Damien Franco | Not So Politically Correct

Not So Politically Correct

Posted on November 16, 2008
Filed Under Personal, Rant, art | 1 Comment

I live in West Texas.

I work in the Oil Industry.

My parents are Republicans.

My in-laws are Republicans.

Most of everyone that lives and works where I live and work are Republicans.

They are scared.

Scared of change.

Scared that Obama will ruin this little oasis of wealth that has been sheltered by President George W. Bush and his ties with Big Oil.

I’ve seen many businesses, here, in this town of Midland, TX, that have gone into panic mode without any real justification.  Layoffs, hiring freezes, cut backs… everyone is looking over their shoulder to see who’s getting the axe this week.  It’s silly.  Nothing has changed, except that the price of oil has come back down to earth where it should have been all along.  Gas prices are finally becoming reasonable again and Midland, TX is screaming mad about it.  Okay, much has changed.

While the rest of the country, you know, the United States of America, has been floundering around worried about recession and losing their homes, Midland, TX has seen unprecedented growths.  So much so, that when my wife and I moved here houses were in short order and people were scrambling to outbid each other in order to get a contract on a house started.

There were so many jobs and so many people making way too much money that restaurant owners couldn’t even keep a full staff.  Why would a waiter want to make $4 an hour plus tips when he can pull in over $20 an hour working in the field?  You can’t even get decent service anywhere in town, much less great service.

There were reports of oil companies recruiting at the local high schools trying their best to get kids to quit school and go work on pumps all day.  And it was working!  High School dropout rates were on the rise, no doubt due to the golden carrot of good money in oil.  Most High School dropouts belong to lower income families making these students much easier bait.

Now, most of those kids won’t go back to school to get their diplomas and will end up struggling the rest of their lives because some guy in a brand new Ford F-150 told them they’d be raking in the dough.  Then what?

I see a silver lining though.

I’m not a Republican, but neither am I a Democrat.

I’m an Independent because I like to think for myself.

And when I choose my political sides I put many factors in the forefront.

The biggest of those factors is my children.

I think most people tend to forget that political policies, especially the dramatic ones, take years to begin processing.  Some could take decades before their full implementation is even noticed in our economy, education system, health care system, etc.

My kiddos.

Here’s my silver lining.

I am an artist.

I know how important that the arts programs are for the future of our country.

No, I’m not talking about raising a generation of artists.  I’m talking about the overall advancement of well rounded young children with a foundation in all of the important sciences, maths, and arts.  Studies show that arts programs dramatically increase the test scores and creative thinking capabilites of children as they progress into adults.  Thus creating young adults and workers with creative problem solving skills. 

Do I expect that both of my children will grow up to be artists or musicians?  Certainly not.

But I’m not putting them in public school systems that continue to decrease funding and classes that do pertain to the creative process.  They’ll go to private schools where the curriculumn includes, if not emphasizes, the arts and music programs.  This will allow them to thrive in a fast paced, ever changing, creatively challenging world that they are growing up in.  I fear the next wave of graduates that hit the workforce without those creative thinking skills.  Our country will surely suffer because of this ignorance.

I vote for what I believe is in my children’s best interest.

Not mine.

Not my parents (sorry mom and dad).

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Comments

One Response to “Not So Politically Correct”

  1. Rob O. on November 17th, 2008 8:55 am

    I see where you’re coming from, but I have little faith that any man sitting in the Oval Office will have significant impact on restoring some of the lost emphasis on arts in our public schools. The problem lies in the completely derailed mindset of the parents & the community.

    Most parents will enthusiastically rally behind whatever boosterism crops up for school sports but just watch how spiteful they can be and how quickly they’ll balk at the notion of their taxes increasing even a few pennies to fund better quality food in the school cafeterias or to make even minimal improvements in the arts programs.

    So, to heck with schools kids having food that’s actually nutritious, but God forbid they don’t have the very best shoulder pads or a sparkling new fieldhouse.

    And even if you opt to enroll your children in private schools, better than half of your tax money is still going to fund the very nonsense in public schools that you didn’t approve of in the first place.

    Arggh!!

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