No Apology, The Case for American Greatness by Mitt Romney, St Martin's Press 2010, 309pp plus index
I don't think there is any doubt that Mitt Romney plans to run for president again in 2012 and this book can be regarded as laying out his campaign agenda. However even without that it is a book well worth reading. Today our president is often called the “apologizer in chief.” Many in our government seem offended by the idea that the U.S. is anything special, some going so far as to claim that we should become subservient to the UN. This book provides a breath of fresh air in that regard. Romney makes it clear that he believes a strong United States is good for the entire world, besides being good for our citizens.
As described in this book, the U.S. has been the light to the world in terms of both freedom and technological progress. Our actions drove the Soviet Union to break up and our example has inspired people throughout the world to seek freedom. Meanwhile we have put a man on the moon, developed computers, many medical technologies, etc. While the U.S. is not perfect, it is a shining light on a hill to the rest of the world.
The author describes four strategies (as he calls them) competing in the world today:
1. Economic and personal freedom exemplified by the United States.
2. Economic but no personal freedom, exemplified by China.
3. Use of oil and other natural resources to attain world domination, exemplified by Russia today.
4. The jihad theory of the fanatic wing of Islam that wants to force their version of Islam on others...
Only the first, both economic and personal freedom, will satisfy our citizens, and only that strategy will lead to happiness, freedom, and real progress in the countries where it is practiced.
Today we face serious challenges from the other three strategies, all of which are practiced by tyrants who seek world domination. However the U.S. has never sought world domination, instead we freed and helped nations such as Germany and Japan after we defeated them in wars forced upon us. That is one reason we are an example to the world. However we must face the reality that there are tyrants in the world and those tyrants want to dominate us and destroy our way of life. In Romney's (and my) opinion, the current U.S. leaders are not facing up to that reality. He lays out his own plans for dealing with them.
Domestically we also have problems, including economic freedom, education, and health care. Romney is clear that the Obama health care plan (passed after this book was written) is very different from the Massachusetts plan established while he was governor there and he believes the Obama plan is terrible.
In terms of education, he describes many real reforms that have been effective but are generally blocked by teachers' unions. We should remember that those unions represent their members. They have no duty to represent students or parents and of course do not represent those people. Here Romney believes in hard data and analysis thereof. He believes teachers and administrators must be held accountable and he has data to show results when such is done. In fact he says that there is nothing wrong with teaching to the test if the test really measures what students should be learning. He also wants to encourage more students to study math, science and engineering, areas where the U.S. is falling behind.
Related to education, Romney believes that our economy will fall behind unless we improve education and produce more graduates in the sciences and engineering. We produce many rock stars, actors etc. but must import scientists and engineers. In fact he wants to change the current rules that allow foreign students to get advanced degrees here only on the condition that they leave the country after graduation. That policy deprives us of exactly the people who could move our economy forward.
The author does maintain a positive note throughout. While he describes the problems we face, he also points out that we have faced and overcome problems in the past and the people can do so again.
My biggest criticism of this book is that it does not say much about he author's belief about our constitution. I would have liked to see a description of his belief in the constitution and what he expects in judicial nominees. After all, he belongs to a religion which holds that constitution as at least partly inspired.
Romney clearly believes that the U.S. can and must remain strong, but he also states that the Democratic Party is working against that. “On almost every policy issue that would have an impact on our nation's strength [the Democratic Party] chooses the course of weakness. It justifies the choice by insisting that it is attempting to help the disadvantaged, but in reality, surely the most important thing we can do for the disadvantaged is to sustain a strong, prosperous, and safe America. Too often, I fear, the Democratic Party is focused less on the disadvantaged than on union bosses, trial lawyers, environment extremists, and the self-interested who want higher government benefits for themselves paid for by higher taxes on others.” (p290)
I recommend that all citizens read this book before the next presidential election. Even should Romney not be the Republican nominee, it lays out some points that we should consider. Should he win that nomination it will describe what we can expect from him.
Showing posts with label president. Show all posts
Showing posts with label president. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
The President's Education Speech
(NOTE: I was working and did not hear Obama’s speech to the schools. What follows is based on the text of that speech as published on the web.)
OK let's be clear at the outset. The president's school speech was generally pretty good, though it did have its share of political grandstanding and some misconceptions. He hit most of the right things and tried to encourage children to apply themselves to learning. I especially liked the part about how the students must be responsible for their own education, that's something I often use when I teach a class. I've been known to start the first class by saying, “My job is to teach; your job is to learn. Your job is more important
I believe the president made a few minor errors, but that is forgivable. However he also left out some important items, and their absence made his speech much less effective than it should have been. In his focus on the knowledge and information society he forgot that not every child will grow up to be an engineer, a nurse, or a lawyer. Some will become painters, electricians, plumbers, carpenters and other types of craftspeople. What about the children who want those careers? They were completely left out. Based on Obama's speech they could well decide that education is not important for what they want to do. That would be a serious mistake.
Unfortunately not only the president, but many other people seem to think that the crafts are a lower status occupation not requiring any intelligence. They want to concentrate on jobs requiring a four-year college degree. That is a grave error (and could put our economy in the grave).
As John W. Gardner said, “The society which scorns excellence in plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.”
We need people to build our buildings, wire them for electricity, put in the plumbing, paint them etc. In fact I suspect that the average plumber does more for our health than does the average physician. Plumbers help us get pure water and dispose of germ-laden body waste. Without their work, disease would run rampant. Plumbing and other crafts are essential to our economy and our way of life.
Nor are crafts the place for the weak of mind. Most such jobs require regular use of math and geometry. They frequently require creative solutions to unforeseen problems. Uneducated plumbers will give us pipes that don't hold water. Worse yet, public denigration of the crafts will direct young people to other pursuits and leave us with no plumbers and no pipes. Also no electrical wiring, no carpentry, no welding of metal structures. Our society and economy will collapse.
We need people to do the craft jobs and there are young people who prefer to work with their hands. They should be encouraged and prepared to do it right. I still remember in secondary school when we were learning about some geometrical concepts, including calculation of various areas. A classmate raised his hand and asked, “How will I ever use this stuff, I want to be a cat skinner?” (Bulldozer operator)
The teacher' wisely responded, “If you work for somebody else, you probably won't use it. However if you have your own equipment you'll use it all the time to estimate how much dirt you will have to move.”
What that teacher said is true of all the crafts. Painters, carpenters, welders, plumbers, all use their minds as much as they do their hands. If those minds are not prepared, the hands will make mistake after mistake.
We must regard craftspeople as the national asset they are. Joe the plumber, Eli the electrician, Will the welder, all are in good careers, careers necessary to our economy. In fact they have the added advantage that their jobs are unlikely to be outsourced. A company may hire a computer programmer in India. However that company won't be hiring someone in India to plumb their new building in the U.S. or to paint its walls.
I'm reminded of a manager I used to work for, call him Bill. He was a very educated man and also very family oriented. His son was apparently equally talented, good at academics and sports. He could have gone to college on an athletic scholarship as Bill had done. However what the son wanted was to run an excavation company. Bill's reaction was to first be certain that this was his son's real interest. He then helped the son get set up with the equipment and skills he needed. That son will probably never be famous, but he enjoys his work and his job isn't going to be exported.
So, Obama missed the mark on that one. The crafts are every bit as important as any other job in our economy. Those young people who are interested in such jobs should be encouraged to prepare themselves well for the work they will do.
If you like my blog, please tell others.
If you don't like it, please tell me.
OK let's be clear at the outset. The president's school speech was generally pretty good, though it did have its share of political grandstanding and some misconceptions. He hit most of the right things and tried to encourage children to apply themselves to learning. I especially liked the part about how the students must be responsible for their own education, that's something I often use when I teach a class. I've been known to start the first class by saying, “My job is to teach; your job is to learn. Your job is more important
I believe the president made a few minor errors, but that is forgivable. However he also left out some important items, and their absence made his speech much less effective than it should have been. In his focus on the knowledge and information society he forgot that not every child will grow up to be an engineer, a nurse, or a lawyer. Some will become painters, electricians, plumbers, carpenters and other types of craftspeople. What about the children who want those careers? They were completely left out. Based on Obama's speech they could well decide that education is not important for what they want to do. That would be a serious mistake.
Unfortunately not only the president, but many other people seem to think that the crafts are a lower status occupation not requiring any intelligence. They want to concentrate on jobs requiring a four-year college degree. That is a grave error (and could put our economy in the grave).
As John W. Gardner said, “The society which scorns excellence in plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.”
We need people to build our buildings, wire them for electricity, put in the plumbing, paint them etc. In fact I suspect that the average plumber does more for our health than does the average physician. Plumbers help us get pure water and dispose of germ-laden body waste. Without their work, disease would run rampant. Plumbing and other crafts are essential to our economy and our way of life.
Nor are crafts the place for the weak of mind. Most such jobs require regular use of math and geometry. They frequently require creative solutions to unforeseen problems. Uneducated plumbers will give us pipes that don't hold water. Worse yet, public denigration of the crafts will direct young people to other pursuits and leave us with no plumbers and no pipes. Also no electrical wiring, no carpentry, no welding of metal structures. Our society and economy will collapse.
We need people to do the craft jobs and there are young people who prefer to work with their hands. They should be encouraged and prepared to do it right. I still remember in secondary school when we were learning about some geometrical concepts, including calculation of various areas. A classmate raised his hand and asked, “How will I ever use this stuff, I want to be a cat skinner?” (Bulldozer operator)
The teacher' wisely responded, “If you work for somebody else, you probably won't use it. However if you have your own equipment you'll use it all the time to estimate how much dirt you will have to move.”
What that teacher said is true of all the crafts. Painters, carpenters, welders, plumbers, all use their minds as much as they do their hands. If those minds are not prepared, the hands will make mistake after mistake.
We must regard craftspeople as the national asset they are. Joe the plumber, Eli the electrician, Will the welder, all are in good careers, careers necessary to our economy. In fact they have the added advantage that their jobs are unlikely to be outsourced. A company may hire a computer programmer in India. However that company won't be hiring someone in India to plumb their new building in the U.S. or to paint its walls.
I'm reminded of a manager I used to work for, call him Bill. He was a very educated man and also very family oriented. His son was apparently equally talented, good at academics and sports. He could have gone to college on an athletic scholarship as Bill had done. However what the son wanted was to run an excavation company. Bill's reaction was to first be certain that this was his son's real interest. He then helped the son get set up with the equipment and skills he needed. That son will probably never be famous, but he enjoys his work and his job isn't going to be exported.
So, Obama missed the mark on that one. The crafts are every bit as important as any other job in our economy. Those young people who are interested in such jobs should be encouraged to prepare themselves well for the work they will do.
If you like my blog, please tell others.
If you don't like it, please tell me.
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