Day 100, Year 9: Democracy
Date: Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Weather: Sunny and Cold, Snow on the Way
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, Massachusetts
I started my teaching career in 1969 as a teacher of American History in a high school of 3,000 students in Cleveland, Ohio. All 3,000 were black and American History was not the most popular subject. I learned more at Glenville High School than I taught, but in that first year of teaching I did learn the importance of democracy in all of our lives. Since returning to this country after the six year absence while we were sailing around the world, I have become very frustrated with the huge divide that has come to be in the United States. And as an educator, my observation is that many Americans really don’t understand what it means to be a democracy. For that reason, I chose the following quote as the most important statement in tonight’s State of the Union speech. “It should be the power of our vote, not the size of our bank account, that drives our democracy.” Amen. And the second statement from President Obama’s State of the Union address that I applaud is, “The debate is settled. Climate change is a fact.” So now let’s all get busy and do what we can to further our democracy and save our environment.
Tomorrow we head to Boston so Mark can meet with his oncologist and a radiologist to discuss the next step in his cancer treatment plan. We have lots of questions and hope to come home with lots of answers.
