Education is for weaklings, really? (9/26/2017)

As I have written about before, I spend a lot of time in cars while traveling throughout the state.  I have started to listen to podcasts in order to avoid having to be totally disgusted or angry by the time I get out of the car.  There are so many holes where there is no reasonable radio to keep me awake during my drives and I am forced to listen to extreme right-wing radio or even some religious stations.  I have written about this before (see my post <here>) and those podcasts are a great antidote for that.  I did not go in too much detail when I wrote my post on March 3, 2015, but here it is one and a half year later and I think things have gotten worse rather than better.  There are a lot of triumphant right-wingers now that try to whip up there base even more.  No wonder what is happening in our country lately.  

You may counter that this photograph has little to do with this blog post, but it was taken on my most recent trips to give two stormwater workshops out in the western part of Virginia.  I always take time out to take a walk or a bike ride on one of the rail to trail parks.  It is a great way to de-stress, relax, and blow off steam after the ridiculous statements on right-wing radio.  This one was on the New River Trail.

I am not really talking about what I encountered in the western part of Virginia.  Absolutely not!  I am really thinking about life in the U.S. in general.  Since March 2015 we have gone through an election.  Little did we know where that would lead us.  I reported about one of those incidents when I wrote about my visit to Charlottesville after the riots, something I could not have predicted back then.  In addition, we have had a travel ban that is being renewed, a war on poor people, on healthcare, on the uninsured, on the elderly, on Muslims, on blacks, on transgender people, on marriage equality, on education, on the environment, on the climate, I can go on!  

On my way back home the other day, my podcast ended and I did not want to stop to look up a new one.  I was between good radio stations so I got to a local “Family Radio Station”.  Family stands euphemistically for religious and ultra-right wing.   At the top of the hour a pastor came on to talk about Paul’s visit to Athens.  He described how Athens was the center of education, architecture, wisdom and philosophy, but how horrible it was because there was a temple on every corner that was dedicated to a different god or deity.  It was a city full of educated scum.  He went on telling the audience that it was just like here where the educated people, and in particular those from Harvard and Stanford, are the scum of the earth and cannot be trusted because they are godless heathens (he mentioned those two institutions by name).  A (university) education is the root to all evil.  Here I am driving thinking “and my daughter goes to Harvard Divinity School studying religion, and I have a Ph.D. and am an educator?” 

There seems to be such a fight or push against intellectuals, against education, for the common lowest denominator.  I think that is what Twitter has started and is so successful.  You really cannot have an intelligent discussion on Twitter, with 140 (or so) characters, which just fits fine with some well-known individuals; we can come out with statements like “fake news”, “poor rating” and that’s it. 

Another rails to trail visit, this photograph was taken during my walk on the Virginia Creeper Trail in Abingdon, VA.

Discussing this in church this weekend my friends and I wished we could tell this pastor that next time he is sick not to consult an educated person (doctor) to get better.  Maybe he should just have a snake bite him in the hope to get cured.  When he wants to cross a river with his car he should not to use a bridge that is built by an educated engineer, but build one himself with a few boards and rocks.

In the Swahili language of East Africa, they have a word called Mzee.   The literal translation is “respected old person”, or “title of respect to anyone older than oneself.”  When I worked there, I learned Mzee was also used to show respect for wise (educated) people.  I was called Mzee when I worked in East Africa.  I was 25 years old and the people that called me Mzee were double my age.  It showed their respect for me and for the education I had; and yes I called them Mzee as well.  Education was treasured in those countries; children would walk hours to go to school.  The story goes, that’s why they are so good at running marathons.

Folks, whatever your believe is: conservative or liberal, religious or atheist, show some tolerance for your fellow human being, be they from a different ethnic background, education, religion or sexuality!  Secondly, I have lived in countries where people have died to get educated.  It is a great privilege.  Education brought our society where we are right now, it allowed us to question things, out culture and our standard of living.  The day we start crucifying our educated people like we did in the middle ages will be the day that we will loose our civilization and our status in the world. 

This week I am giving lectures in Virginia Beach while hurricane Maria is skirting by.  It is nice and windy, and having a walrus mustache, it is definitively a bad (hair) mustache day.  It is the 3rd category 4 or higher storm in the Atlantic in one year.  Now who said there is no such thing as climate change?  Damn those educated people.