Notes From D.R. | Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene

Next week, you’ll head back to class. The summer has gone by in a second, and you’ll soon be back in a classroom that’s just as dusty as when you left it back in June.

The same light that was malfunctioning earlier this year is still flickering in and out. Your calls to have it fixed will still go unanswered.

There won’t be enough chalk, or enough pencils, or enough paper; after the first day of class, you’ll have to drive down to Staples to purchase some. You had to do that last year, and the year before. “Budget cuts” is the supposed reason you have to do this, though you can’t help wondering why those “budget cuts” never seem to extend to the superintendent’s salary. (And what does he do for that exorbitant check, anyway? When he took over a decade ago, there were only a handful of good schools in the system. Now, ten years later…there are still only a handful of good schools in the system.)

The kids will soon file in. Many will come from low-income families, some will not speak English as a first language. Some are determined to achieve, and some will not even care. You job description did not entail being a supplementary parent to these children, but for all intents and purposes, that will be your role. You’ll risk being verbally abused if you try to discipline some of them, and you’ll risk being demonized by their real parent or parents if you let them know that they’re not doing well in your class. If their test scores aren’t high enough, your boss—or his or her boss—will blame you and not them for their lack of achievement: you’ll even be accused by some folks of not expecting enough from them, even though you demand the best from them every day.

Perhaps you’ll get an e-mail later in the year from a former student—now an executive or an entrepreneur—who’ll let you know of the influence you had on his or her life. They’ll thank you for inspiring them, appreciate you for encouraging their dreams. It’ll bring you a moment of satisfaction—then the frustration and exasperation with the students and administration will hit you again, and that moment will pass just as swiftly as the summer.

For the most part, it’ll be another ten months of insecurity, undeserved criticism, stupidity from school headquarters, political scapegoating, and myriad other annoyances that will added more flecks of gray to what’s left of your hair.

Next week, you’ll head back to class. Because you’re a Boston Public School teacher, and you’re the most dedicated person in a job almost no one values.

Click here to aid the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

While Media Matters for America deserves criticism for taking quotes from conservative pundits out of context, they deserve credit for pointing out the near-total failure of the religious right to condemn Pat Robertson for his remarks about Hugo Chavez.

UPDATE: Jack Van Impe goes after Robertson.

While Media Matters for America deserves criticism for taking quotes from conservative pundits out of context, they deserve credit for pointing out the near-total failure of the religious right to condemn Pat Robertson for his remarks about Hugo Chavez.

UPDATE: Jack Van Impe goes after Robertson.

The Boston Herald reports on a changing of the guard at talk station WRKO-AM. If I have one bit of advice for the new program director, it’s this: please find a way to better utilize weekend host Spencer Hughes, who has the potential to be the "next big thing" in the talk radio biz.

UPDATE: More from the Boston Globe and the Boston Phoenix.

The Boston Herald reports on a changing of the guard at talk station WRKO-AM. If I have one bit of advice for the new program director, it’s this: please find a way to better utilize weekend host Spencer Hughes, who has the potential to be the "next big thing" in the talk radio biz.

UPDATE: More from the Boston Globe and the Boston Phoenix.

Another reason Mitt Romney has no chance in hell of becoming President.

An odd essay in the Los Angeles Times claims that talk radio isn’t as politically influential as it once was. I don’t know about that–a lot of the radio shows still seem to have many happy listeners…

UPDATE: Talk host Hugh Hewitt responds.

The 40-Year-Old Virgin stays on top—a surprise, since I expected Matt Damon’s popularity to propel The Brothers Grimm to #1. Elsewhere, The Cave bombed, which makes me wonder: what the hell happened to Morris Chestnut? How could the star of Boyz N The Hood fall so far in Hollywood, considering the success of the other stars of that film-Cuba Gooding Jr., Ice Cube, Laurence Fishburne, and Angela Bassett (not to mention the film’s director, John Singleton)?

Peter Kirsanow of the US Commission on Civil Rights responds to a familiar criticism of John G. Roberts.

A Massachusetts woman lobbies for the state to create a pro-life vanity license plate.

A Massachusetts woman lobbies for the state to create a pro-life vanity license plate.

In the six years since inheriting Houston’s Lakewood Church from his late father, Joel Osteen has become the country’s most visible, and most credible, religious broadcaster. His “megachurch”—now the Lakewood International Center—has approximately 30,000 members; to accommodate the holy hordes, he recently purchased the former Compaq Center sports arena. His televised sermons reach millions in over 130 countries, and his 2004 book, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living Your Full Potential is affixed to the New York Times bestseller list, with nearly 3 million copies sold.

Osteen’s sermons eschew proclamations of damnation in favor of a “You can do it because Jesus says you can” approach. While it’s obviously distasteful to compare him to Bill Clinton, one can sum up the general theme of Osteen’s sermons with the ex-President’s campaign song: “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow.” With his grins, jokes, and easygoing personality, he has almost completely erased the stereotype of the sweating, screaming televangelist established during the Jimmy Swaggart era. (To his credit and wisdom, he does not request donations on his shows.)

Osteen has been criticized for being too upbeat in his sermons, and it’s hard to deny that he comes across as Oprah reborn as a white man from Texas. However, Osteen has also received tremendous praise—from the mainstream media, which is troubling.

Last month the Boston Globe published a lengthy profile endorsing his ministry for its racial diversity (Lakewood is said to have near-equal amount of black, white and Hispanic attendees) and his refusal to engage in moral attacks (“The Scripture,” he told the Globe, “says it’s the goodness of God that causes people to repent. Jesus didn’t condemn.”) Likewise, liberal columnist Tony Norman of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette applauded Osteen because “he doesn’t parrot right-wing talking points” nor attempts to “push [viewers and parishioners] into becoming wholly owned subsidiaries of the Republican Party.”

Obviously, Osteen’s media approval is dependent upon his refusal to be a culture-war foot-soldier. However, it is neither logical nor possible for Osteen to continue positioning himself as being deaf to current socio-political tunes.

With the controversies over Roe v. Wade and court-ordered gay marriage still raging, the man who follows the Cross will soon find himself at a crossroads: does he take a clear stand against secularism and risk the opprobrium of the media? Does he firmly proclaim, as so many Catholic priests did last year, that there is one political philosophy whose objectives are clearly in tune with Judeo-Christian concepts and one political philosophy whose objectives are clearly not? Does he risk losing the support of that faction of  “cafeteria Christians” who watch his shows and attend his sermons precisely because he refuses to make moral judgments from the pulpit?

It’s hard to deny that Osteen’s influence and visibility would be effective weapons in the current “culture war”. Sure, the media would place the same mask of malevolence on him that they’ve already placed on John Roberts—but at least, it would prove that he wasn’t just another pretty face.

Look, I know that Deval Patrick and Tom Reilly aren’t the most formidable challengers, but isn’t Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney engaging in a little irrational exuberance by declaring that he could get re-elected in a landslide? Then again, this is the same guy who seems to believe that the GOP will actually give their Presidential nomination in ‘08 to someone associated with Massachusetts…

UPDATE: Will the "landslide" bring him down?

Look, I know that Deval Patrick and Tom Reilly aren’t the most formidable challengers, but isn’t Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney engaging in a little irrational exuberance by declaring that he could get re-elected in a landslide? Then again, this is the same guy who seems to believe that the GOP will actually give their Presidential nomination in ‘08 to someone associated with Massachusetts…

UPDATE: Will the "landslide" bring him down?