A "Disconnect?"

Isn't that the rather trendy word, "disconnect?"  It's when, I guess, things don't quite match up, don't quite follow from each other.  Maybe it's a step or two short of hypocrisy?

There seems to be a "disconnect" between what we think about Congress and how we react to its members.  A recent survey conducted by Public Policy Polling (reputable, I guess) revealed that Congress had a 9% approval rating.  Members of Congress, as a whole, rated below Brussels sprouts (Hey, I like Brussels sprouts!), head lice, NFL replacement officials, used car salesmen, traffic jams, and even cockroaches, root canals, and colonsocopies.  That's quite a list!

On the positive side (and you know me, always positive!), Congress scored better than telemarketers (They were below Brussels sprouts?  The survey must be flawed.), North Korea, Linday Lohan (whoever that is), the Kardashians (I've heard to them), meth labs, and gonorrhea.  Well, at least members of Congress "have that goin' for 'em."

OK, maybe respondents were just having some fun, but there are a couple of questions that are immediately brought to mind, my mind at least.  First, aren't these Congressmen/women and Senators embarrassed?  Aren't they ashamed?  (Of course, I've answered my own question many times.  No, they aren't "embarrassed" because they are arrogantly elitist.  What do they care what the hoi polloi think?  No, they aren't "ashamed" because they, quite obviously, have no sense of shame.  Just look at what they do, what they say....)  I know, to this day, I am very reluctant to admit I was a teacher; well, I guess I still am.  (See below for further explanation.)  I've made no secret about my reluctance and the reasons behind it. 

But, and I guess this is at the heart of my "disconnect," why do Congressmen/women and Senators get re-elected at rates of 90% or higher?  If we hold them in such low regard--and, the survey notwithstanding, I think most of us do--why do we vote for them (or others of their ilk as chosen by the pox-deserving parties) again and again?  C'mon, John Dingell was first elected in '55!  He admitted, although claiming to have written the ObamaCare bill, that he didn't read it.  Huh?  John Conyers blew a gasket when asked about reading that.  "We don't have time to read" that stuff!  I wonder.  Are we stupid?  Do we blindly follow the parties or our unions and their endorsements?  Have we given up on making things better?  I laugh at those suburbanites who claim Detroiters would re-elect Kwame Kilpatrick if he was running again.  Oh, how they scorn Detroiters!  Yet, these same folks continue on their own merry ways, re-electing the same old, rotten Congressmen/women and Senators.  Remember, they re-elected W. Bush and Obama.  Enough said....and not too flattering, either.

I know a little bit of history and realize Congress hasn't always been a paragon of leadership, virtue, and so on.  But it seems to me today is much worse.  I think it has nothing to do with partisanship, nothing at all. 

There was another article I read about teachers "cheating."  Oh, I read with interest and more than a few "tsk, tsks" about cheating on student standardized test scores.  Of course, some will--there is far too much emphasis on test scores.  And, as I've noted in the past, teachers have nobody to blame for that except themselves, for a variety of reasons.  What concerned me even more was that teachers were paying others to take their accreditation tests, the ones states impose to get a teaching credential or certificate.  I read a few of the questions:  "Which of the following is equal to a quarter-million  a) 40,000  b) 250,000  c) 2,500,000  d) 1/4,000,000  e) 4/1,000,000?"  Pick out the error in this sentence:  "The club members agreed that each would contribute ten days of voluntary work annually each year at the local hospital."  No doubt, some will say, "Why does a history teacher need to know that stuff?"  In fact, I can think of more than one I worked with who would say that or something like it.  Anyone who asks that question shouldn't be a teacher.  And, I worked with teachers who couldn't tell the answers to these two questions.  Oh, the stories I could (and sometimes do) tell.

Stan Musial died this weekend.  I am saddened.  He always seemed like such a class act.  I know "class act" is tossed around pretty loosely these days, but that was Stan Musial.  I didn't realize that he held 55 hitting records--55 of them!  Musial was 92...which seems like a nice age to me now.