To the Editor:

Let's see now. We have a recession caused largely by a bloated, hegemonic military/industrial/Congressional complex committed to unending illegal occupations and wars, a health care/insurance and pharmaceutical industry whose primary disease focus is its own psychological greed, and a financial sector that has given new meaning to the concepts of usury and casino capitalism.

Then we also have a religious extremist element, coupled with folks who exhibit an extreme nationalistic fervor beyond reason, that thinks all other religions and nations with similar zealousness are evil, while they are saintly.

We have elected officials in at least one state who disgracefully believe that Newt Gingrich is more important for our students to study than Thomas Jefferson, and similarly about Phyllis Schlafly versus, let's say, Rosa Parks.

We have two national administrations in a row that think the primary purpose of schools is to produce a skilled but docile labor pool rather than to nurture a general love of learning and produce a wise and thoughtful citizenry capable of guiding a democracy in the interests of the common good.

Additionally, we have a largely middle and lower class group of anti-tax folks screaming wildly "no new taxes" while the wealthy plutocracy gets humongous tax breaks and our nation continues to be one of the world's lower taxed of the developed countries.

And in this context, we actually have locals who are determined that public school teachers and their unions are the root cause of every difficulty they can drum up. All this while education -- public education, primarily -- may be the last bastion for developing a creative, enlightened, rational and productive society.

How very sad indeed.

"Thank you" to our school employees and the citizens wise enough to support them in the face of such inane attacks.

Bob Barkley