There is one item of the UT-Battelle Plan for ORNL that I want to point out and comment on: National Security. Under that heading, it states: "ORNL and Y-12 [National Security Complex] Partnership. Combine the expertise of Y-12 and ORNL for security and advanced technology customers National Security Portfolio. Grow the Lab's National Security research program, including partnerships with other national laboratories and the National Transportation Research Center."
Those UT institutions are only some of the Tennessee Institutions of Higher Education. What exactly is that “education” that they are referring to? Is it “schooling,” thus indoctrination? Or is it learning, thus true education? In your experiences as a “student,” do you think? Imagine? Reflect? What is the basis for the public school system (mass “education”) in this nation? Is it a system of indoctrination used to free us from thinking? What’s so bad about not thinking? Not feeling? Not imagining? Not reflecting? Not observing? Not interacting? How do you like being an inmate so far?
“ed-u-ca-tion: lb: the act or process of providing knowledge, skill, competence, or desirable qualities of behavior or character, or being so provided especially by a formal course of study, instructions, or training.
-Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, 1961
“Educere [L. to lead forth, draw out]
-Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, 1961”
-from To Educate with Love by Dr. Herbert (Herb) M. Greenberg
Therefore, what do I mean by education, do I mean the dictionary definition of education or do I mean the dictionary definition of Educere. I mean Educere, that is true education.
In The Science of Homeopathy, George Vithoulkas gives a discussion of education, in terms of educating the whole being, in a section on the emotional plane of the human being, one of the three levels of a human being. Therefore, what is a human being? What is a level? What is a plane? What is homeopathy? What is material science? What is “spiritual science”? Educate yourself.
This is an excerpt from “Educate-Yourself.org: Introduction and Philosophical Overview:
“The purpose of this web site is help people become self sufficient and self dependent in all matters of health care. The Western World's over-reliance and dependence on orthodox allopathic medicine (conventional physicians who prescribe drugs), pharmaceuticals, and the Standard Western Diet have brought us to a deplorable state of national health. There is no one more interested in maintaining your health, than you. In our opinion, you need to accept the primary responsibility and not delegate it to others. Millions and millions of Americans have suffered (and died) needlessly because of the foolish abandonment of personal health care responsibility into the hands of others.”
“Creating a World That Works For All is being used by a variety of teachers, professors and academics in disciplines as diverse as cultural anthropology, biology, politics and philosophy. This is a holistic, multidisciplinary book, relevant to a number of different areas of study.
This Study Guide shows ways Creating a World That Works For All can be used in various disciplines. The Study Guide is not designed to be exhaustive, but to hint at ways in which you as an educator and learning professional can use Creating to stimulate your students to become leaders in the Third Millennium.” (from http://www.commonway.org/cawtwfa02-3.htm.)
Have you ever heard of the BIG ORANGE SCREW? If not, then check out this page and the various interconnected links to get a glimpse into the realties of this particular prison. These pages mainly deal with the University of Tennessee - Knoxville campus, since I know more about this particular prison (the inner workings) than the others in the University of Tennessee system.
Check out this item news of from the University of Tennessee system and also the UT Quick Facts.
Has the cost of living on campus and having a meal plan increased since 1990? If so, by how much each year? Who determines how much the cost of fees, including tuition, will increase each year? How would you find out that information? Why should you care? Do you care?
What is the UT Scarabbean Senior Secret Society? “Mafia Cult at University of Tennessee at Knoxville? Is Dungeaters Anonymous a UT franchise of CIA's Narco-Nazi Warlords, Yale's Skull and Bones? Is Dung-Eater a fitting name for students who live in a nuclear toilet unflushed by a Mafia-connected garbage-cartel?” {From the UT Scarabbean Senior Secret Society website.}
Is the CIA on your campus or a campus near you? IF so, why? Are they conducting research experiments again? One of the CIA’s frequently asked questions (FAQ) is: “Does the CIA spy on Americans? Does it keep a file on you?”
Their answer:
“By law, the CIA is specifically prohibited from collecting foreign intelligence concerning the domestic activities of US citizens. Its mission is to collect information related to foreign intelligence and foreign counterintelligence. By direction of the President in Executive Order 12333 of 1981 and in accordance with procedures issued by the Director of Central Intelligence and approved by the Attorney General, the CIA is restricted in the collection of intelligence information directed against US citizens. Collection is allowed only for an authorized intelligence purpose; for example, if there is a reason to believe that an individual is involved in espionage or international terrorist activities. The CIA's procedures require senior approval for any such collection that is allowed, and, depending on the collection technique employed, the sanction of the Attorney General and Director of Central Intelligence may be required. These restrictions on the CIA have been in effect since the 1970s.” [From http://www.cia.gov/cia/public_affairs/faq.html.
However there are other sides to that story:
How The “USA-PATRIOT (‘Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism’) Act of 2001” Puts The CIA Back In The Business Of Spying On Americans
High-tech spy satellites not targeting Americans,
CIA, NSA directors say: ‘We are not out there as a vacuum cleaner'
“The agencies are barred from doing so by a 1978 law that was passed after the NSA was forced to admit in the 1970s that its massive eavesdropping equipment had been used against anti-Vietnam War activists such as Jane Fonda and Dr Spock.
That led to the law banning any spying on Americans anywhere. The law protects resident aliens, too, said Hayden, no matter who they are or what they are suspected of doing.” [From High-tech spy satellites not targeting Americans, CIA, NSA directors say:
‘We are not out there as a vacuum cleaner'
Do you feel comfortable, wanted, appreciated on any one of the UT campuses? IF not, then why not? Do you walk around and people look at you as if you didn’t belong there? How does that make you feel? Do you feel alienated? If so, why? Do you feel empty inside? Do you wonder why? What is spiritual starvation/emptiness? How can the campus environment become more accessible, friendly, and conducive to a learning experience for all? How can we make these campuses actually communities? How can what we learn here be used in the greater community? Have you ever had your car ticketed or been stopped by the police for whatever reason?
Some thoughts on alienation from ”Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara: Icon Of Revolution And Liberation”:
“I am not interested in dry economic socialism. We are fighting against misery, but we are also fighting against alienation. One of the fundamental objectives of Marxism is to remove interest, the factor of individual interest, and gain, from people's psychological motivations. Marx was preoccupied both with economic factors and with their repercussions on the spirit. If communism isn't interested in this too, it may be a method of distributing goods, but it will never be a revolutionary way of life.
ATTENTION: Have you or anyone that you know been affected by the BIG ORANGE SCREW? IF so, how did you or that other person deal with it? Do you have any advice for the incoming students to the University of Tennessee system? How can we change the realities that currently exist here? Why should we even think about doing such a thing?
Do you think that the Student Government Association (SGA) on the campus of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has the best interests of the students and the WHOLE University community at heart? Why or why not? You can contact the Student Government Association if you choose to do so.
Do you feel that the UTC Faculty Council has all of the FACULTY and the whole University community in mind when it comes to the decisions made or not made? Why or why not? How can it be improved or changed?
Do you believe that the UTC
Employee Relations Committee effectively serves their purpose of “providing a direct channel of two way communication between University administration and regular non-exempt employees for information and advisory purposes”? Why or why not? How can it be improved upon or transformed?
Do you think that the Student Government Association (SGA) on the campus of the University of Tennessee at Martin has the best interests of the students and the WHOLE University community at heart? Why or why not?
Do you feel that the UTM Faculty Senate has all of the FACULTY and the whole University community in mind when it comes to the decisions made or not made? Why or why not? How can it be improved or changed?
Do you think that the Student Government Association Senate (SGA) on the campus of the University of Tennessee (Knoxville) has the best interests of the students and the WHOLE University community at heart? Have you met the various representatives? IF so, how would you describe the interaction? Was it helpful, reassuring, or was it problematic and you felt that they were talking at and NOT to you? Or do other ideas come to your mind? Do you know that the various elected and non-elected members of the SGA do? Why or why not? Shouldn’t we know what they do? Are the academic needs of the student population on this campus adequately served by the Undergraduate Academic Council (UAC)? If not, why not? Do you believe that the Graduate Student Association (GSA) works effectively on behalf of the graduate students? If not, why not? Does the Freshman Council work to ensure that the needs of the freshman class of students are adequately met? What does the Student Services branch of the SGA do? Do you believe that they are effective in what they do? Why or why not? Have you ever attended a meeting of the SGA Senate? Why or why not? IF you have, what was your impression of the meeting(s)? Was anything worthwhile accomplished? How could the meetings be improved upon?
For those that don’t know, EVERY student on this campus is a part of the Student Government Association by virtue of being a student at University.
If you/we don’t feel that the SGA on our campuses are all that, then what can you/we do about it? What can be done better? Why should we do anything about it? How can we empower ourselves as students? Should we create alternatives to the various institutions that now resemble “puppet shows” – the puppeteers being the “powers that be”? Why or why not? How can this be done? As employees of the University of Tennessee system? As employees of the University Tennessee system contract companies? As alumni? As greater community members? As faculty? As the public-at-large?
Do you believe that the Faculty Senate on the campus of the University of Tennessee (Knoxville) has the best interests of the faculty and the WHOLE University community at heart? Why or why not?
The University of Tennessee Knoxville campus is considered to be the state’s flagship university. Why? If this is the “flagship” university, then I would hate to attend another one of their prisons in this state. You can learn more about University of Tennessee or at least the official story, but not the realness that exists or doesn’t exist on each of the campuses. Some of us in this state feel as the Tennesseans for Higher Education.
Various members of the University of Tennessee Knoxville campus and greater community have been active over the last few years working on a living wage campaign for the University of Tennessee as well as a Knoxville citywide living wage campaign. Thus, we are dealing with the working conditions on the Knoxville campus. There are various living wage campaigns going on around the country, for more information, you can check out the ”Living Wage Resource Center” and the “Living Wage for Colleges and Universities” website. The Progressive Student Alliance (formerly Alliance for Hope) can be reached at psa@utk.edu and they are an integral part of the student portion of the living wage campaign. As well, there is the United Campus Workers -Communications Workers of America Local 3865 -- the independent union on the Knoxville campus and they can be contacted at fairness@ucw-cwa.org. So, what is a living wage?
“A living wage is a level of compensation that meets the basic needs of an employee and their family. In past 20 years as colleges and universities have become increasingly corporatized, indiscriminate cost-cutting has squeezed the lowest paid and most vulnerable employees. This has left many workers who provide fundamental services with wages that can't support their families and without crucial benefits like health insurance. Campus living wage campaigns seek to reverse this trend and restore dignity to these jobs.
In the past five years, campaigns to provide living wages for municipal employees have succeeded in over 40 cities across the country. Inspired by these achievements, campaigns have burst on to college and university campuses, led by coalitions of students and employees. Over 20 new campus campaigns have begun in the last year alone and victories are mounting. Like the municipal living wage ordinance, these campus efforts seek to ensure that all employees are treated fairly and paid a wage that meets their basic needs.
This site is a resource for students, employees, faculty, alumni, and administrators who want to ensure that their college or university provides a living wage to all employees. Working together we can share information, strategies, and challenges but most importantly we can build on each other's successes. As more and more colleges and universities are held accountable for the treatment of their employees, we will raise the bar for every school in the country.” {From http://www.acorn.org/acorn10/livingwage/campus/index.html.
The Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) is the coordinating body of the various colleges and universities in this state. The Board of Trustees is the governing body for the WHOLE University of Tennessee system. Who is on the Board of Trustees (BOT)? What do they do? Who owns UT? Do you care who owns UT? Here is an item from the BOT that explains a little more about what they do and their committees.
Who are the administrators? What do they do? Have you ever met any of them? Are they accessible? How accessible? If they aren’t accessible, why not? Shouldn’t they be accessible to the University community: students, alumni, community members, staff, faculty, and the overall general public?
Who owns you? Do you care who owns you? If not, then I guess that some people just don't ever get it. Why not? Do you feel that nothing affects you? Why?
Over the years I have sent my opinion on various items to the UT administration. One such recipient of an e-mail from me was Phil Scheurer, Vice President for Operations and a member of the Executive Budget & Planning Committee. The letter can also be read in HTML [HyperText Markup Language]. I did not receive a reply from Mr. Scheurer and I do not remember when I had sent that e-mail to him.
Another recipient of my thoughts was former UT system President and CEO, Dr. J. Wade Gilley. There was 25 April 2000 [in HTML], 30 April 2000 [in HTML], and some
unknown date [in HTML]. I only received one reply from him, on Thursday, 9 December 1999, So much for all of my hard work in trying to contact him since he resigned at the end of the summer of 2001.
http://www.utk.edu/administration/
Campus Masterplan 2000.
I have some questions for Dr. Shumaker, some of which I have asked him and others of which I still have yet to ask of him, but I think each of us should think about as we embark on this new journey with Dr. John Shumaker in the position of the warden at this particular set of institutions.
Some moments of reflection on the great system of indoctrination, ”oops,”I mean schooling, that we have in this country:
What are the various ”intelligence” and “security” agencies of this area of the world that we call the United States of America? What do they do? What are the various “intelligence” and “security” agencies throughout the world? OK, with ALL of the various intelligence and security agencies throughout the planet, why were the attacks of 11 September 2001 not known and not thwarted by the United States of America or her “allies”? Is it because of the complicity of various agencies, such as the ISI (Pakistan), Mossad [Israel], the NSA {USA}, the CIA (USA), the DIA [USA}, the FBI [USA}, Interpol (global} or was it simply their inability to actually perform “intelligence” and “security” work? Or a mixture of the two and other unknown covert and/or overt factors?
Who assassinated John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) on 22 November 1963 in Dallas, Texas? Why was Dallas, Texas, picked of all places? Was there a getaway plane for the assassin(s)? If so, who provided it? Why was JFK assassinated? Who benefits/benefited and profits/profited from his death? Who has the power and the connections to cover up the assassination plot? Why? (Thank-you Oliver Stone for your great movie, JFK, which inspired some of the questions.) Was Lee Harvey Oswald the “lone gunman”? Why or why not? If he was not, was he just simply a patsy? Why or why not?
Where can you find out more information about his assassination? There is a President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection. There is the September 1998 Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board. And there is the final report of the The Kennedy Assassination Records Review Board. There are the various records of the various records of the Assassination Records Review Board. There is an index of documents that the NSA has concerning JFK.
Who are the various people that have been “quieted” for good (murdered) that have something to do with the assassination of JFK in anyway? Why? Was the Warren Report fictionalized by then-House Republican leader Gerald R. Ford? IF so, why? Are WE being lied to? If so, by who? Why?
Who assassinated Robert Francis Kennedy (RFK) outside the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California? Why was Los Angeles, California, picked of all places? Was there a getaway plane for the assassin(s)? If so, who provided it? Why was RFK assassinated? Who benefits/benefited and profits/profited from his death? Who has the power and the connections to cover up the assassination plot? Why?
Where can you find out more information about his assassination? There is a Robert F. Kennedy Assassination Archive at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Also, the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth Library has a Robert F. Kennedy Assassination Archives Collection.
Who are the Presidents of the United States of America? Was George Washington the first President of this area of the world or was he the EIGHTH (8TH) President? Or was it someone else? IF it was someone else, then why have we been lied to? Why do we not expose the lie? Who is John Hanson? What did he do? What’s so important about him? Why?
What is The National Security Agency? What do they do? Have they been secret? If so, why? For how long? What prompted them to disclose their existence?
Is Hawai’i a state of the United States of America? Why or why not? IF not, then why have we been lied to about its status? IF Hawai’i is not a state, then what is Hawai’i? Is Hawai’i a nation-state?
Was Pearl Harbor a surprise attack? If not, then what was it? Was it instiaged, planned, wanted, and so on? Two interesting videos dealing with that continuum are: National Geographic's Pearl Harbor: Legacy of Attack narrated by Tom Brokaw and Sacrifice At Pearl Harbor - a BBC video. And there are some great websites and books out there concerning Pearl Harbor and what really happene on that day, though I’m only including two links here: “the McCollum Memo: The Smoking Gun of Pearl Harbor” and “Day of Deceit: The Truth about FDR and Pearl Harbor.”
What is the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)? What is the free-market economic system? How have they impacted, directly and/or indirectly, the peoples of the world? Has this impact been positive or negative or both? For who? Who profits, thus benefits militarily, financially, and so on? Who doesn’t? How easy is it to trade what some consider to be “democracy” through NAFTA? What is “democracy”? Is the United States of America a “democracy”?
Did the United States of America allow the genocide in Rwanda to increase dramatically through inaction? If so, why?
In other words, was the US a bystander to the genocide happening there?
The following accounts of life are quotables written or spoken by various people throughout the history of the existence that we perceive, or that which we do not wish to perceive about education and knowledge and LIFE:
“The aim of totalitarian education has never been to instill convictions, but to destroy the capacity to form any.”
-Hannah Arendt
“Good teachers never teach anything. What they do is create conditions under which learning takes place.”
-S.I. Hayakawa
Taken from To Educate With Love by Dr. Herbert (Herb) M. Greenberg:
“Then said a teacher, Speak to us of teaching.
And he said:
No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.
The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness.
If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind. . .”
-The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
“There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!”
-Mario Savio, 1964
"We learn not from experience but from our capacity to experience."
-the Buddha
"The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything except our modes of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophes. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive."
-Albert Einstein
“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
-George Orwell
“The major piece of information I absorbed after twelve years of public education was that I was a problem, inferior, uneducable and a victim. And, as a victim, I began to see the world thorugh the eyes of a victim.”
-Haki R. Madhubuti
"One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year."
-Albert Einstein
“Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.”
-Albert Einstein
“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.”
-Albert Einstein
“I have never let schooling interfere with my education.”
-Samuel L. Clemens (better known as Mark Twain
“Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.”
-Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
In the pamphlet entitled ”Education to Govern: A Philosophy and Program for Learning Now!” originally published by the All-African People Union stated that:
“Before the present system of education was initiated some two generations ago, education was only for the elite, to prepare them to govern over their subjects. Then came mass education, to prepare the greater majority for labor and to advance a few out of their ranks to join the elite in governing.”
A Yoruba (from West Africa) proverb states: “It takes a whole village to raise a child”.
In an excerpt of a song by hip-hop artist KRS-ONE entitled
Squash All Beef off of the KRS-ONE album:
“If I ruled the schools, from pole to pole/the entire judicial system would fold/I would get rid of the books cause they bogus/and in school, Knowledge of Self would be the focus/Kids would flock to the schools like locusts/Cause school now relates to them, and you would notice/violence in society would be a minimal/Cause the education yeah, would now be metaphysical/Not livin by laws, but livin by principal/If you disobey, the UNIVERSE gets with you/We would study giving so no one would steal/And we would read each other's magnetic fields."
In an excerpt of a speech entitled, “Community-based Education: An Idea Whose Time Has Come” given by Grace Lee Boggs, she stated:
“Instead of lamenting the weaknesses of our communities, the time has come to turn them into assets in the learning process. As I wrote in the Michigan Citizen last August (1998), we need to engage our children in the community-building process with the same audacity with which the civil rights movement engaged them in desegregation activities thirty-five years ago. Classes of children from K-12 should take responsibility for planting community gardens, maintaining neighborhood streets, recycling waste, rehabbing houses, visiting and doing errands for the elderly, creating healthier school lunches, organizing neighborhood festivals, painting public mural, as a normal and natural part of the curriculum. The possibilities are endless.
This is the fastest way to motivate all our children to learn and at the same time reverse the physical deterioration of our neighborhoods. It is a wonderful way to nurture the desire of children to be of service and provide opportunities for children with different talents to make a difference and win the respect of their peers and elders. By giving children a better reason to study than just to get a job or to advance their individual upward mobility, it will also get their cognitive juices flowing. Learning will come from practice which has always been the best way to learn.”
Grace Lee Boggs attended the Seventeenth Cuban Trade Congress with the theme: Se Puede Multos Juntos (Together We Can) some years ago, and witnessed Fidel Castro, of Cuba, saying this:
“Everybody wants to be an intellectual, a university graduate. It is a vice, an invention of the devil. The Soviets built huge columns, consuming skills they could have used to build three factories. Who is going to plant the potatoes, bury the dead, sweep the streets? In some schools they have a different janitor to wash the floors, the windows, the doors. There are at least 800 parts of the body. Do we need a specialist for each one?”
{From Living for Change: An Autobiography by Grace Lee Boggs}
This page has been visited times.
E-mail me at iruckaE@juno.com if you have any questions, comments, problems, or other concerns and also check out the links too. Also, if there are any links that are not right, please let me know too. Thank-you. Peace be unto you.
This page was last updated on 07 November 2006.
Personalized expressions to learn more about the keeper and dreamer of this page
The following links were once available on the Internet from the CCO. Now, it seems that the CCO is no longer in existence – at least on the Internet – and thus the wonderful website and wealth of information is also absent. Thus I took it upon myself to scan in the various items that I had printed up from the CCO over the years. I cannot currently find all of them, but those that I did find; they have been scanned and are present in an Adobe PDF file.
What is/was CCO?
“CCO (Center for Campus Organizing) is a national organization founded in 1995 to support progressive and social justice activism and investigative journalism on campuses nationwide. We know that students and faculty have always played critical roles in larger social movements for social justice in our society. The Civil Rights movement, the anti-Vietnam War and the Anti-Apartheid movements were all movements in which campus activists played critical roles. This understanding is behind our deep commitment to build movements for social justice in this country by making the various student movements as strong as possible.” (From the Independent Progressive Politics Network’s Center for Campus Organizing page at http://www.ippn.org/unsorted/ORCCO.htm.)