americans, on the whole, are not going to listen to a bunch of preaching from a few well-meaning whites espousing the value of education. The trust isn't there, it's not going to happen. The poverty cycle is so wide-spread, and nobody wants to acknowledge that's a huge part of why children aren't doing well in school. The correlations have been proven time and again, but we are so afraid to "insult" any segment of society, we perpetuate their misery instead of enacting pro-active solutions to address the real problems. These facts are very uncomfortable, things leaders wish to sweep under the rug, offering pseudo-solutions instead, with "full transparency". The access to information is welcomed, but what information are we really getting?

President Obama must be mindful of this as he attacks the key issues we face today. His intentions are obviously good, but he may have to say and do some things that make people squirm a little. Cheers to the notion of transparency, but please, let's make sure the basis for decisions involves measures of the God's honest truth.