Chip J.

An old college buddy sent me a text message today and asked me if i was able to give him any advice on women. I chuckled to myself and texted him back that I could use some as well. This is a hard one. In my old age, I know two things.

One is that when it comes to women and affairs of the heart, I'm just guessing. The second thing I know is that things have changed.

Now I am going to say something very prophetic here. This all ties in with women's lib, the independent woman and the fact that there are a lot of men out there these days that feel emasculated.

Are you ready ? Can you handle it?

Women are the new men.

For all you macho guys out there that can bench press 300 pounds, what I just said is absolutely true. If you think you are a match for today's woman, think again. They live longer and when it comes to head to head competition, they've got you beat hands down. It's just a simple fact. Let me go back to my high school track days. I had just finished running the 500 meter dash and my coach was "none to happy" with my uninspiring performance. I wasn't exactly happy either, but it was over. I would live to run another day. Anyway, my coach and I were watching the girls or should I say young ladies run? They were running extremely hard. In fact, a few of the participants were on the verge of tears from having run so hard. My coach turned to me and said, "you know those girls really give it their all." Little did I know that I would be writing about it twenty eight years later. Maybe my coach was trying to tell me something. Maybe he was trying to tell me women are tougher than men and that I need to watch myself.

Even my man Starkey realizes the futility of the macho man. Starkey categorically refuses to chase women. At first I thought he was out of his mind, but never underestimate someone who is cooler than the other side of the pillow. Now then, Starkey and I were out one night and he refused to move from the spot he was sitting in. I would have stayed and joined him, but the good looking women were on the other side of the room. As far as i was concerned, Starkey was off his proverbial rocker. I was going to where the action. I'm sure that night i was as persistent as a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman. However my efforts were to no avail, as Starkey was soon joined by the woman I had so foolishly walked across the room to pursue. Needless to say, it took me a several nights out with the master to realize I just didn't get it. Starkey knew what I didn't. That's right, they hold all the cards.

Case in point, I was out having a drink with a couple of my thirty year old friends. We went to a bar on Capitol Hill for a quick drink. In my mind, I was getting out to have a beer. In other words, I wasn't in girl chasing mode. Anyway, we were sitting around a wood table taking about, of all things, women. Imagine that, huh ? My friend was relaying the sordid details of an old relationship when two girls who couldn't have been more than five years removed from college approach me at my table. The girls were smiling and bubbly not unlike some of the women you see in those "Girls Gone Wild Videos." Naturally I smiled and imagined myself on "The Girls Gone Wild World Tour." After I woke up from my short lived dream, I got their names and introduced them to my much younger colleagues. I asked them if they were enjoying themselves. It was a stupid question, because obviously they were. Well the Bobsey Twins informed me that they had to run upstairs for something and that they would return to our table. Needless to say, my younger cohorts were amazed and thought I had the magic touch. Now I could have lied and told these guys I was a chick magnet but that wouldn't exactly have been true. Instead, I was honest.

"Gentleman," I started out. "Times have changed. These girls are too strong out here for you to think that you are in control. You let the game come to you. Gone are the days when the doe eyed girl waited in the corner for the star quarterback to ask her to dance. It's the year 2010 and women are doing the asking."

Now to get back to the advice my friend originally wanted. Let's just say my advice to him was to do nothing. Nobody likes banging their head against a concrete wall. When it comes to women, they are going to do what they want to do. No amount of cajoling, scheming or maneuvering is going to help. Just let them decide.

I was sitting in the barber shop resigned to the fact that I would be spending a couple of hours waiting for Rufus' chair to be empty. Now mind you, I am a black man so the only patrons in the shop were African American. A gentleman sitting to the right of me asked me if I was going to watch the fight tomorrow night. I almost couldn't believe my ears. Surely this man was talking about a boxing match, but he wasn't. He was talking about the Rashad Evans, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson mixed martial arts contest tomorrow live from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. His next question to me was who didI think is going to win the fight tomorrow. I have been contemplating that very question all week.

Every mixed martial arts fan that watches the UFC and thinks Dana White should be out next president has an opinion on this. Rashad Evans is a former stand out wrestler from Michigan State University. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson is a high school wrestler who grew up in the mean streets of Memphis,Tennessee. He was headed in the wrong direction until he took up the sport of wrestling and, eventually, started fighting in the Pride Fighting Championships. Normally most brothers who frequented the barber shop wouldn't care one bit about mixed martial arts. However, this is different. Rashad and Rampage are both black men and they can't stand each other. No this isn't just two prizefighters who are trying to hype a fight and sell tickets. Their hatred for each other is real. These two men cannot be in the same room without almost coming to blows. Rampage thinks that Rashad is cocky and talks too much sh#$%^t. On the other side of the fence, Rashad thinks Rampage acts like the stereotypical "step and fetch it" black man. Rashad feels that Rampage's public persona is degrading to all black men.

The conventional wisdom here is that we have a brawler versus a highly technical striker. The brawler would be Rampage and, of course, the technical striker would be Rashad. Don't get it twisted both of these men are professional fighters. When I say professional i mean these mean are both well schooled in the rudiments of hurting another man. I would give Rampage the edge in power and strength. I would give Rashad a considerable edge in speed and wrestling. After all, Rashad wrestled in college at one of the premier wrestling programs in the country.

I know what your question is. Who wins the fight? My answer to that question is that it depends. If Rashad stays away from Rampage and sticks and moves, he will frustrate Rampage and systematically break Rampage down. Rashad is clearly the more technically trained and better conditioned athlete. If he moves and pummels Rampage repeatedly with those nasty leg kicks, Rampage's mobility and power will evaporate. The fight will be a veritable clinic of what happens when an elite athlete executes a well thought out game plan. Rashad will win by decision and be no worse for the wear.

The opposite scenario occurs if Rashad gets careless. In this scenario, Rashad decides he is tougher than Rampage and stands toe to toe with Rampage. This would be a huge mistake. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson has a punch like coal truck. Not only that, Rampage has a granite chin. In other words, it is pretty darn hard to knock Rampage out. The other way Rampage wins is if he gets a hold of Rashad and delivers one of those patented body slams he is so famous for.

Do you want my opinion of what's going to happen? It's very simple. Rashad starts the fight out delivering an ungodly amount of leg kicks. Then Rashad starts jabbing Rampage to death with that lightning fast jab of his. Mix in the occasional take down and it's a long night for Mr. Jackson. What makes this fight interesting is the veritable cornucopia of trash talking that has taken place and the obvious difference in fighting styles. For 44 bucks, this fight will be well worth the cost of admission.

Maybe you know who I am talking about. If you don't, consider yourself lucky. Look at the reptilian face of Governor Jan Brewer and you'll figure it out. I'm talking about the woman that will shoot you a disapproving stare while her spectacles rest about halfway down her nose. She's the gatekeeper. If you even think you are going to get in to see the Mr. Big, you can forget it. The harridan is sitting behind her desk in a white sweater that smells like moth balls and your chances of getting an appointment to peddle your wares or pitch your idea are somewhere between impossible and no chance. That's right. If you do have an appointment, find a comfortable chair Sonny because you are going to be cooling your heels for a while.

The harridan doesn't always work as a secretary. No, that's just one example. More often than not, the harridan has ascended the corporate ladder and left several sets of broken bones in her wake. Her tactics and moves would make Sun Tzu and Machiavelli proud. She may be one of several vice presidents in a corporation. She didn't attain that position by being overly intelligent. Now don't get me wrong, she's as smart as the next guy. But brilliant would not be a word I would use to describe this woman. Her promotion was achieved by crushing the cajones of her male peers. Needless to say, what she did wasn't particularly graceful or pretty. Let's just say that the other men in her office will do everything they can to stay out of her cross hairs. Yes, that's right. All those big strapping executives are scared to death of her. This woman has no compunction about deleting files and using whatever methods she can to screw you if you even think of crossing her.

If you're an attorney, she was probably your first boss. She gave you an assignment that was impossible to do and even more impossible to complete on time. As you tore your hair out trying to finish the assignment, you heard her coming toward your door. The clicking of her high heeled shoes and indefatigable gait was unmistakable. Her breathing was getting progressively louder outside your closed door. You closed your eyes and prayed that she would disappear into thin air. Inevitably, she would bang on the door four times rousting you out of that fine Corinthian leather chair you know you didn't deserve to be sitting in. She would invariably question you about the little project she gave you with a cold blank stare. You would do your best to explain your progress and she would see right through your charade. There would be a less than amused expression plastered across her face and then as quickly as she came in, she would be gone. Her absence was ominous and so was your future with the law firm.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not sexist. I'm not saying I dislike the harridan. Ok correction, maybe I do. Who is this woman and how did she get like this? One thing I know. She has got to have a short memory. Maybe she forgot at one time she was a lowly associate or management trainee who had no bloody idea what she was doing. Maybe she forgot that one of the firm elders took her under her wing when she was younger and didn't shake her confidence when she made a dumb mistake. All I know is that through hard work, luck and maybe even a little help from her rabbi, she made partner. I'm sure she deserves her title, except she needs to remember she wasn't always the boss. It would behoove her to be a nice because what comes around goes around.

It's not often that I accuse an entire state of being in the proverbial dark ages. We are living in a time with some of the greatest technological innovations since the invention of the automobile. Unfortunately with innovation comes ignorance. The ignorance stems from those who have so horribly failed to reconcile the past with the future. Arizona Governor, Jan Brewer and Arizona School Superintendent, Tom Horne are prime examples of our educational system's glaring failures. Somewhere, somehow, somebody has neglected to inform these individuals that the educational process never stops. Education is like a ten million square foot library with fifteen foot shelves filled with volumes you could not possibly read or master in one lifetime.

I am an educated man. In fact, I am a very well educated man. Despite this fact, I am the first to admit that I have a lot to learn about a lot of things. My education continues every day of every hour of my life. I know a lot, but there are far fewer things that I do not know. My knowledge of other cultures is very limited and I welcome the opportunity to learn. With one sweeping stroke of a pen, Jan Brewer and Tom Horne have eviscerated the chance for children to learn about their own culture. It is not a crime for someone to learn about their own culture. I submit to you that a person who has cultural self awareness is a proud person who can add to the richness of this society. Truly enlightened people want to learn. They are interested in the oral and written history of all peoples, brown, tan, white, purple and green.

Ignorant people resist and protest about the chance to learn about other cultures. They cordon their minds off from those who have backgrounds and opinions that differ from their own. They don't know and don't want to know. Maybe they are afraid that another culture may possess the ability to resolve a problem better than their culture does. Who knows? All I know is that resistance like this is petty and short minded. Education is not a competition between competing subject matters. Education is a process. This process is a gift handed over by concerned and, hopefully, enlightened educators.

I have been inspired to write this piece by Dr. Chris Heidelberg. Chris made his position very clear about Arizona's lack of educational freedom in a very well written historical context. However, I do not feel the need to justify my opinion of Arizona's latest educational edict. Governor Brewer and School Superintendent, Tom Horne's latest actions smack of an ignorant paternalism that those in the know have grown tired of seeing. Both the latest immigration and educational law are transparent in their inception and are exactly what people don't need or want in such a critical time in this country's history.

We need Black History, American History, Mexican History and European History taught in our schools. Why do we need all these subjects taught to our children? Because the sooner we get an historical perspective about the each other, the sooner we can effectively interact with each other in the present. If that happens, this will be a better and more peaceful world. That my friends is The Real Gold Standard.

By Dr. Chris A. Heidelberg III, Publisher & Producer

Do you know why so many people in America especially people of color are so angry that they can't hear what key lawmakers are saying? These folks are upset and cannot hear Governor Jan Brewer's words! Why? The governor's actions shout so loudly that she just doesn't get it and neither does State School Chief, Tom Horne!

Yesterday, Gov. Brewer signed a bill targeting a school district's ethnic studies program. State School Chief, Tom Horne refers to courses specializing in African American, Mexican American and Native Americans as just as bad as racist programs in the segregated South. What? But wait there is more! Specifically, Mr. Horne stated to the AP, " It's just like the old South, and it's long past time that we prohibited it." Wow! The citizens of the good state of Arizona actually elected this guy twice? My first question about Mr. Horne is where did this fellow study education, and what is his educational research area? Guess what Chip, this guy is one of yours: an attorney- educated at Harvard. He really could use an earned doctoral degree in education to get some of the litigator out of him and some of the nurturing educator in him because educational research is not the law and driven by precedent. Education is driven by innovation, research and the willingness to learn new things and to challenge the status quo by listening to the people at the bottom because their views, feelings and history is just as important part of history as Anglo history because it is all American history. Anglos need to stop trying to homogenize people of color! Historically, it has been fought tooth and nail by everyone from Native Americans, to Chinese workers in the West to Blacks and Hispanics in the south and the west.

Harvard is a great school, and has educated some pretty smart folks, but letting an attorney without an earned doctorate in education act as the state's point man on secondary education says a lot about why Horne pushed for years to get rid of a Mexican-American studies program because it teaches Latino students that they are oppressed by white people. Horne seems more interested in making political points to win higher office than getting data from the students and families on how they feel about these programs. Mr. Horne, this is not about you or your political ideology or even mine, it is about these children and obtaining some buy in from these children and their parents into the system and into America. Stop quoting Dr. King's "content of character" line because it makes you look like a stereotypical ill-informed person about people of color: Dr. King said one day! He did not say next week, next year, next month or today: he said one day! One day in historical terms often takes decades or centruries! Too many well meaning people adopt this idealist view without thinking about the very time that we live in today! One cannot go to from points A through Z without going points B through W! Before we can ever deal with Dr. King's Utopian ideal, we still have to deal with the reality of today that literally took at least 400 years to form. We are obviously somewhere between the beginning and the middle of the alphabet based on the fact that we are still having to deal with laws that resemble some of the Black codes of over 100 years ago. Too many Anglos, and some minorities too, use the old "content of character" line to justify bias whether they realize it or not, and they need to start getting called on it! Unfortunately, we are not at that " one day" and Anglo action that is unilateral and forced will not get the desired change but will get passive resistance that you will never see regardless of any data you may obtain to say that this new law has worked. If you think the Tea Party folks are upset, you should get with groups of Blacks and Latinos and listen to how they feel about laws and approaches like this.

This tactic of using the "content of character" line has not worked, and in fact it is often viewed as a code word by people of color. The simple truth is that people of color view the governor and you, Mr. Horne, as the enemy, and unfortunately as people with major racial issues. Stop using the old conservative mantra that the victim is now the racist, it makes you, the governor and the state of Arizona look bad and you and the governor are better than this, so stop playing this game! Remember, the true racists have the power to back up their prejudices through sheer numbers, economic power, social pressure and brute force. Everyone has prejudices, but few have power! In this nation, it is obvious that Anglos have had the sheer numbers, economic power, social pressure and the use of brute force when needed to maintain the social order. So let's be clear, real racism is when one can exercise one's prejudice en masse. The sheer numbers of Hispanics and their growing economic and social power is clearly making some people very nervous and afraid in places all over the country. This is just not about undocumented or illegal Hispanics, the Hispanic citizens whose lineage preceeded the Mayflower in places like Sante Fe, San Antonio, and Florida have been unfairly sucked into this equation simply because of their physical appearance and sometimes their dialects or accents. When people who have been historically discriminated against are having major problems with your new laws and policies you should be very concerned especially since you cannot prove what you assert, but former students like me can say that courses like this worked for me and a group of my friends who are now very well educated. Listen! Stop ordering folks around because you can! Listen to all of the people that you claim to serve! Listen to their fears and not your own that is what real leaders do! Heavy handed tactics often have the boomerang effect, and this will not be good for America.

As an African American with Native American, Anglo, Asian and Hispanic lineage in my background, I am always entertained when well meaning Anglos attempt to tell me how I am thinking and how I am feeling based on a program designed to help racial minorities. You noticed that I said entertained, and yes I am laughing out loud because it clearly demonstrates that these folks just don't get it! You have never been a person of color for one second in your life and you cannot understand what it means unless you have lived with the reality and the scary moments that often accompany being a person of color in this society that has a bad history that legally ended in the mid 60's but was not established firmly until the 1970's. You cannot undo 300 plus years of extremely bad treatment of people with 40 years of better treatment that still has way too many ugly episodes. You just don't get it and people of color see through this and the tactics being used. It takes time to really look in the mirror from a historic perspective. Some, not all and not most, Anglos want to spend as much time learning and talking about the real history of America and the contributions of people of color as a motorist in an empty drive through line, a man getting paternity results from Maury Povich from a woman that he is not dating, and that dreaded trip to the dentist office for root canal. Simply put, they would rather die or opt out rather than learn the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth from multiple perspectives. Maybe this is part of the reason so many neighborhoods and public school systems are more segregated now than during the 1960's? I say make mandatory public service or military service the law of the land so that people from different places can get past their parents and elders because this form of ignorance is reprehensible in the Twenty first century.

This is dangerous ignorance and it not only needs to stop, it has to stop in order for Arizona and the nation to move forward successfully, but it cannot and will not happen until some Anglos in critical leadership positions in Arizona and America can learn to listen to the minorities and enable all Americans to learn that they had a role in the building of this great nation. As one scholar said to me today, Arizona has pulled back the covers, and exposed a bunch of sheets that we can now see in broad daylight and other states are doing the same thing too! An Anglo can't tell someone of color how they feel when their history books ignore, minimize or only tell part of the contributions of people of color. I challenge anyone willing to learn about history and foreign born leaders to come to the Smithsonian and go online and read what Thomas Jefferson and his supporters, the liberals, used to say about Alexander Hamilton and his supporters, the conservatives. The result was a Bill of Rights with a concession to the Madison and the Jeffersonian wings with a strong national government and the capitalist economic system. Interestingly enough, folks who didn't like each other actually worked together to create something? Yes, it was a little thing called The Federalist Papers that advocated the adopting of The Constitution by the states and it had support from across the aisles from people who literally hated each other even those who died on the same, July 4th, in the cases of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

Sorry my Anglo brothers who share the mindset of Mr. Horne, you just don't get it; you never have; you never will and that is the point! I am not angry about it, I get it! We are all products of our environment, and it is very difficult to rise above the heard and tell your own folks that they are wrong for feeling and voting a certain way, but educated leaders of substance do it. Sam Houston, the founder of Texas, stood for right during the run up to the Civil War. Lyndon Johnson did it by going after the Klan and Richard Nixon did it by establishing Affirmative Action. Real leaders are often hated in their time for doing thing or standing up for the right thing when it was unpopular. In hindsight, these things that these historic figures did was sheer genious in retrospect. In 15 or 30 years when the Hispanics are the majority in Arizona and nationwide, I can guarantee that folks like Mr. Horne will be extremely upset and cry revisionism when programs that promote what Hispanics view as part of white dominance are made illegal by the stroke of a pen. Mr. Horne was never a Black man in the deep South during the Civil Rights era or even post Civil Rights era, so he absolutely has no clue as to what he is talking about and he is spouting dangerous rhetoric that is devoid of facts and experience. However, my grandfather, father, uncles and older cousins told me stories of being terrorized, followed and detained while traveling. I even witnessed them being stopped by a few rogue cops and by citizens with unenlightened viewpoints while driving and walking in certain areas as a child. What made it worse was that my grandfather could pass as white and often had to do it to help other Blacks during that time and he absolutely hated it! He was treated differently unless he claimed he was Black and "Reds" often had to take one for the team so to speak to make sure that folks kids got medicine, clothing or other things during segregation. I got a tiny taste of what the older men told me when I had the experience of being the Jackie Robinson of my neighborhood and my school in the late 1960's as a child and the feelings were real: real frightening, real segregationist, real dangerous, real angry or in short real racist. I was called the N word, C word and other assorted words like the S word because of my interesting appearance and last name as a child.

I had a conservative nun who was liberal on race who nurtured me and found stories of various Black historic figures in literature, warfare, science and religion and let me know that I could be just like them. Mr. Horne does not know how it felt to be reminded daily by people who did not know me that I was considered sub-human. Fortunately, the good people at my school and their kids eventually stood up for me and put the less enlightened racial idealists in their places and I even won some over in time. In short, I did not hate white people even though I was literally being oppressed by some of them and it was socially acceptable at that time for them to do it in my Southern state which is a border state. I do not hate whites now despite being stopped on the road and in stores and searched despite never being arrested. It is humiliating, but you learn to live with the fact that you may resemble some unknown suspect or you are driving a late model sports car which has been my real experience. I literally had to stop driving my sports car because of how many times I was stopped by well meaning officers who usually apologized most of the time, but some were plain scary at night when I was alone on a dark road or highway. Hate requires a lot of energy and it eventually tears you up, and that is not how I use my energy, and life is just too short to waste good time!

What I hated was when I found verified evidence from white scholars that was considered fact, I realized that some people only wanted people to know part of the truth and and not the part that made Anglos looked bad for doing bad things in America. Listen, every ethnic and racial group has horrible people and great people. Unfortunately, Anglos did some bad things like slavery and cultural destruction of Native Americans that have a lasting legacy that still lives in too many places. This doesn't mean that Anglos haven't contributed mightily as the dominant culture in America because they have, but Anglos need to let go of the "old Allen Iverson attitude" described by Charles Barkley of "me, myself and Iverson" and share the ball because everyone helped to create the America of today! The dominant group in a culture gets better when they learn about their past. Why? So that they learn from it! So that they don't repeat it! So others will learn from their example! Remember if one ignores history makes it easier to repeat the identical mistakes or worse. Why does Germany do a better job than America of dealing with there terrible past? They confront it directly with education! Fear is what has given us racism! Education trumps fear and ignorance, and the cigarette fight is a prime example for those of us who can finish the sentence that begins with, "Winston tastes good..." If you do not know the answer to this line that is the result of a successful educational campaign by the anti-smoking groups who had these ads taken off the air and magazines, so that young people would never fall victim to the tobacco lobby's extremely successful campaign that worked for years until Joe Camel got busted! However, if you do know the answer to this line this is also the result of the tobacco lobby's very successful educational advertising campaign since that ad has not been run for close to forty years or more! Why do you still remember it so clearly? Good education execution can still obtain the desired results: due to something called the stickiness factor. The stickiness factor is what enables the desired message and education nuggets to stick to the brain over time. This is why education is important because bad education has a stickiness factor too! This is why racism, sexism and other isms survive: they are taught! Yes, racism is often taught at home, and the government has a stated and Constitutionally mandated right to insure fairness to all citizens through the equal protection clauses, so this is not about political correctness: this is about the upholding of the Constitution!

At the end of the day, this measure is figuratively and literally strike 3 for Arizona in the eyes of many Latinos, African Americans, Native Americans and Anglos alike! Arizona lost many Native Americans a long time ago; and the fact that the state only accepted the King holiday after economic boycotts like we are seeing now over the "show me the papers' law that passed today sealed Arizona as the new deep South. There is a notion with Supreme Court support that suggests that the government not interfere with academic freedom in the learning process. This law clearly interferes with academic freedom and it is a joke that the foxes are now afraid that the hens may get together in solidarity to hate all the foxes, organize a hen union to fight foxes and organize a fox hunt to thin the herd of greedy foxes. Yes this sounds ridiculous, but no more ridiculous than a law that creates division and is clearly based on the same type of fear of a minority group coming together that was used to create Jim Crow. I hear a lot of inaccurate and false information on how the United States is becoming a socialist society, but this attempt at thought control is the very demonstration of socialism in action: making sure that everyone is the same and the government is the owner of the information that would be taught. Can someone join me in singing Pink Floyd's Another Brick In The Wall and say, "We don't need no education; we don't need no thought control; hey teachers leave those kids in alone! All in all it's another brick in the wall of misguided Arizona politicians who really need to learn empathy and learn what it is like to be something other than Anglo in America. Guess what they can't do it, won't do it, and will have to die out and become a minority in order for justice to reign in Arizona! What a pity?

One more question why was Hamilton and future naturalized citizens not allowed to pursue the office of the President of the United States of America? When you visit the isle of Nieves in the West Indies you may get an alternative view from a native perspective that you cannot and will not get here in the states, but in Arizona you may not be able to discuss the notion that Hamilton had birthers too! Just ask Jefferson about why he referred to Hamilton as "that mongrel from Nieves." The alternative view is extremely important because we now have technology that verifies stories told by slaves and islanders but were dismissed by historians loyal to our iconic Founding Fathers.

Arizona how about a little academic freedom, and please allow some alternative voices and views at the table! This is why you still don't get it! But hope springs eternal and I am rooting for you because the future of America is too crucial and it will be one of a Hispanic majority. My Anglo brothers and sisters, you may want to keep that affirmative action thing because I think your grandchildren may need it because if you don't they will come to know how I felt in the 1960s if the flamethrowers in Arizona keep getting their way! American history is everyone's history, but it has been traditionally been delivered and presented primarily as the European version of American history with limited appearances by people of color and women who often and usually played great roles in developing the narrative. The victors always used to write the history books, but this is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain in the digital age. Anglos were the victors back in the day, but now we are all victors when we share the rich history of America and how everyone has contributed and not just the talented tenth who were nearly all Anglo males. One of the major reasons why so many Americans often have problems in dealing with the rest of the world is because as a nation too many of us don't study or understand other cultures, and truthfully speaking too many of us don't want to understand other cultures because too many of us don't value other cultures because too many of us view other cultures as inferior. I did not say all Americans, most Americans, or many Americans because no one has a true quantitative number, but I can say too many of us view other cultures as inferior by simply viewing the qualitative results from the perspective of those who have been negatively impacted. I love America and served this country but too many of us are displaying some unattractive viewpoints that are indicative of when someone does not respect another culture or the history of that culture. I did not say that we have to love another culture, but we need to learn to understand what we can and respect other cultures if we want our culture to be respected and embraced.That is the power of our form of the American culture: the power of shared ideas. This is the critical point of this entire piece: people recognize when you deem their history, their culture, their ideas and their very existence as inferior and they recoil when they are not respected. For many people of color, it has been love on a one-way street: the Anglo way or the highway because there is no respect just patronage.

At the end of the day, this is all about respect. If you respect people for who they are and what they have done, you would cease and desist from trying to mold them into your image of what they should be. This educational hegemony worked great in the 19th and 20 centuries, but in the 21st century it is not so easy to hide from the truth or the numbers, and the numbers say that a minority majority will be running things in America and some people know it and are trying to make sure that the South will rise again in a futile attempt to prevent the inevitable. Arizona, let's give a real educational experience that begins with enabling academic freedom for teachers and respect for the students, their history and their individual cultures. Respecting other cultures is not politically correct or multi-cultural, respecting other cultures is what America was built on! If you don't believe me, read the Constitution some time and you will see it in the Bill of Rights that was designed to protect the rights of the minority from an oppressive majority! There was some great foresight exercised by the Founding Fathers that apparently has deserted too many of their successors who would rather win at all costs and the consequences be damned! That my friends is The Real Gold Standard!