Dingo the Dissident

THE BLOG OF DISQUIET : Qweir Notions, an uncommonplace-book from the Armpit of Diogenes, binge-thinker jottings since 2008 .

Wednesday 11 November 2015

In 'The Land of the Free'

a girl called Fire
must rise every morning at five o'clock
in order to catch the 6.15 bus to school.
She has no choice.
She has no voice.
She is subject to the iron rule
of spirit-dousing mass conformism
which is the opposite of liberty.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is only a planet of slaves Raúl

Marcus Billson said...

Is the cup half full or half empty? It's the same but it all depends on how you look at it. Most children in India, Africa, and all girls in Muslim countries would give much to catch the 6:15 a.m. bus.

Wofl said...

In the dark cold of winter in high rural Colorado ?

Marcus Billson said...

Absolutely, but especially the Muslim girls.

Alma Kaselis said...

Well it wouldn't be an issue if there were no other choice as in Africa or so. The catch is that it's made convenient for school bureaucrats. Teachers in rural/suburban America live in couple of mile radius and it takes them to drive few minutes. Not standing by roadway in the snow...One must really want to meet dull and uninspiring and hope that learn something useful. Shall I mention morning pledge of allegiance and police cars parked by the school to keep them safe. (safe from what?)

Anonymous said...

SEÑOR,
Here in Asuncion most children and teenagers go by bus. Few can afford a private school bus. Sometimes they end up being victims of robbers because when it´s six o clock in the morning, it is still dark here. Schools are concentration camps. Did you go to university,Señor Auban? RAUL

Wofl said...

Some children have to take a ridiculously early bus for an 80 minute journey to school. That is two hours and 40 minutes ripped out of their day. It has also been established (what is obvious) that kids who start school at 8 a.m. do not absorb anything for at least an hour. Children need sleep, and the education system deprives them of it. So in a way, Don Raúl Anónimo de Asunción y el Mundo Desgracioso, schools are very much like detention centres, without those keen Muslim children that Marcus writes about realising it.
I went to university - three times - it was free and I even got pocket-money on those distant days of socialism - but in the end I refused to take my final exams in "philosophy".
Catholics had to do "scholastic philosophy"...

I also used to cycle to school, which was a good thing, especially when it was cold but not wet. In cold rain it was not so pleasant, but it was bearable. Some teachers also arrived by bike.

Does anyone cycle to school in the USA ?

Anonymous said...

Yes,desgraciado is the word Raúl

Anonymous said...

Scholastic philosophy! that´s really a tough subject. Did you study that to be a professor of philosophy or just to finish the career? Raul

Wofl said...

No, only Catholics studied Scholastic Philosophy, and I was never a Catholic. I read philosophy because I wanted to gain wisdom, perspective, judgement - but I was quickly disillusioned, which is why I did not get a degree.

Marcus Billson said...

Children ride bikes to school all the time in the rural US, and sometimes in urban areas as well. But bicycles are no longer as common among elementary students and high schoolers. Now a good bike costs a great deal and they are easily stolen. College students use them the most frequently. The issue of public education is a difficult one. I devoted the last twenty-four years of my working life to it and only wish that I had started in my twenties, not my mid-forties. The problems are enormous, the challenges unending, and the solutions few, except "from each his own to each according to his needs," practically impossible.