The Hypocrisy of Murder

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

I am sure that some of you are tired of hearing about Troy Davis.  What a shame that most of us only heard about Troy Davis and his unfortunate case too late.  Sad that some of you are asking–“Who is Troy Davis?” You can read more about his case here.  I know the link is to wikipedia and it’s isn’t always the best source–but this one seems pretty straight forward.

Do I know if Troy Davis was innocent?  No.  Do I know he was guilty?  No.

But I can say that not being able to answer that second question should be enough to stop a man from being murdered.  And that is what the death penalty is–MURDER.  Am I saying that criminals/murders who are so heinous don’t deserve to die?  No, not necessarily.  But I also don’t think that the government should be in the business of murder.  But again, is life in prison any better?  No and our system is barbaric and punitive when it should be rehabilitative–but that is a totally different topic.

I think what angers me the most is the hypocrisy of the both sides in this fight.  The right and the left are flipped on this and then on other sides on the topic of abortion.  I know that that word just touched a nerve in the few of you who read this.  I support a woman’s right to choose.  But just because I support their right to choose doesn’t mean that I agree with it.  Are there exceptions to everything yes–even to capital punishment.  But you can’t preach pro-life and then relish at the taking of a life.  If people espouse that every life is valuable and should be born–then every life is valuable and Troy Davis should still be alive.

I don’t know the difference and how at one point all life is valuable and at another it isn’t.  This idea of an eye-for-an-eye justice isn’t appropriate.  As I try to teach my children that we turn the other cheek–that when someone wrongs you, you walk away-you don’t wrong back.  There will be exceptions to this rule, but how can I teach him that retaliation is not acceptable when our government retaliates.   This, government sanctioned murder, is harder to explain than the individual who commits the original crime.  I can explain that as a person making a bad decision.  But when the government does it–how do I explain that?  How do I explain the people who call for and relish in the murder of someone?  I do I explain that only some life is valuable.

I know this is philosophical and an issue that divides us all.  But the death penalty is murder.  And if the state is going to continue to do it–it needs to do a better job of carrying out justice and justice cannot be carried out if we aren’t certain of someone’s guilt.

How many other murders are in prison for life because they took someone else’s live.  Troy Davis allegedly killed a police man.  Is that police man’s life that much more valuable that we can rationalize killing his alleged murder (without any real evidence).  How many men are in prison for life having killed more than one man?  For justice to be served–it must be carried out fairly.  And there appears to be nothing fair in the murder of Troy Davis.

This needs to move us to do better as a nation.  To do better as a justice system.  To do better.  Sadly, I fear Troy will be forgotten next week as there will be something new–FB’s redesign, that will cloud the airwaves and the status quo will resume.  It makes me sad.

Another Stark Reminder That He Needs To Get Fixed

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 1 Comment

I love my kids to death–both of them.  I am no longer (and haven’t been for a while) sad that I didn’t get to carry them in my womb.  I’m actually totally okay with the whole never been pregnant thing.  Bill and I talk all the time that he should just get fixed.  We have no reason to believe that I would/could ever get pregnant.  BUT.  But, at our age, we know we don’t want to be dealing with any more babies or kids for that matter.  This does not mean that at some future point, we won’t consider adding more children–but right now? So not in the frickin’ cards.

We have lived in our house for 11 years.  There is a family across the street whose residence in the neighborhood predates ours.  This family has 5 boys (I think).  They had twin boys approximately two years after we moved in–so they are close to 9-years-old (I could be totally off on this by two years and they could be 7–but I don’t know).  Anyway–that so isn’t the point of my story.  Their oldest is in college and the other two high school age-ish.

Last weekend we went to the Catholic church’s carnival up the street from our house.  We saw our neighbor, who is sporting what looks like a baby bump–and a sizeable one at that.  WHAT????  I’m pretty sure they are older than we are–late 40’s.  I know that they are Catholic and maybe birth control, etc. is not part of their ideology.  Hey, live and let live.  But WOW.  Was all I could think. Then Holy Shit was my next thought.  I joked that they probably thought they were too old to get pregnant and resumed having sex again, after not having it for fear of…I don’t know–HAVING MORE CHILDREN.  I know I shouldn’t be judgy, and hey I know she loves kids–she runs an in-home daycare.  But I could not imagine for a second–getting pregnant at my age or having even one more child for that matter.

It’s time to make that appointment.

Sometimes The Answers Are Easier Than We Imagine

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 1 Comment

We often make things more complex than they need to be.  Take this whole problem we have of education.  I am certainly not making light of the problems in education but so little of the talk has been centered around the kids and around what the REAL problems are and instead focus on those things that seem fixable or at least blameable (parents and teachers mostly, but even students).  Or on problems that are so big and monumental it allows us an easy excuse: poverty.

I have long felt that one of our biggest problems in education, aside from the fact that we still ascribe to pedagogies and philosophies that are over a century old, is one of expectations.  I have been working in schools and education for over 10 years now and I see it so clearly.  Maybe my varied experiences have given me a needed glimpse into education as a larger thing as opposed to just being in one school and teaching in one classroom.  I have always believed and subscribed to the belief that students will rise and fall with teacher, school, societal expectations.  As a teacher, I have always had high expectations.  I gave homework, regardless of whether kids would do it.  I assigned hard reading, regardless of whether kids would do it.  It was hard and frustrating in the beginning, but once the students realized that they were going to have to work, they did and they learned and they were thankful.  I still have thank you notes from students who were thankful that I believed in them and their ability.

I have been in schools where homework is not given because “they won’t do it” or “they can’t do it” or “they have too much going on in their life to be expected to do it.”  These excuses are lazy.  These excuses allow everyone to just get by.  Kids don’t want to Fail.  Kids know and understand the importance of school.  But if schools continually fail them and fall victim to the excuses that society has generate to explain away the often poor achievement of minority students.

I was listening to Radio Times this morning on NPR and Angel Harris was on.  Angel Harris is awesome and thoughtful and smart.  His new book is one that examines what goes into the racial achievement gap.  I know that for some this categorizing of achievement through the lens of race is problematic.  I also think it simplifies things and is quite ambiguous, but that does not change that fact that white students out achieve our black and latino students.  One of the things that Harris mention really spoke to me and is something we really need to examine, “if the system is successful with some students but not others, then the system is biased towards those who are achieving.”  This is so simple and so true.

What is also then obvious, standardized testing is not going to fix the inherent, systemic bias in our systems and the rhetoric of education that has kept the status quo of low expectations.  We need more talk about how to fix the system and really fix it, not just assess it more when we already know what the system is doing isn’t working for a huge proportion of our student body.

All kids want to learn.  We need to start teaching all of them.

It Was Like Date Night At The Dollar Store

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

On Saturday, my husband and I were fortunate enough to have some people take our children for us.  Not just some people…my awesome dad and bonus mom.  It was so nice.  Bill and I decided we’d go to a movie–it had been forever and we really wanted to see Pirates of the Carribean 4 (I know didn’t that come out like last year or something).  So, we get to the theater and ask for Pirates at 6:30.  I was skeptical and worried because I didn’t see it listed on the big signs.

“Two dollars.”

“What?” we both question

“Two dollars.”

We look curiously at the ticket seller.  She’s a high school student and probably thinks these poor people never get out.

“It’s one of our dollar movie specials.”

“Are we on camera?” Bill asks

“No.”  She is laughing at us.  She is probably telling this story to some other high school girl as I am typing this.

“Two dollars?”  Bill asks again.

“yep.”

So he forks over the two dollars and we walk in like we won the lottery.  But really, a movie for $2.  I am such a cheap date.

Clean Eating Week 2

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 3 Comments

I’ll just start off by saying–I don’t have any photos this week.  I meant to take photos of the food–but I didn’t for a number of reasons, like some of the food didn’t turn out too pretty :0.

My favorites food this week was the whole wheat, black bean ravioli, with a pasilla cream sauce and grilled shrimp.  I made the ravioli.  I made the filling and I made the sauce.  The noodles didn’t turn out so pretty (so, I didn’t photograph the process).  I have decided that I really need a ravioli maker, because doing it without the proper equipment is hard, no matter how easy people make it look like on TV.  Mine were ugly and looked like the kids made them–but they were yummy.

The cream sauce and filling were delicious–the filling was simply, black beans, greek yogurt, garlic, onion, cumin and smoked paprika all blended together and it was really really good.  I look forward to making it when I have the right tools (and then I’ll document it).  I also made some whole wheat fettuccine and am looking forward to eating that this week with chicken and more of the pasilla cream sauce–yummy.

I also made some clean banana muffins from The Gracious Pantry. I made her basic recipe but put fresh blueberries in each muffin for a little added texture and I added walnuts to the batter as well.  They are absolutely delicious and the kids love them too–total bonus.

This was a rough clean eating week for me, but was able to pull it off and am really happy with how I feel.  I can certainly tell a difference and I am really liking it.