The Fourth Option (A Centrist Perspective) Blog

Dear Colin Kaepernick, Remember reading and studying American history in school? Remember the dreams of the Founding Fathers? I do. And I am willing to bet that your remembrance of the dreams and aspirations of the Founding Fathers, as well as the hopes and goals of the men and women, who built this great nation, are very similar to mine. I am willing to bet that every time you think of our nation ― The United States of America, and what it stands for, a slew of democratic principles come rushing to your mind: We believe in fairness. We believe in equality. We believe in justice for all. We believe in the rights of the individual. We believe in freedom. We believe in unity. We believe in our motto ― In God We Trust. We believe that although our nation is far from perfect and it has its faults, concerning social issues like racism, sexism, inequality for gay Americans, class warfare . . . we’re moving in the right direction, and things are going to get better. I am willing to bet that ...

     Leadership is a required course in the United States military. Every American who served (or is serving) in the army, navy, marines, air force, and coast guard studied (or is studying) it. I taught it for 20+ years in the army, and studied it from 1969 to the present. I guess this is my round-about way of telling you that there are millions of military personnel and veterans who will verify and reinforce the points I am about to make about leadership.      First, excellent  (or strong)  leadership is perhaps the single most important factor for creating success in organizations, companies, corporations, or democratic governments. Second, excellent leadership is built on sound, fundamental principles; and finally, the same principles of excellence that create success in organizations also create success in corporations, and democratic governments.      So, what are the excellent principles of leadership? There are many...

     The men and women governing the United States of America are first and foremost politicians or people with the types of leadership skills that enable them to run for office, get elected, get re-elected, and build and grow constituencies. They are usually attractive/handsome, charismatic, eloquent-persuasive speakers, and out-going-socially-charming individuals. Their strengths lie in their abilities to identify existing social and economic problems, and in their abilities to persuade the citizens that they (the politicians) have the best plans for solving these problems. Their types of leadership are reactive : They respond best to existing problems. So although they are wonderful patriotic Americans, who are very good at what they do, they are not the type of people who should be running this great country!      The men and women, who should govern the United States of America, should be first and foremost leaders : They should be individua...

           I am always amazed by the fact that although we call ourselves “a Christian Nation” and we boast about the fact that we have more churches in the United States than any other country in the world, the teachings of God , the Father, and His Son, Christ Jesus , play minor roles in our policy decisions. Our actions suggest that we do not ask ourselves questions like “What grade would Jesus, who knows what’s honestly is in our hearts, give us for the policy decisions we’ve just made?” “Are our policy decisions in accordance with His teachings?” “Are we conducting our selves in compliance with the example He modeled on Earth? And finally, are we writing and passing legislations that are in the true spirit of His principles (in accordance with The Word  in His Bible)? Were we acting as God-Fearing Christian when we have incorporated His principles and ethics into the two most important documents in our nation – The Declaration of Ind...

Dear Republicans, or “God-Fearing, church-going, law abiding, moral and ethical citizens, who diligently practice your faiths by living in accordance with the word of God,” have you read Matthews chapter 5 – lately? It would be helpful if you reflect on verse 7 ( Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.), verse 8 ( Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.), and verse 9 (Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.) Instead of aggressively trying to prosecute Secretary of State Hilary Clinton for emails she erased from her personal server, it will be helpful if you recall that the last Republican President (George W.) and his secretary of state were so fast asleep at the wheel that 9/11 occurred on American soil while they were snoring. Note: The Democrats or “the secular party” showed mercy while acting as peacemakers in the months and years that followed. In spite of the fact that during that time period George W. started a war in...

Fences also came as immigrants, carefully disassembled and tucked between the interpretations of the "Books in the Old Testament," neatly printed in the misinterpreted yellow journalism of  Spencer and Darwin. Others were stuffed in old envelopes (hidden in the lines of letters, whose wrinkled yellow shadiness, evidenced pages that were read again and again for indoctrination purposes). Diligently they were kept to be reassembled as pillars in our laws and the grand structure of pious euphemisms, (with their believers unaware that  cries of  "Manifest Destiny" would become a diverse process of ongoing evolution),   in spite of  barriers to the free mental movement of the masses. In cleaver disguises, as methods to ensure civil obedience, these fences went undetected Unlike the ones that came as immigrants, however, the earliest ones we erected on the landscape were noticed and unwanted, for back then (in the beginning) we ...

           More and more with each passing day, our local, state and federal governments are spending less and less on public education; yet, they are expecting better and better results! They’re expecting teachers to work harder, new teaching recruits to be smarter, the quality of instructions to be better, and students’ achievements―regardless of circumstances, to be greater. Our governments, which have argued time and time again that investments are important in producing positive outcomes, and have used this argument as a justification for cutting corporate taxes, seem unwilling to apply this same line of reasoning to investing in public education. Instead, they expect public schools to be the exception to their rule: They expect public schools’ levels of excellence to increase as public schools’ funding continue to decrease.      Currently our nation has some of the best sports teams in the world in virtually every ...

Excellent teaching isn’t guesswork. Instead, it’s instruction based on the latest research studies concerning who, what, when, where, why and how to teach children; effective ways to measure the quantity and quality of “lessons learned” or the authentic progress the children are making; and effective ways to use the measurement results for the purpose of creating new lessons that allow each child to progress from his/her current level of knowledge and skills to the next. Who, what, when, where, why, and how are factors or variables that produces the day-to-day achievement of students.   It is important to understand that it is the product of all of them that determines how much each student learns and how well each student learns it. In other words the amount of learning that takes place in the classroom for each child is literally determine by multiplying the factors,   in the following equation : who x what x when x where x why x how = daily achievement for each child. ...

 I suspect that the current debates and policy changes concerning women’s rights must be especially troubling for the women of my generation – the baby boomers. They remember the struggles of their mothers and grandmothers to stop abusive treatments, unequal opportunities, the lack of access, sexual harassment, sexual assault, gender stereotypes, and unequal pay. Moreover, they remember their own struggles against these forms of discrimination: They remember when the career fields available to women were limited to the types of jobs that were labeled “women’s work.” They remember the days when scholarships, grants, and other programs that could enable women to enter the professional fields did not exist.  They remember the days before Title IX and other programs aimed at providing girls/women with the opportunities to have sport programs comparable to those of the boys/men. These struggles are fresh in their minds. They can recall the days when engineer , mechanic , constructi...