I saw Sandra Day O’Connor being interviewed recently by a comedian-talk show host on late night TV. One of the things she said really stuck with me. She said that as a supreme court justice it was vital that she be able to “disagree without being disagreeable.” This little bit of wisdom is important in any aspect of life.
Today for some reason she came to mind. Sandra Day O’Connor was born in my home town of El Paso, Texas. She spent the summers living on her parent’s cattle ranch in southeastern Arizona, and the school year in El Paso living with her grandmother. She went to Austin High School as did most of my family including both of my parents, and my brother and sister.
The thought pattern which was developing this morning goes as follows.
Austin High did not have air conditioning when Sandra Day O’Connor attended it, neither did it when I was there. Yet she went on to be incredibly successful. I went on to become the General Manager of the European Division of an American food processing company for the last 15 years of my career.
Nowadays Austin High School has advanced, and it has lots of high tech things like computers to enhance the learning of the students. Society spends much more on each student than in the past. Yet Austin is now far down near the bottom of performance of all schools in El Paso. Some people call it a failing school.
I really am not sure where this thought process is heading, but I guess it is similar to the debate regarding genetics versus life experience.
These kids in 2009 just don’t care about education, hard work, or success very much. They are much more interested in surfing the internet, video games, and watching TV. They want to be rich, but they have no training in the diligence, sacfifices, and hard work that are necessary to lead a successful life.
In the past the attractions of sex, drugs (like alcohol), and irresponsibility were certainly there. Yet most of the kids growing up in American understood that a good life consisted of getting married (to someone of the opposite sex), having two kids, a house, two cars, a dog, and a cat. And that to get these things you needed to get a good education and work really hard.
Maybe the religious beliefs of the time helped influence this.
I believe that religion is mostly a negative force. It has led to more oppression, warfare, and death that anything else in mankind’s history. Sexual abuse by the priesthood has run rampant. The influence of religion is rapidly waning. But with both parents working all day this means that most kids are being raised by the television. Concepts like right and wrong and guilt are no longer being instilled into these kids. And the results are plain to see.
I guess the question is how do we instill the proper ethical and moral foundations in our kids in a society where religion is on par with fairy tales like the Easter bunny? With 25% of 4 year olds being obese, and with many 11 and 12 year old kids having sex and using drugs this whole picture becomes pretty cloudy to me.
Barack Obama is half white, half black. He was raised by a single mother and his grandparents. Somehow they instilled in him that need for success and the understanding that it only comes from sacrifice and hard work. He is kind, moral, and ethical. The same applies to Dolly Parton who was raised dirt poor.
One thing I see in common in all of the above examples is that the grandparents played a significant role in raising the kids. In modern society we move to another place so readily, and everything is so anonymous, that the vast majority of people are raised without the benefit of an extended family. I think this role of the extended family is far more important than is generally realized.
Sandra Day O'Connor
Born: August 26, 1930
El Paso, Texas
American Supreme Court justice
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In 1981 Sandra Day O'Connor became the first woman to serve as a justice in the 191 year history of United States Supreme Court. A Republican appointed by Ronald Reagan, O'Connor has grit and intelligence that has made her an interesting figure in the nation's highest court of law.
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Life on the Lazy B Ranch
Sandra Day O'Connor was born in El Paso, Texas, on August 26, 1930. Her parents, Harry and Ida Mae Day, owned a cattle ranch in southeastern Arizona called the Lazy B. In the beginning, the ranch did not have electricity or running water. Sandra grew up branding cattle, learning to fix whatever was broken, and enjoying life on the ranch.
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Her experiences on the ranch shaped her character and developed her belief in hard work, but her parents also wanted O'Connor to gain an education. Living in such a remote area, the options for going to school were limited, and she had already shown that she was quite bright. By age four, she had learned how to read. Exploring places and schools that would be the best match for O'Connor's abilities, her parents decided to send her to El Paso to live with her grandmother and attend school. In El Paso she attended Radford School for girls and Austin High. She spent her summers at the ranch and the school years with her grandmother. She graduated high school early at the age of sixteen.
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In 1946, after competing against many other people and despite the probability that she might not be accepted because she was a woman, O'Connor was accepted to Stanford University. In a program in which she finished two degrees in just six years instead of seven, she graduated in 1950 with a bachelor's degree in economics and received a law degree in 1952. While she was in law school, she was a member of the board of editors of the Stanford Law Review, a very high honor for a law student. Upon graduation she was at the top of her class, graduating third in a class of 102 students.
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http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ni-Pe/O-Connor-Sandra-Day.html
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s or police record, but they would not release his name.
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