ice cream konitz

the scene is brookline high school, one of the "best" public high schools in the country. yes, we teach our students here more bullshit, and in a superior manner. today, we are celebrating, because brookline outscored local rival newton north high school on the mcas, the state's standardized test, which is to knowledge as a mustard sea is to the atlantic ocean. but what of it? we "won"! we "know" more bullshit than they do, so let's eat ice cream while the bombs drop, while black youth are falsely accused of crimes, while the planet crumbles under the weight of corporate domination. there were no questions on these subjects on the mcas, no discussion of u.s, imperialism, slavery, the destruction of indigenous cultures, the stealing of half of mexico, the murder of fred hampton, malcolm x, lenny bruce, sam cooke, martin luther king, the jailing of leonard peltier and mumia abu jamal, the bombings of panama, yugoslavia, iraq, iraq again, the arming of iraq to bomb iran, the threatening of iran, the overthrow of the governments of allende in chile in 1973, arbenz of guatemala in 1954, mossadegh of iran in 1953, the funding of the massacre in indonesia of 1965 and the funding of the destruction of east timor by indonesia in 1975, the lack of trials of nazi war criminals so these same war criminals could be put to work by our cia in latin america, the funding and training of right wing dictatorships in el salvador and guatemala, the successful efforts to destabilize the left wing sandanista government of nicaragua, the full scale bombings of vietnman, laos and cambodia, the murder of college students at jackson state and kent state, the attacks on progressives in all fields throughout "our" history, the persecution of paul robeson, w.e.b. dubois, eugene debs, emma goldman, marcus garvey, the murders of emmett till, goodman, chaney, evers, schwerner, the thousands of lynchings both "legal" and "illegal," the forced deportation of thousands of immigrants for having ideas not shared by those in power, the planned destruction of public transit to make way for the domination of the big car and oil companies,and the murder of countless labor unionists and human rights activists who have attempted to challenge corporate domination and political fascism in latin america, asia, and africa by u.s. trained thugs.
but what of this info? tell me now, what is the difference between a metaphor and a simile? what is an allusion? what's the difference between a monologue and a soliloquy? what is the main idea of countless meaningless excerpts which tell us nothing about anything of the society that we live in. we teach our students the roots of words but never the roots of their country. political illiteracy abounds, while we spend our time as "educators" reminding our black students not to say ain't. we are "teaching" our youth. they are "learning" to get up every morning at a certain time, not that lumumba was assasinated by the cia. they are "learning" it is important to be on time for class, not that sacco and vanzetti were executed for the crime of being radical immigrants. they are "learning" to do power point presentations, not that nelson mandela was arrested with the help of the cia. they are "learning" to type papers with a 12 font, double spaced, but nothing of the u.s. maintained embargo against cuba which has killed thousands and has deformed what may otherwise have been a beacon of hope to the rest of humanity. as it is, they offer free universal health care, free schooling and have eliminated homelessness. perhaps they have "learned" that fidel is a "dictator," but they most certainly have not been taught about "our" dictators, "our "sons of bitches," like trujillo of the dominican republic, duvalier of haiti, marcos of the phillipines, pinochet of chile, mobutu of zaire, and so many more, real dictators who left decapitated bodies in the streets and political prisoners starving in jails. unlike cuba, these countries (and many more) had death squads, (funded by u.s.) and killed students, peasant leaders, trade unionists, progressive teachers, and radical entertainers.
how many of our youth (or our teachers) know of pinochet, mobutu, coups, the argentine death squads, the murder of allende, the el mozote massacre in el salvador, the murder of archbischop romero, mutilated american nuns, liberation theology.
and on and on and on and on.
school keeps on keeping us uneducated.
more ice cream for all