A Lack of Excuses...

So, after being absent from my blog for far far too long I have finally managed to sit down here after a completely overdone day to write a little bit. I have been missing writing for a while and really have no excuse for taking some time off from it. I know, all the holiday business this time of year, but all of that is self inflicted and I need to be making time for this too - because it matter to me and I find it such a great place to be able to put what is in my head out there for all to see...

An interesting article caught my eye on CNN today about a critic of Oprah's new school in South Africa. I have to say that after listening to her criticisms I was left almost speechless. How dare anyone critique the fact that Oprah decided to build - with millions of her own money - a school for some of the neediest young women in the world... there is just no angle, no argument that you can make that would justify viewing this amazing thing that she has done in a negative light.

While watching this woman angrily tear apart Oprah you could see where it was coming from - she's mad that she is not somehow benefiting personally from this great gift that Oprah has made. The main point of her critique was questioning why Oprah did not build here in America first and instead chose to go to another country to do her good deed. What a fucking ridiculous thing to ask. The fact that she even remotely considers low-income Chicago students to be on the same level as orphaned and impoverished African students blows my mind.

Listen, I taught in an inner-city school in one of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in this nation and even started my own school, and let me tell you, there is a world of difference between the two. My students always had the option of attending a school. The building was always there, and the teachers were always waiting... so many of them chose not to come and often because there was no value placed on a education for them by themselves or their family. The students that Oprah is offering an education to come from regions where quite often the school doesn't even physically exist and getting the chance to attend one is an incredible honor.

How bout a little bit of that here eh? That just made me so angry. The nerve of that woman.... I'm still amazed.

Speaking of amazing, as always, check out Mr Chad White above.... also another person who makes me speechless, although for different reasons of course.