The "Economic Depression'' is snowballing.
Our economy continues to slide because we have no economic drivers in this country. Most of our widgets are manufactured & imported from China. When you don't have a manufacturing base to drive your economy all you're doing is pushing paper around, just waiting for the ultimate collapse.
What I propose, is doing a complete about face on what we teach in "Public Schools''. Our school systems here in Fresno continue to operate in the same old tired methods, boring children to tears. The drop out rate for Black & Latino children is astounding.
We need to all come together in public forums & discuss ways we can get Stimulus Money for our schools K-8 through university. The earlier our children come in contact with "High Tech Green Technology'' the better. Our schools are playing our children way short. Look at the fact that our 2-3 year old children seem born with the ability to play on a computer. You see that's what it is to them play. Our children are capable of much higher levels of intellectual achievement, if we only give them a chance.
Children should be taught in school about: solar panels, wind turbines, Bio-diesel Generators, Geo-thermal etc. The schools, foolishly, continue selling going to college as the only way forward in education. Black, Mexican & Hmong school children are good working with their hands. For these students "Green Vocational Schools'' are the way to go. Here are some of the things our children should be being trained to do for the 21st Century & beyond. Learning how to: Design, Install, Repair & maintain: Solar, Wind, Bio-diesel farms. Large companies are putting in huge "Green Electrical Generation'' farms powering millions of homes.
Here's where we turn Fresno County into a county of producers. With funding from the Stimulus Bill we can get block grants to build: Wind, Solar & Bio-diesel electricity generating farms, with low-income people as recipients of the income generated. Low income people, especially on Fresno's "Golden West Side'' can take classes to: Install, repair & maintain these systems starting at $25.00 an hour.
When I was in high school at Washington Union, High School in Easton, California,(class of 1967) I took 4 years of woodworking. "Wood Butchers'' they mockingly teased us. The first 3 months in wood shop we had to learn all of the joints used in wood working, multiple dovetail, mortis & tendon, mitre joint & dozens more. Actually I didn't "Butcher'' the wood. I took First place at the Fresno Fair 2 years & Second 2 years with a: Dining Room Hutch, a huge coffee table with alternating stripes of maple & walnut (quite striking) a cedar chest & dining table.
This was high quality furniture. Why not seek funds from the Stimulus bill to retrofit a building downtown to accommodate a wood working shop, where "Green Wood Workers'' can design & make "Sustainable, high quality wood furniture products'' right here in the U.S.A. & stop buying furniture from abroad. Forget about trading globally except for farm exports. Let's internalize, not globalize. Globalization is what got us to where we are NOW