Bob Herbert, who really should get more on-line love than he does, had one of his typically great/depressing columns yesterday. In it he goes another round on the crumbling nature of our physical and social infrastructure. This time the specifics are about the horrendous state of some of our public schools. Long story short, they’re bad and getting worse.
Herbert catalogues some rather embarrassing facts about the ancient and dilapidated nature of some of our school buildings. It’s the kind of depressing horror story that an American eye is more accustomed to reading in relation to Third World shitholes. Except that it’s not some equatorial, post-colonial kleptocracy, it’s the United States of America.
That we’ve allowed the physical foundations of our country to molder and decay is not exactly news. It’s right in your face every time you see a story about sinkhole opening up or a bridge collapse, or even if you just hit a big pothole. What’s interesting here is the angle Herbert takes, one that seems to be cropping up more and more often: shame.
Americans, traditionally, love few things more than lording how kick ass our country is over other people. We spent most of the 20th century doing it, from sending strapping six foot tall Doughboys to fight against and alongside the malnourished poor of Europe through landing men on the moon and giving the world the internet while our former enemies eroded into oblivion. One of our most cherished self confidences is the essential awesomeness of the U.S. of A. And yet we store kids in asbestos laden school buildings that have been in service since their grandparents were learning the alphabet.
As fantastically wealthy as we are, our ability to afford to delude ourselves about (or simply ignore) these problems is beginning to run out. Not that long ago, a mere three decades or so, California had a higher education system that was the envy of the world. Now the right wing lunatics in the cockpit have put the thing into a cataclysmic dive while Stewardess Schwarzenegger tries to placate the screaming passengers with off brand cookies and filthy pillows. The story is the same from sea to shining sea.
The objective realities Herbert’s describing are so shameful, so flat out embarrassing to any American who thinks America is a great country, that no argument should be necessary. It’s the same tack that was once used by Robert Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson and though it’s fallen out of favor here in Nixonland America it might be time for shame to make a comeback. It’s been away for far too long.
