Are Teachers Essential Workers?

What would happen if during the Covid 19 pandemic that truckers, grocery store employees, and health care providers said they were not going to work because it was too dangerous? The country would be in big trouble because they are essential workers to keep Americans fed and to provide the critical health care coverage to fight the pandemic and save lives. So, the question that begs to be asked is aren’t teachers also essential? My wife is a teacher and I have always stated that teachers are underpaid and underappreciated in our society. I say this because they are not only essential but because they are backbone of our society. Without good teachers society would collapse. In fact, they are more important than healthcare providers because there would be no healthcare providers without teachers and they are more important than grocery workers because good teachers are harder to find. My wife always told me that what caused her the most anxiety as a teacher was seeing any child falling behind. My wife taught first and second grade and she knew the more a child falls behind at that stage of their life the probability of them overcoming those deficiencies will be extremely difficult.

Teacher unions look out for teachers but they do so at the expense of children. The unions want schools closed until there are no more cases of Covid. That could take years because even if there are vaccines there could still be Covid cases. This is unreasonable. Will children and teachers get Covid if schools open? Yes, but the likelihood that any teachers or students die from the virus are very low. It certainly makes sense to protect students and teachers with preexisting conditions such as diabetes, old age, or heart disease.

There has been recent activity and protests concerned about injustices to black citizens. Well, the biggest injustice that can be made to black children is to close schools. Education is the biggest equalizing factor in society. However, urban schools are more likely to be shut down and that means black children will suffer and fall behind.

There were other hypocritical suggestions such as closing schools but opening child care facilities. This makes no sense, if day care facilities can open then so too can schools. Furthermore, teachers will not teach kids but they have no problem protesting outside of government buildings in close proximity with other protestors.

Teacher unions are not open to any negotiating such as having half of students show up on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and the other half on Tuesday and Thursday. This scheduled can be alternated every other week so each student has 5 days of in school learning every two weeks. This suggestion would allow students to social distance. My point is that there can be some negotiating to help move our educational system forward instead of leaving it stagnate and having children fall behind. Distance learning may help some, but it is no substitute for the real thing.

The BLM Movement Does not Make Sense

Yes, black lives matter as do all lives. But the BLM movement makes very little sense for a number of reasons:

First, the BLM movement only cares about those black lives lost to white persons and the police which is a very small portion of black lives. BLM does not care about the dozens of people killed each day to black crime.

Second, BLM protests that violate the rights of blacks or any citizen by disrupting their work or way of life does not care about those lives.

Third, I have written how erasing history is dangerous but the BLM movement is trashing monuments of abolitionist's such as Frederick Douglass. Furthermore, removing monuments of Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson, and Madison also means erasing key documents such as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the 13th Amendment, the 14th Amendment, the 15th Amendment, the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and 1875, and the Emancipation Proclamation to name a few. These are the documents that ended slavery.

Fourth, in my book Defending Freedom of Contract I discuss how the Constitution is colorblind, gender blind, and their is no hierarchy of rights. All people are equal with equal fundamental rights. No race or group of persons should be given any preferential treatment for any reason. BLM wants special treatment for their race including restitution. However, Blacks and other groups have been given preferential treatment for decades in the form of affirmative action and diversity programs providing them with educational and employment opportunities at the expense of more qualified persons (not just Whites, it could also be Asians). This is wrong, race should not matter but it does.

In other words, BLM believes all injustice revolves around race and there is no other explanation or variables involved for injustices such as governmental policies that are at the root of all injustices.

I read a statement from the leader of BLM that stated "All lives cannot matter if black lives do not matter". That statement is a truism because the converse is also true if all lives matter than all black lives matter. This proves that BLM does not know what it is talking about and it does not make any sense.

I wrote in my book how "obtaining knowledge" is a fundamental right and All parents should have the right to contract with any school for their children's education. Instead of tearing down private educational opportunities we should be building up these opportunities. Competition to the failing government system is a good thing. Education is the great equalizer in life. This should be the focus instead of violating the rights of some at the expense of others.

Liberal Logic

One liberal family in our neighborhood likes to post signs with their beliefs. The latest sign said "In this house we believe black lives matter, women's reproductive rights are human rights, no human is illegal, science is real, be kind to everyone." What this family does not understand is that all the statements in their declaration are not equal. One refers to blacks only, another refers to women only, another refers to Hispanics, and the last one refers to everyone. If we need to be kind to all then shouldn't ALL lives matter? I am not sure what they mean by science is real. What strikes me as odd is that most people who make such a claim never did well in science, but they think they are experts on all matters science. I had a liberal tell me I do not believe science and technology because I do not own a smart phone. In other words, you are scientist, in their view, if you can text and take selfies. When I explained to the person that the science and technology was what is in the phone, they disagreed. So you are scientist if you can read a scientific article even if you do not understand all the research that went into writing the paper.

As far as reproductive rights there is no such thing in the constitution and even in Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood the Court did not invent such a right. If you read my book human rights are fundamental rights and no fundamental right is controversial. In other words, everyone can agree with 100% certainty with all fundamental rights. Besides, the argument there is a war on women, in particular health rights is not correct. Women live 5 years longer than men and 2 times as much money is spent on research for women health then for men. In other words, there is skew towards more rights for women, in particular healthcare then there is for men.

I agree no person is illegal, and it would sure be nice to be able to take on the World's needy. But it is not practical. I suppose there are also no such thing as felons or criminals.

My Book For Charity

Hi Blog Readers,

I'm down to the wire and in urgency mode... as you know, I have written a book on How a Neurological Disorder Changed my Life for the Better and am doing a campaign to attract readers and publishers...(which is now in the final 20 days).

The more books sold, the more publishers I will be pitched to... I'm shooting for 200 books sold. I'm at 27.

PLEASE (if you are able) click on this link and preorder a copy Thank you Patrick Bohan

https://www.publishizer.com/how-a-neurological-disorder-changed-my-life-for-the-better/

Remember, all profits will go to the Foundation for Peripheral Neuropathy. Thank you to all that have contributed.

How a Neurological Disorder Changed my Life for the Better

I am proud to announce that pre-orders for my book are now available at:

https://publishizer.com/how-a-neurological-disorder-changed-my-life-for-the-better/

Single book sales are discounted at $20 and you can be kept updated with the progress of the book by subscribing to the above website.

I am also proud to announce that I am partnering with the charity The Foundation for Peripheral Neuropathy. All book profits will go to their cause. Their website can be found at:

https://www.foundationforpn.org/

Below is a link to a brief summary of “My Story” published by The Foundation for Peripheral Neuropathy:

https://www.foundationforpn.org/2020/07/20/patrick-bohan-my-story/?blm_aid=1058487299

The Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) and Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP) Foundation International is also publishing “My Story” at a later date and their website is at:

https://www.gbs-cidp.org/

I have Multifocal Motor Neuropathy (MMN) and that is a very rare subset of peripheral neuropathy and GBS and CIDP types of neuropathy.

These are very good causes and I hope you are willing to join me to fight these illnesses that inflict millions of Americans and people around the globe.

Erasing History means the History of Civil Rights Violations will Continue

Progressives want to erase history by tearing down and redacting any mention of any confederate or slave owner. Erasing history is not only a violation of the First Amendment, it is a erasing the truth. How is this any different than the behavior of Holocaust deniers? Of course, any current person preaching these things would have been racist too if they were born in the Confederacy. None the less, erasing history is dangerous because history has a way of repeating itself. If you read my book (Defending Freedom of Contract), I do not like the term racism for a few reasons. First, it is referenced way too often as a rallying cry of the left. They label every person who disagrees with their ideas as a racist. Second, what matters is if someone's rights are violated then that wrong needs to be corrected. For instance, it does not matter that George Floyd is black what matters is that his rights were violated and that wrong needs to be corrected. It is a lot simply and less polarizing if we view the law through rights violations and not racism.

Just as George Floyd's civil rights were violated so too were hundreds of persons affected by violent protests including many that were killed, injured or lost their businesses. Furthermore, the civil rights of home and store owners in the occupied territory of CHOP or CHAZ are also having their rights violated. Since when can any persons occupy an area of the United States without a vote. We live in a Republic that has democratic principles and the action of ceasing property is a violation of anyone rights.

My point is this, what difference does it make if we erase history only to violate the rights of persons similarly to how rights were violated during the slavery and segregation eras? It does not and this is what I mean by history has a way of repeating itself. By eliminating history of rights violations we are opening a new era of rights violations. I be willing to bet defunding the Police will lead to thousands of rights violations where persons seeking help to protect their safety and rights will be ignored. As the WHO song goes, "Here's to the new boss, same as the old boss". Political correctness and black lives matter is nothing more than shifting rights violations onto police and other non-believers. Their behavior is no different than that of the slave owners they detest.

2020: The Year of Rights Violations

2020 is only about half way through but it will be known as the year of fundamental rights violations. Let me give you the premise of my book Defending Freedom of Contract. The Constitution protects the fundamental rights of everyone equally. In his lone dissent to Plessy v. Ferguson (the segregation case) Justice John Harlan said the Constitution is "color blind". Harlan's dissent is widely accepted as the law today. In fact, the Constitution is gender blind and socioeconomically blind. Thus, everyone is protected equally. What is a fundamental right. It is either enumerated or unenumerated rights that everyone can agree on with 100% certainty or they are undisputed. Thus, abortion is not a right because it is disputed. So what our rights? Here are some I outlined in my book: any lawful profession, to play, justice, life, liberty, freedom to contract, to travel, to own and sell property, marriage (including gay marriage), to pursuit happiness, to pursuit health, obtain knowledge, speech, religion, self defense, to vote, to safety, among the many.

Pursuit means we can pursuit these rights but they are not guaranteed. In fact, freedom of contract is powerful because it protects many of these rights and is redundant protection such as work contracts, property contracts, marriage contracts, travel contracts and so forth. Of course, many of the rights I mention are not found in Constitution such as the right to play, travel, obtain knowledge and so forth. However, these rights can be protected by the Constitution using either the Ninth Amendment or through the privileges and immunities or due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. Self defense and safety are not listed, but I think that these fundamental rights that protects the Second Amendment.

The government does not create rights because rights existed before governments were formed. Instead, it is the function of government to protect the rights of American citizens equally unless there is some compelling reason to violate those rights. For instance, Covid 19 brings about a dilemma because the government may restrict the rights of some to protect the fundamental rights of others for safety concerns. That said, when implementing laws that violate the rights of some to protect the rights of others it must be done least restrictive manner and it must be consistent. In other words, the law cannot discriminate. For instance, Covid 19 guideline against religion are in most cases discriminatory because it does not treat the church similar to other businesses or practices. For these reasons, the government has been unnecessarily violating the rights of citizens all throughout the Covid 19 lockdown rules.

Of course George Floyd's rights were violated, but like the Covid 19 response, the response to Floyd's death has been violating the rights of thousands of Americans each night with unnecessary violence, travel disruptions, property violations, safety violations, justice violations, work violations, life violations and so forth. In the Covid 19 government response, they went overboard to violate the rights of citizens including meaningless things such as preventing persons from doing yard work. However, the government response to Floyd's death was the opposite and they did very little to protect citizens and their businesses from violence and destruction.

Understanding the Constitution and rights is not rocket science but we seem to violate these rights in the name of moral and social justice when no such thing exist. In fact, it makes little difference that George Floyd was black because regardless of his skin color his rights were violated and that injustice needs to be corrected. Until we start viewing events through rights violation then polarity and division will continue to exist. If everything is a social injustice and racism then the Constitution has no meaning and the country will spiral in anarchy and providing one group of people more rights than others. What is happening today is no different than injustices that happened due to slavery. How is targeting police and whites with violence any different than whites did blacks and men did to women in our early history? Violating rights is violating rights.