DUMB . . . AND GETTING DUMBER!

Several recent incidents in the news concern me. On two separate occasions, very young police officers in their twenties accosted Bob Dylan and Neil Diamond and asked them for I.D. None of those officers had a clue who those men were. Surely the cops' parents or grandparents would have been aware of the two folksingers. Or perhaps the cops had been home-schooled by fundamentalist parents. Not very likely in Brooklyn or on the Jersey Shore. Those cops were intelligent enough to pass police exams, and they are probably well-versed in the local street-smarts and quirks of the areas where they patrol. But I'll bet they're ignorant about lots of general American culture, common-sense information that gets shoved aside by a media focus on mass entertainment and celebrities. This pervades our society and increases the dumbing-down process that is harming our people.
We all know that our public schools are in crisis: too many kids dropping out and semi-literate people graduating who can't write a decent sentence, let alone handle their finances. The base of common-sense information--life skills neceessary for people to function in our society has eroded sharply over the years. Schools were also under attack fifty years ago for academic deficiencies that left their graduates unprepared for the academic rigors of college. Blame was placed on "progressive education" philosophies and methods, which shifted the focus from academics to the student as a psychological and a social being. That's when the "dumbing down" of our schools began. Over the years, it has continued. Now that academic content has mostly flown out the window, life skills information is also vanishing. Even in our current recession, there are jobs that can't be filled, with employers seeking applicants from outside our country because not enough of our own graduates are qualified. Where is this all going to end?

FAVORITE NCR COLUMNISTS AND FOLLOWERS

I spend lots of time engaging with the National Catholic Reporter, both paper and online editions. Favorite NCR columnists of mine are Sr. Joan Chittister, Editor John L. Allen, Jr., Bishop Gumbleton, and John Dear. The wide range of reader comments following their articles is just as interesting as the columns themselves.

Reader comments following each article might as well be blogs. Comments are fairly even in their balance between conservative Traditional Catholics and progressive/liberal Catholics. These blogging readers range from pre-Vatican II traditionalists to ticked-off Catholics ready to leave the church, and also include some who have left, plus some Protestants.

John L. Allen's recent column on President Obama and Pope Benedict XVI was a masterpiece that showcased Obama's and Pope Benedict's deft handling of a very touchy subject: societal changes and strategies which could reduce pressures for abortion. Prior to Vatican II, some would have regarded Barak Obama as belonging to the "soul of the church," a term seldom heard in 2009. Our President's remarks about Chicago's late Chicago Cardinal Bernardin really showed up some of our current Cardinals and Archbishops--narcissistic, power-happy, reactionary, black/white thinkers who make the current Pope appear liberal by comparison. I avoid getting in over my head in any online arguments, but I do take occasional pot-shots at some Bishops along the way.

Recent news items about Ireland's own sex abuse scandal, with her Bishops merely transferring offending clergy in a cloud of secrecy, really rile me up. Some suspect the American scandal of being an Irish import, but I doubt it. My sense is that this scandal has been endemic in Europe (and in some missionary areas) for at least several centuries. It didn't just come out of the blue. I'm particularly angered by the actions of a former St. Louis Archbishop who seems excessively threatened by anything female and went on an excommunication binge before being "kicked upstairs" to the Vatican and rewarded with a Prefect position. I think his spelling sucks, never mind his misogynistic actions and fulminations.

Well, I can't wreck my health brooding about the "bad boys of the hierarchy 24/7, so I'll focus on handwhistling for awhile. I'm leaving town Saturday to work in a six-day kids' summer camp session where we'll integrate environmental values and what Scripture says about caring for God's Creation.--back before the hierarchy had developed and solidified into its present state. I'll be doing a handwhistling workshop for middle-school kids, of whom several can already handwhistle more than one note. I'll also present some YouTube videos of other handwhistlers, plus two of my own. And of course I'll plug my Website, http://www.handmelodies.com/ .