Education: The Fishing Pole of Life. By Eric Smith

I'd like to know why these Dr. Ben Carsons, Justice Clarence Thomases, Herman Cains, Michael Steeles, and all these other black Republicans/Conservatives who are now speaking out against so called African American "victim hood" and the need for people of color to "pull themselves up by their own bootstraps" aren't at the forefront of those speaking out against the epidemic of public school closures in our inner cities; schools that are not necessarily being closed due to poor performance but rather because of budget cuts necessitating the laying off of nurses, guidance counselors, teachers, and student aides. Why aren't these black Conservatives of all people, not raising hell about this for where would they have been had their schools been similarly closed and they denied the opportunity to receive an education?

It goes without saying that education provides the bootstraps that one needs to pull themselves up out of poverty. Education is the essential key to achieving independence and becoming self sufficient. Deny that to our children and we condemn them to a lifetime of poverty & deprivation; to a life forever chained to food stamps and welfare. If Conservatives in general and black Conservatives in particular are sincere in their calls for ending so called "entitlements" and getting more people to make it on their own then they must be among those leading the calls to not only stop closing schools in our inner cities, but also demanding that we invest more of our tax dollars to build newer and better schools in these depressed areas; to provide every child who desires to learn the necessary resources to learn in the modern world.

Conservatives love to invoke Scripture by saying "if you give a person of fish, you will feed that person for a day but if you teach that person how to fish that person can feed him/herself for a lifetime." Well, teaching a person how to fish means nothing if you fail to show that person how to acquire and use a fishing pole. That is what education is; the fishing pole of life. Deny our children that pole and the opportunity to learn how to use it, and we forever consign them to begging others for a fish since they will not have the know how to acquire fish on their own.

In other words you simply cannot tell a person what they need to do and what they should do if you deny them the chance to learn how do it. If we wish to lower the number of those who are dependent we must increase the numbers of those who are educated and we can only do that if we provide our children a place to learn, and a place which provides them with the tools to learn that which is needed, and in a safe & secure environment where to them life and death is not about their getting shot down in the street as they travel to and from school, but rather passing the next test, making the grade, and rising as far and as fast as their natural talents will allow them to do.