THE VAST MAJORITY OF FOUNDERS WERE ABSOLUTELY NOT WHITE RACISTS

THE VAST MAJORITY OF FOUNDERS WERE ABSOLUTELY NOT WHITE RACISTS

By Domenick J. Maglio PhD. Traditional Realist

Our nation was established to free the colonies from the oppressive rule of Great Britain’s control.  The colonists understood they were being exploited by King George III and wanted their freedom from Britain’s tyranny. This was a bold undertaking by men of courage.

The leaders of the colonies were products of strong Christian, moral values with the rational brilliance of the Enlightenment Period. They were well aware that slavery existed throughout history. Men conquered civilizations and enslaved them and in turn were enslaved. They understood that slavery is a curse for the enslaved as well as the masters. Many founders believed with every fiber of their souls that slavery was oppressively evil and abhorrent when you treat another person as property.

The father of our nation who freed his slaves upon his death, stated: “There is not a man living who wished more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it (slavery).” George Washington April 12, 1786.

The renowned scientist and statesman described, “Slavery is such an atrocious abasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous care may sometimes open a source of serious evil. “ Benjamin Franklin, November 1789. He was right.

The Father of the constitution said, “The Convention thought it wrong to admit in the constitution the idea that there could be property in men.” James Madison, August 25, 1787. Madison also said, “We have seen the mere distinction of color made in the most enlightened period of time, a ground of the most oppressive domination by man over man.” James Madison speech at the Constitutional Convention, June 6, 1787.

The majority realized the horrendous offense of slavery as well as the need to temporarily appease slave owners to allow them to keep their so-called, “property.”  These wise men understood that they had to build a united front to gain the independence from England.

They believed by gaining their independence first they would be able to abolish slavery in the future.  “I believe a time will come when an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable evil.” Patrick Henry, January 18, 1773

The author of the Declaration of Independence stated: there is nothing more certain written in the book of fate that these people ought to be free. Thomas Jefferson 1821.

They were between a rock and a hard place. “We have the wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice in one hand and self preservation in the other.” Thomas Jefferson, April 22, 1820.

The second president of the United states, an outspoken critic of slavery stated: “Every measure of prudence therefore ought to be assumed for the eventual total extirpation of slavery from the United States…I have thought throughout my whole life, held the practice of slavery in … abhorrence.” John Adams 1814.

John Jay, statesman and first chief Justice of the United States sums up what the founders wanted to do for the sake of honor, justice and humanity but were unable to do at the time. “It is much to be wished that slavery may be abolished. The honor of the United states, as well as justice and humanity, in my opinion, loudly called upon them to emancipate these unhappy people to contend for our own liberty and to deny that blessing to others involves an inconsistence not to be excused.” John Jay March 15, 1786.

It came at an incredible price in 1863 with more Americans dying in the Civil War than the soldiers who died in WWI and WWII combined. The remnants of this hellacious conflict exist even today. The wounds have not healed completely especially with people who have limited understanding of the historical context.

Primarily union and confederate white soldiers fought each other for several reasons one being to resolve the practice of slavery. Slavery here spread from Africa by Europeans and African slave agents to the new world. There were numerous blacks and Indians who owned slaves. Slavery through conquering has existed from the beginning of time. Slavery is not an exclusive black issue but an issue of all mankind as today even young children are held as sex slaves.

The circumstances of creating a viable, independent nation did not allow at the time the abolishment of slavery. It took a horrific Civil War to accomplish this monumental feat, which showed the world the USA did believe and practice liberty for all. These moral, compassionate and wise men were not hypocritical; rather they were committed to emancipate slaves and eventually did. These enlightened wise men were proponents of freedom for all, not white racists.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN and a new book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglio.blogspot.com.

I DID NOT MEAN TO DO IT

I DID NOT MEAN TO DO IT

By Domenick J. Maglio Ph.D. Traditional Realist

An ex-boyfriend posted his ex-girlfriend’s nude photos on Facebook directly sending them to her boss. When confronted he had the audacity to say, “I did not mean to do it.” There were so many things he had to do to post this message on line that for an adult his excuse is preposterous and pathetic.

When a preschooler is caught at home unrolling an entire roll of toilet paper, the parents realize the child may not have planned to do it although the child knew he did it. The child should not be given a pass but adults definitely should not be given one, as they need to learn to take responsibility for their actions. The training to take responsibility for one’s actions should begin as early and consistently as the child starts to explore his environment.

This nonsensical excuse “I did not mean to do it” is an indictment of our childrearing practices and our tolerance approach of skipping consequences for direct lying or blatantly inappropriate behavior. This epidemic of tolerance of boldface lying is continuing into adulthood. This should be a concern to everyone.

Currently there is an obvious absence of shame for one’s antisocial actions. It starts with weak parental expectations and standards. The lack of enforcing established rules and moral values has undermined taking responsibility for one’s inappropriate behavior.

When a person verbally or physically intimidates, the satisfaction of the dominance of someone can be attractive to the abuser. Without empathy training the person will walk further down this path of harassing others for their sheer pleasure. Another bully will be created out of weak and lazy parenting.

When a significant adult takes control of the situation by giving the youngster a taste of his own behavior, the person has a possibility of learning that his behavior negatively affects others. For example if he bites you, bite him back. The aggressor can begin to develop empathy. Someone has to have the strength of character against the perpetrator or give him enough pain to teach him that his anti social behavior will not end well for him. Pain is an inhibitor of behavior.

For this reason we need to teach our children to stand up to stop a bully or he will continue his bad actions with other innocent children. This reinforcement by adults encourages a child to be strong in the face of intimidation. The person learns that bullies are bluffing cowards.

“I did not mean to do it” dissolves when someone disregards this phony excuse. Nasty people may overlook the possibility of pain if there is an element of psychological satisfaction included in the act. But when a sufficiently strong consequence is given, the bully moves on to an easier target.

The ex-boyfriend sending the ex-girlfriend’s nude photos to her boss was obviously motivated by trying to hurt her. If he knew that he could be convicted of a crime with significant time in prison he probably would not have committed the act in the first place. Our present child rearing practices of not giving consequences for hurtful and harmful acts to others has emboldened these individuals. This a failure of not disciplining children when they most sensitive to it is creating mean spirited, frightening people.

“I did not mean to do it” is simply not accepting responsibility. The person should be held accountable for his actual behavior. When confronted with evidence from a group of observers he may finally accept the realization that he can no longer get away with doing and saying things that are meant to attack another person. If he does not, an authority figure should step in and give a significant consequence that will hopefully alter his thinking. He may finally accept the realization that there were more meaningful ways to handle his personal issues.

He needs to learn “I did not mean to do it “ is not an acceptable excuse; it is a lie. People need to take responsibility for their words and actions.

Domenick J. Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN and a new book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglio.blogspot.com.

GROUP PROJECTS ARE ANTI AMERICAN EXPERIENCES

GROUP PROJECTS ARE ANTI AMERICAN EXPERIENCES

By Domenick J. Maglio PhD. Traditional Realist

When teachers assign projects that are not done by an individual student but by a group of students, they are changing the focus and philosophy of traditional American education.  In the past students went to school to learn the three Rs- reading, writing and arithmetic. In the higher grades students concentrated on mentally challenging subjects. The objective was to give each student who earned the grades the necessary tools to be able to further their knowledge in a new avenue of their interests and choosing. Their direction might change with time but they were provided with the skills and abilities to accomplish it.

The US capitalist system was based on individual merit not on group results. In a socialist/communist nation early test results assign students to an academic track. Supposedly this is accomplished by “scientific experts” for the person’s entire school experience and academic career. These important decisions were made by the state not by the individual student. Most students were pigeonholed regardless of what would happen later in their lives.  Maturity, experiences, learned knowledge and initiative were not taken into account.

The United States model of individual freedom of choice and competition was a driving force in student decisions of a career track to pursue. High grades determined student success to advance in their chosen subject areas. Every student was evaluated on his own academic results. Low or high grades were not the responsibility of their classmates or even the teacher but were solely on the student.  In the past group projects in public school were sometimes assigned to everyone in the class or by groups but everyone was marked individually for their own contribution, as the teacher personally knew the children’s abilities.

Currently employing a group project is a means of evaluating the individual student compliance, cooperation and sharing not independent thinking, which has become fashionable in American college education. According to the format, a student is assigned to a small group where all the students receive the same grade for the project regardless of their participation or effort. Even if one student does all the work all students will receive an equal grade since the college professors may not even know the names of their students.

This modern academic practice encourages group thinking rather than American independent critical thinking and individualism.  There is no differentiation between member’s effort and quality of their work. Many conniving, lazy students are willing to take a lower grade rather than work to earn higher ones and do not care about personal integrity.

The rationale for group projects is to encourage cooperation among students. Often the doers cannot contact the non-doer connivers who rely on the responsible students to do their work. Instead of fostering competition and competence it encourages taking the easy political route to get others to do your work. Of course the socialist argues “each to his need not to his ability” while in a merit based capitalist society this undermines the work ethic, competition and personal initiative.

These school group projects that do not differentiate individual’s work make the teacher’s job easier since they only have to give one mark for the project not three or more. However it is not an accurate assessment of each individual student’s participation. It lowers the bar for the mediocre student and angers the doer who does not earn the recognition deserved.

This eroding of rewarding personal effort is a major reason socialism has been a failure worldwide. People who work hard and receive no acknowledgement or other incentives will eventually lose their inspiration to strive. The political system of doing as little as possible while demanding greater government handouts becomes common and acceptable to many people educated in this manner

The same practices are being used in corporate businesses where assignments are given to a group of middle management to complete but the politically astute member gets the credit while the most productive may go unrecognized. Merit should be rewarded for the best to rise to the top. We need to get back to academic freedom to discuss anything that is pertinent to the topic and not simplistic slogans.

Our American education and corporate world need to return to reflecting the American values of grade integrity, competition, freedom of speech, encouragement to express all ideas and merit for a quality product. The group approach is a socialistic educational indoctrination practice of no individual merit. This practice of controlling schools from the top down system where students are treated as a number will never be successful in creating a free, productive and vibrant nation.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN and a new book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglio.blogspot.com.

INTELLIGENCE WITHOUT JUDGMENT, MORAL VALUES AND COMMON SENSE IS A DISASTER

 INTELLIGENCE WITHOUT JUDGMENT, MORAL VALUES AND COMMON SENSE IS A

DISASTER

By Domenick J. Maglio PhD. Traditional Realist

Our modern culture has fallen in love with academic intelligence. As Baby’s parents’ brag how children can pick up foreign language words, memorize science and mathematical facts, recite poems, play complicated video games and do many things of interest to them. As they get into the lower elementary grades, their interests become more specific. They might focus on language arts, math science or artistic interests but not more than one or two at a time. Often they are motivated in only one area and are reluctant to try other ones.

Children who have high-test scores on intelligence tests are often placed in special classes in public school. Their parents are delighted to celebrate their special mental abilities. Many of these bright young people will inform or demonstrate their special mental talents to others with little prompting. These potential academic whiz kids are usually verbally gifted in social situations but have deficiencies in other basic skills, common sense, judgment and moral values. 

As the child gets matures he gravitates to higher education institutions and normally do very well in cloistered and protected “ivory tower” safe spaces. Some stay in academia others venture out into law, medicine, science, engineering, or other specialized institutions. Some do well in their chosen areas but others get bored and have difficulty moving into demanding structured employment.

The behavior of high IQ scoring students does not always match their academic excellence. Many of these students have difficulty navigating in the classroom, as their “social smarts” can be extremely deficient. The self-promotion of these academically bright students does not correlate with their ability to interact wisely or appropriately with others. Being a know-it-all often alienates others. Knowing when to hold one’s tongue goes against their thinking that they are superior to others. Thinking before doing is a rare commodity when parents have over-valued their intelligence.

   There are many variables that make up intelligence. Some scientists count 120 of them while most measure only a miniscule number of them. The way intelligence is defined has an impact on the test results. There are many people in mental and correctional institutions that have superior intelligence. Their cognitive abilities far exceed their impulse control, empathy, frustration tolerance, perseverence in areas difficult for them, and internalization of moral values. When a person has a special talent or proclivity it does not mean the person will make a positive contribution to one’s family or society. Bright individuals can use their powerful abilities for perversion, self-destructive behavior and evil acts rather than for positive contributions to society.

The ability to well in testing is a wonderful attribute to possess if used wisely. A brilliant professional can impress others by his skills but if he becomes addicted to a substance or is mean spirited it can ruin his life and that of others. Highly intelligent people like any others have to establish discipline and balance in their lives to maximize the special gift. The parents should realize that a child born with an incredible ability is not necessarily assured of a successful future. It is the little things a parent or teacher does to teach life lessons that will keep the person on the right track to maximize their talents and ability in the area they chose.

Everyone is unique and should have time to develop and strengthen every aspect of his existence. Intelligence in our modern era is being over emphasized placing many children on a crash course with reality. The best approach to avoid this is to help the child become well rounded in as many areas as possible. The parents should evaluate all aspects of the emotional, social, listening, obedience, frustration tolerance skills of their child and make adjustments to help him to fill in the gaps.

Without a solid moral compass, accurate judgment of all types of situations and basic common sense a bright academic person will be extremely vulnerable to making poor choices. Even though these children can be manipulators, they can be exploited by devious others for their own personal needs and interests rather than for the child’s interests.

It is a parent’s responsibility to role model, teach and clearly explain the outcome of particular behavioral patterns. By constantly explaining and showing the ultimate results of drugging, lying, shirking responsibility, laziness, and a host of other negative behaviors, the youngster becomes aware of the consequences he will suffer from poor judgment. Parental training further solidifies his moral values, lifestyle decisions and social intelligence that will insulate the child from negative influences. 

                        Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of                     several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep                       program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN and  a new just published book, entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World.              You can visit Dr. Maglio at www.drmaglio.blogspot.com.