Baking bread, bettering bipartisanship

I'm currently waiting for my banana bread to finish baking, so I thought I'd take a minute (or 55 at 350 degrees) and jot some thoughts down. 

The Supreme Court ruled on healthcare today. Not surprisingly, it was a subject of much debate over the last year and a hot topic for discussion this week.  But regardless of what you think of the ruling and/or the Justices personally, I'd like to broach a larger thematic topic: Principles, rather than parties.

  

See, regardless of who is President or which majority party controls Congress, the American people feel that it is the role of the government to fix the problems of the nation.  They will demand that Congress fixes everything. Then, when little change happens, the people place the responsibility on the President to fix the problems. When that also fails to solve everything, the people turn to the last branch: the Judiciary. Yet when they are unsatisfied with a ruling and seek to overturn it by appealing to Congress. And the cycle begins again.  Parties might want to blame each other and swing the pendulum of power back over to their side by claiming the ability and know-how to fix all of America's problems, but in the end the parties each want the same thing: control of the three branches of government.  Neither the Democrat nor the Republican parties can ever be in complete control for longer than a decade, the Constitution prohibits such a thing. So why not try an approach that will have a longer, more lasting impact?

There is one source of information that I think (and my mentor has repeatedly suggested) is overlooked is Academia. It is the professors that can influence the largest number of people, for the greatest good, over the longest period of time. Everyone sends their children to school, telling them to "go learn something". But what are the children learning about their country, their government, and their obligations and options as citizens? It's the teachers that are able to impact the next generation by teaching them the principles on which our country was founded. With the tried and tested principles firmly in place, the next generation can govern themselves and change the world for the better.  Professors and mentors in Academia have the opportunity to teach the rising generation of inquiring minds each side of an argument and let the students reason out their own opinions and ideas.  By giving the students the tools they need to study things out in their minds, and apply the knowledge they've gained to better society, we are able safely assume that the next generation will be able to preserve the principles that were cherished by previous generations. Therefore, equipping the future leaders of the country with the ability to balance self-interest with virtue will not only empower the the individual, but better the communities and countries in which they live.  All this is best nurtured within Academia.

If I were a professor, I'd want to make sure that my students not only knew the material presented to them, but also understood why they should even care.  What good is teaching a topic, if the students can only regurgitate the information back to the teacher? A far better approach, I think, is to put the responsibility on them to tell me how they would apply the knowledge gained to a real-life problem.  Then education means more than just books and papers, tests and tuition. It means learning how to think, reason, and above all, to not throw out an opinion to anyone who would listen before carefully studing out the many different sides of a particular argument.  The classic principle of preparation before presenting an idea or opinion should be taught.  It's easy for someone to tell you how they feel about a certain topic, political or otherwise, it is much more difficult to get someone to tell you why they feel that way and what evidence they have to back it up.  Even more difficult is getting someone to tell you what they are going to do about it.  I hope to one day have the opportunity to impact the rising generation, whether they by my own children or someone else's, for good. Even if I have to force them to do something that is uncomfortable, such as using their own brains to find out information, and not just accepting what the media or anyone else says as fact. :-)

Well, the timer just beeped. Time to end this discussion, bring out the baked goods, and then go to bed.

Thanks for putting up with my political musings.  While politics will never go away, we can arm ourselves against the confusion through education.  I'm so grateful that I live in a country where people can disagree without fear, without bloodshed, and without lifelong dictators.  I can rest easy knowing that so long as the American people are willing to uphold the Constitution, nothing will jeopardize the people's right and privilege to become a more perfect union.