notes on recent deaths

 (note: the deaths of the following people occurred weeks ago, but time limits kept me from writing them earlier)

1.) Tracy Ryan

Tracy Ryan was a person ahead of her time. 

She was a transgender activist who advocated for sex worker's rights and for drug legalization, back in an era where even many Democrats were too afraid to advocate for same-sex marriage, marijuana legalization, and the decriminalization of prostitution. 

She was the head of Hawaii's Libertarian Party and even ran for governor!

I first knew of her in the early 2000's, when I was a college undergrad and was interested in the libertarian movement. While I was attending the University of Hawaii at Manoa, I had a friend who was attending Hawaii Pacific University which had a pro-libertarian Reason Club. I attended a few of their meetings (usually some bull sessions at a coffee shop) and attended a few Libertarian Party events where Tracy Ryan spoke. 

I haven't been to any libertarian event in over a decade, and while I still agree with Ryan's main issues of advocacy (ie LGBT rights,  sex worker rights, drug legalization), I have distanced myself from much of the libertarian movement because too many other activists don't chose their battles wisely.

That being said, Hawaii, and the world is a better place because of activists like Tracy Ryan

Learn more at  https://obits.staradvertiser.com/2023/02/19/tracy-ahn-ryan-19022023/

Begley, J., & Blair, C. (2023, February 23). Honoring The Life And Work Of Activist Tracy Ryan. Honolulu Civil Beat.                                                                                                                                     https://www.civilbeat.org/2023/02/honoring-the-life-and-work-of-activist-tracy-ryan/

David Nahinu Jr.

David Nahinu was a classmate in my 8th-grade homeroom class at Kawananakoa Middle School. This was back in 1994-1995!

I only knew of Nahinu for a very short time, since we ended up going to different high schools. I went to McKinley High School (should be renamed Honolulu High School) while he went to Roosevelt High School. 

But those memories of 8th-grade homeroom was one of the funniest memories. 

During downtime, we had the TV on, and it was sometimes tuned to MTV (back when they played music videos) and David would make funny jokes about the videos. He would even catcall when Adina Howard's video "Freak Like Me" was on! 

He would also joke around with people, but always in a positive way.

I even remember one time I was walking the hallways, he was like "anybody there causing problems?", I was like "I'm good". Maybe I should've called him for backup when there was actual problems. Too bad we ended up in different high schools.

Decades later, I tried finding David Nahinu on social media. I contacted someone on Facebook with the same name, but it wasn't the same one I knew. 

Then earlier this year, one of my other former middle school classmates mentioned on Facebook that Daivd Nahinu passed away. He mentioned some positive things about him, and showed pictures of him over the years (damn, he lost all his belly fat since I last saw him!)

With those memorials from his friends, I wished he was on Facebook and I wish I had the chance to meet him again during adulthood. 

a brief obituary

https://www.hawaiianmemorialparkmortuary.com/obituaries/David-Nahinu/#!/Obituary

non-binary games (part 2)

 Back in late 2020, I wrote my first "non-binary games" blog post.

https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2020/12/non-binary-games.html 

I mentioned the controversy of transgender athletes playing on female events and the size disparity of transgender athletes vs cis-gender female athletes.

Then I mentioned this

I'm tempted to say let's have a non-binary category for sports, so that there's male sports events, female sports events, and non-binary sports events.  That might be simple for individual sports like track, swimming, or mixed-martial arts, but it gets more complicated for team sports. At most schools, there's most likely not enough non-binary students to fill a basketball team, and even more unlikely to have enough for a tackle football team. Probably the best case scenario would be to combine non-binary students from nearby schools to make a basketball team. 

I did come across a great blog post today from a father and his experience with his daughter playing against a team with a transgender athlete

Rhein, Walter. "My Daughter Played Basketball Against a Transgender Girl and This Is What Happened." Medium. March 10, 2023.                                                     https://aninjusticemag.com/my-daughter-played-basketball-against-a-transgender-girl-and-this-is-what-happened-a011c6d0130e

At one of my daughter’s non-competitive tournaments, she went up against a team that had a transgender girl, and…

IT WAS TOTALLY FINE! There was no problem at all. The little girl was out there having fun with her teammates and she felt accepted and loved. I approved of her participation 100%.

and this

When you talk to authoritarians, they always act like a transgender basketball player will be a seven-foot-tall, 300-pound mass of raging testosterone who utterly dominates.

That wasn’t my experience at all.

The girl my daughter played against was the smallest player on the court. Actually, she didn’t handle the ball very well. Kids commit a lot of turnovers in middle school basketball. Who cares?

She tried her best and always had a big smile on her face. She was clearly having fun.

She obviously felt accepted and was a valued member of the team. 

and the article gets even better

For some reason, people in the United States can’t seem to understand that the transgender athlete might not be the best player on the court. The discussion is fixated on one type of player and absolutely fails to recognize any diversity in skill levels.

I didn’t put my daughter in girl’s basketball to dominate. I put her in there so she could be part of a team.

Only one team wins the championship. For every other player on every other team, it’s just a bonding experience.

Detractors are fixated on a scenario that is statistically irrelevant. We have to expand our viewpoint to include the whole picture.

“But what about…”

Authoritarians say nonsense like, “But what about later in life? What about when your daughter is competing to win the state title? What if she gets physically dominated by a player who was born a male? What if that stops her from getting a scholarship? Do you see? We’re the ones who really care about your daughter! Not you! We are the ones who know what’s best!”

That’s how they justify walking onto the court of a 3rd-grade girl’s basketball game and physically dragging the smallest player away. That’s how they justify sending that child home to bury her face in her pillow and cry herself to sleep.

One could make the case that cross-dressing in his free time didn't stop Dennis Rodman from dominating in men's basketball, so "why can't all the transgender athletes do that?"

But you know what? If a transgender athlete wants to play on a woman's team, let them.

I mean, I'm an average-sized male, but there have always been female athletes who were way better than me in PE. 

If those female athletes can handle me in PE, then the top female athletes in high school could definitely handle playing against a transgender athlete for an entire game. 

I think we'll eventually get used to seeing a transgender athlete playing on female teams.

Transgender (or others in the non-binary category) are only a tiny percentage of the population, so they're not going to drive the overwhelming majority of female athletes out of competitive sports. 

===

The only thing that might still be awkward could be in the locker room where people have to shower and change clothes.

But I believe ALL LOCKER ROOMS should have private stalls to give privacy to anyone while showering and changing clothes. 

I mean, I'm an average male, and I don't even like showering or changing in front of other males, or anybody else. I want privacy and so should everyone else!

I wrote about the locker room and private stalls at 

https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2016/05/private-locker-room-stalls.html

and about gender-neutral restrooms at

http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2016/05/gender-neutral-restrooms.html

The decline of college?

 Back in 2012, I predicted that higher education could be the next industry to go bust (face a major decline)

https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2012/07/college-reform.html 

Just like there was a tech-bust in the early 2000's and the even more devastating housing-bust of 2008, there has been a prediction that higher education is the next industry to face a sharp decline!

Greater expenses, a slow economy and more exposure to stories of recent grads struggling have been causing the next generation to be more reluctant to attend college!

Colleges can only raise tuition so much, otherwise less students will attend.

Loan agencies struggling to receive pay-backs from struggling graduates can easily lead them to bankruptcy! Once that happens, there will be less sources for college loans, less financial aid available!

And the next generation might think "college? too much humbug, why bother?"

All that will hit all the colleges hard!

Guess what?

That time has arrived!

According to an Associated Press article, more and more young adults are skipping college and choose to go straight into the work world!

And it's not just the slackers, even some of the high-achieving students are opting out of college.

 Collin Binkley, “Jaded with Education, More Americans Are Skipping College,” Yahoo! News, March 8, 2023                                                                     https://news.yahoo.com/jaded-education-more-americans-skipping-050531419.html

Hart is among hundreds of thousands of young people who came of age during the pandemic but didn’t go to college. Many have turned to hourly jobs or careers that don’t require a degree, while others have been deterred by high tuition and the prospect of student debt.

What first looked like a pandemic blip has turned into a crisis. Nationwide, undergraduate college enrollment dropped 8% from 2019 to 2022, with declines even after returning to in-person classes, according to data from the National Student Clearinghouse. The slide in the college-going rate since 2018 is the steepest on record, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

just one of many examples from the article

Before the pandemic, Boone Williams was the type of student colleges compete for. He took advanced classes and got A's. He grew up around agriculture and thought about going to college for animal science.

But when his school outside Nashville sent students home his junior year, he tuned out. Instead of logging on for virtual classes, he worked at local farms, breaking horses or helping with cattle.

“I stopped applying myself once COVID came around,” the 20-year-old said. “I was focusing on making money rather than going to school.”

When a family friend told him about union apprenticeships, he jumped at the chance to get paid for hands-on work while mastering a craft.

And now some politicians are looking at removing the college degree requirement at various state jobs.

Here's an example mentioned in the NY Times. 

New York Times Editorial Board. "See Workers as Workers, Not as a College Credential." New York Times. March 8, 2023.                          https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/28/opinion/jobs-college-degree-requirement.html

Making college more affordable is important, but there are other keys to the doors of opportunity as well. With an executive order issued on Jan. 18, his first full day as governor, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania used one of them: He eliminated the requirement of a four-year college degree for the vast majority of jobs in the state government, a change similar to one that Maryland and Utah made last year.

 

and this 

His move opens up 92 percent of state government jobs — approximately 65,000 positions — to anyone with “the relevant work experience and skills-based training, regardless of their educational attainment.” Job postings will emphasize experience over education.

The nonprofit organization Opportunity@Work has been promoting the idea of skills- and experience-based hiring since 2015. It estimates that 50 percent of the American work force comprises workers who have gained their skills through alternative routes such as apprenticeships, military service, trade schools, certificate programs and on-the-job training rather than acquiring bachelor’s degrees — a deep pool of underutilized and undercompensated talent. If employers don’t have a strategy for engaging this pool, said Byron Auguste, the group’s chief executive and co-founder, “they don’t have a talent strategy — they only have half a talent strategy.”

 

I have mixed feelings about all this!

I do agree that work-experience should count when applying for more advanced opportunities too!  A lack of college degree doesn't always mean a lack of comptence!  If a person has a proven track record for the responsibilities, then that person should be deemed qualified for the job.

However, I am a college graduate and I do feel college can be an amazing experience beyond just getting a diploma. I definitely feel that those who can go should.

I loved the college life. I loved going to classes. I loved having discussions inside and outside of class. I loved meeting people on campus inside and outside of class. I love the cafeterias on campus. And the libraries were my second home. And when I needed a break from the library, the campus has its quiet spots to rest & chill!

And I definitely loved the events (well, at least before the pandemic made crowded events awkward).

But I can't totally blame those who feel they can better support their families by going directly into the workforce after high school. And the horror stories of people struggling with student loan debt are making more people say "No thanks" to college.

The article doesn't mention this, but you don't have to be in your late teens or early 20s to start college.

Many people start their young adulthood in the work world and decided later on that it's time to go back to school.

Some of those who didn't take education seriously during adolescence do decide in their 30s (or even later) that now they're ready to go back to school. And they come back with a new sense of maturity and eagerness that they didn't have before.

Here's one example of that, this being a testimonial from Tina Oh, who started college later in adulthood with a new eagerness to learn that she admits wasn't there during adolescence.

Tina Oh . "The Scholarship Motivated Me." University of Hawaii Foundation. August 3, 2018.                                                                     https://www.uhfoundation.org/impact/students/scholarship-motivated-me

My advice for anyone walking my path is to put in the work. Never give up. Believe in yourself. In English 21-22, we had to memorize words and definitions. “I know nothing,” I said. “My education stopped in ninth grade.” I got index cards, and I just studied them over and over and over. That’s how I built my study habits, and later, when I was taking other classes, after my mommy duties, I would sit there and study no matter what, and it became a habit.

Today, I’m in my second semester at UH Mānoa in the human development and family studies program. I just started in June; I had to drop down to half time again because of my new job. I don’t want to stop my education, so I have to do what I have to do for now.

I work for the Hawaii Health & Harm Reduction Center, doing homeless outreach. I connect homeless people to housing, or I take them to a treatment center. Two weeks ago, we put 17 people into shelters.

In other words, I'm not ready to give up on those who are opting out of college right after high school! 

At the same time, I definitely believe that we need to make college more affordable so that those who want to go can go!

If I had a magic wand, I would make all state colleges (from community colleges all the way up to the universities) free for all state residents. And also provide them grants for living expenses while attending, that way, they can focus on academics and not have to worry about survival. 

(Those who want to go out-of-state or go to private colleges can still find scholarship opportunities.)

But for those who want to opt-out of college, I respect their right to do that too!

There's more than one path to success and college isn't the only one. 

written testimony on a bill on gun restrictions

 The Hawaii state legislature is currently debating a bill restricting concealed weapons in public spaces, as well as mandating insurance for gun owners.

I don't have time to go to the State Capitol to testify in person, but I did send this written testimony.

I oppose SB1230 as it is a de facto gun ban meant to treat all gun owners as guilty until proven innocent.  The restrictions on where people can carry guns are too restrictive. People are vulnerable to physical attacks in unsecured places like public parks and public transit, and people should have the right to armed self-defense in such places. Also, when people are carrying a weapon to a "sensitive place" like a mall or a museum, their main concern is self-defense when they're ON THE WAY to those "sensitive places". They don't plan to shoot someone at a mall or a museum, they carry the gun in case they're confronted while on the way going to and from those places.  For example, a person might be carrying a gun not because they're afraid of their workplace, but because of potential dangers when going TO and FROM the workplace. They're worried about getting mugged on the way home from work. 

Forcing people to pay expensive insurance in order to have a gun also treats them as guilty until proven innocent. This insurance requirement infringes in our natural rights to self-defense.

The only people who benefit from SB 1230 are those who are either  genetically blessed to be of big size or those who are blessed to hang out with other dangerous people who  can continue to harass people knowing they can't fight back. Big bullies are extremely grateful for gun restrictions because they leave potential victims defenseless! 

As long as the person has no convictions of an  unprovoked violent crime  or no restraining orders, then that person should be treated as INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY and be allowed to carry a gun for self-defense. 

In conclusion, please vote against SB 1230 and any other bills that treats gun owners as guilty until proven innocent

Jim Leahey and Coach Mack: 2 legends of UH sports

 In the last few weeks, the University of Hawaii has lost 2 legends in the world of athletics.

One was the longtime sportscaster Jim Leahey.

The other was former football coach Greg McMackin (aka Coach Mack)

Jim Leahey

For decades, Jim Leahey was The Voice for UH sports. His voice appeared in the live broadcasts for many sports, including, but not limited to football, basketball, baseball, and volleyball. His voice spoke a passion for the teams, the university and the state of Hawaii. For many big plays, it was his voice that expressed the excitement that the fans feel. However, he was also known to be objective and didn't hesitate to critique bad plays from the team. 

Here's how Hawaii News Now described Jim Leahey's passion, talent and work ethic 

https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2023/01/31/hawaii-lost-legend-tributes-pour-jim-leahey-longtime-voice-uh-sports/

If Hawaii had a sports soundtrack, undoubtedly Jim Leahey’s voice would be the one doing the play-by-play.

For decades his calls of sporting events drew listeners and viewers right into the action.

He had a special knack for doing it.

“The words that you use come from reading, reading, reading, reading, reading, and it doesn’t have to be sports, it can be anything else, because then you can compare and contrast. That ball is Aloha -- homerun. That ball is Aloha,” he once said in an interview.

“I remember working with him for so many years. There were times something would happen in the course of a game. He would describe something and I was getting ready to jump in to say something, and he’d grab my arm and basically said, ‘No. Let the crowd do the talking,’” said Artie Wilson, a friend and broadcast partner.

Leahey’s trademark style utilized a command of the English language that never failed to paint a vivid picture, and he was meticulous in his preparation.

“He would spend hours and hours and hours preparing for every game and color coding this and that – a tremendous amount of preparation. I remember walking by his desk and saying, ‘Do you really have to do all of this to do a game?’ And he looked up and me and he said, ‘No, you don’t have to. Only if you want to do it right,” sportscaster Larry Beil said.

Sports broadcasting was like a family business for Leahey. His father, Chuck Leahey did the radio broadcasting for Hawaii sports from the 1950s -1970s.  And now his son, Kanoa Leahey is taking on the tradition for TV broadcasts. 

Jim & Kanoa also had a weekly TV show where they debated the sports news of the day.  Jim jokingly portrayed the set-in-the-old-ways persona in contrast to the youthful Kanoa. 

Jim retired in 2018. He died on January 30, 2022 at the age of 80.

Learn more on Jim Leahey at

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2023/01/30/sports/sports-breaking/jim-leahey-voice-of-hawaii-sports-for-nearly-60-years-dies/

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/jerry-campany-jim-leahey-gave-170500944.html

https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2023/01/30/jim-leahey-voice-uh-sports-more-than-six-decades-dies-80/

tributes from the University of Hawaii

https://hawaiiathletics.com/news/2023/1/30/general-longtime-uh-announcer-jim-leahey-passes-away.aspx

https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2023/01/30/in-memoriam-jim-leahey/

An article from 2009 about Chuck, Jim and Kanoa Leahey

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2009/Jul/18/sp/hawaii907180331.html

=============

Coach Mack

Greg McMackin (aka Coach Mack) was the football coach at the University of Hawaii.

His first coaching stint at UH was in 1999 as the defensive coordinator under the-then new head coach June Jones. 

Under the previous coaching regime (under Fred von Appen), the team went 0-12. 

Obviously, there was pressure when Jones and Mack came on the scene. Back then, the transfer policy for college athletes was much stricter than it is now, so Jones and Mack had to win with mostly the same players from the year before.

And they did in one of the greatest turnarounds in college football history. The 1999 team went 9-4 and won a bowl game. 

The following year, Coach Mack left for a higher paying position as a defensive coordinator at Texas Tech. Then in 2002-2005, he was an assistant coach for the San Francisco 49ers.

But in 2007, Coach Mack came back to Hawaii to become defensive coordinator again under June Jones.

2007 was another legendary year for UH football as the team went 12-0 in the regular season with Colt Brennan as the QB! Sadly, the season ended with a lopsided loss to Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.

It wasn't long when June Jones decided to leave UH for Southern Methodist University (SMU).  It was assumed that Coach Mack was going to join Jones at SMU.  But Mack decided to stick around at UH and got a promotion as head coach.

2008 was already predicted to be a tough year for UH. Jones already left, and QB Colt Brennan graduated. And top receivers Davone Bess & Ryan Grice-Mullins decided to leave early to go pro.  And to make it worse, the season started with a game at Florida  back when that program was at its peak with coach Urban Meyer and QB Tim Tebow.  The 2008 season for UH started just like 2007 ended, with a big loss to an SEC power. 

However, UH did win most of its games with a slightly better than average 7-6 record.  But the season ended with a bowl game loss to Notre Dame. To add insult to injury, Notre Dame's notoriously grumpy coach Charlie Weis was smiling more than usual in the game. 

But Coach Mack's drama with Notre Dame didn't end there. 

At a press conference in the summer of 2009, Coach Mack was talking about his experience at the bowl game and called Notre Dame's chant a "faggot dance".  He knew he just said the wrong words and even begged the reporters there to not report it. That wasn't going to happen in an era when social media was just getting started. 

Though most people who said such words usually get fired, Coach Mack had such a nice-guy public persona that the university just gave him a 30-day suspension and mandatory sensitivity training. 

learn more at pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2009/08/coach-mack-controversy.html

The controversy was such a distraction that it likely led to a slightly less-than-average 2009 season at 6-7.

The following year, 2010 was Coach Mack's best season in which the team went 10-3 in the regular season, and won a share of the WAC championship. 

That team has great offensive players like Greg Salas,  Kealoha Pilares, and Alex Green. All were in their final college year and went on to the NFL.

2011 was going to be a rebuilding year. The top defense players were there, but most of the top offense players from the previous year were gone. The team went 6-7, slightly less than average.

I felt Coach Mack deserved another chance, but many of the UH fans didn't. They wanted the success that the team had under June Jones, and they weren't satisfied with a slightly-less-than average year right after a great 2010 season. But in this century, it's all about "what have you done for me lately".

After the 2011 season, it was announced that Coach Mack was going to retire.

learn more at https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2011/12/uh-football-coaching-changes.html

However, the truth came out that Coach Mack "got retired", meaning he was pressured by UH administration to accept retirement or else he was going to be fired.

Then UH Athletic Director Jim Donovan later expressed regret for the way Coach Mack was pushed out of his position. Donovan claimed that it wasn't his decision to "retire" Coach Mack, and that it was university administration's decision.

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2012/09/25/hawaii-news/coach-was-forced-to-settle-donovan-testifies/

Donovan said, "I was told by the chairman of the Board of Regents, who, at that time was Eric Martinson, that I was to talk to coach McMackin about taking a $600,000 buyout in lieu of a $1.1 million buyout. I shared with him that I had talked with Coach McMackin about it for two or three weeks and that I had gotten him down to like $800,000 and I just didn’t know if I could push it down to $600,000."

But Donovan said, "I was told that I could share with him that there was authority for me to agree to a deal at $600,000 and nothing more and that if he didn’t agree to $600,000 he would be put on leave with pay pending an investigation.

"So, I met with him after the banquet and Virgina Hinshaw was there with me. After about two hours he finally agreed to the $600,000 buyout, a reduction of $500,000. And I called the chairman of the board the next morning and told him we were successful."

Donovan told the committee, "I don’t know what investigation would have occurred. There was an on-going investigation that was one of the two that Dennis Chong Kee (of the Cades Schutte law form) was working on. From the day I was aware of those allegations I believed them to be wholly false. And, at the end of that investigation, the allegations were not proven. I don’t know if they were referring to another investigation or referring to that investigation, I don’t know."

Donovan did not give the details on what was being investigated, nor was he pressed by panel members.

And who did UH hire to replace Coach Mack? 

It was Norm Chow, a longtime offensive coordinator at various colleges (BYU, USC, UCLA, Utah) who grew up in Hawaii.

People expected great things from Norm Chow at UH.

But EVERY SINGLE SEASON under Norm Chow WAS WORSE THAN ANY SEASON under Coach Mack. 

Coach Mack's record as UH head football coach was 29-25.

Norm Chow?  10-36. 

Chow got fired from UH in 2015 after a really bad loss to Air Force Academy on Halloween night.

learn more at https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-end-of-norm-chow-era.html

UH should've sticked with Coach Mack! 

 

---

Coach Mack passed on Valentines Day 2023 at the age of 77. The cause of death wasn't publicly announced. 

Here is Honolulu Star-Advertiser's article on Coach Mack after his death

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2023/02/15/sports/ex-uh-football-coach-mcmackin-was-passionate-and-kind/

Rolovich recalled McMackin as a family man who brought his wife, their daughter, and two grandchildren to practices and football-related events. “He loved his family,” Rolovich said. “His family was always involved. It showed a great lesson for all the young people in the program. I thought that was a good message. That’s appreciated in Hawaii, especially.”

Miano, who served as McMackin’s associate head coach, said the Oregon-reared McMackin “quickly adapted to Hawaii and its culture. … We’d go into a movie theater, and he’d buy popcorn for everybody in line. He was that kind of guy. He’d see people, and extend his aloha and generosity. People loved him because he was so gregarious.”

From Honolulu Star-Advertiser's sportswriter Dave Reardon

https://news.yahoo.com/dave-reardon-mcmackin-did-best-170600859.html 

But the most positive part of his legacy with the Warriors is as the defensive coordinator in two of the greatest seasons in program history.

Without McMackin's defense in 1999 there is no greatest turnaround in college football history. Without McMackin's defense in 2007 there is no undefeated regular season and once-in-a-lifetime Sugar Bowl berth.

I wasn't here in'99. But all you have to do is look at the game-by-game scores to see that the defense did much of the heavy lifting for the nine victories, especially in the early part of the season while the newly installed run-and-shoot gained its footing.

I did see every game up close in'07. The offense got the headlines, but the defense made the deadlines ... McMackin's unit was at its best late in close games and overtime.

Little Children and Political Activism

Ewa Elementary School has a statue of Abraham Lincoln. 

On Friday, February 10, 2023,  the school had its annual celebration of Abraham Lincoln's birthday. It's a day when classes perform songs and the parents come to watch.

A first grader went on stage solo with a sign protesting the celebration of Abraham Lincoln. He allegedly feels that Lincoln is racist and that we should celebrate Hawaii & Filipino cultures instead. 

Hawaii News Now video about the protest at https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=587404822880792

KITV article & video on the protest https://www.kitv.com/news/first-grader-at-ewa-elementary-protests-against-lincoln-day/article_5c77e9d8-aa84-11ed-b05b-cf66aba3219c.html 

Security escorted the student and the father (Kaniela Ing, activist and former state legislator) off the stage.

As Mr. Ing was leaving campus, he had his son and the sign on his arms. A large man ripped the sign that Ing was holding. Ing was still holding his son, making the large man's action even more threatening.

Obviously, the large man was wrong to put Kaniela Ing and his son in danger.

However, I believed that Kaniela Ing is being dishonest in claiming that it was his first-grade son's idea to go on stage with the sign.

According to many witnesses saying their piece on social media, they saw Mr. Ing coach his son before him going on stage solo.

Ing is now saying we don't know his son.

No, but I do know about 1st graders. I was a substitute teacher for 13 years. I'm familiar with how each grade level students are.

There's no way in hell that I would believe a 1st grader would go on stage to protest a historical figure that most students his age don't even know much about.

Look, when I was in elementary school, I did amaze people by memorizing the name of presidents. The whole thing took a life of its own and people kept asking me about it years later.

But at the time, did I know all the nuances of the president's various policies? No.

And would I have gone on stage solo with a sign protesting a commemoration of that president when I was in elementary? Hell No!

After all, even the smart children are still just children. They may know some facts but they haven't really had the chance to understand the nuances of government policy.  And they sure as hell haven't yet figured out how to articulate all of that in front of strangers. 

That's not a knock on that 1st grader. It's just basic knowledge of childhood development. 

In fact, I went to a high school named after another president (William McKinley) who had a very problematic history as he was the president when the US took over Hawaii. 

And what did the students there think about William McKinley when I was there? They never talked about it. The student's minds were mostly focused on sports, entertainment, fights, gossip, sex, and other teenage stuff. 

As for the staff, they treated it like a dark secret that shall not be discussed. The only mention of McKinley's legacy was in the school's newsletter (The Pinion) that was published for Black & Gold Day in my senior year! 

It was only later in life that I went on social media to criticize the school's name and advocate for the school to be renamed Honolulu High School.

(learn more at 

https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2018/05/put-tiger-statue-on-oval.html

https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2022/08/associated-press-on-mckinleyhonolulu.html

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urMaL-gWuhc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e7262z_cGo

I don't criticize Kaniela Ing for having legit concerns about how history is taught to our students. I don't criticize Ing for criticizing how schools have sugar-coated the legacy of Abraham Lincoln.

 In fact, I have praised him in the past for pointing out that former senator Daniel Inouye is a rapist and that we shouldn't be naming things after him. 

learn more at  https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2018/03/dan-inouye-was-rapist.html

But it's dishonest for him to claim that it was his first-grade child's idea to go on stage solo with a sign protesting the celebration of Lincoln.  Especially when witnesses have said he coached his son into it.

If Ing wanted to protest Lincoln's celebration, he should've gone on stage himself and spoken his piece. I would've respected that more because at least that would be more honest than sending his child to do the dirty work for him. 

Also, his wife (Khara Jabola-Carolus, another activist) also posted pictures of her son holding signs about political issues that a child his age just wouldn't understand the nuances of. 

Yes, parents do pass on their values to their children. That's what parents do.

But many political issues come with many nuances and complexities that even some adults can't comprehend, but we're supposed to believe a 1st grader can know it all? Really?

And I get that some parents bring their children to protests to teach them the value of activism.  I also understand that many parents can't make other childcare arrangements and therefore bring their children along for the ride, knowing that their children still aren't able to process what the protest is about. 

We have to remember that children are very impressionable. They do what they think will please their family and friends.  The opinions they express are usually a regurgitation of what they heard from family and friends. Their social circles are still small, and they haven't yet been exposed to viewpoints from those outside their social circle. And they sure as hell haven't yet read well-written expressions of viewpoints different from their own. 

So no, I don't think that 1st grader was ready for prime time in political activism. No 1st grader is. 

Now, when he gets to high school and has read opposing viewpoints, and has developed a record of rebelling against family, peers, and school officials, then I'll know he's ready for prime time.

Who knows, maybe by the time he reaches high school, his family will move to the urban core of Honolulu, and he can make a legit and well-reasoned speech about why we should take down William McKinley's statue and rename my alma mater Honolulu High School. 

By then, I would say that the kid's protest is legit!

Until then, it's best to lay low, accumulate knowledge, expose oneself to opposing viewpoints, practice debating issues when the cameras are off, practice writing out essays about the issues, and THEN, he can be ready for prime time. 

age, liberals, conservatives, hearts & brains

 There's been this cliché that's being going around a long time that states something like this

Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has no heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains.

 I've heard that cliché about a decade before I was 30, and now I'm 42.

So what I do think about that cliché?

Before I was 30,  I didn't identify with the left-wing or the right-wing.

I still don't.

But that doesn't mean I haven't evolved in my worldview over the decades.

Before I was 20, I would make snide remarks about religious conservatives like Dan Quayle and Bob Dole for publicly criticizing films & music with explicit content.

As a 42-year old adult who has worked 15 years in the education industry, I do understand their concerns being that I have to intervene when students say something inappropriate that they heard from films or music. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to go on a censorship brigade, but I do encourage parents to have a discussion with their kids about what they see on TV & hear from SoundCloud.

And now, when I see kids playing video games, I cringe at some of the violence. 

As a teen, I would go to friend's homes and watch adult films on VHS. But as an actual adult, I haven't watched adult films in decades.

Learn more on that issue (and similar issues) at 

http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2015/01/money-down-drain.html

https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2017/02/time-not-just-money-down-drain.html

And even though I grew up listening to gangsta rap & booty music, when I hear the new generation singing similar explicit lyrics, I cringe.

Yes, I am old!  

I haven't been 16-years old in decades.

So in a way, I did get more conservative as I get older.

But when it comes to things like a government-funded safety net, I have become more liberal when I get older.

Back in my early college years, I was fascinated by libertarian ideas, some of which I still believe in today. I was fascinated by libertarian ideas because they focused on maximizing liberty and reducing government interference in our lives. 

Some libertarian ideas did gain more popularity in this century, including the legalization of marijuana and the acceptance of LGBT rights. People are now more aware of the police abuse of power.

However, the one thing that keeps many people away from being fully libertarian is the idea that the libertarian idea that government shouldn't offer a safety net, and therefore, no government funding of social security, medicare, welfare, etc.

There was a time when I thought "maybe we could privatize those safety net programs".

But I'm not convinced that a totally privatized safety net would be sufficient. 

Not to say government safety nets are perfect. Nothing is.

 People can talk all day about "lift yourself by your bootstraps", "be independent", "just work hard and you'll never go hungry", yada yada yada.

But one thing people have to understand is that being able-bodied is a temporary condition! 

You are just one accident or just one infection away from not being able to work. 

Remember, if it happened to somebody, it could happen to you too! 

Who is going to save you then?

Not every family has the resources to save less fortunate relatives.

And not everyone has the luxury of a loving family.

And it's not just being able-bodied.

It's also being able-minded!

And being able-minded is also a temporary condition!

Don't think you're immune to getting dementia, Parkinson's, or other mental conditions! 

And don't think you can handle anxiety problems if you ever get them! 

If it happened to somebody, it could happen to you too! 

This isn't about "victimhood", it's about reality! 

Hard work isn't going to save you all the time! 

If you get injured on the job, don't always expect your employer to show the same loyalty they have long demanded from you!  Regardless of how hard a worker you are!  They'll find someone to replace you tomorrow. Or they'll get a robot to do your job.

If you get a heart attack or an anxiety attack, or even a shark attack (it happens), you are at increased risk of becoming homeless.

There's only so much "lift yourself by your bootstraps" that you can do at that point.

And before somebody screams "you're socialist", I never said "get rid of private businesses".

Capitalism, by allowing for entrepreneurship and consumer choices, has lifted millions out of poverty.

There's a reason why South Korea is much richer than North Korea. Capitalism allowed entrepreneurs to shine, giving South Koreans opportunity to shine not only in their homeland but also worldwide.  

Meanwhile, socialism has devastated Venezuela in that it left the economy less flexible in the years when oil prices went down. Meanwhile, capitalist places like the United Arab Emirates and Norway still found a way to thrive during those same years when oil prices went down.

And speaking of Norway, like its neighbors, Sweden and Denmark, allows for private industry to shine, but also provides a safety net for their people. 

In some ways, those countries are more capitalist than the US. Sweden doesn't charge property tax. Lower-income landowners in the US wish they were that lucky.   Also, Sweden's tax forms are simpler too.   Denmark doesn't have a minimum wage, but their workers are unionized. 

Even with these capitalist conditions, those countries offer a safety net that's the envy of the world.

Learn more at 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffreydorfman/2018/07/08/sorry-bernie-bros-but-nordic-countries-are-not-socialist/

Socialism can take the form of government controlling or interfering with free markets, nationalizing industries, and subsidizing favored ones (green energy, anyone?). The Nordic countries don’t actually do much of those things. Yes, they offer government-paid healthcare, in some cases tuition-free university educations, and rather generous social safety nets, all financed with high taxes. However, it is possible to do these things without interfering in the private sector more than required. It is allowing businesses to be productive that produces the high corporate and personal incomes that support the tax collections making the government benefits feasible. The Nordic countries are smart enough not to kill the goose that lays the golden egg.

And the following article was written by a US American living in Sweden

https://www.vox.com/2016/4/8/11380356/swedish-taxes-love

My wife and I have been dividing our time between jobs in Sweden and Wisconsin for the past dozen years, and I'm here to tell you that taxes in Sweden are not that high. To my surprise, I found that there are lots of things to love about the Swedish tax system. Swedish taxes are easy to pay, rational, and efficient. Best of all, rather than take away opportunities, Swedish taxes expand them.

and just one of many classic examples from the article 

And you get far more for your taxes than you do in the US. In Sweden, college is free and students get a housing stipend. A colleague's daughter, Kerstin, just completed a five-year dental program. Her family paid nothing for her education. The Swedish government gave her $340 a month to live on when she was in school and the right to borrow $700 more a month, which she did. After five years, she graduated with a debt of $37,153.

In the US, dental students graduate with an average of $215,000 in debt from dental school alone.

Back in the US, many have become fascinated with Andrew Yang's idea of a Universal Basic Income (UBI). The idea with UBI is that everyone gets a guaranteed income that they can use to survive hard times without having to fill out a bunch of forms justifying why they need additional assistance. 

However, some of my libertarian friends are skeptical because UBI is taxpayer-funded, and they point out that taxation is still a form of violence. 

I sure did feel a bit violated when I was informed that I owe the feds money when filling out the 2017 tax forms. 

But still, unless some private entity is willing to provide a safety net for all those who need it, we'll probably have to be taxed a little while longer.

And if that's the case, then I'm willing to say that as I get older, I become more liberal as I advocate for a stronger safety net.

Understanding that some people (and that you could be those "some people" in the future) need subsidized assistance to survive  - that isn't just a sign that you have a heart, it's also a sign that you have a brain.  

So no, I don't believe in this cliché that says  "any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains".

=======

PS: Check out this blog post from 2021!  It's about worker rights and safety nets.

https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2021/05/its-more-about-respect-than-money.html